By Jim Rossignol on October 23rd, 2008 at 5:35 pm.
So I’m a few hours into Far Cry 2 and I’m going to just quickly report my impressions of it so far. Firstly, it pains me to have to quit out of the game to blog about it, which is a good sign, but also a bad sign. The bad being: it locks up if I alt-tab. That said, I have ignored the game’s pleas to update both Vista and my Nvidia drivers, so I’m probably partly to blame for technical difficulties. That said, even with my updating laziness, the game runs fantastically on my 8800 with everything maxed. Not quite comparable with Crysis, perhaps, but that really doesn’t matter: it pulls of the dense, jungled African valleys impeccably. The action is smooth, and the world detailed.
The one thing that no one seems to have taken much time to mention yet is the general ambience of the game setting. If feels very low-key, gritty even, when compared to just about any other shooter I can think of. It’s real-world, and kind of ugly and organic. There’s a kind of continuous tension in the game world, and not least because you yourself are fighting illness, and being hunted by both factions in this wartorn realm. It’s really selling the idea that this is a seething, hatred-filled place of violence, de-sensitized by war and greed. The rolling, rumbling soundtrack bolsters that. It definitely lacks the charm of Stalker, or even Boiling Point, and I’m unconvinced by the African setting as a whole, but it works.
There’s a lot that you can say that about in this game: it’s not exactly genius, but it really works. The game is boldly functional: the ultra-minimal GUI and general world interactions definitely demonstrate that. Nothing seems over-complicated, but there’s enough on offer for this to be a shooter that has some depth.
Being hunted by both factions seems to be freaking out a large number of people: as if they didn’t expect to shoot and be shot at by large numbers of people in this, a first-person shooter? Odd. Anyway, the areas in which you *aren’t* involved in a sprawling, endless firefight, are superb, with surly, suspicious faces everywhere, and believable understated characters lurking about, or offering you mercenary fare. The towns are essential abandoned: just home to militias and criminals now. I found that something of a shame – having more human life to the world would have been great.
The missions seem to be all combat, but that’s fine by me: the first instance of ramming a Jeep convoy off the road at a junction, leaping out and gunning down every member of the party couldn’t have been more thrilling. Watching the target blip on the map and timing my race across the dirt-tracks to collide with him so precisely was fantastic. My subsequent “death” at the hands of pursuing militia was less elegant, but it at least showed me the superb death-is-not-death mechanic. Once down, and unconscious, You’re pulled back from the brink by a buddy, and stumble back into consciousness in the midst of the firefight. It’s dramatic, perhaps a little silly, but superbly done. It’s like a game both being honest about what quicksave means for videogame metaphysics, and still plastering over the cracks with its fiction.
Finally: I can entirely understand people’s concerns about the enemy AI. It’s as if they are deaf, slightly dizzy, and at the same time absolutely blood-crazed. They’re probably the weakest link the game, but if I can put up with Stalker, then this is fine too. They aren’t exactly convincing adversaries, but right now I don’t care. The combat is brutal enough – with people going dying just easily enough – for me to keep on going.
Right now this is a game that is more intriguing than amazing. I want to see where it goes, and whether it can deliver any more impressive ideas. So far, so good.
If you’ve not started playing yet, I’d recommend turning off the subtitles. They felt intrusive to me, at least.
23/10/2008 at 17:45 datter says:
I would argue the subtitles are necessary if you want to be able to tell what anyone is saying. Everyone talks in such a fast, monotone manner that it’s hard to follow sometimes. Maybe they skimped on voice acting.
23/10/2008 at 17:45 andy says:
haven’t been able to pull myself away from fable2 long enough to do more than start it up and fire off an AK47 a bit at the starting baddies. but the weapon felt/sounded ‘right’ and the baddies dropped convincingly enough, so i shall be back, in a week or two when i’m done with fable :)
23/10/2008 at 17:48 hydra9 says:
Thanks, Mr. Rossignol. Nice to have this report from the frontlines. I’m now slightly more intrigued than I was before.
23/10/2008 at 17:51 darthpugwash says:
I’ve really been looking forward to this. Mainly I’m just hoping that it will run acceptably on my computer at this point.
23/10/2008 at 17:52 Pags says:
“Boldly functional”? Is it really breaking the status quo to have a game that works?
It’s nice to see a little bit of wary skepticism though, especially after Tim’s gushing review (sometimes it’s almost like he loves games too much to be a reviewer… you’re all supposed to be miserable bastards, darnit!).
23/10/2008 at 17:53 Tom says:
Holding back on this one till some more reviews are spread about. Looks good and I’m glad it appears my 8800GTX wont cry blood trying to run it, but I’m not entirely convinced yet for some reason…. just pre-ordered L4D… :) Pre-convinced… about a year a go.
23/10/2008 at 17:56 hydra9 says:
I’m still more interested in the cold, constricted world of Cryostasis, though (UK release date: 7th Nov).
23/10/2008 at 17:56 Pags says:
Also, I’ll be sure to let everyone know how this plays with two GTX260s under the hood. *gloat*
23/10/2008 at 17:59 LionsPhil says:
Ah, but is it cursed with hateful DRM? Our survey says: apparently. No sale.
23/10/2008 at 18:00 Erlam says:
“They’re probably the weakest link the game, but if I can put up with Stalker, then this is fine too.”
Did you find the A.I. in stalker to be weak? I found it to be some of the best I’ve ever seen, which is admittedly not exactly a tough fight to win.. but still.
Is there regenerating health? That would really annoy me.
23/10/2008 at 18:02 Butler` says:
Why is everyone playing games that aren’t out till tommorow whilst I sit here bored? Lamers.
23/10/2008 at 18:03 phuzz says:
(bloody postie not just leaving the game, bloody flatmate for not going out of his way to pick it up from the depot today, bloody royal mail for forcing me to get up at half 6 tomorrow to pick up this game before I got to work. Why didn’t I just buy it on Steam?)
23/10/2008 at 18:03 Pags says:
I literally lol’d when I saw that already the comments on this article have taken a nosedive into DRM and health-regen territory. High five, Erlam and LionsPhil!
23/10/2008 at 18:04 nabeel says:
It’s too bad the game doesn’t alt-tab well for you; I’m using XP and and it’s bloody excellent at that – very fast and moreoever it improves my framerate after a long time of playing when it starts to stutter a bit (some kind of flushing out of cache or something?). I’m not finding this game wonderfully brilliant like some reviews are claiming but it’s still a lot of fun.
nabeel
23/10/2008 at 18:05 MacBeth says:
So the DRM hasn’t infiltrated and poisoned the very core of your PC and stopped all your legitimate discs working (yet)?
Very keen to play this but the sheer volume of anti-Securom hatred has made me pause…
That and the fact I have way too many other games to play at the moment. Pretty sure the Crossfired 3870s will be up to it though…
23/10/2008 at 18:08 darthpugwash says:
@Butler: I assume that Jim used his mighty games journo powers to get hold of a copy before the rest of us plebs. That, or maybe he’s reviewing it.
23/10/2008 at 18:10 Meat Circus says:
Presumably, review copies are not defective-by-design DRM-infected?
I very much doubt game journalists would smile favourably on being treated like us poor plebs.
We’re only the customer, of course. We should just suck it the fuck up.
How are the Far Cry 2 torrents doing? Well, I hope.
23/10/2008 at 18:10 LionsPhil says:
Pags: I bet it has quick-time events, too! Burn it! BURN IT! ;)
23/10/2008 at 18:10 Dan Milburn says:
Or maybe like me he ordered it from Play and it arrived this morning.
23/10/2008 at 18:11 Deadpan says:
I got it last night on Steam. Only got to play it a couple of hours. I definitely feel the hostile, ‘god this place is ugly’ vibe. But once you settle in, it’s kinda of nice. It’s one of the games I built a $900 computer rig in order to play.
I wish there was a ‘make whole save’ key instead of just a quicksave. Why do games not have that?
23/10/2008 at 18:12 Butler` says:
Yes, that could be it.
23/10/2008 at 18:12 Jim Rossignol says:
There were no pre-release review copies for the likes of us. SecureROM is now installed on my PC, and I don’t particularly care.
23/10/2008 at 18:16 Meat Circus says:
If PC gaming does die, SecuROM will be chiselled into the headstone.
It’s disappointing, but perhaps unsurprising, how few games journalists seem to grasp how pernicious and dangerous DRM is.
23/10/2008 at 18:19 Vaporz says:
@ Deadpan
For me, at least, every time I quicksave I get a new “full” save. Had to clean up the 100+ saves actually. They take a couple megabytes each.
23/10/2008 at 18:21 dhex says:
So the DRM hasn’t infiltrated and poisoned the very core of your PC and stopped all your legitimate discs working (yet)?
securom is flippin’ weird. (and tages can go to hell forever and ever)
crysis: warhead has securom. worked fine for me. in fact, you might even say it worked awesomely fine.
clear sky on steam had tages. did not work for me. ran once, never to run again. (cracked version ran fine, except for the millions of bugs)
bioshock on steam, with securom, worked fine.
neverwinter nights, disc version, with securom, worked fine. (shame about the endgame.)
far cry 2 did the same song and dance clear sky did – retail version this time since i cannot afford to lose another 40 bucks making donations to developers and publishers. installs once, plays great – everything cranked on my 8800gts ssc. don’t like the floaty feeling of the controls, and the driving’s a bit annoying, and fov is annoying, but overall i can see the potential. quit out, finish some freelance, head back on in to…nothing. won’t start at all. sometimes i get an error about having a copy in the drive, sometimes it’s a timeout error, but mostly it’s a blank stare.
long story short, i cracked it and it works fine. emailed securom, gave them the lowdown and straight up told them that removing their software made the software i paid for actually work. apparently securom doesn’t like my brand of dvd drive (pioneer dvr109) but it also apparently doesn’t like systems with more than two hard drives installed. (according to internet bitching)
even more than being pissed – because i can play it now – is this greater puzzle of why some games with DRM (most, really) work fine, and some do this very strange work once then never work again thing. i’d actually rather have an answer to this question than actually play far cry 2.
23/10/2008 at 18:22 chenghiz says:
The only annoying thing about the DRM was trying to figure out why it was crashing to desktop every time I started it. Turning off virtual drives solved that, obviously, but it could have been a bit more helpful about the whole matter.
23/10/2008 at 18:24 dhex says:
oh, and despite all this, i understand the rps staff’s stance – in addition to pure fatigue – getting miffed would be a lot like yelling at the sky for being way up there.
drm will be here for a while. it may not be here forever, if more and more amazon-style sabotages/upheavals/negative feedback loops emerge. but for the time being it is here to stay.
23/10/2008 at 18:25 Jim Rossignol says:
Or perhaps they grasp it COMPLETELY, having written about it extensively over the years, and simply realise that banging on about it all the time gets INCREDIBLY tedious.
23/10/2008 at 18:26 Deadpan says:
Yeah. The Steam forums were like 66% bitching about SecureROM. If it ever refuses to install down the road, well, I paid for the game. I’ll get it the ‘easy way’.
The lack of review copies is a major pain. I mean. The game /is/ everything I was expecting.
Pros: Everything.
Not Really Cons:
– No Melee Attack function, forgivable.
– Enemies don’t stand out from background as well as other
games, realistic
– The entire look is jarringly dry and real, takes time to get used to.
– Somehow I’m shocked that I’m getting shot at nearly everywhere I go.
– Even AK-47s jam like crazy, but they are mostly made of rust anyway.
Annoyances:
– Punkbuster didn’t correctly finish installing for some reason and it stalled the rest of the game’s installation process. Cancelling the install fixed it.
– SecureROM cd protection running on a STEAM game.
I’ll forgive it for now.
– Detected my hardware and set everything to Eff Yeah! but set resolution to widescreen on a non-wide monitor.
– Tutorial needs directional arrows, I spend a good minute and a half looking for the damn med kit.
So far, it’s pretty fun. And it’ll be thoroughly abused by the time Fallout 3 comes out next week. :D
23/10/2008 at 18:27 Kieron Gillen says:
Meat Circus: Actually, pre-release review copies tend to have worse DRM than release versions. You wouldn’t believe the hoops we have to jump through half the time.
KG
23/10/2008 at 18:27 Jesse J McLaughlin says:
I was able to play a couple hours before work, and my brother has played some as well. Both of us think this game to be fantastic. If it maintains the level of quality that it started with, then this will be my favorite shooter of the last few years.
23/10/2008 at 18:28 Meat Circus says:
If you want to be stand-offish about DRM, about the best you can hope to do is be a bit Hanlon’s Razor about it: i.e. that publishers choose to treat their own customers like criminals and deliberately cripple their games not because they are malicious, but merely because they are stupid.
Which is a certain amount of comfort, because it is a long-established truism that most games publishers are as thick as shitty jam.
But that’s cold comfort as the dark corruption strangles whatever remaining life there is out of PC gaming.
23/10/2008 at 18:28 darthpugwash says:
I’m really glad they decided not to stick any mutants or anything into this. I like STALKER and it’s monsters but I tend to prefer games with more realistic enemies.
23/10/2008 at 18:32 Pags says:
I think more people should learn from dhex’s example: if you must crack games, be honest about it. It’s the only way developers/publishers are going to learn.
Also, all hail Meat Circus, the Nostradamus of the gaming world. If you could incorporate the Mesoamerican calendar into your predictions, it would give it a real air of authenticity.
23/10/2008 at 18:35 Deadpan says:
@darthpugwash,
DOH. That’s what was missing!
Oh well. I’m sure there will be a mod featuring velocoraptors or something. banditos riding velocoraptors in search of their lost girlfriend.
23/10/2008 at 18:35 Meat Circus says:
@Pags:
I probably will download the torrent. Not because I especially plan to play this, I just want my vote to be counted.
Did the same with Spore, *after* I’d bought a retail copy, which I now regret.
