Ghost Recon: Brokepoint

[NSA]

Yeah, it was super easy back at launch, I mean some of the bigger drones you needed to use some tactics and stuff, but really, for the giant ones, you could sneak around them and steal the crate they were guarding without them ever even seeing you.

The normal enemies were somehow dumber than they were in Wildlands. The "Wolf" guys were a little harder, but mostly just because they hit harder and took more to down.

I hope they take a deep deep look at what went wrong here.. because, fuck. Wildlands was probably in my Top 5 all-time games, and definitely my "Game of the Generation" (for Xbox One/PS4).

 

[pcsguy88]

I vote for scrapping it, make a new game based on the old fundamentals while carrying over new things that worked and then giving everyone who bought Breakpoint 33% discount or something. They must admit what they did was wrong and apologize for making a squad based shooter into a solo rpg game. Nobody would have bitched if they had slapped the Siphon Filter badge on Breakpoint and then people like me would have avoided it while waiting for the next GR.

 

[Giga Bread]

So far, if you're playing the Terminator Event, I recommend no HUD, and higher difficulty. He's just a slow moving bullet sponge. The Behemoth is tougher.

On the reddit, people are praising this as terrifying and awesome. It's a yawn for me. I hadn't played in a month and was extremely rusty and I did all of today's missions in about an hour.

I get the style of character being nostalgic and the slow methodical way the enemy comes at you is just like the movie, but in the movie, our heroes didn't have every weapon under the sun. An enemy that walks in the open and shoots an assault rifle and shotgun isn't even as terrifying as a heavy.

Hopefully, the T-800 gets a minigun or they send some T-900s or T-1000s.

 

[Giga Bread]

So basically there were only a couple mission strings to this. There are basically a bunch of faction missions with a Terminator curveball.

The final mission was pretty cool though. I wonder if it actually is a final mission.

 

[Giga Bread]

I played Fallen Ghosts for the first time today. I forgot how superior Wildlands is.

 

[pcsguy88]

Ghosts is the best $60 I've ever spent on a game. Only the original Halo possibly has more hours spent played since the dawn of Xbox.

 

[NSA]

I played Fallen Ghosts for the first time today. I forgot how superior Wildlands is.

That's the DLC right? I started it but never got past the first couple of missions. Isn't that where your helicopter crashes and the team splits up or something? Fuck that sounds like Brokepoint now that I think about it.

Ghosts is the best $60 I've ever spent on a game. Only the original Halo possibly has more hours spent played since the dawn of Xbox.

Wildlands you mean? If so, I agree. Wildlands is my game of the generation for sure, I put so much time into it and it never ever stopped being fun. Taking down a stupid Cartel convoy was still fun, for the Nth time. Coming up with new ways to tackle objects.. just blowing the everloving shit out of things with the assault helo.. never ever got old.

I actually booted up Brokepoint over the weekend to see if anything was changed/different... and nope. I ran around for a little bit, killed a couple of guys and... it was just so fucking boring. Like, there are a couple of bad guys hanging around the landmark, a couple of bad guys by the motorbike. A drone on a little patrol.. and that's it. Literally nothing else out there, no civvys, I saw like 1 animal, but just emptiness.

I never realized how much the random Bolivian civilians contributed to the overall atmosphere in Wildlands. They just ran and hid most of the time, or got in your way, but they were THERE. They made the little towns and villages at least pretend to feel real. Then you add in UNIDAD rolling around like asshole cops/army, the Cartel guys doing cartel things, and that douchebag Pac Katari's little jalopy technicals.. it felt like a full-on place. Was it perfect? No, it got silly when you saw them all driving around next to each other and not fighting, and the enemies were all copy-pasted on each other.. but it didn't really matter, because for the moment-to-moment action, it felt like a realistic place.

Brokepoint has none of that, literally nothing. There are occasional random badguy HMMWV's driving around on the roads, and that is it. The island feels lifeless. It's beautiful, but lifeless. Add in the fact that there is no squad chatter and.. it's just boring and lonely. I'd prefer if it was more on rails, where you had missions that started you at a base, finished the base and teleported you to the next base/etc. The "open world" fails miserable when there is nothing in it.

