Far Cry 2

[Mundane]

http://www.digitalbattle.com/wp-content ... 2logo2.jpg[/img]

I'm getting the game on Wednesday and thought I'd start the discussion a little early. I'll give a full review after I've played it for several hours on Wednesday.

For some who are clueless on what Far Cry is all about, I can sum it up in a simple sentence: Intense first-person action that takes place in the most stunningly beautiful exotic environments.

In the first iteration it was the tropics(probably Caribbean), this time around it takes place in the plains area of Africa. You choose from one of several playable characters(the rest of which show up as NPCs in the game), and embark on a free roaming adventure. The story pits you between a bitter battle between two rival African extremist groups.

The calling card of Far Cry 2 is not, unfortunately, the story. The game features not only some of the most stunning visuals with full water reflections, shaders, lighting, and soft shadows, but features amazing gameplay. The big trump card of Far Cry 2 is the free roaming aspect, and being able to tackle your objectives any way you wish. Let's say your mission is to take out an encampment. You can go in guns blazing, balls to the wall. Or you can wait until night and stealthily take out guards and plant plastic explosives. Or you can map out the area like a recon soldier, chart the winds, and start a raging brush fire to sweep in and burn the encampment down. Yes, you heard me right.

The environments in Far Cry 2 are highly destructible. As I mentioned before you can burn grass and (with proper calculation) have the wind take in and kill your enemies, or provide you with a barrier for escape. The trees are destructible and regenerate as well. The environment is just immersive.

One more thing the previous Far Cry is known for, and this one will SURELY live up to is the map creator. This is no Halo 3 Forge, moving around things and adding weaps. No, this is a full featured terrain and environment maker. With a bit of creativity and the simplicity of the creator you can make some stunning maps for multiplayer mayhem.

Your best bet is to visit your favorite video game website and watch some of the videos on this game. Screen shots just don't do it justice, you need to see it in action. From picking out bullets from your wounds, sniping bitches from the cover of beautiful African foliage, or just straight up pumping up your foes with led, Far Cry 2 should be a high quality FPS that should appeal to several brands of gamers.

Stay tuned for my review, and enjoy some of these screenies:

Spoiler: Far Cry 2 Screenies

http://recensioni-videogiochi.dvd.it/images/Far_Cry_2/far-cry-2-03-l.jpg[/img]
Just beautiful....*tear*

http://www.dignews.com/admin/screenshoo ... y_2_13.jpg[/img]
BURN!!!!

http://ps3.kombo.com/images/media/601/f ... 8_7544.jpg[/img]
OMG...I just came.

 

[Venetia]

Oh good lord I waaaaaannnnnntttttt itttttttttt

My mobo has been acting like a mofo though so I have to wait until my RMA comes in so I can replace the sonofabitch D8<

I can't wait ;~;

 

[Venetia]

And you pick bullets out of you?! Holyshit that's badass. I hadn't heard about that.

I wanna fuck up some African's (no offense, blax)

 

[Hevendor]

yeah you apparently get to pull shrapnel out of your body in detail, and it's (supposedly) VERY realistic. can't wait.

finally something to put my new gfx card to the test. and it looks like an amazingly solid game too!

 

[Mundane]

Hehe, my computer blows for PC gaming. Got it for 360. Yeah, it's definitely going to be great. I also have to pick up Fable II tomorrow. Game overload...XD

 

[Dargor]

Hey you know what, I finished the game 3 weeks ago

And you pick bullets out of you?! Holyshit that's badass. I hadn't heard about that.
I wanna fuck up some African's (no offense, blax)

You can fix your broken arm, fingers, remove shrapnels or a broken lance from your legs, and the list goes on.
Also, about shooting up Africans, I don't get why people would be offended. We are always shooting at white people in video games :/ and imo, there's no difference between black people and white people. except the skin color :P

 

[Venetia]

Damn you Dargor your job is socool

 

[Marcus]

We are always shooting at white people in video games :/ and imo, there's no difference between black people and white people. except the skin color :P

Because you're a white guy in Africa killing Africans.  I already expressed how retarded Resident Evil 5 was by featuring Chris, a white dude, fighting an entire fucking army of parasite pumped rebels in their own home country and the only other African that isn't a crazed monster only happens to MIXED.

