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[hospitaldriver]

I had this pre ordered up until this morning. The lack of reviews is off putting and with it being under £34 already makes me think I can hang on for it to hit £20 and pick it up then, which shouldn't be too long with the amount of new releases coming

 

[British Monsoon]

Skills starting to unlock now, there's a lot to upgrade - combat-wise there's 15 combat skills to get (chain finisher & weapon parry are the only two unlocked at the moment), plus there's a few jacket upgrades, wrist-armour upgrades, ammo capacity upgrades, knuckleduster upgrades, a few extra tools to acquire and different styles for Max's hair & beard. On the car side of things you can upgrade the ramming grill, armour, engine (v6 and later v8), exhaust, tires, suspension, boost, rims, boarder spikes, sniper rifle, harpoon, thunderpoon, side burners, upgrade the repair speed, add hood ornaments (that bestow bonuses), switch the body between one of five choices, plus decals and paint.

In addition to the combat stuff I mentioned earlier, you can pick up melee weapons that enemies drop, but they break after continued use. There's also 'Fury Mode', which kicks in after chaining together combos without being hit and lets Max use more powerful attacks.

Here's a few screens. Witness!!

 

[Lego Boss]

Looks good and hasn't been through the pisss/shit filter, so isn't as brown as I expected it to be.

 

[truly101]

drivel.

A bigger waste of time is posting some diatribe about some game you have no interest in. Is it really that hard for people here to just say "hey, I'm not really interested in this game, no need to post about it, I have nothing of substance to contribute"?

 

[Bedlam]

You spent most of this post complaining about open world game releases and calling it boring, uninspired, etc, in regards to Mad Max. But in your original post you said you're going to spend your money on more interesting and better open world games like MGSV which seems that its biggest chief complaint for most gamers so far is the fact that it's open world is mostly just empty and boring while its towns/outposts are well designed. It reeks of bias and just an excuse to go in and shit on others excitement because your mad it exists. No one is forcing anyone to buy any single game and your more than entitled to your opinion, but maybe you should form a consistent opinion on what you like before you start throwing out completely unfounded complaints, it makes you look a bit crazy. But it's all good man. Enjoy MGSV, I will. And I'll enjoy this too it seems.

Edit: also, what are these boring, generic, open world games that you dislike?

In my mind the most boring ones I can think of are a few Ass Creed games or a few other Ubi developed titles. But that says more about Ubisoft as a developer and their design decisions for OWG than it does for OWG's in general. It's not like we are all swimming in open world games. For every OWG there dozens and dozens of regular, linear, level based releases. It's not even on a comparable scale.

I see what Agent_4Seven is saying and I even voiced similar concerns and thoughts a couple of days ago in another Mad Max thread:

Love the style and the car gameplay but looking at that map with its dozens of same-y sidestuff icons ... man, I just can't do it anymore. I just can't take the AC approach to game-design anymore. It's just too formulaic, too bloated and most importantly it all feels meaningless.

"Better", sure I'm down with that. But "more" and "bigger" are reasons for concern these days. How can you possibly fill these worlds with interesting and engaging stuff? In the end it'll just be an even bigger map littered with the same "take down the outposts" and "find the resources" activities.

I've decided that I don't want to spend my time playing videogames with those type of games anymore. They've increasingly felt like a waste of time and at times they even felt like work (Hi, AC games!).

...

Definitely. It's not easy though when many of your favorite gaming series go open-world suddenly. I'm currently burned out from the Witcher 3's open world and I have yet to finish the game. I probably don't even have it in me to play MGS5 right now despite being a fan of that series. Then there's Mad Max, which I thematically love; also Fallout 4 at the end of the year. At best I'll be able to play one of these games, maybe none. The task is just too daunting and too time-consuming.

In the end it comes down to whether the game gives me back an experience interesting and fulfilling enough for the time it consumes or whether it's just a huge time-sink that I just want to be done with halfway through. Right now it seems that MGS5 might be the game that gives back the most in exchange for my time.