Fortunately, it became the most pirated game ever, which was something of a relief. Helped alleviate my guilt at having paid for DRM somewhat.
23/10/2008 at 18:40 Jim Rossignol says:
Sadly “number of times downloaded by pirates” doesn’t get totted up in the “number of complaints about DRM” column by mainstream publishers.
Perhaps doing something active, like organising petitions, letter-writing, etc, might be seen as legitimate. “Piracy as protest”, however, will not.
23/10/2008 at 18:44 Pags says:
Indeed. My point about dhex’s post was that he actually contacted securom and told them “my game doesn’t work because of you, so I was forced to crack it”. I wasn’t implying that people should pirate games as an act of principle because ultimately your principles don’t mean diddly-squat to publishers.
23/10/2008 at 18:44 futage says:
I generally agree with that but I’m not quite as convinced by the world/environment. I think the Stalkers pulled that off far better despite being a bit more stripped down.
Despite its seriousness it feels a bit cartoony.
Still, I’m having fun. Chasing gazelle around in the dune buggy thing.
23/10/2008 at 18:46 Pace says:
Or giving 1 star reviews on amazon and elsewhere? How is that not a valid form of protest? (at least they’re typically being clear about why they’re giving bad reviews.)
23/10/2008 at 18:46 spd from Russia says:
So is it more like like action-GTA ? where all the AI life is just generated aroud you and has very basic silly bahaviour, providing a shallow sandbox with some tedious missions on top?
23/10/2008 at 18:47 Maximum Fish says:
What’s this DRM i keep hearing about? Ist that “Digital Rights Management”, or “Doesn’t Really Matter”? Seriously, it’s been out for a day, two if you have cooler retailers in your vicinity (US wise anyways). How many people have honestly reached some sort of install limit?
If you want to boycott every game that uses this crap, that’s fine, and in this case anyways it’s your loss. I don’t however understand why it has to be the subject of every discussion on here. DRM is annoying, shady, and frustrating, but it’s become an almost comical meme at this point to complain about it, even when it gives you very little reason to do so.
On the subject of the game itself, i also was a bit weirded out by the lack of people, at least non-combatants. I also think that for all their attempts at immersion (all of which are great, and i hope trend-setting) they are somewhat undone by the overly videogamey elements; quests to unlock guns, Diamond in briefcases in the middle of the desert, infinite storage caches, radio towers that give you assassination missions (without any explanation), and the constant attacks from checkpoints by respawning enemies. I’ve even had a second wave spawn in as i was searching the bodies of the first. They attempt, admirably, to obscure the fact that you are playing a game with their efforts to build immersion, but all of the mechanics are so close to the surface that you can’t help but feel (and act) like you are accomplishing game objectives for game reasons.
Also the ‘calm’ music is ripped straight out of Black Hawk Down, but that isn’t overly surprising. On the other hand, the combat is the punchiest and most visceral i can think of, the graphics are great -and run great, i’m really digging the open-world (what was it again Clint Hocking? 50 square kilometers of open, nevemind…). It totally made me late for work this morning…
Maybe not the best shooter ever made, but definately i’d say one every fan of FPS’s should own. And i haven’t even touched multiplayer yet…
23/10/2008 at 18:47 macc says:
The performance of this game is amazing! I can max everything out with a 8800GT and a 6750. And it doesn’t look less beautiful than Crysis.
I also spent a couple of hours in it, and I can say this game is amazing. I hear a lot of people complain about how they have to drive long distances and the numerous enemys on checkpoints. But it really is a free-roaming game, it is your thing or not.
The missions are not very original, but the million ways to complete them, make them really fun. I had some amazing shootouts in the least interesting side missions. And I think that’s the strength of this game.
My only con is the absense of neutral NPC’s, everybody is hostile aside from a few buddies. They should have made some villages or refugee camps, which are cease fire zones, like Pala in the game, where you can talk to villagers, get some intel or something.
But overall this game is an amazing experience!
23/10/2008 at 18:49 LionsPhil says:
Try the way that StarForce was stopping No One Lives Forever from launching on my machine. Consider, if you will, that NOLF does not use StarForce. Why did it have the power to interfere? Because StarForce decided that it was a device driver, so it was always running, always will full priviledges.
You know why XP was such a stability upgrade from 9x? NT-era Windows actually separates applications from the OS with something more than a paper-thin veneer, so the the inevitable bugs in a given application cannot crash others, or bluescreen the whole machine. The only things that should be running with kernel priviledges are the Windows kernel itself, and performance-critical device drivers (by which Windows trades off letting nVidia’s bugs kill your machine for faster graphics hardware access). Putting a DRM controller in this set is absolutely farcical, because you’re giving it reign to cause untold havoc on the machine. (Which is exactly what StarForce want, as “interfere with every disk access” is generally considered an “untold havoc” power by OS designers.)
Also, the whole “default assumption that the consumer is a criminal” thing, and the “ability to run single-player game held to ransom by remote server held by a publisher which will get bored of it once it’s no longer a revenue stream and they get bought out and restructured by another”.
23/10/2008 at 18:51 Calder says:
Its not that I mind being shot at, I just mind when they KNOW to shoot at me (Even though I’m driving one of THEIR trucks, I look like 90% of the members of THEIR OWN FACTION, and there is at any given time 500 patrol trucks following the same exact roads that they never even question).
Really, I just want to be treated as equally as all the other faceless NPCs, not as “Player 1″.
I almost hate to say it, but so far Mercenaries 2 is the only game I’ve experienced that even comes close to getting “factions” in an open world setting correct. Even if every soldier has to spam their thoughts aloud, CONSTANTLY.
23/10/2008 at 18:52 LionsPhil says:
Oh, edit button, how we miss thee. That was a reply to chenghiz, long before all this “gets tedious” counter-complaining.
(Pirate-as-protest? Jesus Christ, people, give them more excuse for draconian rights-management, why don’t you?)
23/10/2008 at 18:53 Meat Circus says:
I suspect (though I don’t know) that publishers monitor the torrent sites.
It won’t have escaped anybody’s notice that Spore is the most pirated game of all time, and became so during EA’s very public spat with its own customers.
23/10/2008 at 18:54 Warning says:
My two main problems with Far Cry 2 are mouse controls and multiplayer.
I own the PC version and my largest gripe is that the mouse movement and aiming feels very “floaty” and unresponsive. The menu screens are awkward as well. (And I have tinkered with my mouse settings numerous times.)
The multiplayer portion just screams “console port” and this is NOT a good a thing. Though the game features dedicated servers, you have to wait in a lobby and ‘ready up’ before the match begins. You cannot join a server that is in the middle of the game. When the round ends, you are removed from the server and you have to find a new place to play.
Also, in multiplayer, the guns feel quite wimpy. It takes at least half of a clip to put someone down. At longer ranges, anything but a sniper rifle is highly inaccurate. And one cannot even pick up guns off the ground.
I am disappointed that reviewers are generally not pointing out these issues. PC gamers expect more from their controls and multiplayer.
23/10/2008 at 18:55 chenghiz says:
For those of you who dislike the “floaty” controls: It’s floaty because your graphics setting are cranked up too high. Turn off HDR or AA, for instance, and you’ll find it behaves in a much more normal fashion.
23/10/2008 at 19:00 Maximum Fish says:
@chenghiz
It does definately tend to get laggier and ‘floatier’ when your settings are to optimistic, but even at 60+ fps, it feels a bit more floaty than most PC-centered shooters (HL2, Stalker, etc). It’s not a big deal though, i don’t think. You get used to it in minutes.
23/10/2008 at 19:04 Chris R says:
Here’s my thought’s (posted last night in the forum after playing 4 hours straight, which felt like 1 hour to me).
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forum/pc/the-far-cry-2-thread/page-2/
Also, about the enemies respawning at checkpoints… just barrel on through with your jeep. You’re not required to get out and kill everything that shoots at you. Once I’ve already cleared out a checkpoint (and gotten the x/35 checkpoints cleared message), the next time I go rolling through I just ignore the guys there. They’ll usually hop in their jeeps and come after me, but I’m usually so far down the road they they can’t catch up. You can usually run over 1 or 2 guys as you go blowing past too, haha. Very satisfying.
23/10/2008 at 19:04 LionsPhil says:
Meat Circus: And yet, the response by publishers to piracy so far continues to be greater and greater restrictions, combined with increasing bitching that PC gaming is dying and all the money is on consoles these days. So unless you think they’re going to suddenly suffer some kind of integer overflow phonemenon and decide to go all Stardock, how exactly does it help?
23/10/2008 at 19:04 dhex says:
re: floaty. i disagree. crysis was cranked to crankitude and was not floaty. console-cross dev’d fps games have a weirdly floaty feel that seems to be related to FOV.
with or without AA, with or without physics and trees cranked, it’s a bit laggy. bioshock was the same way. it’s a thing, i guess. someone more technically-minded can explain why it’s a thing.
ps. i sent a copy of my email from securom to ubisoft support as well, so if you hear about a g gordon liddy style showdown (“headshots headshots”) in new york, that’s probably me. remember me as i was!
23/10/2008 at 19:07 teo says:
Try turning off V-Synch if it’s floaty
23/10/2008 at 19:08 dhex says:
but then it’s floaty AND tear-y! which leaves me teary! and dreary!
23/10/2008 at 19:08 Meat Circus says:
@LionsPhil:
I very much doubt there’s anything we can do to make them stop being stupid. They’re not going to listen to us, we’re only their customers.
If we want to punish them for their stupidity (and I do), we have to hit them where it hurts: their bottom line.
23/10/2008 at 19:11 Pags says:
No-one likes a hard kick in the bottom… line. And I’ll pour some out for you when you’re inevitably consumed by the Ubi-Beast, dhex.
23/10/2008 at 19:16 RichPowers says:
Boycotts are very effective, yes.
The other day I realized how the industry actually encourages me not to spend money on new releases. By waiting a year or two, I can buy the game for significantly less money and have a more complete package (patches, mods, expansions, forum posts detailing solutions to technical problems). And the DRM might be gone as well.
23/10/2008 at 19:17 Alex says:
Tomorrow I face the ultimate decision: play this, or Fable 2? I suspect I will try to play both at once, using a Heath-Robinson contraption to manipulate the mouse and keyboard while holding a 360 controller.
23/10/2008 at 19:17 teo says:
No, v-synch make shit floaty
23/10/2008 at 19:22 Meat Circus says:
@Alex:
Tomorrow I shall be playing Fable II and not this, if it helps.
I’m looking forward to see how much Molyneuxgash about the bloody dog is true.
The absence of death in the game should make John Walker very happyjohn.
23/10/2008 at 19:23 macc says:
I’m also not a fan of DRM, but FC2′s DRM is causing absolutely no problem on my PC. So don’t let it be areason not to buy it.
@Maximum Fish: This music is absolutely not ripped from Black Hawk Down, of course its similar because it’s both in Africa, but FC2′s music is excellent.
23/10/2008 at 19:26 Hobbes says:
Why can’t games come with D:REAM instead, eh? Then we could all party like its 1997 and nobody would have to get all worked up about anything.
23/10/2008 at 19:26 LionsPhil says:
RichPowers: And you can probably play it on maximum settings without having to spend the GDP of a small country on hardware.
Most importantly of all, though, you get the sage advice of John Walker’s budget review.
23/10/2008 at 19:29 dhex says:
No, v-synch make shit floaty
then why isn’t crysis or warhead floaty?
i don’t know what floaty is, but i know it when i see it. and it takes a bit of a time to see it because it’s so damn floaty!
23/10/2008 at 19:31 Kadayi says:
Can we not ban him already? It’s one thing to complain about DRM ad infinitum at every opportunity, but it’s another to outright advocate piracy as a legitimate course of action. Plain truth of the matter is Developers have very little to do with how the publisher chooses to distribute their products when it comes to DRM, but ultimately by pirating games you do more harm to the developers than the Publishers. Honestly love good games? Then buy them and encourage the developers who spent years working on them, to make even better ones.
Also Farcry 2 is a story based FPS, realistically how many times are you likely to need to reinstall it? Do you think you;’re even likely to hit the 5 limit by the time the publishers probably deactivate the limitations element? Deus Ex is probably one of my favourite FPS games, but at most I’ve probably played it fresh about 3 – 4 times since it’s release 8 years ago. Most other gamers I know don’t even replay games, because quite frankly their onto the next thing. Seriously the whole DRM ranting is more a case of imagined grievance than actual for 99.9% of gamers.
23/10/2008 at 19:37 Meat Circus says:
@Kadayi:
You’re right, it is another thing to advocate piracy as a legitimate course of action. It’s not something I do lightly either.
You seem to be taking a rather dismissive attitude here. How *dare* I and many, many other gamers make a principled opposition to DRM?
Who do I think I am railing against something I can see is pernicious and destroying the PC Gaming I love?
And really, calling for me to be banned strikes me as just childish.
23/10/2008 at 19:42 Alec Meer says:
Do the round and round and round and round DRM discussion if you must, but abusive comments aren’t acceptable here.
23/10/2008 at 19:45 Downloads_Plz says:
Just as a side note to the DRM talk…
http://www.amazon.com/Far-Cry-2-Pc/dp/B000X9FV5M
It’s being voted down ala Spore as a result of it’s DRM. So is Crysis: Warhead, Dead Space, and I would assume a mess of other games as well.
Maybe things like this will finally get the attention of big developers. Maybe not. But at least it’s worth a shot.
23/10/2008 at 19:46 Meat Circus says:
Sorry, Alec.
I know I get a little excited from time to time. These sorts of imaginary property issues have always been a red flag to me.
I’ll leave it now. I promise.
23/10/2008 at 19:48 Downloads_Plz says:
…Damn lack of an Edit box…
And as an ending to my original post before I accidently clicked to submit it, not only is voting DRM games down worth a shot and probably our best way to get through to a developer, but it’s also a hell of a lot more effective than us all bitching about it here constantly.
