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Far Cry 2 |OT| of Money, Diamonds, and Military Checkpoints

The closer we get to visual reality the more people expect from a game. Where are the civilians in 2d Ninja Gaiden? Why are birds trying to attack you?
 

AkuMifune

Banned
I recently went through this and have been playing online a lot and I'm sad I didn't do so sooner. As others have said there are elements that feel "gamey" but I think they come off that way only because the rest of the experience feels so dynamic and immersive that they stick out a bit more.

With the increase is super linear "cinematic" games we've had Far Cry 2 excels at creating individual experiences and providing freedom in the way enemy bases are assaulted or mission are tackled. You can even take it to the extreme by exploiting the weather, AI, fire and weapon systems in the game, which is pretty incredible.

The funny thing to me is how divisive this game is, even on GAF, where I thought more "hardcore" gamers could appreciate the how unique an experience this really is. Whatever.

Tom Penny said:
Any mods that make this game not suck?

Yeah, weed.
 

Gorgon

Member
AkuMifune said:
The funny thing to me is how divisive this game is, even on GAF, where I thought more "hardcore" gamers could appreciate the how unique an experience this really is. Whatever.

You either like the "gamey" direction or you don't. "Harcore" has nothing to do with this.
 
Far Cry 2 was a wierd one for me. I played it on my PC and pretty much had to force myself through it. I liked the gunplay, graphics and what not, but it was annoying each mission i got knowing i was going to get a call from an annoying "buddy" winging about some secondary way to go about the mission, and me being the completionist, i always bloody went with it even though i didnt want to :lol So yeah, basically pushed myself to complete it.....

Few months down the line, a friend of mine finished it and lent it to me on the 360, i thought what the hell, would be nice to lay back and give the game a go. This time around, i absolutely loved it, and i think it was because i played along more with the game than last time. Each mission i took my time with, scoped the area out a bit more, checked what routes i could take in etc, playing it like i thought i was some hard arse mercenary (there was 1 mission where they want you to take a fuel tank out in a train yard, and this time around i found a huge hill next to the yard, went up there, had a perfect view on it and sent a rocket in, *bam* it was done, walked off without a gunfight :D ).

I think forced saving in safe houses also worked better, because it made things like having a rescue ready buddy much more crucial, and forced me to go out finding these spots to save the game, so i also enjoyed just exploring around a bit more.

Ending sorta sucked though, and i never tried multiplayer (didnt bother on PC, and on 360 i kept getting "kicked" apparently). Did get the full list of SP achievements though :).
 
I've been playing the game again and continuing my quest for 100% completion. Man this game can get on my nerves. The glitches are annoying. I've run into 2 safe houses that I couldn't unlock because all the enemies didn't spawn.
 
Two things really soured me on this game:

1) No sound options. Specifically, at least while playing with headphones, the enemy dialog was SOOO loud, guys who were 30 feet away from me sounded like they were standing right next to me. Killed immersion.

2) I just couldn't get past how everyone wanted to kill me from the moment they saw me. I'm just a guy tooling around in a jeep. What's the fucking problem, assholes? I would have liked the game ten times more if there was a simple "enemies don't attack until fired upon" mechanic like in Hitman, or some kind of notoriety aspect like in Assassin's Creed.
 

Aesius

Member
NEOPARADIGM said:
Two things really soured me on this game:

1) No sound options. Specifically, at least while playing with headphones, the enemy dialog was SOOO loud, guys who were 30 feet away from me sounded like they were standing right next to me. Killed immersion.

2) I just couldn't get past how everyone wanted to kill me from the moment they saw me. I'm just a guy tooling around in a jeep. What's the fucking problem, assholes? I would have liked the game ten times more if there was a simple "enemies don't attack until fired upon" mechanic like in Hitman, or some kind of notoriety aspect like in Assassin's Creed.

Speaking of Assassin's Creed - if Ubisoft learns their lesson on this game like they did for AC2, then Far Cry 3 has the potential to be awesome.
 

