FarCry 5 (Spoilers)

[TheFeniX]

Now that we're really starting to overlap some quests, some of the "skip dialog" interactions are funny. Normally, dialog is way too long winded and the way it works, they can easily get cut off if they are put into an alerted state while talking, then you can't talk to them until they go passive again. The game tries to pick up where it left off, but it fails a lot here so you have to listen to the whole (boring) thing all over again.

If you just hit escape, they stop mind sentence and give you the short version and it IS a nice addition. Like "Ok, ok, I get it. You're a busy person. Go to the location and shoot badguys. That short enough for you?"

I also found out you can increase the internal resolution to the game to 2x the normal. I'd be interested to see what 4K at 2x internal resolution would look like, but I don't have 16GBs of VRAM. Also, I'm pretty sure my computer would catch on fire.

Finally found out that uplay has a built in FPS meter as FC5 somehow disabled both the Steam overlay and the Geforce one (I don't run Fraps anymore). I was about on the money. I can generally keep up right at 40FPS, 50-60 in interiors when there's nothing going on. This is a pretty solid game, from a technical standpoint. The LOD terrain models can lead to some bad pop-in and quality differences when you're flying, but that's a small price to play for miles of draw distance while maintaining decent FPS. The only complaint here is that the render distance is a little low for enemies and vehicles. Seems to be right about 150-200 meters. So, long-distance flybys of enemy strongholds is impossible. That said, I don't know if this is increased in Single-Player versus Co-op.

I know it's lame, but I'm proud of myself that I can still get a good guess on my FPS just by how the game is running. "You can't tell the difference between 60 vs 30 FPS." Man, console kids still make me laugh.

[Steel]

I found this video comparing FC5 to FC2

https://youtu.be/FCeEvQ68jY8

A lot of them are minor, but some like shooting through walls are significant gameplay elements.

It made me remember how many cool things were in FC2. That game really was great at immersion. Real shame that they dropped them in the more modern games.

[TheFeniX]

I can't believe I didn't point out that a thin picket fence might as well be made of adamantium when it comes to bullets. It also absorbs most, if not all, the damage from explosives, but at least (thankfully) subjects the target to the knockback effect. I think only armor-piercing ammo shoots through any obstacle that isn't destructible. Which is dumb because shit like 5.56 or 7.62 IS armor-piercing by nature. So, this has to be a conscious design decision, not something they just overlooked.

I don't... actually know how the coding works when it comes to the penetration calculations of projectile weapons vs hitscan. It could be crunching those numbers was intensive enough they felt the need to cut it. Or laziness, I don't know.

[Zixinus]

It may also be a deliberate decision to give more cover to possible combat areas.

[Simon_Jester]

I know it's lame, but I'm proud of myself that I can still get a good guess on my FPS just by how the game is running. "You can't tell the difference between 60 vs 30 FPS." Man, console kids still make me laugh.

In my defense, I genuinely cannot tell the difference except when looking at test images specifically designed to tell the difference. I think the interpolation software in my brain must be either very good, very bad, or very weird.

[Vendetta]

I know it's lame, but I'm proud of myself that I can still get a good guess on my FPS just by how the game is running. "You can't tell the difference between 60 vs 30 FPS." Man, console kids still make me laugh.

In my defense, I genuinely cannot tell the difference except when looking at test images specifically designed to tell the difference. I think the interpolation software in my brain must be either very good, very bad, or very weird.

Depends what type of games you're playing and how far away from the screen you sit.

Closer to the screen, the easier it is to tell the difference. Also games that are designed to have very short delay between input and action are easier to tell with.

[TheFeniX]

Jacob starves the PC for 5 days (it's vague if he also denied him water), somehow keeping him unconscious the whole time. Whelp, better escape on top of a truck and get back to shootmans!

And sorry, I wasn't taking a wide swing at people who can't tell the difference, only those that die on their sword defending (lack of) console hardware leading to the 30FPS norm* by saying "there's no difference." It's like when people tell me "my car doesn't have an exhaust leak." Yes it does, I can hear it: you can't. It's not a badge of pride, it's just the reality.

