Comments on: The 12 Games of Christmas: Far Cry 2

By: Paul Emil

Paul Emil — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:00:53 +0000

Heh. The best thing that happend to me in FC2 was when driving along, minding my own business, then suddenly crashing into a cow that had decided to take a rest in the middle of the road. Or mabye it was when I had just bought and equipped an M79, immediately blowing up two passing idiots in a 4×4. Fun. Or just starting lots of fires around a guard post and watching them burn. And burning to death from the fire caused by the backblast from my rocket launcher :P . The only showstoppers so far have been the constant memory leaks I get. Turning off shadows seems to give the most performance gain on my (frankly) feeble system (AMD Athlon 64 3400+ @ 2.4GHz, X1950 Pro AGP, 1GB DDR).

By: Requiem

Requiem — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 01:11:54 +0000

I’ve just finished FC2 and it’s my favourite game of 2008. Yes it has problems namely the respawning which hinders any sense of accomplishment. The generic ammo, unlimited copies of bought guns, and magically transporter enabled storage crates remove a much needed strategic element. The plot is far too convoluted for it’s own good. Maybe not compared to other games but all that was really needed was just your initial brief to kill the Jackal. Repetition is definately in the hands of the player. But for all it’s flaws FC2 engrossed me in ways many a recent release like Clear Sky or Crysis & Warhead failed to do.

@ Meat Circus if anything FC2 has too many Valvesque set pieces, they don’t really fit at all with the style of the game.

Far Cry 2 reminds me most of playing JA2, if only FC2 had been squad based.

By: Jhoosier

Jhoosier — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:27:53 +0000

I just started playing this a couple days ago (12% done), and I have the same problems with it as everyone else. I was hoping to find a mod to change the respawn, but malkav11′s got a good point as to why it won’t work. Boo.

On the plus side, this game is just awesomely beautiful on a big screen and the settings turned up. And running over gnus in a dune buggy. Can’t forget that. Just echoing everyone else, this is a game that, despite its problems, I’m going to have very fond memories of.

By: de Selby

de Selby — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:36:42 +0000

“You are actually fired, not joking this time – Ed”

I wish you the best of luck in finding a new job Jim.

By: Flappybat

Flappybat — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:26:55 +0000

I agree with Meat Circus although I don’t think I find it as boring as he does. It’s a nice game but really it feels like an MMOFPS. The mission sequences are a bit weak and unengaging, you’re constantly hounded by annoying mob style enemies, lots of repetition…

It’s got a lot of interesting new things but it’s basic shooter aspects seem to have gotten mangled. I think it’s overrated.

By: Lh'owon

Lh'owon — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:37:30 +0000

Loved Far Cry 2 to bits.

I would post more, but I am tires and need my gravatar thing for something. Er, yes.

By: Ben Jones

Ben Jones — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:18:16 +0000

Come on guys, whatever your criticisms – and everyone has a few at least – this was a big, important game. Any FPS that does something different but is still big fun to play has to be applauded.

And yet, what might have been…. The instant hostility was only half the problem for me. The other half, which I have seen mentioned too widely, is that in a supposedly war-torn country, all anyone’s interested in doing is f***ing the player up. How much cooler would it have been to crash through a checkpoint while the two factions were actually fighting over it? Or trying to escape after a mission during a firefight?

The important thing is how it’ll be remembered a couple of years down the line – the first fully open-ended FPS, with some wicked combat to boot.

Oh and Jim, it was just as easy to get about by boat on the first map. Not sure where you’re coming from there….

By: malkav11

malkav11 — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:34:57 +0000

I think it would be difficult to mod the respawning because of *why* the respawning occurs. Simply put – the moment the game unloads that area from memory, state changes in that area are no longer tracked and when you go back in, it loads the area fresh and new with everything back the way it was. How do you propose modders change that?

By: Larington

Larington — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 01:35:10 +0000

Yeah, one thing I definately liked was the ending, it was a nice full stop on the journey as a whole and a convincing one at that.

By: MeestaNob!

MeestaNob! — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 01:18:12 +0000

Kieron’s final paragraph made me think of Outcast for some reason. I wish that game would come back.

By: The Shed

The Shed — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 01:00:30 +0000

Exactly as Switch625 said. To keep Far Cry 2 entertaining, you , as a gamer, have to do a little work to keep it fresh. If you take an AK47, Makarov, and RPG on every single fight in the game, it’s gonna get boring fast, even if you keep looking for new tactical approaches. The difference in gameplay between taking a Sniper Rifle and a Silenced pistol on your back against a Shotgun and a Mac 10 are just astounding, it’s up to YOU to mix it up a bit.

Far Cry 2 needs YOU (to be fun and fresh).

I must personally be about 4-5 hours into it, I didn’t even know there was a second map until I read this article. That sounds good. Need to play the game more, but PS2 and writing is just so much easier than Xbox 360…

By: Jochen Scheisse

Jochen Scheisse — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:59:51 +0000

TC*;DR

*convoluted