Chrange

Banned
Got back into this one a bit. It's a game that's just TOO wide open for me. I always abandon the missions and just goof around setting IED traps lol

I was surprised by an enemy though. Shot one guy and hid to try and find the other that was there. I heard him say something about "getting him out of here" and came around the corner to find him with the guy I'd shot, up on his shoulders in a firemans carry. I laughed - shot him, but laughed nonetheless.
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
So, I picked this up during the Steam sale this weekend, and I'm having a great time with it. Probably one of the best FPS games I've played in the last 5 years.

I'm more immersed in this world than any FPS game since....ever (take that, HL2), likely because it the day/night cycle, the gun jams, and the new environment. Only thing I could wish for as an improvement is better physics/destruction. I really hate being stopped by puny trees, and not being able to completely destroy makeshift buildings.

Oh, and better knife sounds. Talk about dull.
 

theRizzle

Member
I also just started playing this for the first time and I've only played about 3 hours, but I really like this game, in spite of itself. It's so horribly broken and unpolished in some spots, but I am in love with the concept, even if the execution isn't so hot.

I really hope they take another stab at this, but take the time to really make it work.
 
Just getting into this now on PC. Has anyone else had issues with janky mouse aiming? I know that folks would point to my wireless mouse as the culprit, but it's a sidewinder and has seemed butter smooth in everything I've used it for so far (Crysis, TF2). In FC2 the mouse just seems to skip and jump all over the place, making aiming next to impossible and playing with sensitivity and mouse smoothing didn't seem to help. I can tell it's the mouse since strafing around really fast with the look keys doesn't seem plagued with the same issues. Is PC gamepad support solid? If so maybe I should just do that, though I prefer a mouse.
 
TheFightingFish said:
Just getting into this now on PC. Has anyone else had issues with janky mouse aiming? I know that folks would point to my wireless mouse as the culprit, but it's a sidewinder and has seemed butter smooth in everything I've used it for so far (Crysis, TF2). In FC2 the mouse just seems to skip and jump all over the place, making aiming next to impossible and playing with sensitivity and mouse smoothing didn't seem to help. I can tell it's the mouse since strafing around really fast with the look keys doesn't seem plagued with the same issues. Is PC gamepad support solid? If so maybe I should just do that, though I prefer a mouse.

DX9 or 10 ? It also supports 360 pad out with no faffin (although not sure about on screen icons changing).
 

Huggy

Member
Switch to direct x 9 for correct mouse accuracy.
I'm not sure which graphics effects you'll be trading for it. Didn't see anything special.
 
Huggy said:
Switch to direct x 9 for correct mouse accuracy.
I'm not sure which graphics effects you'll be trading for it. Didn't see anything special.

DX10 looks and runs much better but its highly unstable, at least in my experience.

Feelings for this game:
Its like a symphony whos conductor suffers from Dr. Jekil/Mr. Hyde syndrome. What i mean is that the game is at its best when all of the sub-systems
are working together, so the player coming to the game needs to exercise some patience and learn how to properly adapt to it.

For example: Having one main objective, plus a buddy side mision and underground resistance mission in one round. Planning the best route to fullfil these goals, while at the same time going through effects of the sickness. Do you stick to the main route or go for that hidden diamond that just popped on the detector. On your way should you liberate that "save house"? or risk losing all the mission progress?

The deteriorating weapons and the sickness give a little air of uncertanity that makes the game flourish. The health system deserves mention, even if just aestheticaly, there are a bunch of impressive healing animations. The fire simulation does impact the gameplay making shoot outs seem more random.