23/10/2008 at 19:51 Feet says:
ANYWAY.
Far Cry 2. It’s a game and I played it for 30 minutes and it seems like it has promise. What do you think about FAR CRY 2 THE GAME fellow RPS readers?
23/10/2008 at 19:58 YogSo says:
That is the key word in your argument. Probably? What does it mean? What kind of assurance is that? Do you really believe that, when the time cames, they will bother to un-DRM “an ancient (=4-5 years old, in publishers’ minds) game probably (there it is again) nobody is playing anymore”? Do you REALLY believe that?
At the end of the day, if I’m buying a product that has an in-built expiring date (that is, if I’m merely RENTING it), then it should cost considerably less than if I’m buying it for real and, more importantly, it shoud be advertised as such.
23/10/2008 at 19:59 Nimic says:
I prefer to buy my games digitally, so I googled it, and found that Ubisoft actually have their own digital purchase. Then I read this:
“This product is only available for purchase in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.”
I wonder if that is permanent, or if it’s because the game isn’t technically released here yet (I think)?
23/10/2008 at 20:01 Sam C. says:
In a game related note, has anyone played with the level editor yet? And does it allow you to make single player levels? Or is it limited to just multiplayer levels?
23/10/2008 at 20:04 YogSo says:
Ehmmm, sorry to re-ignite the DRM-argument again, I’m very slow writing…
23/10/2008 at 20:05 Meat Circus says:
@Nimic:
No, Ubi refuse to release their games on Steam in the EU. More than that, they won’t even say why.
They probably don’t want any of our funny foreign monies, isn’t it.
23/10/2008 at 20:07 dhex says:
well, i too hated the subtitles. the voice acting isn’t terrible, but there is one thing i must question.
why is the baddest of baddies a fucking 10th grade high school cliche? quoting nietzche? really? where was the bauhaus mixtape?
if they wanted a freaky will to power type, julius evola would have been a far better choice. aristocrats of the soul and all that.
23/10/2008 at 20:15 Nimic says:
@ Meat Circus:
Yeah, I know, they hate Europe. Which is decidedly odd, since I seem to remember an article where they stated that Europe was now their biggest market.
This wasn’t Steam, though. This was on their official site. If there’s anything preventing them from releasing it on Steam in Europe, is the same preventing them from releasing it in Europe on their own digital service? I’m going to try again tomorrow, but if I can’t get it digitally I might not get it at all.
23/10/2008 at 20:15 G says:
Instead of moaning about the DRM here why not write to the company? None of us here can actually do anything about it! The debate has been repeated here endlessly, a simple comment to say that you won’t be buying it because of the DRM gets the message across, then you can leave the discussion to those who actually wish to talk about the game.
My copy arrived this morning and I quite like it so far. Saying that I haven’t got very far at all. Oh well, back to it.
23/10/2008 at 20:17 N says:
Right, I’m playing the bastard at full-everything with my 260 gtx ocx (and 8 gigs of mushkin redline hehehe) and yes, the controls are a bit “floaty”, although it’s nothing significant.
I really do miss a lean option though; the graphics are clearly below warhead quality… albeit the vehicles handle way better…
23/10/2008 at 20:17 And_CR says:
Hopefully someone that has played the game will answer my non-DRM related question. How about the exploration aspect? Does it has far off cool locations? Can you wander around and find interesting places (even if you have to kill half of the game’s NPCs to get there)?
I remember an article here at RPS about exploration in games and this is really what would make me buy FarCry 2. If it is more of a shooter, ala Crysis, I think I’m gonna wait for bargain bin price.
23/10/2008 at 20:22 Schyz says:
It’s just a first person Assassin’s Creed. Another piece of crap brought to you by Ubisoft. Please, Ubi, fire your scriptwriter.
23/10/2008 at 20:23 Meat Circus says:
@G:
To be fair, nobody is or was stopping you from talking about the game. You have the floor.
23/10/2008 at 20:25 Meat Circus says:
@Schyz:
Oi! Ubisoft Montreal gave us Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. They can be forgiven a lot. Even Assassin’s Creed.
23/10/2008 at 20:33 Maximum Fish says:
@macc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey3qb1Ew7O0
Listen at 2:27. Segments of the ‘just walking around’ music are extremely similar to this. Not that Hans Zimmer needs to phone his lawyers or anything, but i think it’s pretty obvious this is the inspiration. Especially given they used Rachid Taha’s ‘Barra Barra’ in one of their trailers. I could be wrong though…
23/10/2008 at 20:53 Jonas says:
I really want to play Far Cry 2, but sadly about every 5 minutes, it crashes to desktop without any kind of error message or anything else indicating what the hell is going on. This makes me sad.
Thankfully Fable 2 arrives tomorrow, and being an X-Box 360 game, I’m unlikely to experience any technical issues with that, so it should keep me occupied until Ubisoft’s tech support gets back to me (doubtlessly either telling me to reinstall Windows XP – not gonna happen – or wait for the patch).
23/10/2008 at 20:55 Ghiest says:
I found the game very tedious to be honest.
Get a car … kill someone, to unlock weapons, get a car … kills another couple cars. I spent 5 hours wandering around killing people for little story or benefit, the amount of tedious driving is just plain annoying. If the driving part of the simulation/sandbox was better (like gta is so compared to) then it might be better.
It just felt very, forced.
23/10/2008 at 20:57 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
I also won’t be buying this game because of DRM. Just like I didn’t buy Bioshock because of DRM. Just like I won’t be buying Mirror’s Edge if it turns out to have bad DRM. And I want to play Bioshock. I want to play Far Cry 2. And I want to play Mirror’s Edge. But I won’t pay for invasive DRM. And so my money is going elsewhere. Although some of it is going to Good Old Games now.
23/10/2008 at 21:14 Alonzo Harris says:
I don’t know if this has been mentioned, but what happens if all your buddies die – can they die?
23/10/2008 at 21:19 macc says:
Yes, they can die. You can play without them, but then they are unable to help you or give you extra missions. I think its more fun with them.
23/10/2008 at 21:19 Maximum Fish says:
@Alonzo Harris
I believe they can. I haven’t had any die yet (only met two so far) but i think one of the reviews mentioned that you can choose to heal them should they get shot in combat, or just give ‘em the Old Yeller and save on Syrettes. Presumably they are not plot critical then, but who knows…
23/10/2008 at 21:35 Ian says:
Enjoying this after two hours of play. I’m beginning to appreciate the real possibilities involved with setting grassland alight. The diamond treasure hunt isn’t bugging me as much as I thought it would, though that could be because I’m looking forward to filling out that arsenal.
Really enjoyed the opening sequence of events. No more to be said thus far, but I’m very much enjoying this one. :)
23/10/2008 at 21:40 James says:
I want to fire you. Out of a cannon. Into the sun.
Assassin’s Creed was fellatio for the eyes and ears.
23/10/2008 at 21:49 Scott PM says:
I played for a few hours last night, and I’m overall very happy with it. I really like the ‘embodied’ feeling of the whole thing, seeing your hands when you open doors, pulling shrapnel out of your ankle, etc.
What will put this game over the top for me is the variety of missions. I enjoyed Assassin’s Creed too, but I’m hoping FC2 doesn’t have the same “repeat these same five missions over and over” problem later in the game.
And yes, you can kill your buddies, which I discovered when I mistook the girl-buddy for an enemy and ran her down with my jeep. Oops! Thanks gawd for quicksave.
23/10/2008 at 22:02 Chis says:
Having tried this for a while on a friend’s 360, I’m left feeling… empty. As an FPS, it is fairly solid. But as a gaming experience, it is somehow lacking. Boiling Point had an endearing quirkiness (and an inventory), and Stalker was superlative due to a thoroughly compelling atmosphere and a genuine sense that – for a change, in this industry – there was a lot of talent and inspiration behind it. And it had an inventory.
Farcry 2 seems somewhat simplistic by comparison. I don’t feel much sense of tension trying to sneak around enemies, and the combat is rather lacking compared to Stalker. Perhaps I’m used to being precise and considering my movements, instead of wanting to play a blast-fest. You can actually do both in FC2, but neither are particularly satisfying.
And there’s no inventory. I feel like I’m playing to shoot stuff and that’s it, not “progress”, build a character, and “live in the game”.
‘Tis very pretty though.
23/10/2008 at 22:08 Deadpan says:
@ Scott
Yeah. I managed to splash damage my girl buddy while mowing down a chokepoint. I didn’t know where she was until I heard her screaming. I was out of lancets and never had to help one of them, so I ended up mercy killing her instead.
Yep. Quicksave.
23/10/2008 at 22:29 Subject 706 says:
Jesus, if this wasn’t the biggest disappointment of 2008. Missions extremely samey. You cant lean. You can’t go prone. Interactivity with the world is almost zero, no inventory. Feels like a sub-par shooter with tedious traveling and repetitiveness. Free exploring is pointless, since everything is the same.
Thankfully Kings Bounty should plonk down next week.
23/10/2008 at 22:41 Eschatos says:
I rather like it. It runs much better than Mercenaries 2 on my PC.
23/10/2008 at 22:46 MisterBritish says:
Thumbs up.
That is all.
23/10/2008 at 22:54 Jim Rossignol says:
@Chis
Yeah, I’m getting that “if only there were more RPG elements” feeling. I kind of hate myself for that, as I think it about everything these days.
23/10/2008 at 22:57 Jolstar says:
Last night I was sent on an assassination mission in the cease fire zone. I found my target and waited in a corner for the lone soldier to leave me to my work. Instead he wanders over to me, pinning me into this corner I was standing, unzips his fly and proceeds to piss all over me.
Needless to say I slaughtered everyone who witnessed this.
23/10/2008 at 23:02 Chis says:
@Jim
I wouldn’t want too much more. Reasons to hunt around the map to find more than just “treasure”. As it is, it seems the only impetus to scout the four corners of the map is to find more diamonds and ammo.
Inventories inspire the hunting hoarders in us, I suppose.
23/10/2008 at 23:03 Klaus says:
Cool, according to system requirements lab I can play this, a bit above recommended, so that’s fine. I, now may in fact get this.
lol, according to the same site I can barely play Mercenaries 2.
23/10/2008 at 23:07 Trousers says:
To JR
You say it runs great on your 8800 on max settings…curious as to what kinda processor you’re running. Are you playing with AA on as well?
I’ve got 2 8800gt’s and a q6600, and I get a decent bit of slowdown with everything maxed. I’m guessing this is just me paying the price for lower MHz per core (again!)?
23/10/2008 at 23:08 UncleLou says:
Not too happy with the game so far – it has its moments, but they’re few and far between.
I am also surprised how low-budget the game feels. It’s all a bit clunky, the graphics engine is far from convincing (and downright appaling at night), the enemy behaviour, especially in vehicles, is idiotic, the side mission structure is far too formulaic, etc. It reminds me a lot of Boiling Point, and not just because of how the game is structured.
I also thought – but that’s admittedly my own “mistake” – that the landscape would be a bit wilder, and more open to exploration. As it is, it’s more like a safari park with a carefully cultivated landscape with mercenarys than Africa.
Stalker felt infinitely more organic and natural to me.
23/10/2008 at 23:21 Chris Livingston says:
Interesting that you couldn’t alt-tab out — alt-tabbing worked great for me the few times I did it. No idea why — most games I do it with severely screw things up, but this one works fine and pops back in quickly.
23/10/2008 at 23:24 Nick says:
I’m not so sure having your eyes sucked till stuff comes out is a good thing, James.
23/10/2008 at 23:32 Thiefsie says:
Jolstar. “Last night I was sent on an assassination mission in the cease fire zone. I found my target and waited in a corner for the lone soldier to leave me to my work. Instead he wanders over to me, pinning me into this corner I was standing, unzips his fly and proceeds to piss all over me.
Needless to say I slaughtered everyone who witnessed this.”
that had my coworkers looking at me funnily when I just about fell off my chair giggling
23/10/2008 at 23:41 Flappybat says:
Men in jeeps are the new cliffracers.
Why’s it so damn hard to do stealth kills? Take someone down who hasn’t noticed you with a machete and everyone is on your ass.
Not helped by the fact the bastards can see through vegitation as well as being able to instantly spot you with any part of their body leading to the classic “trying to shoot you through a wall” behaviour.
23/10/2008 at 23:46 Kadayi says:
@ Meat Circus
“You seem to be taking a rather dismissive attitude here. How *dare* I and many, many other gamers make a principled opposition to DRM?”
Because you’re making a mountain out of a molehill. There’s a lot of provocative posturing going on, but quite frankly you haven’t addressed the issue of how likely the DRM is really going to impact upon the average gamers enjoyment, long term. In fact you seem to have deliberately skipped the questions I put to you on the matter.
Given it’s clear that despite hysterical opposition, increasingly main stream publishers aren’t going to be moving away from it any time soon, so hijacking every RPS thread to endlessly beat the drum about DRM at every given opportunity is little more than trolling tbh. So yes I am calling for the RPS guys to ban you from the site, because presently I’m not seeing anything constructive coming out of your presence here.
As for advocating piracy, lightly? No what you advocate is not buying the game in the first place. If your asking Publishers to remove DRM, you need to demonstrate that they made a loss. If you’re simply going to pirate the games anyway as act of some form of petulant act of ‘protest’ you’re not exactly proving anything to them. Act like an adult and boycott all their products and detail every game you would have bought but didn’t because of DRM from them, and you might garner their attention, esp on mass.
As for Farcry 2, extremely nice looking, and the character models look a lot better in game than in the screen shots, however the lip synching leaves much to be desired and is quite distracting during mission briefings. Otherwise so far it’s all good, though not quite as much of a rival to Stalker as I’d envisaged from the reviews. Combat seems a bit floaty (for want of a better word), but as it’s early days I’m assuming (hoping) that’s principally down to the low grade weapons.