I only take a small amount of embarrassed pride in that I can to this day pick out single-digit FPS drops. And that's likely only because I've lost huge steps in other areas of gaming.

There are certain games that can throw me for a loop, but they are rare. Even Starcraft 2 takes a huge hit sub-60FPS. This is due to many factors: the responsive and tactile UI, the animations, the focus on micromanagement. I was losing my shit one day because the game was just playing like Hell. I finally brought up the in-game FPS and I was running about 35. Wracking my brain, I finally realized I had somehow left SWTOR running in the background.

In games like Unreal, Quake, or even (god forbid) Counter-Strike: dropping below 60FPS is excruciatingly apparent. Just turning the camera, not to mention the lack of control with the mouse as you skip frames and cannot pull off solid accuracy.

My wife never worried about the Framerate (and drops, mind you) in AssCreed Unity, even on our 65" 240Hhz Samsung (that was a badass TV). Meanwhile, they were visibly apparent to me just when walking by to grab another drink out of the fridge. There's a lack of fluidity to even the walking animations and turning when your FPS is that low. They try to cover it up with motion blur, but it doesn't work for me. I couldn't play it for any given length of time since I had gone back to PC gaming. But I do recall making it through the 360 version of AssCreed 1 since I had been on console for a while at that point. Still, the framerate drop (more like bottoming out) on my buddy's PS3 version was hilarious.

*Outside IW with CoD since they would sacrifice internal resolution (relying on upscaling) to maintain 60FPS. It's why the online always felt so responsive and why it felt so damn different than the campaign (at least to me).

[tezunegari]

I like the idea of the story Far Cry 5 tries to tell but the implementation is rather bad.
So far I did enjoy the game though (just killed John Seed).

I think the story would have been better served if there hadn't been an arrest attempt at the start, rather the PC should have been send there as an uncercover [alphabetsoup agency of your choosing] agent investigating the PEG and rumors about them (a few short tutorial missions). The final tutorial mission would be like the beginning of the actual intro (hidden camera being smuggled into a PEG church, Joseph Seed blinds/kills the guy), the PC is captured and their handler or contact is revealed as a PEG cult member and lying to the outside world. "Nothing found yet, all good."

About the Suspension of Disbelieve and Edens Gate taking over US territory:
What is the timeframe of the storymode of Far Cry 5?

How fast would be the response of outside forces?

How many people outside of the Cult territory are actually Cult members working on undermining the response?
(At the end of the intro it is revealed that Dispatch is actually a cult member, possibly lying about the situation)

How fast could the National Guard actually be mobilized in such a situation as described by Far Cry 5 and be present in enough numbers to take on Edens Gate Cult successfully?

[TheFeniX]

The Sheriff straight up says "If we're not back, call in everyone." It seems that this is basically the present day U.S. but just with something akin to the Mexican Drug Cartels operating in Montana. It makes no sense. There's so many roadblocks, none of which mention these rednecks have mastered drug-induced mind-control something every government agency would be interested in and they do have "boots on the ground" out there in contact with outside authorities.

However, I could nitpick bad story all day, I'll instead focus on why this game fails as a video game from a story-standpoint.
1. There's no reason force a player to listen long-winded trip in a video game. I'm not the biggest fan of QTEs but they serve their purpose because games have the possibility of interactive cutscenes since, by nature, they are already interactive stories.

Why am I listening to this bullshit? Why am I near always given no choice in what to do when it's apparent I have every reason to do something else? "The Boss" from Saint's Row 3 is a man/woman of action. She's batshit. She doesn't listen to horseshit unless forced to. Like in one cutscene where the big bad had you handcuffed. And even THEN, after a bit of exposition, she goes all murder-fueled rampage because that's who she is. The game has to find ways to curtail this to tell story. It does this.

Hulk Hogan is convincing you to not just kill Killbain, but break his sprirt, because the game/writers UNDERSTAND character motivation in a game where a boss fight culminates in bringing a CHAINSAW to a luche-libre fight while "YOU'RE THE BEST AROUND" is playing.