Spawn times are a disaster tough :(
 

Spire

Subconscious Brolonging
I love this game a lot and I think part of that is due to the fact that I had no hype for it at all and knew nothing about it going in. I've probably sunk 50 hours or so into this game, most of it is just me running around admiring the environment and killing enemies in fun ways. It's been my go-to non-MMO sandbox game of the last year or so. It runs buttery smooth on max settings on my rig, it's one of the best audio/visual FPS experiences you'll find around. Walking through a plain and hearing a thunderstorm in the distance, the sound of the wind running through the grass and trees, and seeing all the fauna sway in the wind as the sun sets and the clouds roll in is an experience unlike anything else and it makes me forget about all the problems the game may have. FC2 does a fucking bang-up job when it comes to setting a mood and creating atmosphere, that aspect alone is worth the price of admission in my book and absolves the game of its other sins.
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
This thing is really starting to outstay it's welcome. I'm some 34 hours in, and can't wait for it to end. I really want to beat this game, but it's taking way too long to get to a conclusion, and there's no actual story driving me along. Nevertheless, I still enjoy fighting my way to objectives in creative ways, I just wish the objectives themselves held some meaning, and my asshole buddy wasn't sending me all over the map to complete it.

I did really like the transition to the second map too. Assassination and sandstorm were great.
 
Steam has me at 32 hours in, and I just got access to the second map.

I choose to go help my buddy Quarbani at Mike's, but he and everyone aside from me was killed anyway. What happens if you go to the church?
 

Jb

Member
Blast Processing said:
Steam has me at 32 hours in, and I just got access to the second map.

I choose to go help my buddy Quarbani at Mike's, but he and everyone aside from me was killed anyway. What happens if you go to the church?
If I remember correctly you end up getting knocked out anyway by respawning enemies assaulting the church. The jackal rescues you but the civilians are killed.
 
Finally bought a copy for the 360 after playing multiple rental copies since last year. Target had a sale on it for $15, but I'm not sure if this is at all locations. It's worth checking out.

Hopped back into my old save file and am slowly progressing through the game. Such a fun experience!
 

kuYuri

Member
So I started playing this on PC recently and two things I noticed:

1. I have it installed under Vista, but for some reason, the option to enable DX9/DX10 isn't in the options menu and I've seen the option in pictures I found online. Any idea why this is the case?

2. For some odd reason, from within the game pause menu, the game won't let me put the mouse cursor over "Quit" (as in quit to windows), but I can use the arrow keys to highlight and pick the option. Weird.
 

Dipswitch

Member
Strider2K99 said:
So I started playing this on PC recently and two things I noticed:

1. I have it installed under Vista, but for some reason, the option to enable DX9/DX10 isn't in the options menu and I've seen the option in pictures I found online. Any idea why this is the case?

I can't remember how to make that selection, but trust me when I say you'll want to stay away from the DX10 renderer anyway. It has a memory leak the size of Kansas and it will crash the game with alarming regularity when the executable tries to exceed the 32bit memory limit.
 

Aon

Member
Strider2K99 said:
So I started playing this on PC recently and two things I noticed:

1. I have it installed under Vista, but for some reason, the option to enable DX9/DX10 isn't in the options menu and I've seen the option in pictures I found online. Any idea why this is the case?

2. For some odd reason, from within the game pause menu, the game won't let me put the mouse cursor over "Quit" (as in quit to windows), but I can use the arrow keys to highlight and pick the option. Weird.

It's unlikely but you might not have a DX10 compatible card. I'm sure you'd know if you do, but sometimes people forget. Sounds odd though.
 
I've been playing this a lot the last few days after putting it down almost a year ago I think. Really atmospheric game, and quite impressive on consoles (playing on PS3).

From what I understand a previous patch helped fix some hangs/crashes and some disappearing target enemies, but even after the update I have run into a few glitches. Most are small (for example once an enemy spawned about 6 feet from the ground, fell, and died. on another occasion one just dropped dead for no apparent reason.) but I've run into 2 that are somewhat annoying.

-Safe houses that don't activate once you kill nearby enemies. Sometimes if you wander around a bit it will activate, sometimes enemies have wandered so shooting into the distance can bring them close enough to kill and activate, and sometimes you have to leave the area and let them respawn.

-A glitch that prevents you from acquiring new Jakal Tapes in the menu. You can still pick them up and get the trophy/achievement (which I couldn't care less about) but every time you pick up a new tape a previous tape plays, and the new one isn't added to the menu.

