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[eso76]

Also, play with the music off. Seriously. The ambiance is amazing.

damn right.
You know what ? This is the first time in years i'm genuinely annoyed by the original soundtrack, and it didn't occur to me i could turn it off.
It's just bad, instruments sound synthesized and it plays randomly; i realize it's hard to implement a soundtrack in sandbox games (unless it doesn't try to relate to what's happening onscreen and comes from sources placed in the gaming area, like tv's and radios) but this is exactly why they shouldn't have bothered with it, plus it covers the ambience which, for once, sounds accurate.

 

[Awntawn]

I'm playing in fullscreen and I wish it was cropped. Especially when aiming with the pistol, those uglyass long arms were not made to be seen.

 

[TTG]

I mean your already driving alotta the time as it is with no engagements...

Anyone else walking most of the time? Unless I'm heading back to town or really have to cover a lot of ground I'm usually walking. For one, you're always sneaking up on guard posts or choosing where you want to approach a mission from and second it makes for some interesting exploration. There's all kinds of short cuts you can walk(or drive through) there are rivers and lakes you can take the little boat through or just nice vistas. What would be interesting is if most of this stuff wasn't on the map and you had Assassin's Creed system of getting to high ground and uncovering portions of the whole thing.

Maybe even a hunting element. Imagine a Far Cry's take on the hunting scene form No Country for Old Men, all of the elements are basically already in the game.

Anyway, I have a couple of questions.

1. What do I do with the "buddy" after he/she rescues me? I guess I took too high a fall after sniping a couple of guys from the nearby guard post. Looked reasonable for a videogame fall, but whatever. :lol So the girl comes to my rescue, and gets herself shot shortly there after. Now, she's not dead, but she's on one knee gasping for air. There wasn't an option to heal her that I could see, so I just left her and went on my way. Checked back in the menu 5 minutes after and she was dead... :/

2. Does doing a mission for one faction automatically mean you're enemies with the other? I took the first mission from the faction you're introduced to after the first one and now there are no more missions for the other one, I'm guessing that's temporary... but if it's not I'd rather not get too far ahead if I have to load an old save.

 

[TTG]

damn right.
You know what ? This is the first time in years i'm genuinely annoyed by the original soundtrack, and it didn't occur to me i could turn it off.
It's just bad, instruments sound synthesized and it plays randomly; i realize it's hard to implement a soundtrack in sandbox games (unless it doesn't try to relate to what's happening onscreen and comes from sources placed in the gaming area, like tv's and radios) but this is exactly why they shouldn't have bothered with it, plus it covers the ambience which, for once, sounds accurate.

It's pretty simple from what I can tell. As soon as you shoot, crouch or go to the "iron sights" the music picks up and it dies back down after the action is over. Pretty standard stuff for a open world game. I'm guessing there's also specific tracks triggered when you walk into a specific mission.

 

[DOBERMAN INC]

Damn you guys, I have changed my mind about buying this game so many times reading this thread.

Can I download from Steam(UK) yet? Or any other digital downloader.

It's this or Fable for me.

 

[chespace]

I change my mind about this game because:

1). I'm chronicling the evolution of how my opinion is forming on this game as I play.

2). Right now, FC2 is on the up and up. I'm even warming up to the graphical style.

3). It's possible I could eventually get sick of the game. I love STALKER to death but I can imagine myself never actually getting to the end.

4). The soundtrack is annoying. I turned that shit off tonight and the game is much better and more intense.

5). There's really nothing wrong with the gunplay. I've just stopped expecting realism. And like others have said, it feels very STALKER-esque... ironsights isn't super accurate and it takes a few more hits than it should to take someone down. Plus, enemies have unlimited bullets and deadly aim -- just like STALKER. And also, you have lots of health, like you do in STALKER.

6). And yes, I welcome encounters because it's fun and intense.

 

[dk_]

No offense, che. ;-)

5). There's really nothing wrong with the gunplay. I've just stopped expecting realism. And like others have said, it feels very STALKER-esque... ironsights isn't super accurate and it takes a few more hits than it should to take someone down. Plus, enemies have unlimited bullets and deadly aim -- just like STALKER. And also, you have lots of health, like you do in STALKER.

Haven't played the game yet, but I think the enemies can take more bullets than in realistic games because the player is ought to use the environment (fire, oil tanks, etc) more frequently. Maybe it's a design decision in order to force the player to do so.

