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Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora | Review Thread

Chuck Berry

Gold Member
Good - You can overlevel yourself for outposts and story and side missions. Enemies and missions dont level up with you. You actually feel yourself growing in power.

Bad - Losing 20% of your health during every instance of fast travel. Like whose genius design decision was this? No rhyme or reason for it. Just a mini ass fucking each time you feel like saving a few minutes.
 

Chuck Berry

Gold Member
No way, I can't believe something like this even exists. What the fuck?

At the very least they could’ve just made it like a dice roll or something. Like wherever you traveled to you might get a pop-up message saying you took incoming damage from the RDA during the trip. It would’ve still been stupid, but at least it would’ve added a smidge of context.
 

RavionUHD

Member
I got myself Ubisoft+ for Avatar and the new Assassins Creed, should be worth it.

Thats the game on PC in 4K Ultrawide in max Settings, FSR3 Quality, Frame Gen, Raytracing and ReShade.

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Game runs really good for that graphics (>80 FPS, considering 4K Ultrawide is much more pixel count than normal 4K, even thought using FSR3).
 
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STARSBarry

Gold Member
So I broke a multi year long self imposed ban of Ubisoft games to buy this...

I thought that since I haven't played a fancy since Far Cry 4 I won't be "done" with the genre. I also was very impressed with the trailer where they explained the sound design and how unique that was.

But my god... ITS SO FUCKING BOOOOOOOORING

I really want to like this game, I really want to but its just so dull... how can you make pandora dull? I have no idea but playing this is just a chore, everything feels like one.
 

simpatico

Member
Seems like this would have been an ace launch title. Just reminds me of one of those launch games that shows off the next gen and is fun enough for wasting some time. Even if it's not ground breaking in terms of gameplay.
 

cash_longfellow

Gold Member
Good - You can overlevel yourself for outposts and story and side missions. Enemies and missions dont level up with you. You actually feel yourself growing in power.

Bad - Losing 20% of your health during every instance of fast travel. Like whose genius design decision was this? No rhyme or reason for it. Just a mini ass fucking each time you feel like saving a few minutes.
Is that a permanent loss of 20%?

What the shit? Even if it’s temporary, who the fuck okayed this? Wow 🤦‍♂️
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
But my god... ITS SO FUCKING BOOOOOOOORING

I really want to like this game, I really want to but its just so dull... how can you make pandora dull? I have no idea but playing this is just a chore, everything feels like one.
Its disappointing but the game is like rdr2. it wants you to play it a different way. They want you to explore and take in the world. They dont want you to go from checkpoint to checkpoint like a far cry game. it might feel dull, but i think its solely by design. A far cry paced game in this world would feel just as out of place.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
FYI, you can enable auto hacking and auto plant gathering in the game settings. that should make hacking mechs a lot easier and gathering food much faster.
 

TrebleShot

Member
Been enjoying this and at times the graphics are incredible but it’s fairly inconsistent.

I jumped into forbidden west whilst trying the hdr chiaki update on steam deck and it’s still floored me.

I’d say it’s a close 2nd to forbidden west with Alan wake 2 in third.

Still the game itself is good fun and Pandora is incredibly realised.

All of the voice acting is amateur utter shite and infuriating. It’s not just you Na’vi but the first woman you meet in the resistance HQ just fuck off , fuck right off and when you’ve fucked off , fuck off again some more. She rambles on like an insecure anxiety riddled teenager not a highly capable, highly paid research scientist. Made me consider muting voices.
 
Sounds like some pretentious "we don't want you to fast travel and miss exploring this beautiful world we created" nonsense.
It's the hunger mechanic from Call of Pripyat...
You don't lose health, you lose energy, which is constantly depleting anyway. It's tied to the cooking system. So fast travel simulates the energy loss during the skipped travel.
There's a skill that removes fast travel stamina loss.
 
This is one of the most gorgeous games ever released if you're playing on a high-end PC. I'm no fan of Digital Foundry, but Alex was spot-on when he said this game gave him the same amazement Crysis did back in 2007.
It is shockingly good. It's the best Jungle environment I've ever played in.

I'm very surprised Ubisoft wasn't hyping the hell out of the tech. I know we saw a few trailers, but damn. To me, I completely forgot this was even coming out this year. I don't think I'll buy it. I'll play it for the month, it's a pretty fun time for $15.

But I do think I will pick it up down the road on a sale. And I could see myself playing it again in the future with my family or something so I'll get it when it eventually comes to Steam I think.
 
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Chuck Berry

Gold Member
It's the hunger mechanic from Call of Pripyat...
You don't lose health, you lose energy, which is constantly depleting anyway. It's tied to the cooking system. So fast travel simulates the energy loss during the skipped travel.
There's a skill that removes fast travel stamina loss.

Herp a derp well Im retarded. This whole time Im looking at the purple bar thinking its my health and the green bar as my energy.

I still think its a stupid design choice though, especially when you need to spec yourself in a direction in order to get rid of it. What a waste.
 