Looking at the map of Mad Max, looking at the past Just Cause games and also considering the statements from the developers who were featured in some of the recent gameplay videos ("this game is a completionist's dream" - refering to the amount of stuff to do), I think it's safe to assume that this is clearly the Ubisoft/AC-school of map- and objective-design.

I am one of those completionists the developer was talking about but I consider games of this type a nightmare rather than a dream. Two days ago I finished Witcher 3 and I completed all of the '?'s on all maps because I had the urge to do everything the game offers before I'm done with it. I can tell you that was mostly a pretty shitty experience, especially in the Skellige area where most of the dozens of '?'s are the same shitty kind ("smuggler's cache" - 2 or 3 treasure chests swimming in water surrounded by annoying enemies). Luckily, Witcher 3 also had some great quest-lines to make up for the tediousness of the filler stuff.

Mad Max, I strongly suspect (again, looking at the past efforts of the studio), is one of these games that basically consist of this kind of filler stuff: 200-300 icons spread across a large map - and the overwhelming majority of them being completely uninteresting and of the collectathon- and "destroy-the-outpost!"-variety. These games have more in common with work for me than with having fun. They are an exercise in attrition.

In comparison, I loved Red Dead Redemption; especially its world. Instead of 200-300 same-y locations, there are about 40-50 meticulously crafted places. Even the side stuff felt more organic and interesting. For the treasure hunts, for example, I actually had to identify geography with the help of drawn pictures and maps (absolutely loved it!). Side events were mostly people who you met on the road and in the wild instead of dots on the map to be crossed off a to-do list. Hunting animals and searching for plants was satisfying because I only knew the general area where they can be found but had to look for them myself there. It all felt way more organic and fun than crossing off hundreds of icons on a map.

If MGS5 is anything like that, then that's definitely a plus in my book. It seems that besides the strong story-aspect in MGS5, its world is rather a playground for traversal and trying out different strategies for approaching mission objectives rather than being an Ubisoft-type collection of collectathon-icons.

Right now, after completing the time-sink that is Witcher 3, I'm not in the mood for any kind of open-world game. I'm going to play more Splatoon and buy Mario Maker. But if I tackle another open-world game this year, I'm pretty sure it's going to be MGS5. I just can't take Ubisoft-open-worlds anymore.

Besides, Mad Max seems to be a little bit of a technical mess. I've never seen pop-in this bad. Quoting myself again:

Here's a random driving sequence from a recent gameplay video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSeudN-hpgk&t=47m10s

That pop-in is terrible and way more irritating than a lower resolution could ever be.

 

[Bedlam]

A bigger waste of time is posting some diatribe about some game you have no interest in. Is it really that hard for people here to just say "hey, I'm not really interested in this game, no need to post about it,...

I think there is merit in discussing the pro's and con's of certain game-design philosophies. Is he not allowed to state his opinion just because you don't like it?

... I have nothing of substance to contribute"?

I think he contributed much more of substance to this thread than you did.

 

[truly101]

I think there is merit in discussing the pro's and con's of certain game-design philosophies. Is he not allowed to state his opinion just because you don't like it?


I think he contributed much more of substance to this thread than you did.

Because he wants to bitch about what he thinks is a waste of time in open world design in a game he hasn't played and has no interest in playing? Thats real constructive. The thread is about who is getting Mad Max next week or not. If he wanted to discuss the merits and detriments of open wortd game design, and use what he sees in Mad Max as an example, then he can create a new thread and foster such discussion.
For the purpose of this thread, his reply comes off as derailing pointless bullshit. Not to mention the complete arrogant and condescending tone in which he wrote it. A simple "doesn't look interesting" would have sufficed. Not replying since he's not intent on buying the game would have been best. But thats just me. I skip the threads on things I have little to no interest in.

 

[diffusionx]

*bunch of shit*

You don't need to play it, but why do you need to keep talking about it? I have no interest in the new AC but I'm not going into threads just to poop on the game.

