Tom Clancy's The Division

[Falconeer]

I wonder if it's a NA thing. Playing in EU at the moment, with zero problems. ZERO!

[01101010]

Still waiting on UPS to get here! 

[Azazel]

I ended up hitting the preorder button on PS4 at the last minute. (May as well get the extra shit if I'm buying anyway, amirite?). By the time I got home from work on release day, there was a Day 1 patch (like Fallout 4, I've seen people suggest) and then I was playing. There's nothing amazing about the gameplay, but it's very moreish for some reason. I fucking love the fine, tiny details in the environment. I'm a sucker for that shit - it's like when I first played Max Payne 1 on release.

[Falconeer]

The environment for me is worth the purchase. Have you heard at some point somewhere the noise of someone taking photographs? You look around for the sorce, and you notice a woman taking photos from one of the second floor windows of a nearby building and murmuring "oh gotta document this!". When you look up to her and inevitably point the gun at her, she gets scared and disappears inside turning off the light.

[Surlyboi]

My favorite moment so far has been a woman telling a man in the BoO that they both have needs and that she's willing to be "there for him." It's probably one of the most New York things about this game. Mid apocalypse and someone's trying to get laid.

[Falconeer]

For what it's worth, The Division broke some UBI sales record.

http://blog.ubi.com/the-division-sets-new-sales-records/

The Division has sold more copies in its first 24 hours than any game in Ubisoft’s history. Total digital full game sales of The Division also set new, single-day company records across PC, Xbox One, PS4.

[MisterNoisy]

Played about an hour of it.  Servers seemed fine and it looks fantastic, but this just wasn't doing it for me.  Oh well.

[01101010]

I love the fact they ramped up the difficulty on the hard mode dungeons. Beta, we rolled slow and smooth through the Garden 3 or 4 times. Now? There are way more times my group members get downed and we wiped 3 times on the final rooftop boss fight. So much more enjoyable to have a challenge.

Still haven't quite figured out tanking yet. Definitely not tanking in a traditional sense.

[Falconeer]

I would assume the tactical shield is a big part of it. And HP gear. But, are there any taunting skills?

[01101010]

Shield get shredded extremely fast when mobs are a level more than you and you are focus fired on. HP gear has to be essential which tends to gimp you in the DZ. DPS is king in the DZ it seems and HP stacking just lags behind since it can cost you your own DPS - unless you get lucky with the loot drops which buff stam and firearms. I'm only level 9 on my one character I play with a set group so I am not disheartened - will have to explore this more when we hit 30.

[Viin]

Is there a guild/group/club for F13ers for this? Or is this just a friends list thing?

[01101010]

No guilds yet... I'm on PS4 with a couple buddies from Chicago.

[Surlyboi]

I believe I can fly...

http://youtu.be/xC6853227c8

[01101010]

I believe I can fly...

http://youtu.be/xC6853227c8

 

I love when the cleaners blow up from their tanks being hit. Never gets old.

[Surlyboi]

Those guys are the best. I see that gout of flame and think, "yeah, he's done, next target."

Well, I did think that until I got to the next tier dark zone...

[luckton]

This game must be doing well if it's getting my console friends at work excited. They've been trying to get me to join them in Destiny, but for the life of me I can't do FPSs on a console/controller. Guess I'll give the PC version a shot.

[lesion]

It's a weird mix of good and terrible. You'll sometimes hear the exact same line from different NPCs one after the other or a recycled mission briefing for a sidequest. And then you see the photographer thing Falconeer mentioned.

Missions on normal are ridiculously easy--just running around a boring map shooting boring enemies. On hard enemies become a huge threat and you actually have to use cover well.

Most fun/frustration I've had so far was in the DZ ungrouped. The mechanics are actually great, and mixing never losing what you brought in versus never being able to keep what you can't protect feels 100% fair. It would definitely be too easy if it wasn't open PvP.

[Gets]

The little launch related DLC has rustled my jimmies quite a bit. I got the free pre-launch AGENTORIGINS stuff just fine after half a day of waiting for it after entering the code into UPlay, however, following instructions to enter the pre-order DLC codes just lead me to the message "This promotion is not available in your region." Another non-US friend claimed he couldn't get it either. Now what the fuck, Ubisoft? Granted, some guy on Reddit claimed they knew this was an issue and they were working on fixing it, but I have not found an official statement, and if they do fix it, it will probably be too late since these items are useful the following few levels or so after reaching Manhattan. If you're playing the game and trying to catch up with your friends you won't want to use the DLC gear soon anyway.