And SR3 has the most moronic story. But it's fun. Even when the story is going on. It's fun. The story. The Characters. The Story Missions themselves. Fun.

Even in a game with TONS of dialog, not all of it good, Mass Effect: there's still the motivation the player WANTS to learn more about the universe. More about why Saren did what he did. Matron Benezia (sp?). FC5 isn't even offering anything new on their (neutered) religious extremists. They're just U.S. ISIS with magic mind-control drugs. Nothing they have to say is interesting or new in the least. It's not like you get any new insight into the characters the 4th time they interact with you. They're all just their respective religious/militant cliches and that's it.

The only break from that is how Faith Seed starts to crack as her boss fight goes on. It's clear they mind-fucked her. Big surprise, but you just pew pew pew her in the face till she's dead, so real nice emotional investment.....

The FC5 protag is a blank slate, so I have to lean on how my character reacts when I'm in control. He/She would not just sit there and listen to boring monologuing because every instance of character when that isn't happening: I'm doing shit. Shootmans, saving people, base jumping, etc. But I have to sit here and listen to this bullshit because "nofun."

2. As part of this: if the writing is bad, DELIVER IT BETTER. A lot of stupid shit is presented in Resident Evil 5 cutscenes. Oh man, it's 80's action movie bad guy levels of bad. BUT IT'S NOT BORING. The cutscenes are boner-inducing (also) 80s action-movie levels over the top dialog and action. They DELIVER. The are fun. The characters work in the context they are presented in.

Farcry 5 fails here as well. There's nothing "fun" about the cutscenes. And "fun" doesn't just mean "laughs" or "OH COOL!" Look into the Silent Hill series (among others) or Resident Evil 7 on how to have "fun" cutscenes that make you shit your pants. Or even the new Tomb Raider games as the villains are presented semi-realistically, Lara seems vulnerable in realistic ways, and they deliver on tension.

3. Motivation in an open-world game: Why am I doing what I'm doing, even outside cutscenes? "LOL nerds and player motivation." SR: bust caps because people are trying to bust caps in you. Why not just leave? Because The Boss Don't Take Shit From No One. They killed Gat, now they all gotta die. Fallout 3: Find dad. 4: Find Son. NV: Find the guy that shot you in the face. Also, Fallout et al: where the fuck you going to go?

Farcry 5 can't even answer the basic question of "Why do I not take the first chopper I see and get the Hell out of Dodge?"

[TheFeniX]

EDIT: Got off ranting and missed a point I wanted to make. The cutscenes are also presented in a way that you WANT to do things, but can't. That's fine. If Arnold is strapped to a chair about to get Mind-wiped, there's not much he can do. But I don't expect him to listen all that long to the bad guy (and he doesn't) once he's moving and the killing is going on. Yet the Villians of FarCry 5 are left to spew more tripe after the player has the upper-hand and is in total control.

This is dumb. The character is basically the Harbinger of Death due to gameplay contrivances. You have your pale horse and when magic murder/capture teams aren't involved, there is literally no one who can stand in your way. So, the game clashes terribly with itself over and over. You're in complete control and the world is your murder oyster. Then you have ZERO control for long sections of time, ignoring the dumb as hammer ways you end up in those situations in the first place.

Unlike say... Dragonborn where you're put into these situations because you end up in areas where Miraak has control (and you wrest that control from him and meet him on equal footing later) and Hermaeus Mora can fuck with you at will because he's a Goddamn Daedra and you're still just a very powerful mortal.

And FC5 clashes with itself in other areas. The Main Quest of Skyrim is fairly self-contained. Characters react more and more to you being a very powerful Dragonborn as that story progresses. However, outside that, there are issue with Guards asking you to conjure them up a warm bed because Conjuring > X. But in FC5, the Main Story clashes with itself with things like the Whitetails not trusting someone who single-handedly already killed 2 Cult leaders. And Joseph shows up in one of the Jacob cutscenes and mentions nothing about how you killed his brother and Faith.

