Armored Core is a weird game franchise

[Gryphon]

Didn't hear of it until VI. Played VI, very much enjoyed it. Decided to go back and play some of the older games. Heard 3 was a good starting point, and its on PSP which I have an emulator for. Perfect.

Booted up 3, and my god, the controls. The game itself is fine, but looking up and down are, well interesting. I have to remap my entire controller keys just so I can look up and down sort of properly. Once I do that, I'll give the game another chance. But man, the controls are going to need some getting used to.

 

[John_Owl]

Didn't hear of it until VI. Played VI, very much enjoyed it. Decided to go back and play some of the older games. Heard 3 was a good starting point, and its on PSP which I have an emulator for. Perfect.

Booted up 3, and my god, the controls. The game itself is fine, but looking up and down are, well interesting. I have to remap my entire controller keys just so I can look up and down sort of properly. Once I do that, I'll give the game another chance. But man, the controls are going to need some getting used to.

that was me when I went back to the N64 golden eye. the controls we dealt with back then were seriously F'd up compared to others that came just a couple of years later, like Halo, COD, or Medal of Honor. it worked well for the tri-fork controller the N64 had, but trying to play that with a standard xbox controller? hell no.

 

[Gryphon]

that was me when I went back to the N64 golden eye. the controls we dealt with back then were seriously F'd up compared to others that came just a couple of years later, like Halo, COD, or Medal of Honor. it worked well for the tri-fork controller the N64 had, but trying to play that with a standard xbox controller? hell no.

I didn't understand how the claw grip worked until I tried playing AC3 with the default layout. I have no idea how people played that way for so long.

 

[John_Owl]

I didn't understand how the claw grip worked until I tried playing AC3 with the default layout. I have no idea how people played that way for so long.

lol well, I grew up with n64 and snes as the main systems in the house. so i got used to uncomfortable controllers. but I beat golden eye probably 6-7 times, and Turok probably 3 times. those games, you learn or you die. i dabbled with super mario 64, but never really got into it until i got into emulation years later.

 

[APieceOfRock]

I have no idea how people played that way for so long.

We just get used to it. Btw AC6 is an amazing game. Definitely up there with Elden Ring but it might just be my bias toward any Fromsoft game

 

[Mystic_Grasshopper]

The gameplay literally changed several times. It's kind of funny to hear a "veteran" ac player complain about it because other fans admit that the game isn't the same as the original but those changes didn't come with this entry, they've changed slowly at first then completely from four onwards(I don't know for certain just heard through the grapevine). I think five was credited with being more hyper speed or something? Yeah the controls even spawned weirder ways of using the controller than just plain claw grip.

Personally I've only played AC 6 and all it did was remind me how much I loved playing Zone of the enders both 1 and 2, 2 being the more polished and replayable one and got a pc port so that was something.

 

[Sabruness]

The gameplay literally changed several times. It's kind of funny to hear a "veteran" ac player complain about it because other fans admit that the game isn't the same as the original but those changes didn't come with this entry, they've changed slowly at first then completely from four onwards(I don't know for certain just heard through the grapevine). I think five was credited with being more hyper speed or something? Yeah the controls even spawned weirder ways of using the controller than just plain claw grip.

Personally I've only played AC 6 and all it did was remind me how much I loved playing Zone of the enders both 1 and 2, 2 being the more polished and replayable one and got a pc port so that was something.

as someone who played every mainline game (and a large portion of the spin-off/expansion/side games) before VI, yeah it is an odd series because it gets a new (unrelated) continuity reboot every couple of entries (AC3 was the first reboot then AC 4 and then AC V) which means big changes and big differences. the 2 gens ago ones (IV, V and their expansion sequels) really kicked up the speed of gameplay and radically altered the style. i cant say i was particularly a fan of those ones because they felt fairly rough in some of the new stuff.

from what i've heard of VI so far, sounds like the long break while Fromsoft did all the soulslike games did a lot of good which allowed for a refreshed series with some of the most annoying parts of previous games ditched.

 

[Gryphon]

as someone who played every mainline game (and a large portion of the spin-off/expansion/side games) before VI, yeah it is an odd series because it gets a new (unrelated) continuity reboot every couple of entries (AC3 was the first reboot then AC 4 and then AC V) which means big changes and big differences. the 2 gens ago ones (IV, V and their expansion sequels) really kicked up the speed of gameplay and radically altered the style. i cant say i was particularly a fan of those ones because they felt fairly rough in some of the new stuff.

from what i've heard of VI so far, sounds like the long break while Fromsoft did all the soulslike games did a lot of good which allowed for a refreshed series with some of the most annoying parts of previous games ditched.

As a newcomer to the series, now that I've gotten a good controller mapping to the game, I'm really liking AC3 so far. I can barely afford parts because I'm so crap at missions that I only bank like 8k, but weirdly enough I don't hate it. That combined with the slower style makes AC3 feel more like an action strategy mech game than a full on action mech game.

I'd say if I do have any actual complaints, its that I find it frustrating that I can't move forward and turn the camera at the same time. Well, I can, but that's only when I'm using the bumpers, but that's only for moving left and right. Going just straight on forward and trying to look to see where enemies are and obstacles is sort of annoying, but I'll probably be able to work around it as I'm playing.

First impressions, not so bad. Definitely liking it at least. It sort of makes me wonder if this is how people felt like when going to older Monster Hunter games after playing 5th gen first.

 

[HungrySheep]

I've never used a controller for any game before, including games from the Souls series and most recently Nioh 2 as I've just picked it up. That said, I had no idea you could remap buttons on controllers! How does that work?

 

[Lloyd]

Very misleading title.

 

[owotrucked]

POV: You downloaded the wrong version of Armored Core

 

[Gryphon]

I've never used a controller for any game before, including games from the Souls series and most recently Nioh 2 as I've just picked it up. That said, I had no idea you could remap buttons on controllers! How does that work?

Using an emulator, you can change which button does what. For instance, if using B makes your character jump, you can go into the emulator settings and change the button from B to A so now A jumps. Essentially, the same way you remap keys on a keyboard, you can do the same with a controller, you just need an emulator(or a hacked console if you have one) to do so.

 

[Sabruness]

I've never used a controller for any game before, including games from the Souls series and most recently Nioh 2 as I've just picked it up. That said, I had no idea you could remap buttons on controllers! How does that work?

some games have options to remap buttons while current controllers (xbox and possibly PS5 controllers) can be changed with the in-built settings apps on the console (and pc for xbox). at least, that's how it works on xbox. not sure how it works on PS5... might be the same, might be different.