 

[Awntawn]

5). There's really nothing wrong with the gunplay. I've just stopped expecting realism. And like others have said, it feels very STALKER-esque... ironsights isn't super accurate and it takes a few more hits than it should to take someone down. Plus, enemies have unlimited bullets and deadly aim -- just like STALKER. And also, you have lots of health, like you do in STALKER.

I don't know why, but the gunplay reminds me a lot of Uncharted. Perhaps it's the blood effects or the enemy models.

 

[BobFromPikeCreek]

So are we back to liking this game, or do we still hate it? I can't keep up with this rollercoaster.

 

[tahrikmili]

Screw you GAF.. Make up your goddamn mind. Now I have to buy it for PC

Spoiler

again..

 

[Lince]

so the general consensus FC2 is a poor man's STALKER set in empty African plains? a solid rental now.

 

[eXistor]

so the general consensus FC2 is a poor man's STALKER set in empty African plains? a solid rental now.

Kind of, Far Cry 2 can't really make up its mind if it wants to be an exploration game or shooter.

I've been playing it a bit more and I'm still firmly in the "like a lot" camp. With all the awesome games coming out right now, FC2 shouldn't be your priority, but you could do a whole lot worse.

Personally I like Far Cry's Africa, even if it is completely devoid of wildlife. The best part of the game for me if walking/driving around hunting for diamonds. The shooting parts are a necessary evil for me. It's not bad, but just okay.

I wish the diamond hunting was a bit more elaborate though. They're always in the same briefcase. It would be cool if they were really hidden in all sorts of things, under dirt, in bags, barrels, whatever.

But then I want the game to be something it's not. If it were up to me, all you did was go around looking for diamonds with various tools, but I might be the only one on that

You definitely have to go into the game not expecting a pure shooter. I expected a standard, but pretty shooter and was pleasantly surprised.

 

[Ledsen]

so the general consensus FC2 is a poor man's STALKER set in empty African plains? a solid rental now.

Err, in no way, no. Some people are exaggerating, and others have only played for a short while. To really "get" this game, IMO (and hear me out here, not trying to be elitist) you have to play for several hours to get into the right mindset, or at least some people do. As you can see in this thread, many people are flip-floping after playing more, they hate it and then they start loving it. The game deserves every 90+ grade it's gotten according to me, and it's one of the best games I've played this year. Obivously there will be genuine haters and the game certainly isn't for everyone, but what I'm saying is that many complaints come as a gut reaction to the first couple of hours, when the game hasn't even started yet. Then you get new guns, start buying upgrades, the world opens up completely and you start seeing that it isn't as repetitive as you first thought and that you don't have to empty a whole clip to gun down one guy anymore. The game could've benefited a lot from a better pacing at the start, and giving the player a taste of the possibilities that open up later in the game. Sadly many people take the "if it's not awesome after 2 hours, it's not worth it" approach, and Far Cry 2 really doesn't work like that. This also shows in the review scores, since reviewers are forced to play the whole game instead of giving up in the beginning. Sad, really

 

[Nikorasu]

Personally I like Far Cry's Africa, even if it is completely devoid of wildlife.

I've actually been seeing a lot more animals lately. Packs of zebra and bison, antelope, chickens, etc.

An antelope actually jumped out of a bush right in front of my SUV. I kind of felt bad after that.

You just gotta look in the right places I guess. You tend not to see many in the central jungles.

 

[Oreoleo]

Surprised people are hating on the soundtrack now. I think it's one of the more under-appreciated things about the game.

 

[Waikis]

I've been enjoying the game for the past few hours. Graphically it looks like a cartoony crysis.

 

[Lince]

so as I said I just got the PC version rented for the weekend (surprise there were no PS3 copies available for renting but some 360 and PC)

quick bench with old 178 drivers, 1360x768 dx9 everything set to the highest value available.

Settings: Demo(Ranch Small), 1360x768 (60Hz), D3D9, Fixed Time Step(No), Disable Artificial Intelligence(No), Full Screen, Anti-Aliasing(2x), VSync(No), Overall Quality(Ultra High), Vegetation(Very High), Shading(Ultra High), Terrain(Ultra High), Geometry(Ultra High), Post FX(High), Texture(Ultra High), Shadow(Ultra High), Ambient(High), Hdr(Yes), Bloom(Yes), Fire(Very High), Physics(Very High), RealTrees(Very High)

* Total Frames: 2314, Total Time: 51,01s
* Average Framerate: 45,36
* Max. Framerate: 69,29 (Frame:345, 6,45s)
* Min. Framerate: 38,95 (Frame:1609, 34,42s)

this with a stock Q6600 coupled with a stock 9800GTX+
I guess since the average is 45fps I'll throw some more AA/AF and cap the FPS to 30 with no need to upgrade to the new 180 Nvidia drivers, with my wireless 360 pad should be a charm to play in the couch, impressions later.

