Days Gone

[Lebowski]

Got gifted a code for this on Friday and really wanted to give it a go as there has been quite a ground swell of support for this among a few reviewers and youtubers i trust. Id have to agree with them this is a top notch experience.

It got me thinking about why it got the stick it did and why the reviews where so mixed and i think its to do with rushing. If you try and rush and skip stuff your going to have a bad time, its a survival game at heart and you have to weigh up each sceranrio its quite stealthy and playing on normal anything more than a few zombies and you really can get into trouble very quickly. You don't ever have a massive amount of ammo or an endless ability to just bash back undead hordes, so you have to really play it defensively.

I think that's the real issue trying to bash through the story to meet a review deadline is actively playing against how the game should be played. one review complained about running out of petrol all the time which is just idiotic i haven't run out once as when your getting low a little detour for a top up is usually pretty rewarding. whether its clearing out zombie nests or stumbling upon someones failed last stand, scavenging and exploring areas never feels like a chore as you tend to come out with more resources than you went in with.

So yeah I'm really enjoying it, i love zombie stuff and this lets me feel like I'm surviving a zombie apocalypse, The bike is ace skidding about in the mud hitting jumps or just tearing away form zombie hordes, scavenging clearing out nests and running jobs for different factions is all great fun.

[fishbowlhead]

Got gifted a code for this on Friday and really wanted to give it a go as there has been quite a ground swell of support for this among a few reviewers and youtubers i trust. Id have to agree with them this is a top notch experience.

It got me thinking about why it got the stick it did and why the reviews where so mixed and i think its to do with rushing. If you try and rush and skip stuff your going to have a bad time, its a survival game at heart and you have to weigh up each sceranrio its quite stealthy and playing on normal anything more than a few zombies and you really can get into trouble very quickly. You don't ever have a massive amount of ammo or an endless ability to just bash back undead hordes, so you have to really play it defensively.

I think that's the real issue trying to bash through the story to meet a review deadline is actively playing against how the game should be played. one review complained about running out of petrol all the time which is just idiotic i haven't run out once as when your getting low a little detour for a top up is usually pretty rewarding. whether its clearing out zombie nests or stumbling upon someones failed last stand, scavenging and exploring areas never feels like a chore as you tend to come out with more resources than you went in with.

So yeah I'm really enjoying it, i love zombie stuff and this lets me feel like I'm surviving a zombie apocalypse, The bike is ace skidding about in the mud hitting jumps or just tearing away form zombie hordes, scavenging clearing out nests and running jobs for different factions is all great fun.

Seems to be fashionable to bash Sony in house games these days, I mean it doesn’t look like the best game you’ve ever play, but from what I’ve seen it looks like a solid 6-7/10.

Then you see absolute garbage getting 8-9/10 from the same places you realise reviews aren’t worth using as toilet paper.

Sony bend must of been busy actually making a game instead of posting cheques to reviewers.

[Lebowski]

Really disappointing that more aren't playing this as, I've been steadily going through it upgrading my bike unlocking areas and just exploring the map. It has fast travel but the bike is so fun that i haven't really bothered with it that much, drifting round sharp turns running over zombies and hitting jumps and getting air is great fun.

the story is a bit weird though, on one hand they try and portray him as misunderstood and show his caring side via flashbacks with his girlfriend, but then you jump back to present day and hes quite clearly unhinged and without morals. You spend a lot of time in the opening few hours running bounty's for a slave camp and shooting and killing people because your told too. He also constantly mumbling to himself or randomly shouting quite strange things at enemy's. i quite like it as it gives him an interesting personality but He comes across as a bit of a psychopath.

I don think portraying him as a morally bankrupt lunatic was the intention at all, I think they where trying to go for Daryl Dixon from the walking dead, a bad ass with a heart of gold, where as they kind of got American psycho. It's interesting none the less and I'm quite interested to see how things work out for him.

[dvdx2]

I might return to it at some point - have the bugs in the game been squashed now?