24/10/2008 at 00:06 Hoernchen says:
Afte a few hours fc2 is just… meh. The arms dealer missons are all the same, just like the cell phone tower missions, and you are constantly rushing through the annoying road blocks, because killing anyone except the mission target is just pointless. Definitely a slightly ass-creedish feeling there…
24/10/2008 at 00:43 Jim Rossignol says:
Whatever the failings of this game, the parallels people are drawing with Assassin’s Creed are bizarre. It’s *nothing* like it. I can’t even say it’s similar on the pretty-but-empty front, because this isn’t that pretty, and has a lot more going on.
24/10/2008 at 00:47 Dominic White says:
I’m pretty amazed at peoples reactions. It’s rather strange, seeing a game get almost universal praise from critics – even the grumpy and hard-to-please ones – and then for the Average Internet Dude to absolutely hate it.
I really like it so far, but I’m only about three hours in. Really good gunfights – not sure what people are talking about when they say ‘floaty’. It’s not quite as instant-fast-twitch-action say, say, FEAR, but it’s not far off.
24/10/2008 at 00:48 Noc says:
Pffft. Look at the facts!
1) Both games are made by Ubisoft.
2) We don’t like either of them.
Clearly they’re identical in all the ways that matter.
24/10/2008 at 01:12 Gorgeras says:
I’m not a fan of protests or petitions in general; they’re basically a way of saying “look at how many people we have agreeing with us, what are you going to do about it?”.
I prefer devastating criticism based on reason and evidence. With DRM this gives me mixed feelings because I absolutely loath pirates, yet they are the ones providing the most powerful evidence against DRM.
The thought of someone playing a game for free, which I paid for, enrages me by itself. But the thought of someone playing a game for free after breaking the DRM has me smiling. But it shouldn’t. The addition of DRM into the equation completely makes my perspective switch polarity.
I didn’t even buy Half-Life 2 for nearly three years until changes were made to Steam and Valve made an extraordinary offer through The Orange Box. I didn’t get Bioshock until a patch removed the activation limit. My plans to buy Far Cry 2 have been cancelled until I can be sure I am not merely going to be renting the game and DRM will 99.9% not mess up my computer.
It isn’t enough to write about this or to have a discussion about it, especially when publishers themselves refuse to take part and instead just have identikit press releases parroting the same factually-suspect assertions with no regard to the challenges made against them.
Wouldn’t it be great if magazines refused to review any games with DRM? I mean it’s all very nice trying to get people to boycott the games as consumers, but what good is it when consumer services don’t back us up? Consumers can only do so much by themselves. No matter how massive a response is, lizards like the EA CEO can claim it was a molehill response from a vocal minority and everyone will believe him. A consumer can start a blog or messageboard and they do, to debunk the nonsense publishers put out to justify not just DRM but piss poor service and after-sales patching. But it can so easily be made to look like an angry nerd raging against the system; stereotypes are too effective.
I guess this is what is meant by the slightly unfair claim that journalists don’t take DRM seriously. Would a magazine print or refuse to print something that could damage their relationship with a game publisher? Are they scared of turning into the Daily Express; running multiple rhetorical campaigns on issues? Or do they have the BBC tendency to ‘show both sides’ no matter how utterly ridiculous one side is?
We must have more. MOAR!
24/10/2008 at 01:17 manintheshack says:
I’m finding these comments very interesting. Either the critics are wrong, the common gamers are wrong or both groups are entirely out of their trees. I’m looking forward to seeing how I feel when I get my hands on a copy tomorrow.
If this is another game I’m looking forward to and my hopes are dashed I’ll be sorely upset. However, if that is the case, this kind of karmic effect may mean the Fallout 3 is worth playing . Huzzah!
24/10/2008 at 01:29 futage says:
@Chris
I keep thinking “Boiling Point did this better” while playing Far Cry 2. Which is slightly odd because I’d find it hard to say I enjoyed Boiling Point. But it just had so much more depth and so much more going on – a (small) city, even. And, as you say, stuff to go and find.
Also agree with your Stalker comparison. Both Stalkers are definitely more accomplished (and better) games than Far Cry 2. And I do find myself wishing for a tiny bit more RPGness.
It’s more like a delinearised linear shooter (i.e. it has the simplicity of a straightforward FPS but the levels are scattered around for you to do as you like) rather than an action-RPG.
Having said that, taking it for what it is, it is fun. It definitely has that consoley feel with the simplicity and the floaty mouse, but for a change it works ok on PC. It has an immediacy and explosiveness. you’re not ‘forced’ to loot every single corpse just in case they have something of value and then lug it all back to some trader. You just shoot them and leave, it’s refreshing.
So yeah, in short, it’s not what I expected (a polished Boiling Point), but it’s a lot of fun anyway.
24/10/2008 at 01:33 futage says:
*@Chis
Goddamn.
24/10/2008 at 02:17 Muzman says:
Hopefully this is like Deus Ex in that it doesn’t actually own the world in moment to moment play, but once you start to see the way things play out differently and the game react to you all is forgiven.
24/10/2008 at 02:50 Rook says:
>Jim
People are saying it’s like assassin’s creed because assassin’s creed had basically 4 sub-mission types (I forget what they all were but it was something like Save a poor beggar, Assassinate, Eaves Drop and Interrogate) which you just did over and over again. Far Cry 2 also has 4 submission types (Deliver Passports for Malaria, Take out Convoys for Arms dealers, Assassinate people for mysterious phone call guy and Buddy missions) which you can do over and over. Even the main missions (assassin’s creed had assassinations which all played out the same way, find target, chase them then kill them) all play out pretty much the the same, go to place X and either kill someone or blow something up. The buddy’s do try and add a little variety (Meet me at place Y fetch/murder Z then go to X and then rescue me) but it’s all very much the same.
>Muzman
There’s no differently, everything follows the same path regardless of what choice you take, there might be some minor differences in the case of which buddy it is, but they all do the same shit, and the main story follows the same path.
24/10/2008 at 03:21 Eli Just says:
I HATE the G3. And all the other guns are locked! Also, the enemies take WAY too many bullets to die, even on hardcore. The African setting feels oppressive and dark, but I guess it’s supposed to feel that way. Other than that, I love it.
Also, I had no issue with Alt-Tab, even though I got the same warnings. I was worried because I’d heard about the crashes, but I don’t have any problem.
24/10/2008 at 03:46 Muzman says:
I haven’t seen such polarised, contradictory reviews in quite a while. Ok, I have but people are saying the precise opposite things about this game fairly regularly. Already.
It’s linear; It’s adaptive and evolving in narrative
It’s samey; You can do things lots of different ways.
The AI is stupid; The AI is smart
It’s no more complex and Crysis; It’s infinitely more complex than Crysis.
There’s no real freedom; There’s fundamental and important freedoms.
I guess I won’t know for sure until it arrives.
24/10/2008 at 04:57 Bhlaab says:
And it will be legitimately ignored.
Publishers are thick and will just blanket any arguments with the word “piracy” as if that explains everything, despite the fact that their games are still being widely pirated (and the pirates are the only ones who don’t have to deal with the DRM!)
Anyway, I’ve dabbled in Far Cry 2. Enough to know that i probably like it. Frankly, I’m not even daring to think about other games while fallout 3 is scant days away…
24/10/2008 at 06:31 Leeks! says:
Gosh darn EB for getting in every version except the PC one–which is, of course, what my pre-order was on, good little fanboy that I am. Of course, I did sort of have that coming, being both a PC gamer and a Canadian. I think that puts my specific demographic at the bottom of pretty much every priority list.
24/10/2008 at 06:54 Klaus says:
This.
I don’t understand… ok, I understand a bit. I just don’t know how it affects so many people. If you want to buy the games, then buy them. If you want to pirate them, do so. Make your decisions and be happy with them. I lack the righteous anger but I may just be amoral.24/10/2008 at 07:52 Klapperman says:
After taking the time to really get playing I can honestly say that after a 8 hour marathon session, open-worlds suck. For me every free roaming open-world game to date has left me cold. The worlds feel shallow and empty, as if the quest for more content could only be fulfilled by having less for lack of a better term “body” to the game. Come-on, hire a good scriptwriter, have an interesting story. It’s nice to be able to shoot free-roaming AI dumbbots all over the place, but without an interesting story, why bother? Give me less freedom and more game/goal, please.
And for god sakes, give me the ability to go prone…
24/10/2008 at 08:49 Jim Rossignol says:
@Rook
That still doesn’t really seem like much of a comparison. FPS in shooting and blowing things up shocker? Hmm.
24/10/2008 at 09:01 Donald Duck says:
A heads up for Vista users – If the game is crashing a lot, disable visual themes by rightclicking on the icon in Vistas fancy game folder. Worked wonders for me.
24/10/2008 at 09:03 Ian says:
Are we talking about DRM for this game again? Isn’t there already another comments thread about this? And a thread on the forum?
24/10/2008 at 09:13 The Sombrero Kid says:
this i think is going to suffer from assasins creed syndrome it’s basically the same where there’s a big open world that’s fun to run around and slaughter people in but not much more to do, for me a fun explore and slaughter game is enough and i loved assasin’s creed and i love this.
one thing though if this was 3rd person it’d basically be a watered down GTA and maybe people are saying why can’t we have full on first person GTA!
I’m just glad these kind of games aren’t dying like Warren Spector said they are.
24/10/2008 at 09:31 AbyssUK says:
Average game with bad DRM = no sale, but doesn’t mean i won’t play it.. perhaps if they valued me as a customer i would have bought a copy. Shame isn’t it
24/10/2008 at 09:39 Cataclysm says:
@Kadayi
“so hijacking every RPS thread to endlessly beat the drum about DRM at every given opportunity is little more than trolling tbh”
Bringing up an unmentioned part of the game in a comment of a review of the game is perfectly reasonable.
I, myself do not know every game that includes a DRM or how strict the particular DRM is and I am happy that Meat Circus (on a blog I read daily) has informed me that FC2 does infact contain it.
It lowers the chance significantly that I would consider purchasing this game.
24/10/2008 at 10:11 Little Green Man says:
That is very weird that my comp with 8800GTS 320 ran it at mostly very high settings at 1280*1024 with 2*AA. Crazy. Looked much prettier than Crysis, thats for sure.
24/10/2008 at 10:12 Little Green Man says:
Oh and thank you RPS for the preview function, although the edit button would have made jump in glee.
24/10/2008 at 10:28 The Sombrero Kid says:
ooh & 8800 GT ran on full settings 1900×1200 30fps very impressive, combined with rapid start up, load and alt-tabbing times
24/10/2008 at 10:48 Dominic White says:
I must say, I just don’t get the hate that the game is getting. Probably the single most baffling thing is that a lot of people have actually been complaining that there’s too much shooting and not enough talking.
It’s an FPS. Isn’t it a good thing that there’s a lot of fighting? And for those comaplining about having to drive everywhere, use the bus stations – it cuts out at least half of the driving time from each mission.
So far, my one real gripe with the game is the acting. The writing seems passable, but everyone just talks in an absolutely flat monotone, and really, really fast like they’re trying to hurry through the script as quickly as they can.
24/10/2008 at 10:49 Dominic White says:
Perhaps people just had weird expectations of this? They expected some sort of amazing freeform adventure/RPG thing, and got a sandbox FPS.
24/10/2008 at 11:01 Ian says:
I actually quite like the driving. It bugs me a little when an enemy truck or two appear out of seemingly nowhere, but the getting out and grabbing new safehouses, taking out guard posts, etc. doesn’t bother me.
24/10/2008 at 11:22 jalf says:
Yes, and if publishers are dumb enough to push DRM in the first place, they’re *certainly* dumb enough to take every “vote by piracy” as an argument for *more* DRM. Well done. That’s why I liked Spore’s Amazon protest. Finally a visible form of protest that *doesn’t* fuel the pro-DRM arguments. Instead, you choose to demonstrate that “Piracy is still a problem, and look, people *want* our games, so if we can stop piracy, we’ll get a bajillion guaranteed sales”. Well done.
24/10/2008 at 11:23 jalf says:
wtb edit button! Just imagine the above post was formatted properly… :p
24/10/2008 at 11:26 unclelou says:
“That is very weird that my comp with 8800GTS 320 ran it at mostly very high settings at 1280*1024 with 2*AA. Crazy. Looked much prettier than Crysis, thats for sure.”
Hm, got to disagree with this. If I reduce the settings in Crysis so I get a similar farmerate as I get in FC2 at the almost highest settings, Crysis still looks significantly better. I really don’t like the look of FC2 at all.
24/10/2008 at 11:28 Rook says:
Jim > Are you trying to tell me that the quests aren’t the same four things over and over, the main missions the same thing over and over and that assassin’s creed wasn’t like that either?
24/10/2008 at 11:30 unclelou says:
“@Rook
That still doesn’t really seem like much of a comparison. FPS in shooting and blowing things up shocker? Hmm.”
I think he’s got a point. The design philosophy behind AC and FC2 is very similar in many respects. There’s much more of a game in FC2 than there ever was in AC, but the formulaic and forced nature of “repeat sidemission x to unlock y” is apparent here as well.
24/10/2008 at 11:53 rabbitsoup says:
24/10/2008 at 11:56 Paul Moloney says:
“They expected some sort of amazing freeform adventure/RPG thing, and got a sandbox FPS.”
Then they’re incapable of reading. Nowhere did anyone ever say that Far Cry 2 was anything other than an FPS; RPG was never mentioned. They may as well criticise it because there is no top-down view or base-building.
It’s burning a hole on my desk at home, will pop home for lunch and try it out.
P.
24/10/2008 at 12:32 Kieron Gillen says:
Gorgeras: “Wouldn’t it be great if magazines refused to review any games with DRM? ”
So you want all the console mags to close down?
People – there’s a preview function on your posts. Use it, re-read it and avoid mistakes.