 

[eXistor]

I've actually been seeing a lot more animals lately. Packs of zebra and bison, antelope, chickens, etc.

An antelope actually jumped out of a bush right in front of my SUV. I kind of felt bad after that.

You just gotta look in the right places I guess. You tend not to see many in the central jungles.

Really? Cool! still It's a shame they're not everywhere. If I jump in the water I want to be chased by a croc dammit!

 

[Tr4nce]

Anyway, I have a couple of questions.

1. What do I do with the "buddy" after he/she rescues me? I guess I took too high a fall after sniping a couple of guys from the nearby guard post. Looked reasonable for a videogame fall, but whatever. :lol So the girl comes to my rescue, and gets herself shot shortly there after. Now, she's not dead, but she's on one knee gasping for air. There wasn't an option to heal her that I could see, so I just left her and went on my way. Checked back in the menu 5 minutes after and she was dead... :/

2. Does doing a mission for one faction automatically mean you're enemies with the other? I took the first mission from the faction you're introduced to after the first one and now there are no more missions for the other one, I'm guessing that's temporary... but if it's not I'd rather not get too far ahead if I have to load an old save.

1) IIRC, it was shown in the tutorial that when your buddy is down, you have the option to heal him/her, or you can finish the job, to put your buddy out of his/her misery. To heal, press the shoot button, but beware only do this when you have syrettes left, otherwise you will shoot your buddy.

2) I have to find out myself too...

 

[Oreoleo]

so as I said I just got the PC version rented for the weekend (surprise there were no PS3 copies available for renting but some 360 and PC)

Whoa whoa whoa. Where the hell do you rent PC games from? I want in on this.

 

[Sandman42]

I'm really enjoying this game on 360. Fun firefights, and surprisingly great vehicle control.

Thumbs up!

 

[Lince]

first impression: looks nice
second impression: controls awesome with the 360 pad, but... where is the rumble??
third impression: ok I'm hearing wildlife all over the place, but I'll be damned if I spot a single animal.

off to lunch!

Whoa whoa whoa. Where the hell do you rent PC games from? I want in on this.

local videoclub, you can find one in every quarter. Spain is different.

 

[Kibbles]

A pretty cool map someone made on the 360 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25s2_obN3fk

 

[Oreoleo]

local videoclub, you can find one in every quarter. Spain is different.

Bah, Europe.

 

[tiddles]

Kind of, Far Cry 2 can't really make up its mind if it wants to be an exploration game or shooter.

This hits the nail on the head for me - the amazing landscape makes you want a level of RPG-type complexity, particularly NPCs who don't try and shoot you on sight, and on the other hand, the shooter mechanics necessarily feel a bit weaker than those in linear FPS games (even though you have a bit more freedom to approach situations in different ways).

But I'm still really enjoying it...

 

[plagiarize]

Hmmm, I was using my GX2 with the 178.24 drivers and the performance was good, but not great. It would seem that those 180. drivers make things worse. Waiting for the WHQL is smart.

good to know. i'm interested in playing this at some point.

 

[antiloop]

It feels more like a console game ported to PC but it's damn solid and runs great on my PC.

AA is a must though.

The aiming took a while to get used to but now it feels good.

 

[Regret Truth]

Also, play with the music off. Seriously. The ambiance is amazing.

This!

The score is great, but it ruins the atmosphere.

Far Cry 2 is my GOTY right now. Oh, if you guys are having problems sneaking around make sure to buy the camo suit. Its a whopping 45 diamonds but.....camo suit + silent MP5 = Sam Fischer esque gameplay.

 

[dark10x]

Well, the cell phone is still broken. :\ That really sucks.

I'm actually enjoying the game more by playing it on my CRT monitor, oddly enough. This is a game where sitting near the screen actually results in something more immersive. Also, while I hated the expanded FOV in Bioshock, I think it would really be a nice improvement in FC2 as I am preferring my 4:3 monitor to the 16:9 aspect ratio due to the additional viewing space (you can actually drive around with the map out and not have to look down).

It takes a while to warm up to this game, that's for sure.

 

[eznark]

fuuuuuuuuuuuck. I was just getting into it and my power supply failed.

son of a bitch.