 

[ironcreed]

Skills starting to unlock now, there's a lot to upgrade - combat-wise there's 15 combat skills to get (chain finisher & weapon parry are the only two unlocked at the moment), plus there's a few jacket upgrades, wrist-armour upgrades, ammo capacity upgrades, knuckleduster upgrades, a few extra tools to acquire and different styles for Max's hair & beard. On the car side of things you can upgrade the ramming grill, armour, engine (v6 and later v8), exhaust, tires, suspension, boost, rims, boarder spikes, sniper rifle, harpoon, thunderpoon, side burners, upgrade the repair speed, add hood ornaments (that bestow bonuses), switch the body between one of five choices, plus decals and paint.

In addition to the combat stuff I mentioned earlier, you can pick up melee weapons that enemies drop, but they break after continued use. There's also 'Fury Mode', which kicks in after chaining together combos without being hit and lets Max use more powerful attacks.

Here's a few screens. Witness!!

Nice. Thanks for the impressions.

 

[British Monsoon]

Couple of GIFs;

So far I'm finding the driving to be pretty fun, the car feels good but combat with the car can be a pain, but I suspect that'll be alleviated once I've unlocked more of the upgrades. Enjoying it a lot, but if you're dead against that Ubisoft-style game progression I don't think you'll have a good time. You get to an area, find a look-out point which adds icons to your map for side-missions, collectables, strongholds, etc and complete them as you see fit in between the main story.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

Fury Road, on blu-ray? Hell yeah I'm buying that next week

 

[ironcreed]

Couple of GIFs;

 

[ChanMan]

Thanks for the impressions, I am interested in this game and will probably rent it before I buy it.

 

[tiebreaker]

Some german stores broke the street date.

I found one in my area, but no MGS V yet.

 

[GavinUK86]

LOL I was looking for a gif of that.

 

[ekim]

Some german stores broke the street date.

I found one in my area, but no MGS V yet.

Saturn or Gamestop by any chance?

 

[IdreamofHIME]

Shadow of the Colossus was empty. Nobody complained. If it fits the style or atmosphere of the game then in fine with it. I hate games that are overcrowded with NPCs.

I think Max looks awesome and will be getting it, but don't compare to SOTC man.
That game was a full decade a go, open world games should have (and have) come a long way since then.

 

[tilomite!]

I guess I'm picking this up now. Can't resist the urge anymore.

 

[tiebreaker]

Saturn or Gamestop by any chance?

Saturn Munich, you can pm me for exactly which one if you live nearby.

 

[SpaceHorror]

I thought I was over Ubisoft style shit after I couldn't get into Shadows of Mordor last year, but man, I love the Mad Max property too much to pass this up. I've been waiting on a decent or better Mad Max game for years.

 

[Definity]

It's been 4 hours, what's your take?

I'm tired! I played for way too long last night. I certainly enjoyed what I played last night and I'm itching to get back and keep playing. I will just summarize a few things below with what I liked first.

• Car combat is ace. So easy to pull off crazy moves and the harpoon is crazy fun!
• Very beautiful game during both day and night cycle
• Ground combat is very much like the batman games but much more brutal!
• I love chaining together melee combat with a gut shot from the shotgun, so satisfying!
• I love all the different upgrades and skills you can buy for both max and his cars
• The random storms that come out of nowhere
• Characters, cut scenes and dialogue are pretty good
• The size of the world feels great
• Tons of scavenging locations for project parts to upgrade things back at a stronghold

---

• The length of storms can be a bit ridiculous!
• Some of the side activities will probably become a bit repetitive for some people
• There is some pop-in that shows up from time to time
• If you don't like checklist type activities in open worlds you're probably going to end up bored
• Not seen enough of the story to see where it's going
• Upgrade your car and do story missions first! Makes car combat much more enjoyable.

I love open world games and spend a lot of time just stopping at each little scavenging location that pops up to explore and collect things. If you like collecting things in games then this game has definitely got you covered there and it tracks each individual location with what you're missing. I was a bit surprised at how much effort they put in on the bios of each location, weapon, character, etc. in the pause menu. One final note on combat, I like the ground combat much more than what's in batman because I feel more connected to each and every swing...throw in fury mode and it feels awesome.