 

[pcsguy88]

Wildlands, yeah that’s the name.

The world of Breakpoint gets even worse when you compare it to FarCry 5 with all the animals and people to talk to. God forbid you could recruit some damn people to fill out a team to go drone hunting.

 

[NSA]

Wildlands, yeah that’s the name.

The world of Breakpoint gets even worse when you compare it to FarCry 5 with all the animals and people to talk to. God forbid you could recruit some damn people to fill out a team to go drone hunting.

Far Cry 5 was a mixed bag for me, especially again coming off Wildlands. I liked it, but it also felt like it was always right on the edge of jumping the shark. You had all these (MINORITY!) fellers driving around in their pickups fully armed but just minding their own business, neveryoumind that Cult outpost right over there.

I did appreciate them being there though, they'd help out randomly, and at least populated the outposts when you took them over. The wildlife in FC5 was insane. I still have panic sweats when I think about the damn eagles.

 

[Giga Bread]

FC3 was okay until you got to the second island. FC4 was okay. I really like Blood Dragon even though it was just a DLC. But those mechanics got sooo boring and repetitive I completely avoided FC5. Wildlands took the perfect amount of those mechanics and built something original out of it. I forgot how lush they made Bolivia. I actually am interested in the NPCs there and learning about the place. I actually take the bad guys seriously.

Fallen Ghosts introduces a couple merc types that I like. The guille hunters with crossbows who you can only see with thermos and the hammers that jam ALL of your electronics were great additions.

Actually. Brokepoint should have just remade this since they borrowed so much from it. The Fallen Ghosts merc designs remind me of like some merc group in 90’s super hero comics. They’re so bad. Except the hunters which should have the Wolves in Brokepoint.

I’ve going back and forth with this and Metal Gear Survive. I’ll probably pop back on to try out the Engineer class but I doubt there’s any content with it to keep me on.

 

[NSA]

I started MG Survive and got a couple hours in, where you setup the first base or whatever, I need to get back to that, just not super motivated. But I haven't been playing much of anything really, except Plague Inc lol.

I don't know if Wildlands was an accident or what, since they didn't seem to actually utilize any of the good ideas for anything afterwards, they doubled down on the bad ideas a ton of times though.

Brokepoint feels like they wanted to try and make it into the Division, which.. I am sure is a fine game, but it's not needed. It's like they went and overthought on every aspect of the game and changed things just for the sake of changing them. Their whole obsession with making it a "live/services" game really hurt it too. I like the IDEA of an evolving world that changes for everyone over time.. but personally that's not a game I would be into at this point in life. I don't have time to commit to doing real-time events within a 3-day span or whatever.

Play Terminator now, or never again! F-off. Games that don't respect my time get tossed.

 

[Giga Bread]

I like MG Survive and I’m deep into post game with lots of the Epic equipment, but I don’t think I could start the game now. The coop is the best part and actually rewarding unlike with Brokepoint but.... no one plays anymore. If you want to do coop, you basically go on discord and hope you can get a few people online.

One of the Konami reps said the servers are staying up regardless because it’s the same server system as MGSV and MGO3 and those are still pretty active.

Edit:

I ran across a table of active PS4 players of MG Survive, broken down by country, over time. The game is more popular now, 2 years later, in Asia, than it ever was. If you look at when this bump in players started, it coincided with it being released as a free download for Plus subscribers over there. It’s not a given, but I imagine the game is making more money off of players buying in game boosters now that they tried and liked the game.

 

[NSA]

More delays...

What is the "immersive mode"?

TOM CLANCY'S GHOST RECON® BREAKPOINT: IMMERSIVE MODE UPDATE

 

[Giga Bread]

That's been the outrage for weeks because nobody knows crap. The usual employees that give updates haven't said peep about anything since they released the Terminator event. No updates or anything. People assume it's the mode that eliminates the gear score along with other things but I don't know what else they can do. People thought there was going to be more of a survival aspect to this game. If it was designed like that from the get go, then it would be awesome, but I don't know how you can add it in later and it not feel disjointed and unrewarding. I think the villagers are about to riot because of how much support Division 2 is getting.