 

[cameltoe]

I've been enjoying the game for the past few hours. Graphically it looks like a cartoony crysis.

what are those textures set to? medium?

 

[Waikis]

@cameltoe

Eh? All settings were set to the highest settings possible.

How about this screenshot then? : >

 

[Tr4nce]

Can't stop posting in this thread. Anyway, I am liking this more and more, and although my statistics say I have been playing for only 6 hours the last 3 days, it feels so much longer. I just took a nice long, long walk and the vistas are so great. I was walking somewhere near an area called 'Oasis' and suddenly some zebra's appeared, so awesome. What I also like is that once you buy a weapon, it becomes available to you, unlimited in the armory, next to the weapons dealer's shop. Nice touch, if you ask me. I am in love with this game, screw the haters. Oh, and the flare gun is awesome :lol

Edit: we should definitely, together, write down all of the great places in FarCry which have beautiful vista's.

This is my favorite so far:

- In the lower right corner of the northern map part, just under the city of Mokuba and left from the area called Oasis, there's a bridge somewhere over the water, and right before that bridge, next to that little river, there's a really nice path to walk on. It has a beautiful vista.

 

[AgentOtaku]

Can you remap the controls? ...IE change sprint to something else ???

 

[Tr4nce]

Can you remap the controls? ...IE change sprint to something else ???

No, you can't remap the controls, but I just checked and there's 7 different control schemes. I'm sure you'll find one which suits your needs.

 

[AgentOtaku]

No, you can't remap the controls, but I just checked and there's 7 different control schemes. I'm sure you'll find one which suits your needs.

awesome...by chance one that remaps sprint?

 

[Fallout-NL]

so the general consensus FC2 is a poor man's STALKER set in empty African plains? a solid rental now.

Well let's put it like this: If you had to choose between say Dead Space and Far Cry 2, go for Dead Space. Far Cry 2 is... fun... for a while I guess. But it's got no chance of being a timeless classic like Dead Space is shaping up to be.

 

[Nemo]

So, can you only use the 360 pad in the PC version? I haven't had any succes with other controllers.

 

[dark10x]

So, can you only use the 360 pad in the PC version? I haven't had any succes with other controllers.

Probably. It maps directly to the 360 pad and offers absolutely NO options for adjusting it. The 360 pad isn't mentioned anywhere nor do any of the prompts reflect using a gamepad. I just...works!

 

[Kritz]

I think Far Cry 2 is one of the better looking games I've played on PC. The visual style is apparently not going too well with others, but I think the screenshots do a bad job at showing you how nice the game looks in motion.

Plus, it's a good game to listen to podcasts with while taking long eye-candy walks from town to town.

I don't know why, but this game feels a bit like what a western game should feel like. Faction wars, moderately sized landscapes, dingy little towns scattered about, drawn out gun fights. Maybe it's just because I've been seriously itching for a western.

I like the game a lot, in the sense that it feels like my two favourite recent PC games (STALKER and Crysis) put together, with a few compromises made.

Question for PC users: Does anyone notice an absurd FPS drop when boosting up the shadow setting? I went from ~45fps to ~5fps switching from Medium to High. Might be because my drivers are really out of date for the GPU. I'll have to look into that.

 

[Zeliard]

so the general consensus FC2 is a poor man's STALKER set in empty African plains? a solid rental now.

I wouldn't call it a "poor man's STALKER" by any means. As amazing as STALKER is, it certainly has its share of problems, and not just bugs. Mods helped to fix it up, but we have to compare the vanilla games since FC2 hasn't been out long enough for mods to appear.

Simply "STALKER In Africa" is a more apt description, IMO, as there are many similarities between the two. I enjoy FC2's enormous level of freedom and general level of polish. One of my biggest gaming pet peeves is any sort of restriction on movement in a game that's meant to be open-ended, and this bugged me about the first STALKER.

 

[Lince]

Probably. It maps directly to the 360 pad and offers absolutely NO options for adjusting it. The 360 pad isn't mentioned anywhere nor do any of the prompts reflect using a gamepad. I just...works!

yes but without rumble, a shame since a game like Crysis Warhead with no console version works beautifully with the 360 controller and supports and excellent fine-tuned rumble.

 

[JSnake]

Something seems wrong. Should I really be getting about 35 - 40 FPS on max settings at 1280x720 (DX10, no AA) on a HD 4850, a Core 2 Duo E8400, and 2GB of DDR2 667 RAM? Guru3D got about 50FPS at this res with the same GPU and CPU.