I'm really curious to see where this ends up with reviews. I'm guessing mid 80's?

 

[SentryDown]

I know it's a desert and stuff, but this open world seems soooo empty. I don't wanna drive 15 minutes between each location

 

[ekim]

Saturn Munich, you can pm me for exactly which one if you live nearby.

Thanks - checked my local Saturn and they had a copy. I had it preordered at gameware but I will now just send it back.

Will post some impressions later.

 

[dex3108]

I'm really curious to see where this ends up with reviews. I'm guessing mid 80's?

My guess 7-8/10 max with some reviews below 7. I don't see hook that will push scores up. Don't get me wrong i am sure that game is fun and that people including me will have fun, just i don't see scores above 8.

 

[Strangelove77]

Does anyone know if the PS4 exclusive stuff comes with every PS4 copy or if you had to preorder from some specific place to get it? It doesnt say anything on Amazon.com about it.

 

[Simo]

Does anyone know if the PS4 exclusive stuff comes with every PS4 copy or if you had to preorder from some specific place to get it? It doesnt say anything on Amazon.com about it.

The Ripper? Pretty sure it's with every day 1 copy regardless of retailer.

 

[ekim]

The Ripper? Pretty sure it's with every day 1 copy regardless of retailer.

The Ripper isn't PS4 exclusive, but 12 hood ornaments are. I'd guess they are included in every copy.

 

[Strangelove77]

The Ripper? Pretty sure it's with every day 1 copy regardless of retailer.

No, i mean the hood ornaments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7z1amR5QEo

 

[Summer Haze]

Any way to turn off those tacky on-screen effects on console?

 

[Ramenman]

It's nowhere near as in depth, as there's pretty much only one combo - square x5. But in addition you have counters (triangle > square) and heavy strikes (hold square), plus it seems quite contextual. If you catch an enemy in the combo and you're against a wall, for instance, Max will automatically pin the enemy against the wall. There's also weapons, mainly the shotgun which you can quick fire with circle or precision aim by holding L1, but also shivs which can be used to finish off stunned opponents with x.

From the streams apparently you can also pick up any weapons present in the environment or taken from your foes (when they're knocked out, or by doing a "melee reversal" (?), just saw a prompt about that last one, not sure how it's done)

 

[Simo]

The Ripper isn't PS4 exclusive, but 12 hood ornaments are. I'd guess they are included in every copy.

No, i mean the hood ornaments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7z1amR5QEo

Oh. I completely missed that announcement!

Well again I'd imagine every PS4 copy would have the code inside?

 

[MacBosse]

I got this and MGSV coming in. Will probably go with Max first, then take a break from open world a few days. That shit can get repetetive. Hehe.

Got GoW:UE today too. Damn. The autumn of gaming is approaching!

 

[M.W.]

I'm tired! I played for way too long last night. I certainly enjoyed what I played last night and I'm itching to get back and keep playing. I will just summarize a few things below with what I liked first.

• Car combat is ace. So easy to pull off crazy moves and the harpoon is crazy fun!
• Very beautiful game during both day and night cycle
• Ground combat is very much like the batman games but much more brutal!
• I love chaining together melee combat with a gut shot from the shotgun, so satisfying!
• I love all the different upgrades and skills you can buy for both max and his cars
• The random storms that come out of nowhere
• Characters, cut scenes and dialogue are pretty good
• The size of the world feels great
• Tons of scavenging locations for project parts to upgrade things back at a stronghold

---

• The length of storms can be a bit ridiculous!
• Some of the side activities will probably become a bit repetitive for some people
• There is some pop-in that shows up from time to time
• If you don't like checklist type activities in open worlds you're probably going to end up bored
• Not seen enough of the story to see where it's going
• Upgrade your car and do story missions first! Makes car combat much more enjoyable.

I love open world games and spend a lot of time just stopping at each little scavenging location that pops up to explore and collect things. If you like collecting things in games then this game has definitely got you covered there and it tracks each individual location with what you're missing. I was a bit surprised at how much effort they put in on the bios of each location, weapon, character, etc. in the pause menu. One final note on combat, I like the ground combat much more than what's in batman because I feel more connected to each and every swing...throw in fury mode and it feels awesome.

