I won't comment on Gears because I love that series but I'll comment on Uncharted 4. I had my Bose speakers blasting yesterday when my wife came home from work. She thought i was having a war! So many explosions and the gunfire was so crisp!

I haven't had the speakers long. Can't wait to fire up a racing game!

The winch is incredible lol

Agree.

I think it feels great and overall it is very enjoyable, the Puzzles are indeed not the most challenging ever, but i LIKE that, i found them more enterteining than challenging so im fine with them, i rather have Puzzles like this than like some of the ones i did in Tales of Graces F, which were so crazy hard it got boring to keep trying to solve them.

yeah, its amazing how something so simple was so fun to use XD

The gunfights are crazy good in UC4 but up until now they are too few and too far between (I'm at Chapter 13) which brings me to another point the climbing/platforming drag on for too long and since they don't provide any challenge it hurts the game's pacing.

I guess Uncharted 4 is the product of going for the widest audience, which is not a bad thing. There are things to love for every one while it's all tied together in an amazing package. I personally do enjoy all the climbing and platforming, great way to explore the verticality of the levels. While the gun fights are good, I keep climbing around and my most used kill is pulling them off ledges.

I would prefer harder puzzles yet they do indeed keep the pace going. You're always pointed in the right direction, never have to backtrack and the journal writes it all down for you, even to the point you solve the puzzle in the journal in Madagascar.

What the game 'lacks' is any form of frustration, polished away no doubt by extensive play testing. Even if stealth is a bit clumsy now and then (pulling up on the wrong ledge by accident) all you need to do is jump off the nearest cliff to reset to your last kill.

It's quite a contrast to the other game I'm playing atm, The way, a cinematic 2D platformer inspired by Another world. Fighting the controls, countless deaths, large puzzles with a lot of back tracking, far apart checkpoints, unforgiving jumps, requires quick gun reflexes. The 2 games actually compliment each other quite nicely.

The game-play as always is the best thing about it. Most people don't even know what game-play is which is their problem. Game-play is what you do in games and that's it. Different genres have different a standard and style of game-play. Uncharted has great third person shooting, aiming, melee and a variety of angles and positions to shoot from. It blends stealth, melee, climbing, running and gunning and jumping perfectly like no game next to it. Then you had the traversal game-play with climbing, platforming and vehicles and add puzzles and you have A-rated game-play easily. There is always room for improvement and ND has improved with each entry.

I heard it picks up in the second half, I'm only at chapter 10 myself and loving every moment of it. Even the climbing is great when the view is so spectacular!

I'm also replaying the three first ones (got the TLoU + Nathan Drake Collection bundle), UC4 really is another level in nearly every aspect. I think quite a few are disappoined due to the slower pace and fewer action sequences in UC4, but I found it refreshing as the frenetic pace of UC3 made it ineffective after a while, the wow factor diminshes when you overuse the same tools and set-up's through the game. That cruise ship escape was something else though...

I'm definitely a fan of good pacing and you're right.  If it's always "dialed up to 10" we become numb to it.  I always like it when a game knows how to ramp things up, give you a "Holy shit, that was cool" moment, and then dial things down.  The quiet moments are what make the big moments stand out.  That's what made Gears of War Judgment suck while Gears 1-3 were awesome.  The pacing.

Pacing is very important to me as well and I find it's difficult to get it just right. Two games that managed that perfectly for me are Resident Evil 4 and Uncharted 2.