This is likely due to the same reason the stories clashed in Mass Effect: different teams working on different areas. But FC5 is like... 1/10th the content of the ME1 Main Story and it grates a Hell of a lot more in a game with less "self-contained" story venues (such as the planets in ME1).

[Zixinus]

It sounds to me like the classic case where the developers were so interested in making their story that the actual game was an afterthought. Except the story is spectacularly stupid.

[PREDATOR490]

The fundamental premise of the entire game is broken before it even begins.

1) This cult has access to 3 missile silos in the region
2) This cult has built or occupied key locations in the region including airfields that are stocked with fully armed WW2 fighters and armed helicopters.
3) This cult has been stockpiling military equipment, weapons and supplies for members in the hundreds to thousands
4) This cult is manufacturing drugs and distributing them throughout the region for a long time

This is the only logical conclusion for the state of the game before you even start the ride on the chopper to begin the game. All of this would be enough to attract attention that goes well beyond sending one Marshal and 4 cops to arrest for "Kidnapping with intent to harm".

The game has a major conflict with itself on premise.
The Dispatcher solves everything - Far too many players are using this as a justification for the premise without realising it is an extremely stupid cop out.

- According to "Dutch" - The Cult was waiting for a kick off before things went the way of FC5. Your arrival is that kick off.

Noone knew what the Cult was doing - The only way that works is if the Cult was NOT doing the crazy shit until AFTER you arrive. Thus, the killing, kidnapping, roadblocks, occupying of key locations happened AFTER you fall of the bridge and are rescued by Dutch.
If ANY of that shit was happening before then the world would know about it because all of the communications and travel lines were still open and the response would have been more than One Marshal and 4 Cops.

If all of the crazy started happening AFTER you arrive then Dutch needs to have been keeping you locked up for way longer than the game lets you think. A few days to a week is entirely plausible because the state of the region when you go out is at a point where it would take a significant amount of time to achieve.
Either the player was out for that time or it was happening beforehand which runs into the world being oblivious problem.

The player is captured at least 4 times per zone. That is 12 times with time taking place between them AND the cut scenes conveying time passing between capture and rescue. That could be easily 12 days. I find it unlikely a Dispatcher is going to keep a Marshal and 5 cops going missing quiet for 12 days.

I find it impossible a dispatcher is going to cover up the Cult cutting ALL communication with the outside world, generating radio jamming, destroying the only road tunnel out of the area AND flying armed air vehicles to shoot down anyone leaving the zone by air for two weeks.
It is equally unlikely that it would take that amount of time for the national guard and every other agency to react to the shitstorm that is going on.

[TheFeniX]

It's honestly not THAT bad since the gameplay, while extremely cut down in some areas, is fun. It's a solid technical experience. Remember Me might be a better example. A really interesting story setup that was hamstrung by a bunch of interesting gameplay mechanics that didn't come together. This is why I always say "Story should service Gameplay." Good gameplay can carry a game a whole Hell of a lot farther than story.

But it, and I really need to come up with a better term, completely clashes with the narrative. They had zero idea how to tie the two together into a cohesive finished product. Just imagine.... in Skyrim you did a bunch of random sidequests, but related to Dragons.... wait, fuck it. Ok so, just imagine you learn X amount of Power Words, then Alduin (or his brother, sister, or second cousin) lands out of the blue and goes "blah blah, hoomans, Dragon Aspects, something about Chim" then goes to eat you, but some guy shows up and saves you, teaches you another word of Dragonrend, and you go back to doing random shit until the next time it happens, until that next time it happens you've got enough Dragon Punching Points so you're actually allowed to kill the Dragon this fucking time.

My stupid ranting aside, The POINT is: it just takes the fun and the gameplay, no matter what you were doing, what you were accomplishing and just slams that fun and gameplay into a brick wall. It takes you out of the zone and reminds you "Hey dipshit, this is a video game" and even worse combines it with the idea that video game writers think their boring story is more important than fun. To me, it's no different than if some actor looked at the camera and said "Hey, this is the important part coming up." I am immediately reminded that I'm watching a movie. That's bad.