KG
24/10/2008 at 12:33 Rook says:
Ultimately, I feel that Far Cry 2 was the game that Bioshock tried to warn me about. It should be a game that offers choice (do I side with UFLL, or PFC, do I help the rebels or my friends etc), but doesn’t. There’s nothing you can do to stop you going down this one path, I mean do I even care why I’m killing things, or why I listen to my interchangable “best buddy?”
24/10/2008 at 12:44 Jim Rossignol says:
No, I’m wondering why that matters. “Two games both have four mission types” isn’t similarity enough for it to be relevant.
The problem with Assassin’s Creed was that the four missions were always bookended with the crappy fighting, they were all kind of annoying and unbelievable, and were framed with a cutscene-draped nonsense fiction. Far Cry 2 on the other hand is quite a good FPS, suffering none of those problems. The missions are all “go have a big fight”. And that’s the point of FPS games.
Drawing a parallel between the two simply isn’t useful, whether you’re criticising the game, or lauding it.
24/10/2008 at 12:49 Kieron Gillen says:
I haven’t played enough of FC2 to really comment but the number of missions doesn’t mean anything. The problem with Assasin’s Creed was one of the four missions was *just sitting on a bench*.
KG
24/10/2008 at 12:53 Paul Moloney says:
That’s great – with a little effort, someone could make a Euro Old Age Pensioner Simulator mod.
P.
24/10/2008 at 12:57 Jim Rossignol says:
One sitting on a bench game.
24/10/2008 at 13:05 Poe says:
I’ve been looking forward to playing this since I heard about it on the last PCG UK podcast. Unfortunately the activation servers don’t seem to be working currently. Hopefully they fix their problem and I’ll be able to play sometime today.
24/10/2008 at 13:11 Larington says:
People talking about DRM again?
The topics gotten tedious for me as well.
24/10/2008 at 13:16 Dominic White says:
It just occured to me that while people are complaining about FC2 (intended to be a pretty straightforward FPS from the start) not being enough like an RPG, an almost equal number of people – RPS folks included – are complaining about Fallout 3 (an RPG first and foremost) not being enough like an FPS.
Why, this apple that I bought that looks like an apple tastes like an apple, and not an orange! I am shocked and appalled!
Just eat yer goddamn apples.
24/10/2008 at 13:17 Rook says:
I’m not really sure how you can’t see you’re playing the same 5 minutes over and over again with a slightly different background.
24/10/2008 at 13:23 Dominic White says:
Rook: You could say the same of all first person shooters. You walk forward, you find bad dudes, you shoot them with guns until they die. You do it again in different environments, with different guns, against more/different enemies, but it’s still the same core gameplay.
The only question that should reasonably be asked is ‘Is it fun?’.
24/10/2008 at 13:30 Kadayi says:
jalf
You can reinstall the game as many times as you want to, you simply have to contact the publisher after the 5th time to gain an authorization code. How likely are you to reinstall a SP story driven FPS in say the next 3 years? Given after 3 years Ubi will probably disable the install limitation by then? how addicted are you to fully upgrading your computer and completely reinstalling your games that you do it every 3-4 months and have a penchant for replaying the same game repeatedly, rather than buying nicer, shinier newer games that might make your new hardware sing? It’s a phantom one legged Indian with an eye patch complaint at the end of the day when you do truly consider the probabilities on it. I’m sure those rare Indians sleep better for knowing their cause is being argued ad infinitum by ardent non gamers though.
24/10/2008 at 13:38 Rook says:
With Far Cry 2 it’s never a slight variation, it’s exactly the same thing. Every roadside encounter plays out exactly the same way, guy drives straight into you, then get’s out his vehicle only to be shot by my uzi. I must have played through that scenario 100+ times.
I don’t mind that people like that or think it’s good, I liked assassins creed because I liked those 5 minutes. But I wouldn’t deny to someone that it was just the same 4 things over and over again, or tell them it didn’t matter because what else are you going to do in a medieval assassin sim.
And similarly if someone tried to claim that Far Cry 2 was this amazing non-linear experience that completely revolutionised the FPS genre than I would look at them strangely. If it then turned out they had the world exclusive review and cover story on their magazine…
Kieron> You had to sit on the bench, then follow your target to a secluded spot and beat him into submission, then kill him.
24/10/2008 at 13:47 Jim Rossignol says:
I’m sorry you seem to be trapped in Groundhog Day, Rook. My experiences so far have been of a surprisingly diverse series of battles, with all kinds of shooting-based variation.
And I do love that “setting everything on fire” stuff.
24/10/2008 at 13:48 Kieron Gillen says:
And in the game?
(That was aimed at Rook, but works with Jim too. It’s that kind of joke)
KG
24/10/2008 at 14:04 StalinsGhost says:
Gah! DRM is actually refusing to acknowledge my legit serial. Editor works nicely though.
24/10/2008 at 14:06 Dominic White says:
The only point of repetition I’ve found so far is the little guard checkpoints scattered around. My experience with them usually involves driving right through them, squashing a guard or two and perhaps even knocking down a building. Maybe about a quarter of the checkpoints contain a guy in a jeep who’ll try to ram/shoot me, so I hop out of my car and shotgun him, then continue to the mission area.
Such encounters are usually around the 10-second-long mark, and break up the monotony of driving fairly well.
The mission fights are excellent. Usually a huge area crawling with enemies and with lots of alternate routes, high sniping points, barrels and explodables. Each fight can play out completely differently depending on what loadout I’m carrying around, too. A sniper rifle makes for a wildly different battle to a rocket launcher.
24/10/2008 at 14:07 Flint says:
StalinsGhost:
Use the manual activator. And if it still screams errors at you, check the Os and zeroes.
24/10/2008 at 14:20 StalinsGhost says:
Done and done. None of those worked.
But I’m playing the game now to be quite frank, and with no thanks to Ubi or SecuROM.
24/10/2008 at 14:21 Cataclysm says:
@Kadayi
Its the fact you are limited. You never know how many times you will need to reinstall your game and update your computer, but you should not be limited when you buy a game, especially when you are MORE limited than the pirates that had the game the day before it was released!
Its a matter of principal. When is it time to voice your concerns? When you have 1 installation limit and every other installation you need to pay £3.99?
DRM is part of the game, legally and is worth commenting on when its included in a game, even if its merely “sadly the game does contain DRM that has an activation limit of 5, but it doesn’t appear to cause any other crashes – aside from that its a brilliant game” at the end of a review.
The comments section is for blog readers to post their comments relating to the blog post. In this case Meat Circus wanted to mention the DRM contained on the game and that he doesn’t like it.
24/10/2008 at 14:24 K says:
Not recognising my serial either. *sigh*
24/10/2008 at 14:39 unclelou says:
Probably obvious, but the CD-key is one of those “0″ looks like “O” affairs, or vice versa, I have already forgotten. Might be worth a try.
24/10/2008 at 14:45 unclelou says:
Read the thread, Lou.
Sorry, I just saw it has already been posted. :)
24/10/2008 at 14:47 darthpugwash says:
Won’t recognise my serial either. :/
There aren’t any Os or 0s in there, and I tried subbing out the Vs for Us, but no luck.
24/10/2008 at 14:51 Paul Moloney says:
Installed fine for me. I noticed that the first time it started up, nothing happened; a process called something like farcry2_authentication appeared then disappeared. The second time I started it, all went well.
Between installing, authenticating, and the initial loading – which took a LONG time (did anyone else get this?) I only got to see a bit of the intro.
P.
24/10/2008 at 15:09 Deuteronomy says:
I HATE the hitscan weapons. The entire feel of the game leaves me with the impression of cardboard. The respawning enemies are idiots, it takes way too many hits to bring them down, and the graphics while nice enough are not even in the same league as Crysis. Stupid consolized weapon unlocking system. Overly easy even on the hardest difficulty. Repetitive checkpoint encounters.
There is no doubt why the game’s called Far Cry 2. It plays (in terms of weapon feel and movement) and looks nearly as good as Far Cry 1. Not a horrible game, but it doesn’t even come close to the hype.
Stalker remains the king of the open world shooter.
24/10/2008 at 15:09 N says:
Are the buddies selected randomly? or do they depend on what character you select in the beginning?
24/10/2008 at 15:29 K says:
Sorry, won’t mention it again, but…
The serial issue is a pretty common one, and they are apparently aware of it, but are too shy to say unless you ask. They say either the server is too busy, or the serials aren’t entered into the database yet. I’d have thought the database would already exist, so they can print them onto the manual in the first place, but I am wrong. So, all you can do is wait/retry.
24/10/2008 at 15:32 maxmcg says:
I find it incredibly annoying that if you are from Europe, you can’t buy this game on Steam, Direct2Drive, Ubisoft’s own service or any other digital download store *anywhere* for that matter.
Are not digital stores safer for publishers piracy-wise? And all this talk about DRM…
Are they just asking for the disgruntled would-be customers, those without easy access to high street stores, disabled people or otherwise just lazy people to pirate their game? Because it’s just a few clicks of the mouse away if that’s the route you want to take.
I don’t want another bloody box and another DVD I need to put in the drive. My shelves are cluttered with them. The whole thing angers me so much I won’t buy this game. In fact I’m really tempted for the first time to pirate it out of pure spite.
What the hell are Ubisoft thinking here?
24/10/2008 at 15:37 Paul Moloney says:
“I don’t want another bloody box and another DVD I need to put in the drive. My shelves are cluttered with them. The whole thing angers me so much I won’t buy this game. ”
Here’s clinching proof that video games do cause violent behaviour.
P.
24/10/2008 at 16:03 Rook says:
N> Buddies are random, but they all basically have the same role/quests just with slightly different lines of dialogue.
24/10/2008 at 16:04 Mman says:
“I find it incredibly annoying that if you are from Europe, you can’t buy this game on Steam, Direct2Drive, Ubisoft’s own service or any other digital download store *anywhere* for that matter.”
Yes, where are the Angry Internet Men on this issue? Screw DRM, this crap is what has just lost them a sale from me.
24/10/2008 at 16:10 maxmcg says:
Yeah, if ever you needed proof that it’s the Angry Internet Men that are the ones pirating games, that’s it.
They don’t know you can’t buy the games because they don’t buy them anyway, they just shout about hard they are to copy.
24/10/2008 at 16:26 Jim Rossignol says:
Okay, the thing that is really bugging me is the AI/vehicle stuff. The zooming in headlong guns blazing is great, but then what the hell is with them just standing next to their vehicle when they get out? Rubbish.
I think if they couldn’t make that work they should have left it out entirely, or found some way for the AI to keep driving – or have the guy shoot with a pistol from his seat – anything! The NPC stupids are a real annoyance.
The general on-foot fighting has been fun so far, especially when lots of explosives are involved. The AI confusion doesn’t manifest anything like as badly there.
This is going to make a really interesting verdict when we get round to it, I suspect, as all the RPS team seem to have their own likes and dislikes well mapped out.
24/10/2008 at 16:46 Paul Moloney says:
They MAY just buy if the developers agree to DOWNLOAD games DIRECTLY into their minds. For FREE.
P.
24/10/2008 at 16:56 Leeks! says:
Good god yes.
24/10/2008 at 17:04 Nimic says:
So, still not possible to buy this game digitally. I wonder if developers realize how many purchases they lose to piracy over crap like this. Not that I’ll even bother pirating. I’ve heard too much tedious crap over it in here to do that. Besides, I’ve got way too many games to play already.
24/10/2008 at 17:06 Colthor says:
@maxmcg:
Or, possibly, they looked at the price through Steam and realised it’s so ridiculous it renders the “can’t buy it from them” moot, because nobody in their right minds would anyway.
Or, possibly, when you’re not buying a game because of the copy protection, it renders the “where do you buy it from?” question rather pointless.
And to counter your foolish and insulting assertion; the pirates have no reason what-so-ever to care about either the copy protection or the shops you can buy it from, so why would they bother commenting on either?
24/10/2008 at 17:09 Ian says:
I love discs in boxes.
<3<3<3
24/10/2008 at 17:10 Paul Moloney says:
“So, still not possible to buy this game digitally. I wonder if developers realize how many purchases they lose to piracy over crap like this.”
It takes me far less typing/mouse-clicks to buy a game on play.com than on Steam; for one thing, it keeps a record of my credit card. I think it’s about 5 mouse clicks.
Am I getting old – 38 on Tuesday – or is the sense of entitlement that some PC gamers have, and the huge effort which they find the simplest tasks to perform, bizarre to anyone else?
God be with the days when it used to take 5 whole minutes to load up a Spectrum game from tape, every single time. And more often than not, the Speccie spontaneously rebooted at the end of the load.
And that’s not even counting having to type in games listings.
P.
24/10/2008 at 17:12 Dominic White says:
I got a boxed copy, because it was only £25 off play.com, and came in a fancy shiny metal case. Even if they had offered it on Steam (and I could have gotten it ‘gifted’ to me by US-resident friends), it probably would have been more expensive anyway.
24/10/2008 at 17:15 Paul Moloney says:
Damn; I went for the shopto.net offer, which was a tad cheaper, but hence came in the cheapy plastic one. It’s, like, totally shallow, but I do like those metal cases.
P.
24/10/2008 at 17:17 suibhne says:
The respawning checkpoints are laughable: enemies respawn within (real-life) minutes and almost right next to you, which is amazingly jarring and “gamey” in contrast to the game’s realism and immersiveness. How do they get there? There are no new cars or boats; the new enemies simply appear out of thin air, with no variety or logic.
Driving through works fine, except when it doesn’t; every shotgun blast to your car makes it run more slowly, and it only takes two good shots or so before you can no longer outrun the pursuing Jeep. And those river checkpoints…forget it. The swamp boats travel slowly enough that you’re forced to deal with every river checkpoint rather than bypass it.
So much of the game is smart and fun that I’m just boggled they couldn’t have handled this glaring design problem with more intelligence.
24/10/2008 at 17:18 Colthor says:
Wheras at the full $49.99+VAT it’d cost you at least £37.63 from Steam.
