securitypigeon
Banned
Here's my review if you need any more convincing:
http://www.dpadmagazine.com/2013/05/28/call-of-juarez-gunslinger/
http://www.dpadmagazine.com/2013/05/28/call-of-juarez-gunslinger/
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Call of Juarez: Gunslinger |OT| It's your huckleberry
- Thread starter Andrew.
- Start date
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Does anything happen if you win a duel dishonorably? I got jumpy on the dual duel lol.
Finished the campaign last night, satisfying last mission and conclusion - what a fun ride. Gunslinger's refreshing take on storytelling solves a lot of modern game narrative problems and deserves to find its way into other titles. Parallels to Bastion are obvious, but I think this game out-Bastion's Bastion in a few key ways as well.
Tried my hand at Arcade and Duel mode for a bit and will definitely be returning for more. Easily one of the best surprises of the year, I really appreciate a game that keeps its ambitions in check but nails the specific things it sets out to do.
Tried my hand at Arcade and Duel mode for a bit and will definitely be returning for more. Easily one of the best surprises of the year, I really appreciate a game that keeps its ambitions in check but nails the specific things it sets out to do.
The only thing that happens is that you'll miss out on additional bonus XP at the end of the chapter. I wouldn't sweat it too much.
TBH I didn't care for the game at first, but halfway through, it just clicked and I really enjoyed it. Currently replaying it on NG+. Anyone know the level cap in this game?
And you probably won't earn an achievement IIRC.
And you probably won't earn an achievement IIRC.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
I felt like a scumbag by wild west standards
"More riveting than the Sydney Harbour Bridge" :lol
I'm sorry, I'm just watching your review now
PS. Holy shit, that IS reminiscent of Des Mangan.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Yeah, I agree, and that's why I said in my review that a conservative development budget/project scope may have unexpectedly lead to great shit like this. You can't have a billion hours worth of cutscenes, as you can't afford the animators nor have the time. You can't have a hundred voiced characters for similar reasons. You're limited with manpower and money. So you make the best of your situation.
And the end result is a narrative and premise woven into the act of play, not a disconnected story told through traditional film or even literature. You learn and listen as you go, as it happens. And it works beautifully.
The narrative changing on the fly as Silas screws around with his story is just one of those brilliant touches that couldn't be done in any other medium, or with hundreds of cutscenes. You have to play it to experience it.
"More riveting than the Sydney Harbour Bridge" :lol
I'm sorry, I'm just watching your review now
PS. Holy shit, that IS reminiscent of Des Mangan.
Thanks!
This game with motion plus on wii u will be perfect I hope ubisoft release it
Ever play Red Steel 2?
Alex Connolly
Member
"More riveting than the Sydney Harbour Bridge" :lol
I'm sorry, I'm just watching your review now
PS. Holy shit, that IS reminiscent of Des Mangan.
EatChildren should re-tag himself "The Des Mangan of NeoGAF".
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I can't unhear myself as a younger pitched, more slurred Des Mangan waffling on about video games.
goddamnit
goddamnit
PoweredBySoy
Banned
Apparently you people are determined to make me Google Des Mangan.
Alex Connolly
Member
Pictured Above: Des Mangan/EatChildren.
Des Mangan highly recommends Gunslinger.
---
Back on track; while I usually can't pick an overall GOTY without a bunch of caveats and categories, Gunslinger sits atop the pile in the action department for me thus far - even with the mighty Metro Last Light under the belt. Just so lean and mean.
I'm assuming you also get stamped as DISHONORABLE on the end of level score screen. It mentions it a couple of times, it's basically just an easy mode duel win for less points if you don't want to let yourself get shot after drawing early to retry it.I felt like a scumbag by wild west standards
I haven't tried it yet on my first two playthroughs and I don't think there's an achievement for it so I guess I never even got around to it, ha.
Also, did you buy the game because of Nabs talking about it? I'm glad he seemed to like it.
There's no level cap in terms of unlocking skills. I think there is even an achievement for unlocking all skills, which in my case might happen early on a third playthrough.
There is actually but
it's for the final duel with Bob. If you kill him honorably youll get a trophy/cheev
Imagine watching this as a 13/14/18-year-old, without high-speed internet to download stuff. Great window into some outrageous shit, but with a suitably emotive delivery and dry, sometimes silly witticisms.
Much like EatChildren
Edit: Holy shit, the game show host comment :lol
I'm sure I have most of the Jackie Chan movies I taped somewhere, hopefully not deteriorated (but sadly, they vary in quality thanks to shitty TV reception). I really should try and find them.
I meant there's no achievement for winning a duel dishonorably, so I didn't even try it.
Sometimes I would even restart a duel if I missed the first shot, since I feel like an amateur cowboy if I use more than one shot on a duel.Yup, works perfectly too. Fully controller supported.