The FarCry 5 story as a Horror Game? You're just some rando they picked up off the street and you're going through this torture and fighting back or just trying to survive and not get turned into one of Faith's Angels? Hey, you got yourself a mildly decent non-combat focused Horror Game where questions about "how, why, etc" aren't as important. Or the FC5 gameplay is "Captain Rando McLargeHuge" who is one-man army because he's looking for his brother (or whatever). And when the boss fights happen, they are one-sided beat-downs because that would actually be hilarious (and more believable).

They wanted to combine a BroShooter with elements of a game like Amnesia and they just failed miserably. Or really, I'm inclined to say they didn't even try and figured that since everything was related by a single-plot thread of "Cult Bullshit in Montana," they could get their 9/10s from review rags. And honestly, since the game runs THIS good while looking good and I've noticed next to ZERO performance or technical issues, this shit might as well be GOTYAYs considering Ubishits atrociously bad track record in this regard. Is this really the same team that made AssCreed: Unity. Because this is a techincal masterpiece by comparison.

Everything just "works." Even the fishing mini-game. There's a lot of fun built into this game. A shame the story comes around and rains boring mediocrity down on it so often. And that's really the worst part, you can't just get the story out of the way like in a lot of open-world games. It's like how throughout the year you are reminded occasionally you have to spend Thanksgiving with your in-laws when you'd much rather just cook a Turkey at home. Sure, November is still a way off, but it's coming and man does just thinking about it bum you the fuck out.

Who the Hell still bakes their Turkey in 2017?

[bilateralrope]

But it, and I really need to come up with a better term, completely clashes with the narrative.

Ludonarrative dissonance ?

It sounds to me like the classic case where the developers were so interested in making their story that the actual game was an afterthought. Except the story is spectacularly stupid.

What I'm getting is that the game is another game following the Ubisoft open world formula. They formula they have found to be reliably profitable. Then they hammered in a story that doesn't work, likely thinking that people won't care.

[TheFeniX]

But it, and I really need to come up with a better term, completely clashes with the narrative.

Ludonarrative dissonance ?

That a pretty good one, but it's combined with competing ideas on what "agenda" the game is pushing, if it is even intentionally trying to push one rather than just coincidentally.

A good example is the original Modern Warfare. It is routinely bashed as presenting the U.S. Marine Oorah, badass giter dun, patriotism is great yadda yadda idea, but the story actually doesn't present it as such. The gameplay services that idea with enemy upon enemy falling before you and the dialog between certain characters. It's this run and gun shootmans Oorah game that constantly services the player with a solid level of violence and explosions.

However, the story is much less about that. Jackson (likely the ONE red-blooded white American dude in the game, but I think his given race is ambiguious) doesn't fare all that well outside the gameplay. That said, he's still involved in a lot of the more over the top explosion fests. Then he extracts his team, heroically saves a downed (female) pilot, carries her heroically in his arms to safety while under enemy fire, makes it back to the chopper HEROICALLY.. and then the nuke goes off.... Everyone dies but him and the player walks around as him as he dies from a combination of injuries and radiation poisoning. Then the SAS guys like Price and Soap take over. There's more examples and MW2 continues this broken narrative of ACTION ACTION ACTION but more more complex story-telling, but this isn't a CoD thread.

My point is that the gameplay clashes with the story/cutscene work. But that doesn't matter because (to me, my issues with the sequels lie in other areas), while Tom Clancy'y, the story is FUN. And not just that, those times it's being dumped on you, it's mostly engaging. Video Games are at the point where they can "Show and Tell" rather than just "Show." But you get these instances of the developer just "telling" like this is a movie or (in this case) "Hey, this is the peace sign" while they shoot you the middle finger.