Besides these issues I really like the game and hope to see a sequel in the same style. I can spend hours just unlocking safe-houses, scouting checkpoints, and doing the occasional side mission. I also like the characters for the most part, even if they don't really say much other than whatever the mission is.
 

kuYuri

Member
Aon said:
It's unlikely but you might not have a DX10 compatible card. I'm sure you'd know if you do, but sometimes people forget. Sounds odd though.

I definitely have a DX10 card (Radeon HD 4870).
 
Took long enough (t's been over a year now) but I'm officially in love with this game. Funny thing is, if you're paying attention, everyone who likes this game says the same thing, something like this (possibly already posted):

Major Slack said:
Heard about it, heard about the whole open-world, go anywhere, anytime thing. Thought you'd give it a try. And you did. And let me guess... You got about halfway through and you found it extremely repetitive. The game seems to consist of one endless litany of encounters with guard posts that respawn too fast manned with guards equipped with telescopic vision and backed up by enemy patrols that always manage to take you by surprise and shoot your vehicle into a smoldering chug-a-lug. The game is just drive, stop, shoot, repair, drive, stop, shoot, repair, occasionally complete an objective and then more drive, stop, shoot, repair, et cetera, ad nauseam, ad what-the-hell-how-is-this-fun?!?

Well let me tell you friend... Been there, done that. But now things are different. Now, believe it or not, I happen think that Far Cry 2 is, far and away, the best video game EVER.

How did I make this miraculous transformation? I'm not sure exactly what sparked this revelation but about halfway through Far Cry 2, after experiencing gameplay very similar to that outlined in the first paragraph above, I suddenly had an epiphany of sorts and realized, hey wait a minute... I'm going at this all wrong.

Then ...

The first and most important change I made to my approach was I just simply slowed down. The epiphany I had was that Far Cry 2 is a game that doesn't lead you about by the nose but rather responds to you and the way you play. It waits for you to act and then it reacts. So if you go at the game hard and fast, it will come at you hard and fast. ALL the time. If, on the other hand, you slow down, and I mean really slow down, you will take the game by the balls, you will own the landscape, you will own the guard posts and you will own the enemy patrols.

I'll stop short of calling it the "best game EVER" (lol, probably hyperbole anyway), but without question I will call it the best hardcore stealth game this gen. It's also, in my opinion, the best stoner game this gen (a hybrid of relaxation and intensity), and one of the most viscerally immersive games ever made.

9.5/10

Now with all that said, I'm growing nervous that the hate for this game is fairly widespread, and that this will result in Far Cry 3 being an altogether different game instead of being this game with appropriate enhancements.

As a newly-devout fan of this game, all I'd like to see are modest improvements:

1) Separate sliders for ambiance, voice, music, guns and vehicles. FC2 (console version at least) only provides two: one for music and one for everything else.

2) Since all we ever see of our character is our arms, some upgrades would be nice: putting on the camo suit only to see your arms and hands stay the same was pretty disappointing.

3) All those groovy "self-heal" animations are fuckawesome, however I've seen them about 5 times total in around 70 hours. I find myself letting my health get a little low just on the off chance I'll see one. And speaking of health, even playing on Infamous, there's almost never much cause to drink the water bottles. I don't care enough to go into more detail, but I think these two facts alone are enough to suggest the health system needs tuning.

4) More loot; more physical taxation: the need to sleep and eat, for instance; food scavenging/hunting; illness from eating something bad, not sleeping, etc. (Basically what Fallout 3 does, just do it better and more realistically, kthnx)

5) Any and everything to continue to enhance the visceral approach this team took with FC2.

I might be forgetting a couple, but notice I'm not saying anything about mission variety or enemy AI. Both could be enhanced, of course, but these, despite their popularity, are invalid complaints, imo, and thus my concern about this game going in the wrong direction: namely catering to the haters and not the fans.

Game was an acquired taste to be sure (officially took me nearly a year and probably a good 20 hours before I fell in love), but the last thing I want to see is a FC3 that ditches everything I love about this game in favor of some "we-need-to-attract-COD-fans" bullshit.

