nightcraw1er.488: Right, so been playing this for a couple of hours - done the first three areas. Here is some thoughts:
Its 40gb so a sizable download.
It takes a while to install - quite a while even on fast ssd.
It booted up fine, setup options I would expect and has key setup fine.
It is fast, very fast (or I am old).
It throws you right in there, fast action, lots of enemies, really feels frantic.
I have not encountered any major bugs, texture popping is a problem, as is some frame skipping, probably need patching at some point.
Graphically it is ok, I was suprised it doesn't look far better considering the size and install time. Someone above mentioned sky boxes, TBH if you have enough time to look at the sky your not playing it right! The actual areas are reasonably detailed and nice.
The bad:
The NPC's, I don't know who thought it was necessary to add other characters in, ok Hellfire for Sam to get around, the rest are just stereotypical (and of course there to add diversity which is the buzzword). Its a shame as Sam is nice and simple point gun shoot everything, but this feels a bit like they wanted to include some of Left For Dead. Anyways, you can ignore it mostly.
Sam is not voiced the same as before, sounds different. Also not as funny which is a shame.
Otherwise, I am currently enjoying it. Will play some more over the next few days and put a full reveiw in the game page. Would I buy again, maybe not with the lack of 2 and 3 and the missing patches on TFE and TSE, but mmmm.
Been playing for about 8 hours now and I agree. Having fun with it. I have no idea what the people's main complaints are, but so far, it played without crashes. There are some annoying sound bugs where I had to restart to fix them but that's about it. The most annoying issue are indeed the frame skips, especially in cutscenes (the intro cutscene was horribly choppy) and when a bigger one occurs, it also loses audio for a few seconds before the frames catch up.
As far as gameplay goes, the core (gunplay) is very fun. Playing on Serious and having a blast. The amount of NPCs does feel very weird, especially the side quests. "You know, I'm busy fighting for the survival of Earth but sure, I will go check up on your daughter". "Or you, crazy guy deathly afraid of worms, sure I'll get you worm poison, we have time :)".
The game is very graphically demanding. Either due to poor optimization or something else, but it gives my 1080ti the run for its money. The first game that makes me feel like a 1080ti is not enough.
My biggest gameplay gripe so far are the goddamn laser sights on enemy snipers. Feels like playing with training wheels. Would love an option to disable them.
Not sure if I like Serious Sam 3 or 4 better. I really liked 3, but I will reserve my final verdict until after I've finished 4.
EDIT: Never mind the sound issue I mentioned. Turns out it was due to a bugged NPC that was constantly mumbling to himself even when I was miles away from him, which kept lowering the audio volume for the duration of his voice lines, then went back up to normal volume and this kept repeating indefinitely. So not a general audio bug, but just a looping NPC.