For some reason the pre-order codes have to be entered into a redeem page and you get the real codes afterwards to your e-mail, if it would work. I don't understand why they couldn't be just like the AGENTORIGINS codes that you throw into UPlay product activation. I'm alright with skins and the UPlay rewards you get in exchange for upoints, but pre-launch DLC content always comes with concerns and troubles like this. You never exactly know what you're getting, you just bite on the marketing and hope you won't be missing out, but I can't even get that much right now. And don't get me started on the Season Pass exclusive content bullshit.

[Rasix]

So, is there any lore reason for the bullet sponges? I just watched some streamer shoot a humanoid roughly 2000 times in the head without it dying.

[Surlyboi]

Because it's an RPG, not a shooter.

[lesion]

He was probably just fighting a cyber vampire.

[Gets]

It's Tom Clancy's Destiny, yeah. The Borderlandsesque focus on guns and armour reflects that too. Elite mobs do have an armour layer and not everyone knows to switch on explosive bullets.


Despite my launchday DLC gripes I think the game is alright and even impressive on quite a few aspects. All the envirionments are pretty and detailed enough to already convince me of a second playthrough at some point and the news about the sales record being broken gives me confidence the game will not die after the first month.

[Viin]

So, is there any lore reason for the bullet sponges? I just watched some streamer shoot a humanoid roughly 2000 times in the head without it dying.

It would be nice if it didn't require a full mag to kill a generic baddie. Somewhere between what it currently is and the traditional one-shot-one-kill Rainbow Six games would be good.

[lesion]

[Gets]

Also turn off in-game voice activation oh god please

[Surlyboi]

Boom. 

[KallDrexx]

So, is there any lore reason for the bullet sponges? I just watched some streamer shoot a humanoid roughly 2000 times in the head without it dying.

Glad I'm not the only one.  I saw the same things on streams and it really turned me off to the idea of playing this.

While I didn't do any high-high end content in Destiny, I never felt like regular enemies were bullet sponges except for the ones with shields (which makes sense because ..... shields).  It's just hard for me to see the fun of putting two clips just to kill one guy (at least that's what I was seeing).

[Falconeer]

Conceptually, it was very annoying to me too. Before I got the game I really disliked the idea. After a while, and liking everything else, I just stopped caring: weapons have DPS and gem sockets, on top of bonus for "(magical) powers" and HP. Hell, there's even stuff like defensive values vs "Exotic Damage". It's an RPG not a real shooter so I just enjoy it without asking too many questions. It works for me.

[MrHat]

It's a weird mix of good and terrible.

That's a great way to describe it.

I'm having a great time in coop doing the missions and the Dark Zone from a gameplay standpoint. But like mentioned, they could've increased the low level baddies by 10x and made them just die right away, and then give the bosses purple armor or whatever. It's more fun mowing down hordes of people (see Destiny) and then spending time on the boss. 

But, the fucking environments are AWESOME.  And there's tons of details everywhere.

[lesion]

But, the fucking environments are AWESOME.  And there's tons of details everywhere.

Seconded.

Step 1: find aquarium
Step 2: Step 3: find watermelons

[luckton]

How do they plan to keep the game fresh if they're limiting themselves to no science fiction or fantasy ideals at all? I mean, surely killing a normal human that's wearing a slightly different parka/uniform is going to get old after a while, right?

[Evildrider]

Like killing orcs and whatever doesn't get old?  If the game is engaging it doesn't matter.  Right now I am having fun and the way the mobs look are probably at the bottom of my concerns for the game.

[luckton]

Fair point. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[luckton]

Casually playing this about an hour or so a night so far. Finished unlocking my three base wings and reached lvl 8. Not in a huge rush to 30, and the completionist in me refuses to push the story behind opening the three wings until I've collected all of the collectables and finished all of the side-missions in the zones at or below my level. Keeping me hooked for now 

[Gets]

I'm f13Gets on Uplay. Still below lvl10, so if you are too feel free to send me an invite if you want to group up.