[Lebowski]

Not had any issues but i came to it later than others so far no crashes no bugs, had one frame rate drop when i got swarmed but you kind of expect it on the ps4 when a lots going on. its a real shame they couldnt get a stable review build out as its been a really solid experience so far more so than say Skyrim or a new Fallout


Day one patches and super tight deadlines have a lot to answer for, as all the reviews still talk about this being buggy but that's clearly not the case now.

[QualityChimp]

[MENTION=2540]teddymeow[/MENTION] are you still playing this?

[teddymeow]

[MENTION=2540]teddymeow[/MENTION] are you still playing this?

I stopped playing this a few weeks after it came out. It was very buggy and a bit all over the place. It was also very slow to really get going and it did the thing that Horizon did where it threw loads of info at you and I found it a bit over-whelming.

After reading that Bend had patched it to high heaven and provided loads of free content over the months since launch I thought that, having been on a bit of a completion spree due to Lockdown, that I'd give it another go.

Glad I did. The updates have improved the majority of the niggly issues that were present and the game just felt so much better to play. For some reason (again, much like Horizon) it just clicked and everything came together as a glorious whole!!

Every night for the last three weeks I've played between 3 and 4 hours. Main missions, side missions, hordes, just driving around scavenging for supplies to craft more molotovs and pipe bombs or for collectibles that explain what happened to cause the destruction of normal life.

The world that Bend has created feels real. The camps of regular folk struggling for survival, the cult that has gone a bit crazy due to the world falling apart, the small groups who ambush others to get supplies so they can keep on living. It all feels connected. The characters that you interact with all have their own lives which you gradually find out about and you'll end up caring about some of them and wanting to shoot others in the face!

The atmosphere is intense. The feeling of dread as you desperately try to repair your bike as a thunderstorm pelts you with rain and the tress are swaying in the strong winds as you watch the motion detector on the mini-map show approaching enemies really does cause you to start panicking. This is helped immensely by the best implementation of HDR that I have seen in any game.

Combat is satisfying and the potential for using the different items to deal with a group of enemies is really satisfying. Sneak up to where you know a horde is nesting (being very quiet), lay a few proximity or remote mines, make a note of any scenery you can use as you run away (for example piles of logs that you could pull down in behind you to slow the approaching masses), get your molotovs ready. Launch one into the crowd and watch the chaos begin. Then realise that the horde attention is on you and run while the screaming, snarling wave of terror is gaining. This is interspersed with quick bursts of gunfire into the horde to continually thin it out until there are only a couple of stragglers left at which point you can use your crafter lawnmower blade machete to dispatch them.

It grabbed me and wouldn't let go to the point where I earned the platinum trophy last night for what is "the main game" but I still have to go back and do NG+ and the Challenge Mode as they are considered separate sections and so have their own trophies that don't go towards the (a bit like Spider-Man).

Negatives; the framerate can still get a bit choppy when you're on your bike and the LOD on foliage and roadside debris is a bit close. Playing on my LG C9 OLED and, despite the HDR being amazing, I had issues where, at night, the game is too bright. I get that being in the wilderness and having a big moon and no street lights will mean that there's a certain amount of light but not needing to use the headlight on the bike is a bit silly. Lowering the brightness in the options just crushed the blacks. There's an annoying / hilarious audio bug where you'll be in stealth trying to sneak up on an enemy and Deacon will just shout, fo rno apparent reason, "SONOVABITCH!!" It doesn't alert the enemy but it's a bit odd.

It's brilliant. It really is. After a bit of a wonky start Bend have managed to turn Days Gone into a truly impressive first-party title and I hope that the rumoured sequel for PS5 isn't too far away.

[Atticus]

Sounds worth a look that [MENTION=2540]teddymeow[/MENTION] ... might have a look next time it's on spesh-off

[teddymeow]

Sounds worth a look that [MENTION=2540]teddymeow[/MENTION] ... might have a look next time it's on spesh-off

£25.85 from Base.com

Best price I've seen for a while.

[teddymeow]

£25.85 from Base.com

Best price I've seen for a while.

Ignore this [MENTION=4034]Atticus[/MENTION]

Sony have just said it will be £15.99 digital in the "Days of Play" promotion which starts next week on PSN.

Days of Play Announcement

[Atticus]

Ace, thanks for the info, I’ll pick it up then