So .... just saying. :)
 

MDSLKTR

Member
My experience with FC2 from beggining to end: Good graphics and gunplay - a tad boring - tedious driving - becomes a bit more fun with new weapons - stupid ubi montreal gimmicks - gimmicks are actually not that bad but could have been more fleshed out - bored out of my mind, I blame it on the driving parts and the repetitive missions - lost my progression after being run over by a jeep, going to uninstall that shit and never look back - gives it another chance, finds out you can save anywhere via the menu - OMG AMAZING - GREAT graphics and gunplay (best sniping sensations in any fps ever?) - unlocked all the weapons and upgrades and starts experimenting like crazy in the final missions - finishes the game and regrets rushing trough 3/4 of it.
I will replay this properly once I clear my backlog.


NEOPARADIGM said:
in my opinion, the best stoner game this gen

Also this.
 
This is one of the few games from this gen I get urges to play all the time. And one of the best things about it is you can play it in fun, short bursts and there's never any difficulty picking up where you left off.
 

XPE

Member
I think FC2 is the perfect example of how easy it is to ruin a game, its not that its a bad game, but few things just really let it down
 
NEOPARADIGM said:
Game was an acquired taste to be sure (officially took me nearly a year and probably a good 20 hours before I fell in love), but the last thing I want to see is a FC3 that ditches everything I love about this game in favor of some "we-need-to-attract-COD-fans" bullshit.

So .... just saying. :)
Clint Hocking left Ubisoft, so it's already too late.
 
XPE said:
I think FC2 is the perfect example of how easy it is to ruin a game, its not that its a bad game, but few things just really let it down
My thoughts exactly specifically the respawning checkpoints...

However I really did enjoy it overall.
 
Speaking of Clint Hocking, this should be printed out and nailed to the desk of everyone working on videogames today:

(from http://www.clicknothing.com/)

Agency: Past, Present and Future

In her seminal 1998 work Hamlet on the Holodeck, Janet Murray first formalized the concept of agency, defining it as the feeling we get when we take meaningful action in an interactive system and experience the results of our decisions and choices. Agency is, in effect, the aggregate of computer, program and designer telling you that your expression in the game world matters. While this concept may seem straightforward and obvious, its implications are profound.

Aside from 'the interactive system' (or for our purposes, the video game) there is no other medium of human expression that literally validates the expression of the audience. Agency, therefore, is not just a feature of games, it is the very foundation of what games are and how they mean. It is not simply that your expression and its validation matters, it's that your expression and its validation are all that matters. This is a fundamental departure from the author-centric notion of what art is and what it can be, and it is no understatement to say that agency changes everything.

A decade ago, with the critical acclaim of ‘high agency’ games such as the Thief and System Shock games from now defunct Looking Glass Studios, and the Deus Ex games from Ion Storm Austin, agency was on the rise. When I got my own start in the game industry in 2001, it seemed obvious that the path that would see games delivered into the promised land where they'd be recognized as a legitimate form of creative and artistic expression was by increasing the agency they offered. Unfortunately, despite their critical acclaim and their lasting influence on professional designers, these high agency games were largely commercial failures.

To compound the problem, Microsoft went toe to toe with Sony by launching the Xbox and bringing what was traditionally the highest agency type of game possible – the so-called ‘immersive sim’ fps – to a more casual (and explosively growing) audience of console gamers. Halo is still a pretty high agency game, but compared to the complexity and nuance of player expression available in games in the 'Looking Glass School', it was a step backwards. But it was a mega-hit and it helped define the expectations of an entirely new generation of gamers.

The last decade has seen a widespread reduction in agency. Racing games like the Burnout series became 'chutes of awesome' instead of games of skill and strategy and tactics. RPGs like KoTOR constrained agency to the mid and high levels of play, while turning over most low-level agency to probabilistic determination. Even traditionally high agency first-person shooters have increasingly sacrificed the potential for incredible awesomeness to arise from player agency, highly interconnected systems, and emergence, in exchange for pre-masticated 'wow sequences' that are exciting to watch - once - and rarely meaningful to actually play. Even GTA - the king of agency 10 years ago, has seen its system space massively curtailed in its latest iteration in order to make more room for the authored narrative. Action adventure games rely heavily on non-systemic QTEs and unique qameplay one-offs in an attempt to be more filmic while often missing the point of what both film and games are.