I guess being a Joe fan has prepared me a little more for this. LOL

 

[NSA]

That's been the outrage for weeks because nobody knows crap. The usual employees that give updates haven't said peep about anything since they released the Terminator event. No updates or anything. People assume it's the mode that eliminates the gear score along with other things but I don't know what else they can do. People thought there was going to be more of a survival aspect to this game. If it was designed like that from the get go, then it would be awesome, but I don't know how you can add it in later and it not feel disjointed and unrewarding. I think the villagers are about to riot because of how much support Division 2 is getting.

I guess being a Joe fan has prepared me a little more for this. LOL

True!! Yeah there is no point to almost any of the survival stuff, which is lame. Why are there all these plants/etc and crafting shit when you can just jab yourself with a magic healing pen.

I hope they can find a good game in there.. but I am feeling less hopeful.

 

[pcsguy88]

I think I'll finish Breakpoint and Red Dead 2 during the Covid19 quarantine.

 

[Giga Bread]

I forgot how much better going after bosses was in Wildlands. In Fallen Ghosts, I just had to use thermals to track and hunt some dude in octocamo.

In GRB, I either was able to one shot the Wolf bosses, or in the case of Silverback, drop into a silo and shoot him in the back of the head, not knowing he was a wolf boss.

 

[NSA]

I forgot how much better going after bosses was in Wildlands. In Fallen Ghosts, I just had to use thermals to track and hunt some dude in octocamo.

In GRB, I either was able to one shot the Wolf bosses, or in the case of Silverback, drop into a silo and shoot him in the back of the head, not knowing he was a wolf boss.

Wildlands really made the extra effort to make the mini-bosses and bosses feel special. The little intro videos you'd get, the intel drops.. and the in-game voiceovers were great. I loved that you had to extract some of them as well.. not just mindless killing.

 

[Giga Bread]

I have a theory that the formula these large publishers are using in creating games with MTX up the arse and seasonal content is creating these type of messes.

Brokepoint shouldn’t have been released until this quarter. They might have been better serve to have released another Wildlands DLC that could have served as a bit of a prologue and delayed this game until now. This way they aren’t trying to balance releasing half done seasonal content and fixing the core game.

A theory going around is that delays in content started to conflict with The Division 2’s schedule. They elected last minute to delay the update with the new class because it was going to conflict with the new Warlords release. They want people buying that and playing that.

As a business model, you can make money year round, but if you mistime one thing, it can screw up everything.

 

[NSA]

Yeah when you have too many pots in the oven it gets complicated. They don't want to cannibalize their own sales.. but they release so many games it's almost impossible not to. Releasing Breakpoint the way they did though is pretty unacceptable though. It was buggy and just bad.

I do hope they have the will and $$$ to turn it into a really good game, but I am getting skeptical. So weird how badly they screwed up though. Wildlands sold like gangbusters and all they had to do was put a new coat of paint on it and I bet Wildlands 2 would have sold just as good.

 

[NSA]

I'll check it out.

 

[Giga Bread]

The ammo loss on from reloads is a sweet addition/challenge. If you reload with rounds left in you mag, you lose that ammo. It always irks me how reloads are nowhere realistic in games. It probably would be too program demanding to keep half empty mags and go to those when you run out of full ones.

 

[ThunderDan19]

That's a nice realism add. I'd love to have that in a game (but man, would I have to fix my muscle memory). It'd also be nice to have a function where it would keep your part used inventory (essentially in a dump bag) and require some kind of longer period of consolidation (not something you could do during a firefight) to reclaim them into usable full and part mags.

 

[NSA]

That's a nice realism add. I'd love to have that in a game (but man, would I have to fix my muscle memory). It'd also be nice to have a function where it would keep your part used inventory (essentially in a dump bag) and require some kind of longer period of consolidation (not something you could do during a firefight) to reclaim them into usable full and part mags.