 

[GQman2121]

This game really takes a turn for the better once they stop leading you by your cock and end that damn tutorial. It's not until that point that it truly feels like the game has officially started - poor design choice if you ask me.

The game then takes another turns once you open up the next set of weapons, which includes a suppressor for one of the handguns. After getting a silenced gun I was really able to let the game play into what I wanted to do when tasked with a mission. Sneaking around, taking guys down without having to get into fire fights were I was crazy out numbered changed up the pacing and tossed another welcomed layer on top of the gunplay. I now have more control about how I choose to take some of these targets down.

I'm only a few hours in, but so far I’m really like it. It’s good enough to wash out that piss taste that Socom drenched me with last week.

One thing I do want to know is if anyone has been able to stop at the guard check points without the AI just mindlessly opening fire. Is that possible or out of the question since your character doesn’t talk?



Anyway, I also jumped online for an hour to test out those waters and it's not half bad. Feels very much like your typical FPS online -- which is good or bad depending on if like COD in the jungle with hangliders -- except it has a much better interface for setting up matches (ranked or unranked). I’ll have too play more, but it seems like it’s worth checking out.

 

[dark10x]

Question for PC users: Does anyone notice an absurd FPS drop when boosting up the shadow setting? I went from ~45fps to ~5fps switching from Medium to High. Might be because my drivers are really out of date for the GPU. I'll have to look into that.

I didn't even realize there were settings below "High" as they are not selectable.

I've experienced no performance differences between Ultra and Very High shadows, though.

One thing I do want to know is if anyone has been able to stop at the guard check points without the AI just mindlessly opening fire. Is that possible or out of the question since your character doesn’t talk?

I'm sure this will get tedious, but I've been enjoying taking out the guard posts by sneaking up with my machete and silently eliminating everyone. When I see a post coming up, I usually pull over (at a safe distance) and sneak up on them.

I'm also having no issues with the gunplay and have been relying almost entirely on a pistol. One shot to the head always kills your targets.

I've never been able to enter as guard post as a friendly, however, as they seemingly attack you on sight at all times.

 

[AgentOtaku]

I dunno ...I like this game....like ALOT

and I could definitely see myself rebuying for PS3 later on if I could find out if sprint is remappable ...plus there's trophy support!

 

[Zeliard]

This game really takes a turn for the better once they stop leading you by your cock and end that damn tutorial. It's not until that point that it truly feels like the game has officially started - poor design choice if you ask me.

I completely agree. The tutorial is lengthy, very linear, slow, cumbersome, and fairly uneventful. It gives an incredibly poor first impression of what the game actually is. Possibly the worst start to a great game since The Witcher.

Having said that, I can understand why they wanted to have a linear tutorial in the first place, since a lot of people complain that open-world games make them feel lost because they "don't know where to go next", despite there always being specific objectives on the map (people even complained about this when it came to Burnout Paradise).

But Ubi went about it wrong, mainly with the overly slow introduction of various game features.

 

[GQman2121]

I've never been able to enter as guard post as a friendly, however, as they seemingly attack you on sight at all times.

That's what I figured, because if you stop what are they going to say to you? You don't speak, so they're just going to shoot you anyway. Meh.........

 

[GQman2121]

I completely agree. The tutorial is lengthy, very linear, slow, cumbersome, and fairly uneventful. It gives an incredibly poor first impression of what the game actually is. Possibly the worst start to a great game since The Witcher.

Having said that, I can understand why they wanted to have a linear tutorial in the first place, since a lot of people complain that open-world games make them feel lost because they "don't know where to go next", despite there always being specific objectives on the map (people even complained about this when it came to Burnout Paradise).

But Ubi went about it wrong, mainly with the overly slow introduction of various game features.

One of things that I don't understand is that opening sequence in the Jeep.

First off, it's long as fuck. Secondly, it's a direct ripoff of the opening in COD4, which is far more interesting since in that game at lease the ride setup the story and introduced the two main villains. Far Cry has no real story to build at that point, so they could have just started out with you being sick speaking with The Jackel, and the outcome would have been the same.

 

[Nemo]

Probably. It maps directly to the 360 pad and offers absolutely NO options for adjusting it. The 360 pad isn't mentioned anywhere nor do any of the prompts reflect using a gamepad. I just...works!

Fuck.. Well, time to buy that receiver. I'm pretty sure this isn't the last game that's going to be like this.