For every step backward, there are steps forward to be sure. Oblivion and Fallout 3 more than answered the call for an RPG with incredible agency across all levels. The Bioshock games have proved themselves worthy successors to the System Shock series. Portal offers irrefutable proof that ludonarrative dissonance can be dealt with if the writer realizes that his work must be in service of the player experience and not vice versa. This is to say nothing of multiplayer games from WoW to Modern Warfare to Little Big Planet to Left 4 Dead, where agency will (hopefully) always reign.

I do not generally believe in 'slippery slope' arguments. Mankind (and perhaps game developers especially) are more than the wet clay certain mythologies would have it we are wrought from, we are thinking beings. One of the things we do best is balance and optimize complex situations. I am more fearful of arms race scenarios. Arms races happen when easily predictable gains along a single axis suck intelligent well-meaning people toward inevitable conclusions that they are unable to avoid despite their clear visibility. Incremental sacrifices of agency in exchange for massive leaps forward in development of authored film-like narrative technique is - in my opinion - just such an arms race. Especially if that race is the Zeno's paradox I believe it to be.

While selling games that appeal to a broad audience is our responsibility as professionals, we also have a responsibility of stewardship over the resource of agency. As the newest, and perhaps the final domain of human artistic expression, and as the democratizing force of human creativity, the responsible and sustainable development and exploitation of agency is critical to our collective future. Over the next ten years, the choices we make in terms of delivering agency to players and developing their taste for agency will impact not just the direction of the game industry, but the direction of the development of human culture in general.

It is not, and it never will be, a mistake to make games that offer all different degrees of agency, from the high to the low. But it is a very serious mistake indeed to dismiss its importance, to adopt a laissez-faire attitude, or to neglect our responsibility as pioneers into the last great frontier of our cultural development.

For all its flaws, agency is what makes Far Cry 2 one of the best shooters of this generation.
 
JB1981 said:
I need to finish this game, I remember really enjoying it but stopped playing for some reason

Easy to burn yourself out if you marathon it

It really is the epitome of a pick-up and play experience though...
 

AEREC

Member
JB1981 said:
I need to finish this game, I remember really enjoying it but stopped playing for some reason

Ditto...this thread has caused me to reinstall my steam copy. I remamber being very impressed with the game at first.
 

Ledsen

Member
Shake Appeal said:
Speaking of Clint Hocking, this should be printed out and nailed to the desk of everyone working on videogames today:

(from http://www.clicknothing.com/)



For all its flaws, agency is what makes Far Cry 2 one of the best shooters of this generation.

This is exactly right, and you sir are a gentleman and a scholar.
 

Andrew.

Banned
DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THE PSN DOWNLOAD OF THIS WILL BE AS BUGGY AS THE ORIGINAL GAME. RELIABILITY OF THE PORT? any into would be great. Loved everything about this game. never felt so expansively lost. only thing that got me aggrivated was the re-spawing of the baddies. otherwise it was amazing. Heres hoping its not all bugged out like the disc
 
D

Deleted member 59090

Unconfirmed Member
It's going to be the same game with the same amount of patches, they didn't go back and fix it just for this release.
 
BTW: just upgraded from a Phenom II X4 2.8ghz to an X4 3.5ghz and when i ran FC2..... zomg.........zzzzzzzzomg it's so good. perfectly 60fps, v-synced, smooth and crisp. i can spin around, throw grenades, light shit on fire.... it just hums along perfectly. i can't fucking believe im running FC2 at max settings, 1920x1080, 60fps.

/thread resurrection contribution
 
Shake Appeal said:
Speaking of Clint Hocking, this should be printed out and nailed to the desk of everyone working on videogames today:

(from http://www.clicknothing.com/)



For all its flaws, agency is what makes Far Cry 2 one of the best shooters of this generation.
That is a great piece!