24/10/2008 at 17:23 Nimic says:
@ Paul Maloney:
Assumptions is the mother of all fuck-ups. Not everyone lives right next to a game store. Not everyone can just take a quick trip into town to pick up the game they want. Also getting my games on Steam, or most other digital services, is cheaper, quicker and safer.
24/10/2008 at 17:26 Paul Moloney says:
Call of Duty 4 is still $69 + VAT (€56/£44) on Steam which is nuts. Then again, it’s stil one of the highest sellers there, a year after a release, which makes me thing that (a) there is one born every minute and (b) I don’t think the publisher can complain too much about not making any money off the PC version.
P.
24/10/2008 at 17:28 Paul Moloney says:
“Assumptions is the mother of all fuck-ups. Not everyone lives right next to a game store. Not everyone can just take a quick trip into town to pick up the game they want.”
Neither do I, which is why I mentioned play.com. Actually, the nearest game store is only 10 minutes walk away, but like most retail PC stores they normally charge ridiculous prices.
I’m sorry, but the unending ceaseless whining from people who sound like spoiled brats just gets to me.
P.
24/10/2008 at 17:49 Bhazor says:
Oh I agree totally about the minor issues ruining a blindingly deep and ambitious game. I mean it’s not as if you can just download minor repairs that are released on a semi regular basis by a developer or community.
Why the hell didn’t they keep it in development for another six months?
Also about the people refusing to buy this game because it isn’t available for download on the first day. So cute! It’s like little kids refusing to drink that yucky apple juice unless it’s in their superman cup that makes everything super tasty. Between this and the NMA forum I’m beginning to see why developers are leaving the PC. Piracy may be used as an excuse by them but how many people above have advocated piracy?
24/10/2008 at 17:54 dhex says:
the good:
had to go intimidate a dude. after killing a bazillion people in this otherwise awesome looking villa, i find the dude and intimidate him. after his dirty deed is done, he just sort of looked at me imploringly. but i had to shoot him. he sort of looked like he knew that too.
the voice acting is pretty good. people sound impatient, as one would think in the middle of a horrible situation.
last night, i plowed through one in a truck, and hit three guys like bowling pins. right before i hit the checkpoint one guy said “ahn vhat do vee ave eeeer?” right before he flew into the air.
FIRE! FIRE FIRE FIRE! holy crap that’s an excellent thing.
the bad:
i get more drive-bys than a movie about gang warfare. i’ll be hanging out and it’s all HERE COME DA BOOM every five minutes. jeeze louise!
people are far too hard to kill, though at least headshots work, mostly. i think.
it is sort of ugly, but i think a lot of that is the fotzed FOV. once that’s hacked/fixed/patched/whatever, i think we’ll see some improvements.
oh hey securom update: their first response was the text from the website; the second was how to manually run their analysis tool. i will reinstall the game so i can crash it out and re-try the analysis tool.
i would like to think we come one step closer to an actual answer, but…breath is not being held.
24/10/2008 at 17:55 Mman says:
“Also about the people refusing to buy this game because it isn’t available for download on the first day. ”
No? The whole point is that it’s likely to never come up for download.
24/10/2008 at 17:59 Bhazor says:
Reply to Mman
From the steam news browser.
“Far Cry 2, the highly anticipated sequel to the hit action game is now available on Steam.
Far Cry 2 is now available to customers in North America for just $49.99″
http://store.steampowered.com/news/1918/
24/10/2008 at 18:02 Mman says:
Oh, I forgot, North America is the only country in the world.
24/10/2008 at 18:41 Flint says:
Main annoyances with the game at the moment are car-driving enemies which seem to just spawn out of nowhere in the middle of the jungle, and that the PC version lacks the achievements that the PS3 and Xbox versions have.
Otherwise I’m enjoying greatly.
24/10/2008 at 18:58 Fumarole says:
I was standing near a bush when a grenade went off near me. Close to death when the fight was over, I had to pull a frickin’ twig (complete with leaves) out of my arm before I could proceed.
You just gotta love things like that.
24/10/2008 at 18:59 Chris R says:
So far I’ve played 15 hours, and haven’t seen any of these respawning issues that some of you are having.
Also, are you guys actually landing hits on the enemies?? I can usually take down 1 bad guy with a couple bursts (a couple of 3 round bursts in quick succession) to their chest and head area… Using the silenced MP5 does take a bit longer to kill people, but the AK 47 and AR-15 are incredible… upgrade people! Throw that POS G3 away as soon as possible. Also, I never shoot from the hip (crosshairs are disabled, my choice), and always use the iron sights… maybe that’s why you guys think it takes forever to kill an enemy, since more than half your shots are missing the target?
24/10/2008 at 19:39 K says:
I’m not sure why they bothered with that opening, it was terminally dull. Nothing’s drawing me in; I’m just not feeling any atmosphere yet, and everything seems kind of sluggish. I’ll have to give it another chance at a later date. I guess I’m in the mood for something else.
24/10/2008 at 20:00 Gorgeras says:
Yes I do think console mags should close down. They scream obnoxious things from their front covers and have such a reliance on soft-porn(PC Format seems to at least try to go that low, but still can’t manage it) that they can’t be anything other than a damning indictment on their Zoo-esque readership.
I’m elitist.
24/10/2008 at 20:04 Novotny says:
If you’re feeling sluggish, update your gfx card drivers. The new NV ones reduced the mouse lag which was really bothering me. 8800GT.
I also deleted razor reg entries, as I have given away their ridiculous copperhead 3G ‘mouse’ (more kite on a windy day than exact pointy device) and gone back to my trusty MX518. This might have had something to do with it too.
24/10/2008 at 20:11 Novotny says:
Oh and the shiny blood irritates. As it did in Bioshock. I’d much rather have black bits in the spewing claret. Don’t round on me, you crazy pitchforked fools – the gross is already there, it’s just the making it shiny that annoys.
Reflective on the floor, maybe, but coming out like bright red mercury? DAFT
24/10/2008 at 20:38 Deadpan says:
I can only hope one of the first mods out the gate is to fix …
- Blood appearance
- NPCs taking longer to fill in the checkpoints, maybe upgrading things after some maniac (you) already mowed the place down for the 60th time that day.
- NPC x-ray vision through foliage.
- More that one diamond in a hidden, GPS-tagged case.
- NPCs having a little more weapon variety than degrees of rust.
- Option to strap carcasses of animals I run down to the hood of my jeep to sell to the local butcher.
- Option to strap carcasses of NPCs I run down to the hood of my jeep to sell to the local butcher..
- Option to buy a rucksack or something to hold more ammo and needles.
- Longer lasting cloak.
- Stealth Kills
Add your own demands.
24/10/2008 at 20:57 Trollish says:
Guys, it is available on Steam in Europe too. I just tried buying it, and it works. So stop complaining.
24/10/2008 at 21:05 ikigeg says:
I really liked the original far cry and remember the ooh and ahh at the graphics at the time, plus it was a good little jaunt with a steep enough difficulty curve to encourage you to play through… sure it wasn’t without its faults – I remember grabbing a big flatbed truck and mistiming an escape through some fenced gates, driving very quickly into them, to be suddenly presented with a view of the floor. Upon exiting the vehicle, I got to watch it pirouette (sp?) and slowly move through the length of the gate…
So that was the original, but now we have far cry 2 – and in every sense it is a far cry from the original setting and indeed the “normal” world we live in… gritty, deadly, full of zebra, abandoned shacks, and creepy disembodied voices (like that of the puppet in Saw) talking to you through transmitters all over the place asking you to kill people… very realistic looking world for the most part. An actual return to exploration which I have so very much missed in games – always a treat finding diamonds in suitcases next to dead bodies – and seeing a sunrise is actually quite beautiful as bullets whiz past :)
I have only discovered a few negatives so far:
1. the driving feels weird, lacking the usual slide i’m used to when turning
2. haven’t seen many friendly npc’s yet, mainly just random bad guys defending places in the middle of nowhere; above all else i think that will bore me and leave me to leave the game more than anything else
3. not convinced by the buddy thing either, sure its a possible way to get rid of quick save-itis, but i still quick save… it feels more like a gimmicky alternative to the auto-heal of other games. Having said that I do like the healing system, when you are down to nearly empty health, pressing heal scoops the bullet out of you and stops you being critical – before having to heal again to do it properly this time… nice touch.
On the plus side:
- The fire and explosions are gorgeous, although i’m a little disappointed that fire does stop at a particular radius… i can understand it, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it :P
- When you get spotted by someone in a vehicle and they drive quickly at you, the engine actually growls with effort! awesome :) and has made me jump more than once
I’m going to keep playing, I haven’t heard much about people completing it yet so who knows, maybe the Jackal was involved with the mutations on the previous far cry – and later on we discover men with zebra legs and lion-o red hair… i live in hope!
For those who care I am actually running this on a Quadro FX 1700, AMD 64 X2 4200, 2GB RAM and 64-bit Vista. It runs smooth on the lower settings, not amazing looking but enough to suck me in :)
24/10/2008 at 21:29 Bhazor says:
I’m pretty certain the bright shiny blood is by design. Allowing you to see if you hit someone through dense scrub. After just an hour I can see it’s usefulness.
24/10/2008 at 21:52 Justin says:
I think more games should be described in terms of their contrast with Stalker.
I think I’ve got 100+ (200+?) hours in Stalker: SOC with the Oblivion Lost modification, and there’s no stopping point in sight. Which is slightly worrisome.
24/10/2008 at 22:02 Novotny says:
Interesting point Bhazor – I’m just getting into the game, but couldn’t the (hit/no hit?) issue not work as a game mechanic? As in , I’ve emptied three mags at this c@@@, and now it’s all quiet. Am I getting flanked? Is he still there, spewing stuff? Gotta move, etc etc
I’m just hating on the shiny blood big time.
24/10/2008 at 22:16 Novotny says:
Ok Justin
Cribbage Vs S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Gfx
Cribbage 2 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 8
Look at the cards. Look at your mates. Look at the beer.
Sound FX
Cribbage 9 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 8
Listen to them whine. Slag your mates in real-time.
Replayabilty
Cribbage 10 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 7
Crikey, Cribs wins!!
24/10/2008 at 22:20 Rook says:
Racer_S (Bioshock Widescreen hac) has a hack out for Far Cry 2 widescreen.
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=143018#143018
Does look better imo, although shame the wing mirrors don’t work in the car.
24/10/2008 at 22:57 Dominic White says:
The widescreen hack has a pretty major problem – there’s huge, perfectly rectangular shadows cast across the entire world. This is especially obvious when in desert or flat areas.
I’ll play with a tighter FOV until that is fixed, as it looks really goddamn weird.
24/10/2008 at 23:42 Rook says:
Maybe that’s your drivers/settings cause it looks fine to me. Although I am using the 180.42 beta set from nVidia.
24/10/2008 at 23:49 Dominic White says:
ATI card here – a few others have reported seeing the same issue. It looks fine indoors, but once you get into the more sparsely decorated areas it becomes apparent. It’s not an obvious glitch – they literally are large, striped areas of properly cast shadow.
25/10/2008 at 00:22 Paul Moloney says:
I came home tonight to play it, but first installed the latest nVidia beta driver, which is recommended for Far Cry 2.
Unfortunately, now I’m hit with a “splash screen, then nothing” error which is common on the official forum:
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1821007696/m/7941018696/p/6
Don’t know if it’s the new driver or not – I’ll try uninstalling, then using DriverCleaner to see if that is the issue.
P.
25/10/2008 at 00:39 Rook says:
Yeah, Racer_S got given an 8800 by 2k because of bioshock so it figures that it would be a card issue.
25/10/2008 at 01:05 deadbob says:
I had a blunt message on installing Farcry2 that my video drivers were out of date, as i’d only updated them the week before to try and sort out a problem with Warhammer online, I ignored it and the games been great even at max settings.
25/10/2008 at 01:18 malkav11 says:
I’ve actually been rather disappointed by the fire. It was advertised as this sudden, elemental force that might catch from hot bullet casings or an exploded grenade and run wild, trapping me in an expanding world of flames. Instead, I can toss molotov cocktails all over and they won’t even catch blatantly flammable things on fire half the time. When a fire does start, it goes a few feet, burns a little while, and peters out. It’s completely failed to be any sort of active game force. I’m hoping that this isn’t due to playing on Easy… I really hate it when developers make easier difficulties easy by taking out interesting game elements.
25/10/2008 at 01:22 ikigeg says:
regarding the fires i couldn’t agree more!
thanks to the prior coverage I was imagining big country wide forest fires that turned the sky black, wildlife running for dear life…. but yeah, a circle about 10 meters in diameter small woop
i do remember getting hit by a bit of an explodey car tho, that was cool, especially as i was hiding behind a tree… damn you partially exposed shoulder
25/10/2008 at 01:22 Kadayi says:
@Cataclysm
from Ubi on the issue of their DRM:-
Some DRM points that will hopefully answer some of your questions and will clarify some misunderstandings about our DRM and SecuROM:
- You have 5 activations on 3 separate PCs.
- Uninstalling the game “refunds” an activation. This process is called “revoke”, so as long as you complete proper uninstall you will be able to install the game an unlimited number of times on 3 systems.
- You can upgrade your computer as many time as you want (using our revoke system)
- Ubisoft is committed to the support of our games, and additional activations can be provided.
- Ubisoft is committed to the long term support of our games: you’ll always be able to play Far Cry 2.
Seems fairly straight forward tbh, and no mention of anyone being charged anything as you seem to imply in your last post.
25/10/2008 at 01:26 Nimic says:
Well, Far Cry 2 is now on Steam. I don’t know what changed (or if this was the plan all along), but for once I decided to take a quick look at the store to see if there was anything new. Lo and behold, Far Cry 2 was there. I wasn’t sure if it was just a slip-up (happened before, The Witcher was on my Steam a while before its release as well). I purchased it though, and it said (EU/AUS).