I'm really curious to see where this ends up with reviews. I'm guessing mid 80's?

Thanks! Sounds right up my alley. I'm jealous of all of you.

 

[NickatNite]

For those who have been playing it!

Can you turn off any hud elements/notification?

 

[Definity]

For those who have been playing it!

Can you turn off any hud elements/notification?

Playing on PS4 version and did not see an option to disable HUD.

 

[Carbonox]

Like with MGS5 did SimplyGames dispatch this early as well?

 

[Jimmyfenix]

okay the german suplex sold me on this game

 

[NickatNite]

Playing on PS4 version and did not see an option to disable HUD.

Thanks.

 

[Definity]

This game actually has a pretty cool photo/video mode included for the folks that like that:

 

[Simo]

Man, today would be the perfect time for GameStop to start selling it early like some releases in the past....

EDIT: WHAT?! Capture stills AND video?!

 

[RK9039]

This game actually has a pretty cool photo/video mode included for the folks that like that:

Nice.

 

[Definity]

Man, today would be the perfect time for GameStop to start selling it early like some releases in the past....

EDIT: WHAT?! Capture stills AND video?!

Yeah, you can even hook up a second controller and have another person be your cameraman, lol.

 

[TheMan]

The shallow combo system is disappointing. Bashing square ad nauseum sounds like it will get old quick.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

Couple of GIFs;

Still has those god-awful effects during combat.

Ugh.

 

[M.W.]

Still has those god-awful effects during combat.

Ugh.

Yeah that is annoying, I can't unsee now.

It still blows my mind how long this game could potentially be.

 

[Simo]

Yeah, you can even hook up a second controller and have another person be your cameraman, lol.

That's fucking cool! Have you tried that yet? Still seems like having someone in control of the camera could mess you up while playing, kinda like trying to use GTA's cinematic angle while still trying to steer straight. lol

 

[NickatNite]

Yeah, you can even hook up a second controller and have another person be your cameraman, lol.

Whaaat? During gameplay?

 

[Definity]

Still has those god-awful effects during combat.

Ugh.

yeah, it can be a bit jarring but thankfully it only happens when you enter fury mode.

 

[Ramenman]

I'm tired! I played for way too long last night. I certainly enjoyed what I played last night and I'm itching to get back and keep playing. I will just summarize a few things below with what I liked first.

• Car combat is ace. So easy to pull off crazy moves and the harpoon is crazy fun!
• Very beautiful game during both day and night cycle
• Ground combat is very much like the batman games but much more brutal!
• I love chaining together melee combat with a gut shot from the shotgun, so satisfying!
• I love all the different upgrades and skills you can buy for both max and his cars
• The random storms that come out of nowhere
• Characters, cut scenes and dialogue are pretty good
• The size of the world feels great
• Tons of scavenging locations for project parts to upgrade things back at a stronghold

---

• The length of storms can be a bit ridiculous!
• Some of the side activities will probably become a bit repetitive for some people
• There is some pop-in that shows up from time to time
• If you don't like checklist type activities in open worlds you're probably going to end up bored
• Not seen enough of the story to see where it's going
• Upgrade your car and do story missions first! Makes car combat much more enjoyable.

I love open world games and spend a lot of time just stopping at each little scavenging location that pops up to explore and collect things. If you like collecting things in games then this game has definitely got you covered there and it tracks each individual location with what you're missing. I was a bit surprised at how much effort they put in on the bios of each location, weapon, character, etc. in the pause menu. One final note on combat, I like the ground combat much more than what's in batman because I feel more connected to each and every swing...throw in fury mode and it feels awesome.

I'm really curious to see where this ends up with reviews. I'm guessing mid 80's?

Sounds like everything I'll love in an open-world game.

Crazy I know right, some people like open-world gameplay wooo. Reading GAF sometimes you'd forget it.

 

[British Monsoon]

Couple more GIFs;