Do video game writers not see how horrendously stupid they are?  If a white guy with a gun goes to a place where there are no white guys GUESS WHAT you stand out!  Africa is a country built on the money of rich white men and the blood of poor Africans and video game writers don't seem to understand this.  That's why people are offended.  It's capitalizing on a different setting without actually understanding the setting.  It's like making a game where you play as a Japanese guy and all of your enemies are stereotypical chinese with pointy hats and meatball haired women in those silk dress thingies.  If I was Spanish, I would've been offended by Resident Evil 4 as well.

I care nothing for Far Cry 2's story or its characters because it's unrealistic wish fulfilment.  If this was game was actually about an African guy fighting in the Civil War I wouldn't care that he's shooting up other Africans.

After some research it seems you can choose from 9 different characters.  If one of them isn't black or at least native to the land I'll feel that the writers are pretty soulless guys and hate every single character for taking advantage of a pretty mature concept as African civil wars are serious real world conflicts.

 

[Dargor]

The characters nationalities are ALbanian, American, Brazilian, Irish, Algerian, Haitian, Chinese, Mauritian and Israeli.
Also, Africans are not the only enemies.

 

[Prexus]

Because the developers/writers for Far Cry 2 have some sort of personal grudge against you?

They have no requirement to cater to the oversensitivity of some people. I mean, the GTA games are probably the most stereotypical, nonsensitive games ever, and are loved. I'm sure plenty of oversensitive people have cried about "zomg all the gang members are black, italian, or chinese, and lead by rich white guys" but nobody cares about overly sensitive people.

 

[Marcus]

Because the developers/writers for Far Cry 2 have some sort of personal grudge against you?

They have no requirement to cater to the oversensitivity of some people. I mean, the GTA games are probably the most stereotypical, nonsensitive games ever, and are loved. I'm sure plenty of oversensitive people have cried about "zomg all the gang members are black, italian, or chinese, and lead by rich white guys" but nobody cares about overly sensitive people.

Over sensitivity?  Would it be accurate if I said you are an over-privileged caucasian male who grew up in an upper-middle class household and had everything spoonfed to him blissfully unaware of what was going on in the real world?

This is the shit I'm talking about.  It's fucking disrespectful plain and simple.  Writing about shit you know nothing about and calling it fiction Jesus Christ.  It's not about being oversensitive it's about showing respect for your fellow man.

This is the shit that causes wars and I would know because unlike you chuckle heads I've actually traveled outside of my safe haven and participated in America's glorious war against the evil brown people that plague the nation. 

But it’s just as much as I expected from a forum of kids. 

Fuck this place.

 

[Prexus]

Regular people, average joes, the types that videogames cater to, understand that videogames are fictional despite their relevance to real world situations and scenarios. Despite their attempts at realism, people can differentiate fiction from real life. Even your reaction to my rebuttal was oversensitive. Compared to some people, yes, I am probably over-privileged. I've had to work for every dollar I have, but I haven't had to fight my fellow man for whatever reasons. Although I think that using the fact you've been to war as some sort of leverage in an argument about videogames is a bit oversighted.

I guess you're right, though. Everyone should stop making futuristic games as they are writing about shit they know nothing about, right? Or maybe we should just abolish fiction entirely, and everything we write, everything we do, has to be about real time or past history. Nobody can think outside of the box, right?

FarCry 2 might not be attempting a fictional situation, so maybe they are writing about something they don't know about, but it is a videogame and thus inherently fictional. Maybe you can get above your oversensitive ass and see things for what they are.

 

[guitarshredderj]

Indeed, this game does look amazing. I hope they brought back the map creator. That was always wicked fun...just to make crap, and play them online with people. I would buy this, but unfortuantly, my 360 got the ring of death, and right after that, I moved, and had to toss it.  :down:

All well though, It's only $200 now and i'm getting 3,000 dollas in about a week. Lol  :thumb:

 

[Marcus]

ahahaha i trolled you guys you guys are stupid.

seriously though, the far cry 2 team did camp out in kenya to get a feel of the area and general atmosphere which i respect.  no, i'm not dumb or sensitive enough to complain about stupid stories in stupid games but it does irk me when a team of writers, regardless if it's a game/movie/book decide to write a story using absolutely no research and calling it fiction.  You can use the "ITS JUST FICTION ITS NOT REAL" excuse but game writers and developers are always talking about video games breaking the mold in terms of narrative and it's a dumb thing to say when you don't even RESEARCH properly.  kojima actually went to brazil and the middle east and took notes on everything.  i highly doubt anyone from capcom has been outside of japan to study spain or whatever south african town re5 takes place in.