As said, FC5 clashes and it's boring. And the cutscenes cause this Ludonarrative dissonance in a spectacularly bad way while combining them with "stupid" and "boring." "Forcing" the player to walk around as they die of radiation poisoning is such a goddamn good way to emphasize the difference in the gameplay here. Meanwhile, Jacob saying "7 days, blah blah, that's how long we starved you" does nothing. This isn't Fallout Survival Mode: my character hasn't eaten an ounce of food or taken in a drop of water at any point when I've been in control. The idea that food/water doesn't matter has already firmly established itself in my suspension of disbelief. And now, they just fucking ruined it.

[TheFeniX]

I mean.... cmon. So, Tammy (or whoever) doesn't shoot you after you shoot Eli. No one shoots you after you shot Eli. You "snap" out of it and they magically know you've snapped out of it because.... and then Tammy lets you live. And Jacob needed you to kill Eli, even though he knows where the base is (or could have just tortured it out of you), as he's standing right outside after you get control back enough to kill him.

Then.... they burn Eli's body like they're fucking Vikings or something, not Christians who bury their dead. You could have easily have modeled in Nord Armor and weapons over the characters bodies and you wouldn't know the game isn't Skyrim..... except maybe that it didn't crash 5 times during the scene.

EDIT: I want to add. I don't give a fuck about Eli. I've had less than 2 minutes of interaction with him. All these voices sound the same over the radio. Eli and Dutch: can't tell them apart. They do nothing but sit around on their ass while you do everything. Why. do. I. give. two. shits. what happens to any of these people? I care more about what happens to Hurk because I feel for the guy since his dad is a total shit-heel. All praise be to the Monkey God.

I never played Saint's Row 1 or 2. I didn't know much about Johnny Gat. However, I was annoyed when he died because Volition did a good job on the character in the 5 minutes I saw him before he got "killed." How sad is that?/EDIT

And really, none of that pisses me off at this point. What pisses me off is that Jacob's body isn't a ragdoll object. It's a static one, so I can't pick his body up and throw it off a cliff, load it up with 6 proximity bombs to blow it into orbit, or just kick it in the face over and over again. dafuq?

Then the Joseph fight and endgame..... there is just.... there is so much wrong going on here I don't know where to begin. Get people back on your side by shooting them in the face. Joseph only now uses this complete mind control. He teleports around during the fight and spawns adds like he's a necromancer. The nukes go off at just the right time. Someone is bothering to drop 3-4 nukes on Montana when it's not even worth 1. Are these PEG nukes? If so, they aren't even alluded to. If it's Russian nukes, then good timing I guess.

Nukes are going off close enough that the blast wave is hitting you. If I bought for one second those people weren't blind or scorched, I could never for one second believe they are going to survive the fallout. Your 3 companions were the lucky ones as the Deputy and Joseph get to vomit and shit themselves to death in a bunker as their bodies completely break down.

Really, the biggest kick in the nuts is that any of the resistance factions would consider letting Joseph leave in anything other than a body bag. Or that, once again, there's no interrupt to just stick the barrel of a gun under his chin and pull the trigger. He continues to be in total control at all times because the writers want him in total control. That's it. He's unharmed after I have littered him with 7.62 ammo because? Because....? There is no because. It just is.

I would be less insulted if you arrested Joseph and turned him over to the police, then it faded to black, you woke up in some PEG cell, and the entire game was just the fantasy of someone being tortured finding some kind of hope to latch onto. That might give me a twinge of "fucks given." It might have some ring of "grim." Some ring of "that's fucked up." Because what was presented is just plain fucking terrible from all aspects of storytelling. It's that juvenile. It's a high schooled attempt at dragging out an emotional response in a viewer.

And it's so boring to boot. When compared to stories told (both with player control and none), it's excruciating. The Stroggification scene in Quake. Being psychically raped by Alma in FEAR2. Being put into a drug induced hallucination and forced to see the murdered wife and baby of Max Payne. Setup and delivery: these are part of shocking the player. When I'm left asking dozens of questions while the "shock" is attempting to hit me, you've failed at both.