Methos#1975

Member
Anyone else on the PS5 having issues with your graphic quality and HDR settings saving? Everytime I start the game up I have to redo everything since it will not save my settings.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Herp a derp well Im retarded. This whole time Im looking at the purple bar thinking its my health and the green bar as my energy.

I still think its a stupid design choice though, especially when you need to spec yourself in a direction in order to get rid of it. What a waste.
If your purple bar is full, your health will regen. So eat something before you go into a combat zone.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
snek is this game graphic better than horizon west or not?
in some ways, its a generation apart. in other aspects like character rendering, water rendering, and animations, it falls behind. Cinematography and art style are a wash. both have strengths. I prefer Avatar because i love Pandora's art design compared to the more simpler earth areas.

overall, its the next gen leap we've been waiting for and if you had issues with HFW's draw distance, lighting, and pop-in it, it fixes pretty much all those problems.
 

yamaci17

Member
in some ways, its a generation apart. in other aspects like character rendering, water rendering, and animations, it falls behind. Cinematography and art style are a wash. both have strengths. I prefer Avatar because i love Pandora's art design compared to the more simpler earth areas.

overall, its the next gen leap we've been waiting for and if you had issues with HFW's draw distance, lighting, and pop-in it, it fixes pretty much all those problems.
what is your experience with 3080? can you push ray tracing with decent textures at 4K?
 
Yup

Really weird thing to not bring up. At all. With all of the reviews I read and watched lol
That's because like 98% of game reviewers don't even actually play the game and pay attention. They either dick off for a few hours or rush through the entire campaign to try and beat out the next reviewer.
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
what is your experience with 3080? can you push ray tracing with decent textures at 4K?
The game is insanely well optimized. its not just the best PC port of the year, its the best Pc port in years. Honestly, reminds me of the 2016-2019 pc ports that just ran on your system without any issues. No shader stutter, no traversal stutter, no vram issues, no crashes, or random cpu spikes. Everything just works.

Running the game at 4k dlss quality at 60 fps. Sometimes it drops to low 50s during combat and other setpieces with fire but whatever, it is 60 fps locked during exploration which is the majority of the game. I could probably go to dlss balanced but its really not neccessary.

I didnt tweak a single setting because the game just defaulted in a mix of high settings with only a couple of rt reflections settings set to medium. It just runs. That said, there are dozens of settings you can push to adjust your vram so if you are unable to do 4k dlss quality on your 3070 then just adjust those vram settings. The pop-in one is the one thats the most vram dependent so you might have to turn that down. During regular gameplay you wont notice pop-in too much at the default setting of 5 but during flying it might be more apparent.

Honestly, i havent played with the settings at all or ran the benchmark. So cant say for certain if your vram will be enough for 4k dlss quality if you reduce certain settings. i am at around 8.25 right now according to the game settings.
 
Two questions.

How is the 3D audio implementation on PC? Because that's where I want to play it in 7.1.2 surround sound.

And are there any good mods for it yet? Is modding possible?
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Two questions.

How is the 3D audio implementation on PC? Because that's where I want to play it in 7.1.2 surround sound.
Amazing. best 3d audio in a game to date. Play it on my atmos soundbar and overhead sounds are great. headphones arent as good at capturing all the sounds like my 5.1.4 soundbar.

not sure about modding.
 
Amazing. best 3d audio in a game to date. Play it on my atmos soundbar and overhead sounds are great. headphones arent as good at capturing all the sounds like my 5.1.4 soundbar.

not sure about modding.
Oh wow that's awesome to hear! I may get Ubisoft+ to try this out and buy it later if they release on steam.

I want to blast my 4090 lol.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Oh wow that's awesome to hear! I may get Ubisoft+ to try this out and buy it later if they release on steam.

I want to blast my 4090 lol.
thats what I did. the game itself isnt that great but its a great game to push the fancy graphics cards. worth the $15. Even if you dont like it, i highly recommend playing through the story until you get to the first flying sequence. That whole sequence is legit next gen.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
DF talk about this in this weeks Direct, full console video is soon. Sounds like the console ports are good and have RTGI *and* reflections in both Quality and Performance mode.

Which is pretty damn impressive.

Quality mode is DRS between 1296p and 1800p

Performance: 864p to 1260p.

They praise the FSR implementation as being good, and while it drops frames, it generally stays within the VRR range.

 
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Chuck Berry

Gold Member
They should do an in depth analysis of Bedwetter's Valium intake and dead personality. Someone give that fuck an 8 ball. Inject some life into him for christs sake.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
DF talk about this in this weeks Direct, full console video is soon. Sounds like the console ports are good and have RTGI *and* reflections in both Quality and Performance mode.

Which is pretty damn impressive.

Quality mode is DRS between 1296p and 1800p

Performance: 864p to 1260p.

They praise the FSR implementation as being good, and while it drops frames, it generally stays within the VRR range.


1800p before FSR kicks in? WTF.

That cant be true. The game is using RTGI and reflections on a 10 tflops console.
 
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