I Google'd it pages ago.
Didn't help.
Imagine watching this as a 13/14/18-year-old, without high-speed internet to download stuff. Great window into some outrageous shit, but with a suitably emotive delivery and dry, sometimes silly witticisms.
Much like EatChildren
Oh... holy shit it is.
Ya, if you have both plugged in at the same time you can switch between them fluidly and the game will automatically switch the button icons, without the need to change any options.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
This level design is great. The length of the levels is pretty much perfect too.
Ravensmash
Member
This game is fantastic.
Brilliant level design and as Stallion Free says above - nothing feels too long or short, it's quick and snappy and never outstays its welcome.
I need to replay after I finish though because I keep missing lots of secrets. Might write up a review/video review in a short while too.
Brilliant level design and as Stallion Free says above - nothing feels too long or short, it's quick and snappy and never outstays its welcome.
I need to replay after I finish though because I keep missing lots of secrets. Might write up a review/video review in a short while too.
I'm pretty sure I've missed some secrets on the hard playthrough even with the sound effect when you get near them.
I agree about the level length. 5 hours or so for the first playthrough of the game itself is a good length, and it doesn't go on so long that the narrative or gameplay stuff becomes too overdone. Choosing to limit focus and do it well rather than reaching too far is perhaps a rare and key thing in game design.
Maybe they don't know its suppose to be $15 downloadable game.
I definitely brought this up slightly off-topic in a thread that wasn't generating much conversation, probably far more relevant here.
13 hours on Steam and still firing up the Arcade mode once in a while to run through a few levels real quickly, Gunslinger puts most AAA games to shame. It's so incredible for the price.
It is a substantially better game than Blood Dragon, in my opinion, but the Metacritic averages are puzzling.
Reviewers are fucking high, this is a 9/10 game. Or maybe they should be high, they would enjoy it more. Some people seemed to appreciate it properly, though, like Justin McElroy and Jim Sterling.
As good as Blood Dragon is, I think the higher Metacritic score than Gunslinger is purely due to hype and Ubisoft marketing. Not the actual quality of the games.
I've made my opinion clear, I absolutely want more of this style of game. It's good for us, it's good for the publishers, it's good for the developers. This new era of $15 standalone expansion DLC is the answer to the rising, bloated costs of AAA development.
I do wonder how much of that marketing was intentional and unintentional because of the leak.
I think the game being leaked before it was even announced probably gave it a bit more time for people to be hyped about it, whereas Gunslinger was like "Oh, this comes out next week... what is it?".
jim2point0
Banned
It wasn't just Blood Dragon that was leaked. The entirety of Uplay's catalog of games was open and downloadable via a hack\exploit. It just so happens that Blood Dragon was discovered this way (and subsequently pirated like crazy).
Allowing people to get any of your games for free seems like an odd way to leak info about an unannounced game... but I guess crazier things have happened.
Overall, the critic reviews of this game have been disappointing. But reviews from players are unanimously good. Sigh... =(
Allowing people to get any of your games for free seems like an odd way to leak info about an unannounced game... but I guess crazier things have happened.
Overall, the critic reviews of this game have been disappointing. But reviews from players are unanimously good. Sigh... =(
PoweredBySoy
Banned
Just finished it. Excellent.
Great ending.
Great ending.
REVENGE!
Redemption
Time to fire up that NG+!
I know, right?
To me, I think this word of mouth approach has worked splendidly. I don't think Ubisoft trying to aggressively market this would've done them much good, seeing as how CoJ: The Cartel made the Juarez franchise anathema to gaming so those efforts would've amounted, in our eyes, to them screaming, "HEY GAIZ, NEW CALL OF JUAREZ GAME, YOU LOVE THAT SHIT RIGHT?"
Besides, they actually have been promoting it with pre-release trailers and showing it to journalists; Gaming Media simply ignored it until word of mouth got out that it was good. Pre-release coverage was mostly indifferent to outright dismissive. The latter in particular cracks me up because the author dismisses Gunslinger for having the gall to be a tight, fun FPS instead of Red Dead Redemption.
Yes, absolutely fair points. Despite the poor reputation after TC, I do still think they could have pushed this one a bit more aggressively, especially if they knew fairly early on that this one would be substantially better in quality (although obviously I have no true idea how far along the game became "good" and when the marketing plans were put into place).
Some games press is certainly as out of touch with gamers as anything, as usual. I specifically made a comment above about IncGamers comparing it to expectations for Red Dead Redemption 2 in that gigantic nested quote.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Blood Dragon was an excellent idea in the wrong game, in my opinion. The style, presentation, and concept was fucking brilliant and totally on-point, and the team deserves big props for that. But it was also squeezed into the Far Cry 3 formula, which to me was totally out of place. Plus I'm not really fond of the Far Cry 3 design philosophy. So as good as Blood Dragon was, I felt I was playing Far Cry 3 with a more impressive skin, instead of the 80s Terminator/Commando simulator it wanted to (and in presentation/style was) be.