[Dominus Atheos]

Fenix, I think I'm a little impressed by your ability to complain about a game you are apparently playing almost non-stop. Really, these are some impressive short essays on how bad this game, you must have at least 20 hours into it to be able to talk this much about how much it sucks.

[tezunegari]

So one of the Whitetails gave me a quest... get meat of 4 antlered roadkills.

There are several places marked on the map for that quest, that at least gives the idea where those things are.

But those fuckers run when I am still far away and barely able to see their tan coats on fucking tan grass.

And I have hit them with an ATV at full speed... they skidded for a few meters and hit a tree. Then they got up and ran again.

NINETEEN GODDAMM FUCKING TIMES.
And the ones I do kill like to disappear while I slow down my ATV to turn around.

I have one antlered roadkill meat.

And trying to use one of the 4x4s? Can'T seem to fit through the fucking trees the antlered demons seem to love running through.

Deers are fucking immortals with a houdini complex unless you use explosives.

[bilateralrope]

Farcry 5 has some amusing bugs:

[TheFeniX]

Fenix, I think I'm a little impressed by your ability to complain about a game you are apparently playing almost non-stop. Really, these are some impressive short essays on how bad this game, you must have at least 20 hours into it to be able to talk this much about how much it sucks.

20 hours? Try 53. At least that's the Steam count. But thanks, I enjoy writing long winded rants. I would write them anyways even if everyone hated them, but it's good to know someone has even the smallest amount of appreciation for them.

I would not in any way bought this game without my co-op partner being desperate for something new. If it was SP, I never would have bought it in the first place or on the off-chance I did: I would have refunded it within an hour. Even now, if Kyle isn't on I just play Heroes or SWTOR or actually try and get some work done.

I can only imagine how excruciating the game is single-player, but co-op just delivers by nature of being co-op.

Like:
Me: "Why are we in this redneck shit-heap? I feel like I should be getting a blowjob from my second-cousin or something."
Kyle: "Wouldn't that be from your sister?"
Me: "No man, damn. That's Kentucky. Texas has SOME standards."
Kyle: "Texas might, YOU don't.
Me: "Ouch!"
Kyle: "Roadblock up ahead."
Me: "I got this!" :sustained M60 fire while leaning out the window."
Me: "EAST BOUND AND DOOOOOOWN LOADED UP AND TRUCKIN! WE GONNA DO WHAT THEY SAY CAN'T BE DONE!"
Kyle: "How them ol' Duke Boys gonna get out of this one?"
Me: "YEEEEEHAAAAAW!" :more sustained M60 fire, corpses everywhere, kyle smashes through the roadblock::
Me: :Continuing to fire behind us: "Take that, George Washington!"
Kyle: "OH SHIT!"
Me: "What?" :turn around in time to see a tanker truck barreling right at us::
Me: "OH SHIT!"
:Hit, BOOM, gray screen, sad music, our bodies are smashed together into some unholy Samus Morph Ball horror:
Kyle: "My only regret... is that I have... bone-i-tis.
Me: "HA!"

Kyle: "Oh shit, VIP! Everyman for himself!"
::Kyle goes down!::
Kyle: "SAVE ME LEELA!"
Kyle starts laughing because all he sees after that is a baseball bat fly into the screen, hit the Cult VIP in the head, and kill him instantly.
Me: "And the Quarterback is toast."
Kyle: "That was a pretty good throw."
Me: "Shut up baby, I know it."

Like 99% of our gameplay is referencing shit far funnier than we are.

[FaxModem1]

Supposedly, the rest of the nation is dealing with bigger fish to fry, as North Korea is starting shit and some Middle East peace talks broke down.



Personally, I like the game, as I spent four years in Montana when I was enlisted, so it felt like a bit of a home coming. But if they really wanted us to have to listen to all these speeches, use the car radios, or the TVs, as we already see that they control the local networks.

Still doesn't explain why we can't leave the area and just get help from Missoula or Great Falls.