It'd also be nice to have to take time to recover unused ammo from baddies. You don't just walk over a body and inherit their unspent ammo lol

 

[Giga Bread]

All I gotta say is they better hurry up. I’m bound to delete this thing when FFVII comes out.

 

[Giga Bread]

I already saw some people bitching about the reload because it’s not realistic. When you prep for a firefight, you make sure you have a full mag. You wouldn’t throw out a 10 round mag.

Right now, I have a rifle using a 556 and another using 762. Between the two, I have 30+ magazines hanging on my harness.

I think I can deal with losing 15 rounds on a preemptive reload.

It is going to be fun when I accidentally reload an LMG

 

[Giga Bread]

Anyone see if they're going to finally make it so you can buy ammo? You can buy as many guns as you want. Sync Drones, helicopters, patches, and hand signals, but you can't buy ammo.

 

[Giga Bread]

I can’t believe they haven’t announced a coronavirus delay to the update. Then again, they’ll announce that the day before

 

[NSA]

God damn it Ubisoft!

 

[Giga Bread]

When all else fails...

 

[NSA]

Pretty much!!

I booted it up yesterday and was sad none of the changes were in yet. Looking forward to the 24th though.

I booted up Wildlands and ran around for a bit, it was still awesome.

 

[Giga Bread]

It’s a weird existential twist that for months people complained about the guy coughing in Erewon.

 

[NSA]

*twitch*

Looking forward to the update, debating starting over or using my current save.

Ghost Recon Break gets massive update tomorrow, adds customizable gameplay

I am actually pretty excited for this. God I hope they don't fuck it up!

 

[pcsguy88]

I’m so close to the start of the game that I’ll continue if it is possible.

 

[NSA]

Got the update, started a new character.. you can swap back and forth on the fly, so easy to use the same character.. I figured I'd try to experience the game fresh "the right way" to see if I liked it better. I am only in the tutorial part as I played on my lunch hour.

So far.. it seems good?

Gear and weapon level is KAPUT!

Gear is just cosmetic from what I can tell, which is fine. I am not sure if most of the good stuff is unlocked at the start or if I previously unlocked it.. but I was able to make my Ghost look like a Ghost in Multicam from the get-go, thank god.

Weapons are all unique weapons, with different attachments etc. Enemies drop guns in line with their class.. so a grunt will drop an assault rifle of some variety. I've seen M4A1, 416, Mk 17, etc. I haven't played enough to see how this impacts things, but generally the weapon is the weapon and you don't need to upgrade it if you like it. They seem to be broken down by caliber still so that's good.
You do lose ammo in a mag if you reload, though you can turn that option off.

HUD can be super minimized, I am doing "light" or something so it still marks enemies and has a compass for a map, but it is more immersive. You can basically remove everything with options though if you want a super clean look.

AI seems to be the same, still no teammates.. there is 2 new classes, Engineers and Echelon. Engineers do some drone stuff and Echelon is kinda Splinter Cell-esque spy stuff.. but not sure if it's better or worse than the Panther class. We'll see. I'm trying Echelon.

I'm going to give it the ol' college try and see how it goes. I still want AI teammates but that might be a wish too much.

 

[NSA]

I actually played GR: Breakpoint all of last night, probably like 3 hours? I got through the tutorial stuff and a little bit into the game proper. My thoughts:

It's better.. it's not great, and still not as good as Wildlands, but it is better than it was.

Not having tiered look and weapons is very weird at first. You can pick up and horde weapons to sell, so that takes some getting used to. You can pick up weapons the enemy drops.. but so far it's just mostly a lot of the same 416 or AK's. You can still find blueprints, and once you have those, it's like finding the gun in Wildlands, where you can switch to it whenever you want. Otherwise, you need to find the weapon in the wild or purchase it at Erewhon.

I made it so you can only buy guns/vehicles/etc at Erewhon as well, not at any bivouac. This makes it a little more realistic where you can't just go to any campfire and call in an attack helo.