But! That's not why I'm here.


I've been playing Far Cry 2 for a while now, and I've been enjoying it a lot. Playing on Infamous, it's been a rewarding experience. I did notice in the early stages, however, a few things about the game that didn't seem to be so well thought out. Among them was putting assassination missions in cease-fire zones where the guards are out of this world and infinite. On a difficulty level where enemies will ceaselessly shoot through walls if they know your position (which they always do in a cease-fire zone), that doesn't put the player in a fun situation.

That was fine for assassination missions though, as they are side-tracks and optional. But right now I'm at the mission right after the barge (at ~50%) and it's a main-line mission, put in a cease-fire zone where it's impossible to play the game as I have done previously. There was also this mission before where you assassinated the head of the APR (or whichever faction) which would also trigger a source of infinitely re-spawning enemies.

Now, my question is, will this trend continue as a means to ramp up the difficulty? What I wanted, and got, from Far Cry 2 was an open environment where I could use the tools the game gave me in a way that would fit my needs. For a couple of missions now though the game has gone out of its way to put me in situations where my options shrink down to "hunker down and shoot at everything while not poking your head out too much". It's frustrating, and I'm wondering if I'm going to put up with it at this point.


So GAF, is it worth soldiering on? Will I miss out on something spectacular if I don't?
 

MrOogieBoogie

BioShock Infinite is like playing some homeless guy's vivid imagination
My thoughts on Far Cry 2 after beating it a while ago:

Pros

- some of the best visuals to date
- great sound (make sure to turn off the game's music so you can hear the various ambient sounds)
- weapons look and "feel" great
- huge world, bigger than Oblivion's, Fallout 3's, and even Grand Theft Auto IV's (yet there's zero loading between areas and absolutely no chugging in framerate--truly remarkable)
- good AI (sometimes the AI is just very dumb, but most of the time it's really cool how the enemy will communicate with one another if they notice their comrade got taken out or something; one instance, I even saw one of the guards rush over to the one I already injured, picked him up and began carrying him to safety--very cool)
- the fire propagation system is wonderful: there's nothing quite like watching fire spread in each and every direction depending on the wind, engulfing everything in its path (you have to see the fire at night... it's beautiful)
- you're never taken out of character; every action is in first person
- I didn't encounter a single glitch in the 32 hours I played it

Cons

- highly repetitive gameplay (after the 50% mark, the game almost became a chore to finish)
- the story is wholly unmemorable, as are the characters you meet
- limited travel system (the bus stop locations are usually inconveniently located; it would have been much better if we could fast-travel to areas we've already visited or discovered, like safe houses)
- while not a huge annoyance, the malaria pill side story seems tacked on and unnecessary
- respawning guard posts (here's the big one--this wouldn't have been such a big issue if you weren't forced to travel constantly. I don't understand why a system to Fallout's wasn't implemented; once you clear an area out, the enemies remain dead for a few days before respawning. Ubisoft even admitted that they didn't realize how big of a nuisance the respawning guard posts would be at the time)
- no mission variety: every single mission, be it side quest, main quest, buddy quest--whatever--consists of you going to a location and killing someone


I'm probably missing a few key points, but whatever. All in all, it's still a good game despite the few problems it has. This is one of those games where graphics really made a difference for me. I would've stopped playing it early on if it didn't look so good. I became absolutely lost in this world Ubisoft created. By the 30 hour mark I still found myself gazing up at the trees around me, as the sunlight beamed through the branches, or looked up into the stars at night. Amazing stuff. If Ubisoft took care of some of those issues I pointed out, maybe even condensed the two maps into one, but with much more content, this could have been revolutionary. Instead, Far Cry 2 will always be seen as that "could-have-been."


My rating: 7.5/10 or 8.0/10
 

chemicals

Member
Just bought this yesterday (along with 9 other bargain-bin games) and I will start playing tonight. I fooled around with the opening - caught malaria - shot some dudes... can't wait to get deep into this one.
 
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