Farcry 3

[kiwi_2005]

“So here’s what you need to know,” he tells us. “You are Jason Brody. Your girlfriend’s missing, your boat’s been destroyed, and you’re on a mysterious island hiding a dark secret, and where everyone on it, is insane.”

AusGamers caught a very early glimpse at Far Cry 3 at this year's E3. Read on for full impressions...

http://www.ausgamers.com/features/read/3068455


I never played FC2 but ain't it in some desert? Farcry was a good game fighting on an island & now with FC3 we are going back there!

[Hottentot]

Originally Posted by kiwi_2005

I never played FC2 but ain't it in some desert?

Not exactly. It's represents a generic African country, which has dense jungles, savannah, large bodies of water, rivers and other kinds of places (yes, including desert). The terrain is in many places much like in FC1, but generally far more variable. One of the best game worlds I remember when it comes to just scenery and originality.

[kiwi_2005]

Originally Posted by Hottentot

Not exactly. It's represents a generic African country, which has dense jungles, savannah, large bodies of water, rivers and other kinds of places (yes, including desert). The terrain is in many places much like in FC1, but generally far more variable. One of the best game worlds I remember when it comes to just scenery and originality.

Ok and its a sandbox game free to go anywhere do your own thing, 50 square km, and factions to choose!. When FC2 came out I never bothered to look into it as I was running a pc that would not be able to run it anyways. Always thought it was just another desert shooter.

Just brought it off Trademe auction site over here.

[Spike88]

The Farcry 3 trailer was rather impressive if I say so myself.

[Hottentot]

its a sandbox game free to go anywhere do your own thing

Pretty much. There are the faction missions that are required to advance in plot, but then there are some side quests. Helping the arms merchants, for example, will make them sell you more weapons. In the beginning they will sell you only some crappy pistols and an assault rifle, but as you help them, there will eventually be rocket launchers, sniper rifles and even a mortar. The arsenal of the game is rather impressive and you can get approximately half of it before even doing any of the faction missions.

On the other hand, you can only carry four weapons at a time and there is this semi-realistic system that has put them in different categories. So for example, you can only have one weapon from the "pistol" category, one weapon from the "special" category and so on. It wouldn't be so bad, if it didn't limit your choices. For example, if I remember correctly, my sneaking tactics were made considerably more difficult when I had to make a choice between either silenced dart rifle to pick off guards from the distance or a remote controlled explosive to blow everything up once I'm done: both were lumped into the "special" category.

The other downside is that the arms merchants always give you the same kind of mission: go to the other side of the freaking map and blow up a convoy of their rival. It doesn't matter to which merchant you do the missions, the new weapons will be unlocked in every shop after that. But the missions are very repetitive and always, always a long distance away. So it's usually a smart thing to pick up a convoy ambush mission when you have another mission in the same area and you are going there anyway.

Other side missions include assassinations in which you can use creativity as much as you like: the target is usually guarded, but not holed up in the last room of some bunker complex like in many others games. They are pretty fun. Then you have friends that also give you missions, but these are pretty much useless, unless you really just want to shoot something up and need a mission for that. I never did many of those. Oh, and then you will suffer from malaria and are every now and then forced to do a stupid "go to this place here, kill a handful of bad guys and get pills to cure yourself" mission. They are annoying.

In the faction missions you usually have two ways of doing things: the short way and the long way. After accepting a mission, your buddy (whoever it is, it seems to be random) calls you and asks you to meet him/her. Then you will be given a choice of doing some additional task for him/her, which in turn will make the mission itself a little easier somehow. For example, if you are supposed to kill someone, your friend can lure the target to some completely other place, in which killing him/her is supposedly easier than in the original location.

And otherwise you are free to go where ever you like and do things in any order you like. But there isn't much to do in the game besides the missions.

50 square km

I've never measured it, but I think that's what the advertisements say. The world is large, though. The only form of instant fast travel is using a bus, which will take you from the center of the map's bus central to each corner of the map, if I remember correctly. Otherwise you will find yourself walking, swimming or driving a boat or a car. A lot. So much in fact that it can get tedious.

Driving can be especially difficult, since the roads are full of armed road blocks that will shoot you on sight and even if you kill everyone in them, they will respawn very soon. I usually try to drive past them and if that doesn't work, then sneak and find a new car somewhere else. You will occasionally find them driving around and they too will shoot you on sight, so feel free to ambush them.

The map is divided into two parts. You can't move between them and will get to the second part after doing certain amount of the plot missions. The first part is mostly savannah, hills and some desert with forests thrown in for good measure. The second, on the other hand, is much more lush and tropical and it has this huge lake in the middle of it. Personally I prefer the first part, as it's more variable than the second one, but both are good.

and factions to choose!

There are two, but you will eventually end up working for them both. I don't know who made this retarded choice when developing the game, but that's how it is. When you have done certain amount of missions to the first faction, there will simply be no more and you are forced to go help the other faction, which you have so far been killing mercilessly in the previous missions.

Just brought it off Trademe auction site over here.

All the above being said, I'd still say you made a good choice, especially if it was cheap. Far Cry 2 is a very good shooter, and I'm not usually fond of the genre. Many things could have been done better and it has a lot of wasted potential by not really allowing modding, but it's still a good and impressive game in its own right. It can get repetitive and it can get annoying, but it also has some of the most memorable moments I remember from any game. I have especially enjoyed playing as a dedicated sniper and utilizing the long distances the game offers you, or then sneaking in the night with a silenced weapons and a remote controlled explosives that I have planted in creative places and enjoyed the fire works. On the other hand, as a straight "guns blazing and kill them all" shooter it's mostly mediocre. The fun is what you make it, I guess.

Sheesh, never meant to write a wall of text. Sorry everyone!

[kiwi_2005]

Thanks for the info Hottentot.

[SgtPotato]

Did I give you the definition of insanity?

[NeonSamurai]

Insert obligatory Yahtzee review here

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide.../510-Far-Cry-2


Far Cry 2 had a lot of potential, but the mind numbingly tedious and cookie cutter-esque missions really dragged the game down. Otherwise it was beautiful to look at, and very immersive.