First look at Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

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Not sure yet if I'll give this game a try or not - a lot of it seems really compelling, but there's some other stylistic decisions that feel like they would clash a bit with what I want out of this kind of experience.

Well, that, and it'd need to support GNU/Linux :D - though I've usually had luck with that, there's only a small handful of games I haven't gotten to work under Fedora. Thankfully that has improved a lot in the last few years and it's pretty rare to come across situations where a game doesn't work at all.

Anyway, guess we'll see how all this ends up feeling. It does feel like there's some missed oppurtunities to make a game that is less formulaic in terms of the entire experience - this kind of world and immersion appeal just doesn't need the kind of combat-focused gameplay loops that are otherwise common in the genre. I wrote a little bit on this subject recently:

https://ivarhill.com/meaningful-experiences/

It does seem like this game is sticking quite close to the "Explore an open world mainly through combat" approach which is a bit unfortunate. The overall premise also reinforces that - I'd have liked much more to keep a solely Na'vi approach and emphasize exploration and discovery far more than combat mechanics, but oh well - maybe it can end up feeling interesting regardless!

I'm in two hearts. I'd much prefer not to go down the combat route, and focus instead on the message and spirit of the Avatar universe, ideally through guiding a character (and the character guiding the player - there should be a message to be learned) through cultural and spiritual learning, decisions and dilemmas, and also take it as an opportunity in canon world building. To me the movies have always been primarily about the culture - both spiritual and material - of the Na'vi clans. That's the conveyor of the teachings of the story, and the beauty, inspiration and hopefulness that matters. The combat has always played a minor or no real draw for me (other than perhaps cathartic satisfaction for me of imagining the forces of nature raining down that hell on Forestry Corporation back here on Earth... I really, really don't like FCNSW)

However, it is beuatiful and they have made some effort to expand the cultures of the universe, so I have put in my order. But yeah I do wish they ha been braver in doing off beaten path a bit. The movies did well despite being different to the usual formula, so Ubisoft really could have taken the risk.

I did read your blog post on this, and yep... I get that. Also, yay Disco Elysium - my partner loves that game :)

I really hope my old laptop (GTX 1070) can handle this. I'd have to buy aa whole new PC because upgrading laptop GPUs is.....horribly complicated at best.

Yep I must admit this is something I love about desktops - so easy to upgrade and you can just pick and choose the bits that matter to you - my laptop is an ancient Thinkpad X230 - it's bascially my word processor I can use in the garden or the woods or anywhere I want some peace, quiet and inspiration :) Thankfully the batter is user replaceable as the original died years ago... and I did swap out the old mechanical drive for an SSD, but otherwise perfectly happy with it to jot my thoughts and work on my novel :)
 
We are just 30 days away from release! Luckily, from what it appears based on the gameplay impressions shown last week -- the game seems to do the 'Pandora Immersion' side of things quite well and also looks like it's a larger focus than the combat (which also looks on point).

Info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/17jwut2/avatar_frontiers_of_pandora_handson_and/
There is a lot more footage available now if you look into it on YouTube and Google News!
 
We are just 30 days away from release! Luckily, from what it appears based on the gameplay impressions shown last week -- the game seems to do the 'Pandora Immersion' side of things quite well and also looks like it's a larger focus than the combat (which also looks on point).

Info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/17jwut2/avatar_frontiers_of_pandora_handson_and/
There is a lot more footage available now if you look into it on YouTube and Google News!
No way! I totally missed that it's being released so soon!!
 

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Yeah those min sys requirements are pretty demanding. My CPU doesn't cut it. It seems they have full on raytrace as the only lighting option. Obvs nice to have for those with the CPU and GPU grunt to handle it but it shouldn't be the only option in town :(
 
I agree it's not handy for those that don't have the required hardware.

On the other hand, I am somewhat surprised that the minimum required video card is one that is already 7 years old. And its Avatar, people, were we honestly expecting anything else than the most advanced graphics for the era? I think, apart from compatibility, they also have to cut-off the support somewhere where the video card can still do the game justice, and not make it look just like the 2009 game. :)
 
Yeah those min sys requirements are pretty demanding. My CPU doesn't cut it. It seems they have full on raytrace as the only lighting option. Obvs nice to have for those with the CPU and GPU grunt to handle it but it shouldn't be the only option in town :(
I am pretty confident that LowSpecGamer will release a guide on how disable raytracing and make it playable, or someone else since he changed his videos' style...
 
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I am pretty confident that LowSpecGamer will release a guide on how disable raytracing and make it playable, or someone else since he changed his videos' style...

Oh, can you drop me a linkey to their site? Do want to get the game but I'm not going to rip out my motherboard for it unless it turns out to be absolutely epic.
 
The game is only 10 days away now! Super close. @Eltu, what do you think based on the gameplay shown so far?

This is a great video that shows one section of the world:
And this seems like the latest credible news video on the subject:
 
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