Armored Core 4 vs. For Answer: Which one rocks your boat?

[13th Knight]

Okay! I've read the reviews based on Armored Core 4 and Armored Core for Answer. Personally, I say those reviews from the game sites fucking suck if they've never played Armored Core before. The series was NEVER about the level detail, and was more about the ability to take a series of parts and make it into your own kickass fighting machine built to obliterate armies.

 

Armored Core 4: This plays more like an Armored Core game to me than the ACfA. For example, your energy is actually severely limited by the standards, as Quickboosting is useful, but drains energy faster depending on the regs and the generator you are using. Also, there are HUMANS here. Actual people! Like Last Raven. The game also throws at you some of the craziest environmental missions i've seen yet. in Last raven, you had places you couldn't go unless you had night vision or biological targeting. In AC4, you have to rely on your targets' lockboxes to find them, especially in A Dark Knight's March. The unmanned weapons are replicated too with the Swarms of Red Eyes mission. The game isn't obscenely fast, and I think it fits better in the AC universe. The story is actually fleshed out better here too in my opinion, thanks to Emil's narration. Also, the graphics for the cutscenes look better to me.

 

Armored Core For Answer: Bleh....too fast in my opinion at some points. the levels don't really have as much detail as AC4, and I do know why that is. But in AC4, you at least saw hangar areas, people running around screaming, and it felt like an old Armored Core. This feels a bit souped up for people who dislike AC's normal charms. You can make a GAME BREAKING design fly at over 3000kph in permanent OB. Also, the end missions are kind of lame. So what? 2vs.2 in NEXTs. Boring. 1 vs. 2 in NEXTs. Boring still, because you can Kojima them to death. 1 vs.4 mechs? FUCKING EASY. Switch to 1.00 regs and blast away using Salines. I still LOVE the designs. But a lot of the places are empty. Has the Earth really turned to nothing but sand in such a short amount of time? Or do you go into desert places more often? Anyway, the Arms Forts are KINDA entertaining. The smaller mobile units were a lot harder in AC4 because they could move. The Arms Forts are GIGANTIC! but lack the punch that comes with destroying or battling such an abusive target. I like White Glint's parts now, I like a lot of the new stuff. But seriously, I'd rather have AC4's mechanics.

 

That's all for me. What's your take?

[Rogan]

Ideally I would take ACFA parts with AC4 mechanics. Since I can't have that I play FA just because its where I started to play online.

[Mom]

You dislike ACFA because of its speed and alienation of armored core. You will fit in perfect here.

[Harakiri Tiger]

You dislike ACFA because of its speed and alienation of armored core. You will fit in perfect here.

 

Hahahaha, TM.

 

=3

 

Not saying that he's wrong, tho. A lot of people around here feel that fA has alienated AC a good bit. AC4 is quite a bit out there as well when compared to older AC games. I wouldn't say either 4 or fA rock my boat, though. I'm one of the few people around here who doesn't really mind fA, but that's only because it feels like a sped up version of 4 to me. Everything is still very linear and playstyles are very linear online. I don't really like either one, but I don't dislike them either.

 

Single player, though, I don't know. I definitely preferred the lighting that was in AC4 as well as the part textures. I'd say they both had good attempts at single player as far as AC games are concerned. If FROM SOFTWARE would simply build off their previous single player experiences and create a more detailed game with good missions they'd be fine, but they don't. Pretty bizarre that they're so reluctant to rehash mission gameplay but they'll rehash the story and game itself endlessly. Or maybe they do rehash missions, but never like to rework them? I don't know. I rarely ever play single player AC. I got into the series back in AC2:AA through PvP, haha.

 

I suppose if I had to pick, I would say AC4 was more entertaining than ACfA.

[Exorcet]

[13th Knight]

AC4, in that paragraph set you gave us, Gary, sounds more to me like Armored Core Last Raven and previous games, where you actually had to think, and fighting was about being smart. Not reflexes.

 

I don't hate AC:fA to kingdom come, but AC4's gameplay and mission environment variety is just so much better to me than fA's barren wastelands. It's basically nothingness you fight in. And he was spot on about the Arms Forts: MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF SUCK that are just annoying to kill.

[megaboy332]

I don't understand how to not like FA IT RULES!

[Falco]

I dislike FA cuz they went overboard with QB and netcode is really balls.

 

I also dislike people who say FA rules when they don't give any points as to why it rules.

[Bakuhatsu Pengin]

FA isnt all that bad. theres tons of room for gimmicky shit and gameplay that isnt serious at all

[Mom]

FA isnt all that bad. theres tons of room for gimmicky shit and gameplay that isnt serious at all

 

That's bad.

[Diablito]

Alright then. I dare you to find someone else who likes AC4 AND FA.

I like both, but not EVERYTHING about either. And I sometimes wonder if I honestly prefer one over the other. I'll explain...

 

Armored Core 4:

-The next gen game I wanted to play more than anything else. Didn't buy it for a while cuz I didn't own a PS3 then but when I did finally get it, there was still a sizeable number of people playing so the online was fun.

-To me, what AC4 had over FA was the story, which seemed alot more engaging to me than the latter's story. To be more clear; your characters actions in AC4 seemed to be alot more significant, especially given the more challenging game mechanics and what was going on in the story in general. Kind of ironic that I collapsed RayLeonard when I was such a big customer of theirs hah!

-The gameplay was too similar to FA to really make any worthwhile comparisons but I agree that the lack of infinite flight, etc. seemed to make AC4 more challenging compared to ACFA: I took my lumps coming up in AC4 and then when ACFA came out, I almost breezed through it easily due to the easier energy mechanics.

 

Armored Core For Answer:

-Same fun online as AC4 at first, then when the lag became more apparent the fun slowly dissipated.

-Now what ACFA lacked in story compared to AC4 it made up for it in scale of enemies (the arms forts, though they turned out to be big pushovers more than anything) and one very important detail: co-op missions. Seriously, that made a big world of difference, especially during the heyday of FA's online portion when you could always find a few competitive matches and partnerships going at almost all hours of the day. I know alot of people take it for granted but to me, the only thing more fun than stomping obscene amounts of ass in a big mech is to do so with a friend and I did that alot before the online mode died off.

-The infinite flight mechanic kind of seemed cool at first but after a while it got old. Even the assault armor feature didn't get used by me as much as I would've liked due to being so used to simply rolling with a pure-OB booster.

 

These days I only own and play ACFA but I'm beginning to consider tracking down AC4 just to run through the story again. Thats my 2 cents.

Edited October 3, 2010 by Diablito

[Falco]

Why did Co-op make a difference there's barely any people in coop, also 2 players is overkill for the difficulty of ACFA missions

[Diablito]

Why did Co-op make a difference there's barely any people in coop, also 2 players is overkill for the difficulty of ACFA missions

Like I said "...before the online died off" since back when it first came out, there was actually quite a bit of people doing co-op. Of course theres no one these days but I still remember how fun it was.

 

I mean personally, I dunno about you guys but I really enjoy playing through campaigns with friends/other players and I usually (always with friends) have a blast while doing so. Thats why on those rare moments when I pop Lost Planet 2 back in, I usually go into the online campaign mode because I'd much rather play co-op rather than versus. It doesn't matter whether the difficulty required it or not, it's just fun being able to play games co-op with your buddies when you can!