Gunslinger, on the other hand, is a far more realised and tightly designed game. It's not just stylish and well presented, it plays like what you imagine an over-the-top Western shoot out should be. I like it for the same reason I like rail shooters and arcade games - fast, brutal, combat driven, where every mechanic is centred around the act of shooting, and the encounters come at you fast as hell.
Gunslinger, on the other hand, is a far more realised and tightly designed game. It's not just stylish and well presented, it plays like what you imagine an over-the-top Western shoot out should be. I like it for the same reason I like rail shooters and arcade games - fast, brutal, combat driven, where every mechanic is centred around the act of shooting, and the encounters come at you fast as hell.
Read it in Des Mangan's voice.
I'm yet to play it, but I have a feeling this one's going to be a slow burner. It's the opposite of Blood Dragon in that sense... let people discover it for themselves rather than just have marketing shove it down your throat. Lower expectations that way... less hyperbole.
True, if any game ever was deserved of hyperbole, though, it was Blood Dragon. Fits the extreme and unserious tone and all.
Didn't it turn out to be crap, though?
Alternatively, I don't think there was any hype leading up to Hotline Miami.
Looking through the history of coverage; the PAX reveal trailer is cool but since it's Live Action, it doesn't really convey what the feel of the game is like. Through March and April there were several showings but like I said gaming media wasn't that impressed.
I think the calculus Ubisoft made behind them pushing Blood Dragon much more than Gunslinger is rather understandable, albeit frustrating for people like us who liked it. FC3 being the huge success that it was made pimping a new FC3 property, a standalone one at that, a no-brainer. I don't think Ubisoft threw Gunslinger under the bus and I still contend they shouldn't be to blame for the gaming media's relative apathy, but it was probably simply more cost effective for them to maximize Blood Dragon's saturation than to fight the uphill PR battle of selling the press on a new Juarez game.
I don't really know if the Far Cry 3's design philosophy was at odds with BD's aesthetics, but I'd say more that it really needed, from what little of the demo I've played, more competent core game-play mechanics, like Gunslinger's. I think you could argue though that Gunslinger's linearity would've done BD more favors. I think a friend of mine was right in saying that gaming's current obsession with non-linearity is not an inherent good, and games like Bioshock Infinite, SpecOps, and now something like Gunslinger show how you can have great Narrative and/or Gameplay within a linear context.
But yeah I'd go so far as to say that Gunslinger is probably the most fully realized game this year. Bioshock Infinite I feel probably is much more ambition but some of its pieces don't feed back as nicely into the core gameplay and thematicism as much as Levine probably would have intended. With Gunslinger I feel like everything, the gameplay, the nuggets of truth, the narration, the graphic novel cutscenes, the aesthetics, the dueling; every aspect of this game ties into this overall framework of an earnest yet self-aware love of the mythos of the West. It's a way more tight, nuanced package than I would have ever expected from Techland.
ShinobiFist
Banned
Very well said. I mention a few pages ago how this game reminded me why I love old SEGA arcade games. It doesn't play like a SEGA one, but it reminded me of that good era. The Narrative and the story was just a bonus.
Oh yeah, I'm sure I've heard a similar discussion about that type of video game self-awareness (for lack of a better term) on Idle Thumbs or something. Basically where a game that becomes too self aware is annoying, but if it's able to take typical game tropes in it's stride and integrate them seamlessly, it's doing a good job.
Struggling to think of any examples other than this and Blood Dragon, but I'm sure there are heaps. Where games just take you along for the ride just for the fuck of it, and accept that inexplicable shit happens without ignoring it completely.
ShinobiFist
Banned
Is stutter that you're getting. Is caused by using the mouse and keyboard. I went with the pad instead. Strange for me, but it does the job. On a side note. I got the 3 star achievement!
They fixed this in the first patch, at least 100% for me.
There was a Steam patch to fix stutter for some people in case that was related.
Stupid question, but are you sure it doesn't correspond go when you aim with ironsights? Because there's totally a skill that briefly puts the game in slow motion when you aim with a long-range weapon.
For my own playthroughs, I'm to the last level again, this time on hard difficulty. I am finding a few levels sort of frustrating even with more skills because hard is, well, hard for me, plus apparently I've become more OCD about keeping combo chains going, ha. I didn't realize that there was a very early pistol skill to make combo chains last longer, but even with that, I find myself having to sprint to get in sight of the next enemy, otherwise the combo expires...and if I use concentration to reload or save time while moving, that usually means I don't have it to safely take out people in a firefight. Any awesome tips for hard mode?