video game writers are always complaining that people don't take them seriously and this is why.  if a college student wrote a thesis on the holocaust with wikipedia as his reference do you honestly think he's going to pass????

back on topic, the game is... uh, it's alright.  i'm playing the pc version (haha it's fun to be a pirate) and admittedly i'm not an ACTION fps fan preferring more realistic and methodic games like armed assault and STALKER but what it does it does reasonably well.  the game feels like an extension of crysis except with lots of brown and artificial intelligence that isn't downright retarded.  the whole "choose your own path" thing is, once again, a big kick in the balls because enemies have (once again) super sensitive hearing and magical eyesight.

with that said, it is fun fucking with the enemies like leaving someone alive and watching as everyone comes running to his screaming.  it doesn't make much of a difference in the end because, even on higher difficulty, is a pretty easy game.

above average, solid shooter but unlike the original far cry it isn't the genre challenging innovative piece of awesomeness that i expected.

which i honestly expect because ubisoft's standards have gone waaaaaay downhill after 2005 and it appears this is starting to rub off on crytek.

PROS:
+the same quality ai i expected from the far cry series that crysis ignored
+big open world with vehicles that aren't clunky and awful to control
+shootan shit is fun and playing with enemies is even more fun.  if you're a sadist this is an even higher point.
+it's fun... that's really all i can ask for in a game these days

CONS:
-compared to crysis the graphics are pretty drab even on the highest settings (BROWN BROWN BROWN BROWN NOT EVERYTHING IN AFRICA IS BROWN)
-weapons seriously rust in a matter of minutes.  like 10 magazines from a weapon destroys it it's stupid.
-fires are a neat idea but really dumb and underwhelming (gimmick feature hi)
-no black main character WTF SHIT SUX LOL
-SECUROOOOOOOOOOOM

 

[Venetia]

It's kinda funny, I've known 4 people who've been to Africa (not the south, only the northern half) and the first thing they say when I ask them about it is "Jesus christ that continent is nothing but brown!".

Yeah there're jungles in the southern half but a very huge amount of it is brown, brown, brown. Even things that aren't brown TURN brown because of frequent dust storms and lots of loose dust in the air. If there's lots of brown, it's probably because that's all the Ubi team saw?

But then I don't know exactly what areas in Africa this game takes place in so ... I guess I just had an impulse to share that.

 

[Marcus]

For whatever reason current gen video games use washed out unsaturated textures and I can't stand it.  It doesn't look realistic, it looks stupid.  I'm sure you've heard the complaints regarding Diablo 3's color scheme which prompted Blizzard to create a hilarious rainbow pony logo during blizcon? 

My comment regarding BROWN is aimed at how graphic artists think copious amounts of bloom and muddy textures equals a realistic looking game.  About the only thing that WOWED me graphically was the smoke effects which actually cause billowing ripples in the air but for the most part the game is just downright unappealing to look at.  African savanna might look plain in pictures but there's a lot of variations and subtlety in its flora.  FC2 packs a lot of grass and swaying trees and shit but even on the highest res looking at the textures just reminds you of shit... like someone strained the game through someone's bowels.

And this isn't something targeted at only this game as I've been using this complaint since the turn of the century.  I couldn't stand, visually, Deus Ex, Metal Gear Solid 2 and 4, Grand Theft Auto 4, Assassin's Creed, Gears of War, STALKER, and Doom 3 just to name a small list.  The world isn't made up of brown and gray guys, jeeze.

EDIT: EVEN THE SKY IS A DRAB GRAY HUE

EDIT 2: And this is something that I've noticed only on console games (and I use console games to refer to multi-release PC/Console platforms which FC2 is).  For whatever reason, console game developers can't seem to wrap their mind around the fact that there exists non neutral colors.  It's like they took tubes of paint, mixed all of them with gray and burnt umber, then photocopied it into 3dsmax to make textures from.

EDIT 3: Even the game logo FAR CRY 2 is a grayish brown HAHAHA

 

[Venetia]

You know actually I'd never even noticed it, but yeah I see what you mean.

But there're still plenty of games around that don't use muddy desaturated-ness.

Hell, Crysis was bright as hell. Sometimes those bright greens hurt my eyes they were so vibrant (but I liked that).

 

[Despain]

the games that don't use the desaturated tantones are games that are automatically labeled as FOR BABBIES

 

[Dargor]

The AI is great. And I mean it, even if there's a couple of flaws:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HmDUsDykdM

 

[Venetia]

did you specifically work on this at Ubi, Dargor?