[TheFeniX]

Yea, but we're talking full on insurrection in a mainland state. The Cult is targeting and killing everyone. There was a time people from other countries used to ask me about Waco if they found out I was from Texas. And that was "only" one cult held up in a building. And the response from authorities was pretty brutal. The U.S. just has WAY to many domestic enforcement agencies to be slowed down at the idea of Nuclear war with a foreign power.

A big problem with some of these jerk-offs would I guess be we can identify with them. Like, the armed rancher incident and takeover of the Wildlife Refuge (which I'm sure people in other countries have heard about because America crazy knocks down all barries) can be rationalized as "honest god-fearing working white men."

Now, the PEG? A bunch of dirty, axe-crazy, tattooed, self-mutilating, drug-addicted maniacs? Imagine those dumbasses who occupied that Federal Reserve ended up with a bunch of locals as hostages and we're killing, mutilating, and displaying their crucified corpses on the building proper. How long do you think anyone would tolerate that?

If there's an explanation for all that: then it better be shown to us as they were damn sure willing to bore us with terrible exposition at every other juncture.

[FaxModem1]

Yea, but we're talking full on insurrection in a mainland state. The Cult is targeting and killing everyone. There was a time people from other countries used to ask me about Waco if they found out I was from Texas. And that was "only" one cult held up in a building. And the response from authorities was pretty brutal. The U.S. just has WAY to many domestic enforcement agencies to be slowed down at the idea of Nuclear war with a foreign power.

A big problem with some of these jerk-offs would I guess be we can identify with them. Like, the armed rancher incident and takeover of the Wildlife Refuge (which I'm sure people in other countries have heard about because America crazy knocks down all barries) can be rationalized as "honest god-fearing working white men."

Now, the PEG? A bunch of dirty, axe-crazy, tattooed, self-mutilating, drug-addicted maniacs? Imagine those dumbasses who occupied that Federal Reserve ended up with a bunch of locals as hostages and we're killing, mutilating, and displaying their crucified corpses on the building proper. How long do you think anyone would tolerate that?

If there's an explanation for all that: then it better be shown to us as they were damn sure willing to bore us with terrible exposition at every other juncture.

Really, there's no excuse, as the Peggies should have been wiped off the map within a couple days due to how far they're trying to go.

If you want an in-game explanation, the US agencies are having to sit on their hands due to the cult having a copy of a certain 'pee tape' that the President doesn't want the world to see, causing government inaction. I'm not kidding.

[Zixinus]

The only excuse I can think of, without playing the game, is that the Angels (zombies from the drugs?) are believed to county-pandemic rather than caused by administered drugs. Like, a really super-virulent pandemic, maybe one that appearently defiles science. That way, a large, military-enforced, high-level quarantine where they send in one sort-of-expandable super-gunbrodude rather than the National Guard makes (some) sense. It doesn't have to be true, it merely has to be BELIEVED to be true by the authorities to be believable, and possibly backed-up by key figures that can hold up the response process enough to give the cult time to work.

And yes, I recall that there was a game that already used this as a premise. I played it but forgot its name. There, you could parkour but also had to suffer "random-rpg-weapon" thing.

[TheFeniX]

There is nothing alluding to what you're saying. The Angels are just converts who couldn't handle the Bliss (and likely shitloads of torture) and are basically mindless thugs. The Bliss is also naturally hallucinogenic by touch even though standing in a field of the stuff will never cause you to OD. The main character is a rookie deputy. There's not even an "excuse" offered here. Shit just happens or doesn't happen because they wanted it to or not to.

Once or twice, I can (and usually do) brush it off and just move on. But it continually piles on here. You are constantly reminded how little the writers cared about answers, about a cohesive and engaging narrative. Or, more likely IMO, is they thought they were being engaging by hitting on those "threatening villain" checkboxes. But FC5 villains aren't threatening because they are essentially wizards in a setting that doesn't have wizards. That can work, but they can't also be boring cliched pieces of trash that monologue at the player for extended periods of time while said player has zero control.

And then you get away.... and it's business as fucking usual even though it's being setup so blatantly that you should react to what the villain has been talking about but you don't. Or more specifically: you can't because the game won't let you.