Currently downloading at 1.4 MB/s. I’m a bit disappointed that it isn’t faster, but it’s already at 9%, so it’ll do. I won’t get any sleep tonight, though.
25/10/2008 at 01:37 Radiant says:
drm aside on the PC it looks terrible in wide screen as the top and bottom are cropped so your view is nearly halved.
Apparently there is a fix in the works like they did with bioshock.
In the mean time dont play this in widescreen.
25/10/2008 at 01:38 Radiant says:
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14737
25/10/2008 at 01:40 Radiant says:
oh I just read up 5 posts my bad.
25/10/2008 at 01:54 John Malcolm says:
I like it in general. Like many people I feel that it has lost some potential by being “dumbed-down” for swollen thumbed console using idiots, but in general I like it.
Stuff I don’t like:
1) No prone… heard this was a console controller “not enough buttons thing)
2) No lean (as above)
3) No TrackIR support (put all that time into making a game immersive and not at least try basic trackir support? why not?)
4) No handy compass or watch (or how many diamonds have I got screen)
5) No ability to use the monocular thingie WITHOUT waving a guge unfolded map about in front of your face.
6) Gun Dealer missions: Why oh why do these missions always involve attacking a convoy of 2 armed vehicles and 1 truck…. which circle a route even AFTER you’ve attacked them? Why not simply be told they are miving from A to B via C, leaving at such and such a time… end of story.
7. More wildlife please.
8. More civs please
9. I’d rather the AI didn’t shoot on sight… and there was at least the pretence that they waited until they could identify you as enemy.
10. Unlocking weapons is rubbish…. Why not simply be able to buy, find and maintain weapons…. I don’t get this unlimted supply thing.
I do like the game though. Great atmospehere… fire… explosions… shooting! Hopefully some stuff will get patched into it.
25/10/2008 at 02:15 Pags says:
My thoughts on this game can be read on the forums, which coincidentally more people ought to populate.
25/10/2008 at 02:28 John Malcolm says:
Oh… for all the pople having problems putting their multiplayer serials in:
a) They might be caps sensitive
b) Use the numeric keypad for numbers
c) Put the hyphens in
d) Wonder why you bothered… multiplayer seems rather weak and a complete waste of a wonderful map editor. People should drop dead like a sack of potatoes when you shoot them in the face… not continue to shoot back for ages.
25/10/2008 at 05:23 Nimic says:
Okay, after playing this for just a little while, I can safely say that this is nowhere as good as Crysis. Granted, it could massively surprise me in the next couple of hours, but I just don’t like the feel of it, and that includes the actual feel of the controls. To be brutally frank, it feels like it was made for consoles (which it probably was). I’ll still play it, but only time will tell if I’ll ever bother trying to finish it.
25/10/2008 at 05:26 Nahual says:
I went from “This game is awesome!” to “Ok, it’s still good” to “PULLING MY HAIR OUT NOW!” in about 4 hours of game play.
It’s the damn guard posts, the game is actually does have a very crammed feeling (50 square kms sound like a lot but it’s really just a 7×7 km box) so it actually only takes like about 3-5 mins of pure driving to make it from one corner of the map to the next. So what was the solution to make it seem larger? Litter guard posts all over the map, it’s insane, there’s at least 3 guardpost for ever mile of road, takes 10-20 seconds to get from the one you just killed to the next. And you can’t very much ignore them cause they will get on their trucks and follow you till you die or kill them.
That by itself didn’t bother me, it was the damn respawns, even if you scout the post, as soon as you drive out of sight they respawn and you have to kill them over and over again. There’s one post i’ve killed about 8 times by now and that was enough for me.
So this game is just BROKEN for me, I just can’t keep on going with this incredibly lame attempts to artificially lengthen the game. At this point I would have had more fun burning my 50 bucks.
I kindda envy consoles now, cause I can’t get a refund from Steam.
25/10/2008 at 09:01 Teck Lee Tan says:
So I see a bunch of comments mentioning they’ve finally relented and released it on Steam elsewhere. I go check, and wonderful! Everywhere but bloody Asia. Sigh.
25/10/2008 at 10:26 Flint says:
(or how many diamonds have I got screen)
You can find that info on the statistics screen.
25/10/2008 at 12:57 Paul Moloney says:
Well, after finding I couldn’t even log into the Ubi.com UK support site (the Terms of Services page has no accept button, and I try to do anything else, I’m logged out) I downloaded the crack and it works.
Pathetic, isn’t it?
I’m now in an anti-DRM mood today.
P.
25/10/2008 at 12:58 qrter says:
I have to agree on the guard posts. The respawning is much too fast. It has gotten old very, very quickly.
I’m kind of surprised at how many people call this game “real” – it’s been a while since I’ve seen the strings as much as in this game, as in that a lot of things are abstracted in such a way that it shows a lot (one is buying a weapon and upgrades once – you can get a new copy of that weapon at one of your safehouses, you’re never carrying a unique copy – maybe there’s a limit to this, it seems like it works that way).
It’s also interesting to see people comparing this game to STALKER, seeing as STALKER has something that Far Cry 2 sorely misses – a sense of wonder. The world of STALKER is truly a new experience, filled with genuine “what the fuck” moments, which provide a strong momentum for the player to keep moving forward, to keep accepting missions.
25/10/2008 at 13:25 Mman says:
So the game has mysteriously appeared on European Steam?
Bought!
25/10/2008 at 16:25 Larington says:
I’ve had a few issues myself, started with the guessing which symbols in the reg key are 0 or o and V or U, etc.
In game, I wish I could say I was getting something as comical as a guard pinning me into a corner and pissing all over my character, but all I seem to be getting atm is certain key talking characters will start doing this wierd left right random strafing (without movement animations).
The first instance of this I got was the bloke at the guardpost on the cab journey to the hotel, and the guard who did all the talking spent some time doing some comical bouncy human low-riding (like those daft cars in hip hop videos). Comical yes, immersion breaking? Definately.
I’m also not impressed with the really randomised getting jumped by jeeps thing, theres no explanation for it and little to no warning, so it makes for a really jarring experience.
Me thinks theres gonna be a patch on the way, it feels as though there was insufficient polish done on this game leading up to release, probably publisher to blame for that (again).
26/10/2008 at 00:54 reaver says:
I’ll just add that the developers went with toggle crouch but you have to hold a button for iron sights. Totally the wrong way round (duck-jumping with toggle crouch sucks, and holding the iron sight gets tedious in a long firefight) and it annoys me incredibly. The worst thing is that there’s no way to reconfigure it.
Otherwise the first few hours have been fun. I’m not doing any missions – maybe someone who’s completed it can say (in a non-spoilery way) if just by causing random chaos across the map I can meet (and perhaps kill) the jackal?
26/10/2008 at 01:28 Kadayi says:
Jeeps are not the only way to get around. The Buses are quite useful for getting closer to various locations, and the waterways can be quite fruitful in terms of getting you about relatively unmolested as well as finding those elusive diamonds, plus you feel totally Rambo/Apocalypse Now badass going up and down the rivers in your skiff, wearing a Bandana is of course optional ;)
26/10/2008 at 02:02 Pags says:
You made a boo-boo Kadayi, wearing a bandana is mandatory.
26/10/2008 at 02:07 Kadayi says:
It spoils my camouflage;)
26/10/2008 at 02:08 K says:
Well, I don’t know how you’re all managing it. But I’m having problems distinguishing enemies from the environment. I think it’s possibly the only example of a game where they managed to make colours frustrate me. Single most annoying thing about the game for me, even the sky annoys me, grrr!
26/10/2008 at 03:13 Kadayi says:
Don’t scope until you see movement. You kind of look at the middle distance as you pan, and pan slowly.
26/10/2008 at 04:44 reaver says:
K – the difference is that the environment doesn’t shoot at you.
(Seriously, normal difficulty seems pretty easy so far, let them have the first shot. It’s more exciting.)
26/10/2008 at 04:53 Candid_Man says:
I really wish some peeps find it in themselves to mod that game. So much of what frustrates me about it (apart from marginal consolitis) amount to a few calibrations:
+enemy respawn time (classic, I know),
+NPC hostility (if, say, only one in three vehicles or checkpoints recognized you as -that- mercenary – the others would simply ignore you)
+Some way to bring up the watch and binocular without the map/sleeping
+Render machete-kill silent. (also, remove that whole “one kill alerts everyone around”)
+Some other niggles.
Maybe Ubi will ultimately patch some of this in, but I’m not holding my breath. They have a pretty poor record regarding pc updates.
And yeah, the bus and fishboats are a blessing to today’s commuting mercenary.
26/10/2008 at 06:40 qrter says:
I love how you can’t move 100 meters in a car without someone pulling up behind you, trying to ram you off the road but when you take a bus nothing happens. Bad people avoid public transport, apparently (well.. except the player character, perhaps).
I’m really getting annoyed by the diamond case mechanic too – who the hell leaves all these cases lying around and why am I the only one who catches their GPS signal?
When I go to an arms dealer, everything is animated. I have to sit down behind the computer (took me a while to figure that out, btw), I zoom in on the screen, when I’m done I have to wait for the standing-up-animation. Yet my newly purchased weapon isn’t handed to me by the actual arms dealer himself (who you’d expect I would actually talk to about purchasing a weapon..), it’s in the house next door. I just don’t get that whole thing with all the naturalism and then the strange abstracted ‘weapons out of nowhere’ thing.
I know, I know, it’s just a game.. it all just feels so terribly artificial to me and arbitrarily so.
Anyway – I have a question – is there any actual benefit to ‘scoping’ a guardpost, or is it just a completely arbitrary counter going one up, as I’m suspecting it is? (Because at first I was under the silly impression that scoping a guardpost would mean neutralising it in some way, so guards wouldn’t respawn as soon as I looked another way, but no.)
26/10/2008 at 07:37 Y3k-Bug says:
@qrter
You’re not being silly in your critique at all; you notice the videogamey aspects of the game more because other parts of it are trying so hard to be realistic. The game is really schizophrenic that way. I have to realistically (up to a point anyway) address my wounds by pulling out the shrapnel, but I have to hunt for randomly placed cases with one diamond in them? And since they only have one diamond each in them, why is it worth my time to find them again?
I have to admit, I don’t think the game is very good at all. I’d have given it a 6/10 personally.
26/10/2008 at 09:16 Muzman says:
While this game does sound like it contains an uneasy mix of gamey and realistic elements at times, a diamond can be worth a staggering amount of money. A single 1 carat brilliant cut diamond of good quality could get you upwards of $20,000 US dollars a couple of year ago.
Don’t let the candy like way they are scooped up in platform games fool you.
26/10/2008 at 10:18 MightyYesac says:
I find the Assassins Creed comparison fairly apt; not because the game mechanics are similar but because both game worlds feel equally lacking. To wit: FC2 promises an open world, but unclimbable canyons everywhere turn it into a serious of outdoor coridoors, reminiscent of Creed’s Kingdom sequences and not-as-interactive-as-you-think cities. Contrast this with, say Oblivion, where you can go almost anywhere from anywhere with side-quests aplenty to follow or ignore as you like. When wandering “off-mission” in FC2 and Creed you get a sense that there’s little to do but kill generic baddies.
The best open-world games give you a feeling that the world is alive, and that new menace or adventure lurks everywhere. Far Cry 2 and Creed feel stale and artificial : one has ever-present respawning checkpoints, the other arbitrary horse speed-limits; both leave you, the player, feeling apart from the world, not part of it. Crysis had a less open world with a focused narrative and escalating tension; Oblivion had a rather weak main narrative but hundreds of interesting side tasks. Far Cry 2, for me, falls unhappily in the middle : the narrative is too weak to carry the action, but the gameworld does not deliver the freedom it initially promises.
Those are my impressions after 6 or 7 hours. It’s not so bad that I can’t play it, but with Fallout 3 imminent I’m liable to abandon Far Cry 2 unless it improves.
26/10/2008 at 14:35 Larington says:
Far Cry 2 certainly is mission centric, and very much in a way of “you can only have one core mission running at a time (Plus alternative/secondary objective via buddy)” and that IS reminiscent of Assassins Creed.
Whereas if you take something like Deus Ex, Mass Effect, Baldurs Gate 1/2 or Oblivion, missions are much more free-form and you can have tens of quests running at the same time.
I’m still enjoying Far Cry 2, that said, but it certainly could be ‘more’ – As in, more interactions that don’t involve shooting stuff up, for starters. I suppose this goes back to gameplay as simulation, Far Cry 2 feels like a game, even with its relatively open world setting, whilst Deus Ex feels more like a world, with real people in it (But then wrapped in gameplay afterward).
26/10/2008 at 18:39 Y3k-Bug says:
MightyYesac touched on something I forgot to put out there:
Is FarCry 2 REALLY an open game? What defines the experience as open? The game certainly allows you to choose your missions freely, at will. But the game offers nothing but the option to kill people. You can take misssions from the UFLL, the other faction, from radio towers, from the preacher in order to get medicine. But ALL of them involve killing people.
GTA4 comes off much better in that respect. Its open. You can choose to kill people. Or hang out with npc’s. Or hit up a comedy club. FC2 seems artificial and lame in comparison.
That said, I think if the developers really sit down and listen to the critiques of FC2, FC3 can potentially be incredible.
26/10/2008 at 19:22 Larington says:
The world is more or less open, in the sense that you aren’t coralled into a linear run-through of levels. The gameplay, I think, is less so.
26/10/2008 at 20:08 john t says:
But I’m having problems distinguishing enemies from the environment.
I actually kind of like that about the game. It feels real. If I’m getting pegged by someone I can’t see, I find cover and duck behind it until i can sort it out. Of course if I’m still getting shot after I’m behind cover, I’ve eliminated 180 degrees of panning that I now have to do to find the person. Look for vegetation moving, tracer bullets, etc. You can try using molotovs to “smoke ‘em out”, too.