Having the mimimap being just a compass also actually helps with the immersion, if only because you now don't see the little red dots/bloom every 100 yards where the bad guys are standing next to their motorcycles. They're still there for the most part.. but somehow it doesn't FEEL like they're there.

With no tiered loot, there isn't too much of a need to explore every nook and cranny looking for crates/chests/etc, so it keeps you on task a lot easier. I found myself bee-lining to the objectives much easier than before, which helped fix some of the pacing of the game. Small engagement to small engagement instead of lots of empty time just walking around looking for stuff.

You can still find new gear/etc in crates, so you can update your soldier.. and I think some things are still mission/quest rewards. You can also buy a ton of stuff in the store if you want a certain look.

I'mma give it another couple of days to play through and see how it goes. The story is still mostly poodoo, which is unfortunate. Hopefully the fun factor keeps it going.

 

[Giga Bread]

I do like that the Skell credit boxes are labeled differently.

I played episode 2. Way too short and easy. I thought I saw it was 8 missions but I only counted 7 with a short endscene. I believe they cut mission 8 and went to this weirdly edited cutscene. I was hoping this opened up part of that clouded part of the map but it doesn’t.

I also wish there was day/night controller. I hate how quickly it changes to day. Some of the missions lose their ambiance with daylight coming in.

Being a Metal Gear fan, I am thrilled to get an MK23.

 

[NSA]

I do like that the Skell credit boxes are labeled differently.

I played episode 2. Way too short and easy. I thought I saw it was 8 missions but I only counted 7 with a short endscene. I believe they cut mission 8 and went to this weirdly edited cutscene. I was hoping this opened up part of that clouded part of the map but it doesn’t.

I also wish there was day/night controller. I hate how quickly it changes to day. Some of the missions lose their ambiance with daylight coming in.

Being a Metal Gear fan, I am thrilled to get an MK23.

I haven't tried it yet, looking forward to it. Hoping to plow through the 'story'/chapter 1 stuff without bothering with sidequests this play through. Sad that it's short though, I wonder if they'll add more content before the eventual Chapter 3 content (Rainbow 6?).

I saw the Mk23 in the shop and thought it looked new.. gotta buy that!

What is the best way to make skelcredits now? before I would just sell everything I came across.

 

[Giga Bread]

I don’t know because it seems like I’m not making bank anymore. I think I was making a lot doing faction missions. I think you get $10k for single Raid bosses and an additional for completing the Raid but I’m never going back to that BS. There’s at least 2 bivouacs that are on top precious metal deposits. I know one is north of Erewon and has a bunch of obsidian close by. The other is by some mountain creeks.

I do like the Echelon class and the emphasis on awesome handguns.

Episode 2 tried to emphasize stealth more but it seemed like there were less soldiers and drones to move around.

I wanted to do a full playthrough with the new modes but unlike the rest of America, my work hasn’t changed.

 

[NSA]

I don’t know because it seems like I’m not making bank anymore. I think I was making a lot doing faction missions. I think you get $10k for single Raid bosses and an additional for completing the Raid but I’m never going back to that BS. There’s at least 2 bivouacs that are on top precious metal deposits. I know one is north of Erewon and has a bunch of obsidian close by. The other is by some mountain creeks.

I do like the Echelon class and the emphasis on awesome handguns.

Episode 2 tried to emphasize stealth more but it seemed like there were less soldiers and drones to move around.

I wanted to do a full playthrough with the new modes but unlike the rest of America, my work hasn’t changed.

Yeah I need to figure out the Echelon bonuses.. I've just been playing like normal. I actually like the Panther class better as a stealth class, but am giving this a try. At least to get to rank 10 or whatever. I loved the Panther's submachine gun/silencer perk.

At least there isn't really too much you need to buy now, a couple guns you like, an attack helo, and maybe some cosmetic gear.. but you don't need to keep going back to the store I don't think, to upgrade your tier shit all the time.

I'm working from home, but since the kids and wife are here too, I only get to play at night like usual. BOO.