Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (2024)

First game of 2025 and enjoying it. And after seeing the next lineup of NVIDIA cards, I don't even know if I want to upgrade from my 3090ti yet, because this card is still kicking ass.

Max settings , 4k, DLSS Quality enabled, 120fps...

Silent Hill 2 on the other hand was actually quite taxing, so I may end up upgrading to a 5080 over a 5090 for much less. Time will tell very soon.

Hope everyone starts there year off with a fun game!

A game that drops in December and is actually good?

Wow, that beginning adventure just brings me back all the good memories of classic Indy. I realize it completely copies the Raiders opening scene but it manages to follow-up with some fun game play and quite captures a good blend of stealth, combat, and puzzles that channel the spirit of a good Indy adventure.

Sweet jesus, the post game is almost irredeemably broken. Achievements that are bugged, dialogue triggers that keep firing out of context, mysteries that seem bugged. The worst is Gina won't stop screaming "Oh God!" and "That was too close", two bits of dialogue from one of the final missions in the game. Everywhere I travel with her she just yells both bits of dialogue repeatedly without end. I've tried quitting and reloading the game, to no avail. This is layered on top of the already four or five lines of dialoged that Jones repeats out of context. It's actually annoying enough that I've considered dropping my overall score because I'm not sure I want to close out unfinished business when this is happening. It really feels like they didn't pass the final chapters and post game through enough of a QA process.

Look, this is a very fun game in many ways, and I had a great time with it. But it's not without it's share of problems, including some very basic game design that isn't particularly groundbreaking, and numerous end game bugs. It's amazing that people are calling this the game that will save Xbox, when really it's just a perfectly fine game. Says a lot about previous Xbox exclusives, I guess. And on that note, it's kind of amusing that when this drops on PS5 the PS5 Pro will be able to handle RT in ways the Xbox can't which means the definitive console edition will be for PS5. What a weird world of console competition we currently inhabit.

Although it’s not necessary to enjoy the game, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle’s implementation of ray tracing really goes a long way to illustrate the positive ways in which ray traced shadows, reflections and illumination can go a long way to improve in-game verisimilitude compared to things like screen space reflections or cube maps for reflections and shadows. Although this game isn’t the most advanced implementation of full ray tracing, it’s is one with some really gorgeous spaces that take obvious advantage of it.

Digital Foundry’s analysis’s of the December 9th full RT patch for The Great Circle inadvertently works as a great primer for people who still wonder if ray tracing is a gimmick, or if it is actually a worthwhile contribution to game design. The first half of the video really does a wonderful job illustrating what full RT has to offer and providing side-by-side comparisons to really show off the ways in which full RT really makes a space feel real.

Gave it a couple hours since it was Game Pass anyways. Not my thing. The intro being a playable recreation of the bag-swap, rolling ball scene was cool, but from there, I really just don't like stealth games. Lots of crawling around, checking to see where the enemies are to sneak up on them. Unless I missed some other drastically different way to play, this seemed to be the intention, which I wasn't really expecting going into it.

I've also never seen the movies, despite being an age I probably definitely should have by now, so maybe I'm missing some extra draw there.

Past that, the controls felt kind of clunky too. Trying to maneuver in tight spaces to find clues and just look around, ending up stepping up and down, or getting blocked by random bits of decoration. Just didn't feel great. Didn't help me want to try to stick it out to see if I was missing some more interesting or fun gameplay hook.

Maybe I didn't give it enough time, but not feeling it, moving on. I hope others find more enjoyment in it.

Lots of fun dialogue triggering bugs in the final chapter now that Gina is following me around everywhere in Sukhothai.

• Even though I’m wearing a disguise Gina warns me that enemies will see me.
• Even if Gina joins me on a mission she acts like I was gone and left her at the boat. Multiple different lines of dialogue play out indicating all the things she did while she was waiting for you, despite the fact that she was with you the whole time.
• If you wear a disguise enemies ignore you and Gina as if she is somehow invisible.
• Gina continues to spend a lot of time pointing out things you’ve already done, suggesting tips on how to do the thing you’ve already done.
• The game makes you wait for Ginato point out the solution for certain puzzles before granting you an interaction prompt. In one of the temples I found a lever but couldn’t interact with it. Only after Gina pointed it out did the X icon appear over the lever.

I have seen a lot of reviewers say that Troy Baker's rendition of Harrison Ford is amazing... But I kinda completely disagree. He gets the voice right, but his delivery totally sucks. It sounds like he's on downers and completely lacks the charisma and sarcastic enthusiasm of Ford's performance.

It's actually quite grating and drags the game down a bit in my opinion... I'm just glad he doesn't talk much.