You definitely can’t run and gun in this game. Find high ground, and go all around the outside of the camp before you go in. Always have a sniper rifle on you. Look for explosive piles to cause chaos with. My favorite is to wound somebody near a pile of fuel or ammo, and then wait for people to come help them get up, and blow up the ammo pile behind them.
Sometimes the AI is shockingly good. I wounded someone, he picked himself up, and crawled to the back side of the safehouse and sat with his back against the wall. I ignored him, thinking it was like GTA 4, where he was effectively ‘out of the action’, and then i turned my back to him, and the fucker shot me. Loved that. Of course, he got a machete to the face after that.
Is anybody finding the IED useful? I just picked it up, but I don’t know what to do with it. I got it after the mission where i have to stop the arms dealers that keep driving around in circles, where it would have been useful. (what a stupid mission that was).
26/10/2008 at 21:50 Larington says:
Haven’t used the EID, I just tend to use the RPG for the weapons dealer missions, stand in the road and rapid fire (As much as you can with an RPG) for big splodes.
26/10/2008 at 22:05 Dain says:
“So the game has mysteriously appeared on European Steam?”
Yes… but for 5 quid more than Amazon. The dilemma of paying 5 pounds more and getting it straight away is a tricky one..
26/10/2008 at 23:31 K says:
Yeah, I’m somewhat more used to the palette now. Possibly would have been a good idea to get used to it on Normal instead of Infamous. Although, I did mess around with the contrast and such too. Maybe it’s my monitor. I just feel there’s a lack of feedback, somehow. It’s not something I thought, say, Crysis or STALKER needed. Speaking of lacking, that’s my overall impression of the game. Instead of thinking how well something is implemented, I’m left with “If only…”.
26/10/2008 at 23:36 RC-1290'Dreadnought' says:
Somehow I don’t have a problem with the subtitles, but I do find the music intrusive when its calm. So I switched it off.
By the way, it is very tragic when you shoot down one of your buddies, for if you try to heal them, they keep asking for more medicine and end up dying from an overdose. I feel sorry for them… even after shooting them in the head with a sniper riffle…
Does anyone have a spare map poster? I would like to put the full map next to the Guild Wars, Oblivion and GTA posters to geek up my room. Too bad they printed on both sides.
26/10/2008 at 23:43 Nehacoo says:
I, too, found the guard posts and patrolling cars annoying, but after a while I stopped using vehicles and the game suddenly got a lot better. Not only does the world seem a lot larger and more satisfying to explore on foot, but it’s also a lot easier to ignore both the guard posts and the cars that way. On foot you can just sneak past guard posts and they won’t see you, if a car’s heading your way you can just throw yourself into the grass by the road and they’ll drive past you. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but I find the game a lot more enjoyable this way.
Well, I hope they release a patch with gameplay improvements though. One thing it definitely needs is more types of side missions.
27/10/2008 at 00:02 RC-1290'Dreadnought' says:
@john T
I also like the controllable chaos in this game. You can even screw up once, without cheating(reloading).
The IEDs are nice for the repetitive arms dealer missions. Park your vehicle in the route of the convoy, plant one IED on your own vehicle or on the road, and some near where you expect the truck to stop. Just wait for the first car to stop for your roadblocking vehicle and blow everything up. Mission finished in one nice big bang.
Dang it, midnight allready.
27/10/2008 at 01:11 BarkingDog says:
Played about 4 hours’ worth now, and Far Cry 2 is not as good as other open-world things like GTA or Oblivion. Granted there’s no artificial boundaries, but the side missions are just templated and rubbish, much like the ones from Freelancer back in the day, and movement feels sluggish- I hate the driving, you can’t even handbrake turn properly and the fastest way I’ve found to travel is to hold down sprint in ~chest height water.
Slightly annoyed by the “malaria” mechanic as well, because honestly what sort of idiot goes to a country with malaria and doesn’t take anti-malarials? Also, I strongly doubt he’d show symptoms so soon after arrival, and a malarial crisis is not resolved by popping a single pill, and not that quickly. But either way it just breaks the immersion and feels very artificial.
Combat feels ok, although because of the way they limit your inventory, I wish that sniper rifles counted as “specials” instead of replacing assault rifles/shotguns, and it would be nice if fire spread a little further…
I really like the buddy system- it just feels better than ressing at a safehouse or something. Weapon jamming seems alright as well. But mostly it seems a bit meh.
Trying to acquire dead space now, and hope it will entertain me better for the week until fallout3 comes out…
27/10/2008 at 01:33 Lep says:
Fucking DRM motherfuckers. If anywhere near as much time is spent talking about DRM at the Thinkosium as there are posts about it here, I shall definately be organising a lynching for some of you bastards.
Get militant or some shit, or live with it -just quit fucking moaning. If you want to play on the PC as a main format you’ve got to live with the bullshit. Its less of a hassle than the tinkering you had to do back in the day with autoexec, config, memory settings, etc…
I’d rather suffer through 14yo kids smacktalk at me over Xbox live than have to sit through you dickheads moaning about this crap for most of the evening.
But as for the game itself; I’ve bought it on the 360 and it seems great. I can’t see why people are complaining. I think its like Stalker: flawed, but there is enough beyond the flaws to more than make up for any niggling problems that might bother you. I remember the days when… …you kids don’t know you’ve been born… …bloody… *spasm*
27/10/2008 at 02:15 James says:
I’m starting a kitty to put towards a contract on Tim Edward’s face.
27/10/2008 at 06:45 qrter says:
Right! I’ll put in a quid (1), surely there’s some EastEnders extra that needs a bit of money..
27/10/2008 at 09:33 James T says:
Now I know why they call them ‘tank tops’ — judging by the endurance of my enemies, a single layer of woven cotton has the bullet-stopping power of an M1 Abrams’ hull. Not fond of needing two SMG clips to kill people, nor the constantly-respawning checkpoint denizens, nor the pointless ‘malaria’ — and it strikes me as just a little boneheaded that [i]every single[/i] other motorist in the country is DESPERATE TO GET OUT AND KILL YOU NO MATTER WHAT THE COST (what is this, Paperboy?) — the constant gun-jamming is dreadful (I know it’s an incentive to pick up your bought guns, but then maybe they shouldn’t have made gun shop/supply areas as rare as hens’ teeth), and the “real-world map” stuff can be very irritating in the dark (we can’t just have an optional regular ‘map screen’ and assume our chosen hero brought a torch with him?) — oh, and by Christ I wish you could map commands to more than one key, that’s your ‘consolitis’ right there — but y’know, there’s still plenty left to like. I like hunting diamonds, I like the proper non-checkpoint fights (and even the odd checkpoint — ONCE — if they’re in an interesting place), I like the huge supply of missions (even if there’s only one or two types to speak of, the many venues and vectors of approach spice it up), and I really like the atmosphere of it all (I’d say it’s not quite as beautiful moment-to-moment as Clear Sky, but the elimination of regional loading screens is a major plus). If the techniques and technology used for Far Cry 2 are available for more games to use in future, we’ll be a lucky bunch indeed. As for the game itself, it’s got some painfully wrongheaded gimmicks and mistakes in it, but still, there’s fun to be had.
I wonder if the checkpoint spawn/jamming/malaria could be modded out… we’d really be cooking with gas then.
27/10/2008 at 14:00 Nallen says:
Why on earth does everyone in this game sound like they’ve been sped up by 10-20%?
27/10/2008 at 16:13 Frye says:
I love it. My major annoyance is that the shadows are WAY too dark on my settings (medium/high). Actually shadowed areas seem darker than nights!
27/10/2008 at 21:33 Chaz says:
Yeah I’m lovin this game at the moment too. There’s some bloody cool and surprising moments to be had in this game, like when I sat waiting in ambush for a supply truck and fired at it with my dodgy rusty old RPG, and the rocket bounced off the front of the truck and ricocheted into the jungle and blew up a tree, leaving me standing there like a complete lemon. Or when I snuck up on a road block which had an ammo dump I was after, and I chucked a grenade in which went and inadvertantly caused a flash fire, and the boxes of ammo I was after went up in flames exploding like a load of fire crackers. Having lots of fun sniping out bases and then sneaking in to take out the stragglers with my MAC10. I also love travelling by boat too, it’s very atmospheric, very Apocalypse Now, especially if you jump out the boat and set fire to the locals every now and then. And personally I think the graphics look gorgeous, especially when burning said locals by the river side at night.
And I agree about the shadows, they are a bit on the pitch black side, especially in the midday sun.
28/10/2008 at 08:45 James T says:
“Why on earth does everyone in this game sound like they’ve been sped up by 10-20%?”
I’ve noticed that in some of the Witcher EE stuff too; they’re not higher-pitched, they’re just stringing their words together ridiculously fast, without grammar or inflection. Presumably it’s to save on studio/VA bills; they must be hideously expensive, considering how badly dubs/dialogues get butchered to slash an absolutely measly fraction of studio time off the bill.
‘All right, you poindexters, let’s get this right! One: “Hey, hey, kids, I’m Talking Krusty.” Two: “Hey, hey, here comes Slideshow Mel” — again — “Here comes Sideshow Mel, Sideshow Mel”. Three: “Huhuhuhahahah!” Badabing badaboom, I’m done. Learn from a professional, kid.’
30/10/2008 at 02:12 Eli Just says:
I’m definitely liking it more now that I’ve played some more. the G3 was TERRIBLE! Now with a dart rifle a grenade launcher and a Mac 10 there are some sweet moments in the game. Hiding on the side of the road from patrols feels really cool when they pass your right by. All the issues with patrols and checkpoints is gone when you’re on foot. Too bad the world is so big you need to drive. Overall though it’s really fun.
03/11/2008 at 18:30 Psychopomp says:
Concerning buddy death, yes it can happen.
One who was on a mision with me got shot in the head whilst I was fighting off a truck.
Normally, you get to help them back up. Apparently Head-Shot=Instant death.
People were set on fire at that point.
I’ve gotten past act 1, and am very impressed so far.
04/11/2008 at 12:01 Paul Moloney says:
I just tried out the editor last night and it rocks. Once upon a time I tried to create a Doom level, but lost patience. The FC2 editor let me plodge together a reasonably realistic looking island in about 5 minutes. It really is very very clever.
P.
10/11/2008 at 00:24 MetalCircus says:
What is everyones big deal with the gun jams/check points? Frankly I think it adds heaps to the already bitter and depressing mood of it all.
A gun jamming on you mid combat is awesome. You have to dart into cover quickly and get the jam cleared so you can continue fighting. Personally I never use rusty guns, i just buy them, but I once had a rusty Mac 10 which exploded in my hand due to wear and tear, that was pretty bloody surprising.
12/11/2008 at 22:32 Pox says:
I’ve played about 10 hours of FC2 so far, and while it has a veritable myriad of very annoying niggles, it is a great game. I get minimum 45 fps with med-high settings on my 8800gts, and it looks better than Crysis on Low (which gets lower framerates), and the overall world is very believable – the lack of loading times and the sheer scale of it is quite impressive.
The big problems are:
- how systematic the “main missions” feel – other than the fact that they’re completely unrelated missions, and haven’t gone anywhere near what’s meant to be a “plot” during the entirety of Act 1, every single time I get a mission from one of the factions, my “best buddy” will ring me up 5 seconds later and say (at 500wpm) “Heymeetatthebarnontheoppositesideofthemap”. I drive over there, and they’ll give me some alternate way of completing the mission. And what do I get in return? “Reputation”. After the first couple of times, I decided that bitch wasn’t my buddy, and shot her in the leg. And again. She fell onto the ground (and a cloud of blue smoke magically appeared), begging for help. Then I drove off and got pissed off at:
- Every bloody person in the bloody game jumping in their cars and chasing after me in a bloodlust whenever I so much as drove past. Gets really old, I’d much rather some kind of faction-reputation system… something as simple as Stalker:ШoC would do, or preferably the sort of thing you had in Freelancer. At least let me join a faction so only half of the checkpoints are full of insane snipers.
- Guns jamming so much. Sure, guns jam, and probably more so in a gritty environment like Africa, but surely not every bloody magazine. Stalker with the right mods made me appreciate the benefits of having new weapons, but not to the point where I simply won’t scavenge for weapons unless I’m down to my last pistol bullet – it’s ridiculous. I haven’t looked into modding possibilities yet, but hopefully the ability to tweak AI behaviour, weapon jamming, etc is there.
- Malaria – adds nothing, not even realism as far as I’m concerned – just progressively longer intermittent incapacitations, with the eventual result being “death” followed by awakening at the doctor’s clinic. Hopefully this can be modded out too, as I’m sick of doing the exact same mission to get the meds over and over.
However, I forget all of these things when I botch a headshot on an assassination mission, the target dives for cover in the camp, and I’m forced to kill everyone to get to him. In the middle of it, I use an RPG to take out a guy hiding behind a fence, turn around to grab some ammo and discover the RPG’s backflare set the dry grass between me and the ammo cache on fire… and then the ammo explodes in my face, with a shot from an enemy finishing the job.
I awaken seconds later with one of them “buddies” pulling me to relative safety, with the whole camp burning up around me. There are some truly epic moments.
That was much too long a comment. I shall tl;dr the preview, deal with any silly boo-boos yourself.
13/11/2008 at 18:14 Paul Moloney says:
Pox, good overview. The more I play FC2, the more impressed by it I am. Graphically, it beats Crysis; that game is more detailed, but flatter. It’s like comparing an Impressionist painting against a draughtsman’s technical drawing. FC2′s landscapes remind me of WoW’s Westfall: I love how Blizzard could use light with such a low-res landscape to capture a feeling of place so well.
I’ve learned to drive either through sentry posts (running down as many enemies as I can) or simply driving around them. Sometimes they catch up in a jeep, but I’m now fairly practised at jumping out and gunning them out before they can even leave their vehicle.
P.