Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

Just bought this hung over this afternoon.

Couldn’t believe when at the ‘ready to start’ but on the Xbox download that it actually was! 25% downloaded! That’s never happened before so I was already happy.

Graphics are great, weapons are chunky, and as the Gameranx review mentions, it feels like a video game. So many games now don’t have that!

I don’t know how much grinding I’m supposed to do with replaying missions yet, upgrades seem pretty expensive (seem to be affording one or two per mission at the moment) and I don’t know how many missions there will be.

Loving the ‘linear rifle’ rail fun thing so far. The charge attack is extremely satisfying.

Yeah for me this fills a bit of an Ace Combat type hole, and those are probably my favourite games ever.

End of chapter 3 is some supremely cool shit.

wunty It's great. I've had an enforced break from gaming for a couple of weeks but I'm itching to get back to it. Never played an AC game before either. Biggest thing for me was to not focus on one specific build - every level and certainly every boss will have an optimal build (although it will depend on your preferred playstyle - fast, tank etc). But the game is very forgiving and pushes you in that direction anyway.

Replaying missions is essential, and there are secrets to find.

It’s really just an action game. Explore all the training and stuff (which is drip fed) but it’s not a sim and isn’t hard to learn. You just have to get used to the movement, how to be defensive when needed and stuff like that. The main fun is the Mechano/Lego side of it swapping different legs and pew pew and then trying it out. You can clearly see the stats difference of stuff and it isn’t like a Forza or other car sim where you are then tweaking individual parts, it’s relatively intuitive. In missions, watching power levels is a bit of thing for the thrusters.

Big tip is if mobbed use the rocket skates instead of walking. Keep moving.

I’ve had missions that took me a while and missions that took me two minutes. I guess in a way that might even be a bit like the last Metal Gear.

It can be hard although when there are checkpoints they are generally fair.

I found the initial weapons a bit rubbish, especially that peashooter rifle, but as you get more options it really rapidly expands and there are loads of guns (and gun-adjacent things) which are great fun to use. The different leg types do feel very different too so try them all, first in training and then fiddling about in Assembly mode.

Also the first run through is by far the hardest. Once I beat Chapter 2 things got much easier as I found my favourite weapon combinations and build: I really like hovering about with tetrapod legs and there are a bunch of places in the game where being able to do that either saved me time or let me avoid fire. Floating under bridges is great cover!

Edit: Oh, also - very important: manual reloading is done by holding Y/Triangle and pulling the trigger of the weapon you want to reload. That first rifle is just as annoying because of its magazine capacity as because of its low power.

I played more and finished Chapter 1 today. It’s the first time in a long time I’ve got this addicted by just the moment to moment play of something and not in just wondering what will come next - and I mean like unhealthy addiction, think I played about four hours tonight.

It’s f*cking ace.

There was even a bit in it!

Am parrot sitting away for a few days so unless I can be bothered taking the Xbox I won’t have much more time this week 🥹

Yikes, this is... Fast. More than a little bit overwhelming as well, but I like what I've played so far. Did the first mission (although the first boss took me a couple of tries!) and looking forward to getting stuck in properly. This and MK1 arrived on the same day so have two bloody amazing games to jump between. I'm actually quite stoked about fucking about with my mech.

I now hate this game.



Looks like I may be on for my 15th year of never completing a From Software game!

Nice one, @drakesmoke !

Too many games on the go so just dipping in and out of this. Subsequently I still don't know if it's really for me or not, but I'm enjoying what I've played so far. Just did the huge Strider mission and to say it was epic was an understatement. How fucking big is that thing!

Wasn't too hard though. Hardest thing was me falling off the thing too many times.

It'll probably be once I start being able to fuck about with my mech more. Don't feel as though I can buy much yet.

It's certainly great though, if threatening to become a little too hectic at times!

AC6 is on sale at Amazon for £29.99 at the moment, cheapest I've seen it

Deal: Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon Launch Edition (PS5) amzn.eu/d/1Me5CZU

This has been my mainline game for the week, supplanting Avatarts. It’s fucking great.

The two difficulty spikes that have me kicking doors down and punching walls are all down to my inability to execute a plan rather than the game being a dick. Really enjoying it. Really surprised at how much. Took a few hours to click, but now I’m doing shit that would’ve seemed impossible even a month ago with my load out and how I can be reloading this and switching that whilst simultaneously avoiding incoming fire and not falling to my death. Great stuff. Highly recommended if stompy robots are your thing.