Rock, Paper, Shotgun

[With Fallout 3 topping UK charts I should have titled this "sequels unrelated to original games top charts"... Ooh, handbags.]

The Big K posted up this week’s US retail PC chart, and Far Cry 2 is in with a, er, bullet at number one. That does please me, despite the general opinion circus we’re facing with the game. More importantly, Kotaku are making a commendable effort to balance out the brokenness of the NPD chart by also posting the Steam and Direct 2 Drive charts. Of course there are no explicit numbers available, so there’s no way to amalgamate and come up with a realistic overview of PC game sales across all outlets, but it does give a fairer impression of the overall picture than the retail charts and their Sims expansion packs.

NPD top ten after the jump.

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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.
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Ubi’s latest trailer for their Far Cry 2 multiplayer map editor shows off some of the more radical possibilities for map creation that the tool offers: with big crazy maps with Eiffel Towers, Pyramids and vast rope-bridge mountain-islands. “Crazy” they’re calling it. Better still, however, is how the headshots and explosions of the trailer are timed to coincide with the “Uhh!” of the human beatbox soundtrack. There’s something wrong about that particular juxtaposition. Or maybe that’s just me.

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See, I didn’t even realise Adult Swim had a music publishing arm. It’s amazing what you find when poking your nose around the internet during the breaks of the baseball game you’ve stayed up until a million o’clock to watch (go Phillies). So to coincide with the release of Far Cry 2, Ubisoft are getting all cross-promotional, sponsoring the free distribution of an album of South African hip-hop, called African Swim.

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Far Cry 2 is almost upon us, and I’m seething with anticipation. PC Gamer’s Tim Edwards telling us that it effectively kills off the entire linear shooter genre doesn’t do anything to ease that. His review in the latest PC Gamer UK is worth reading. If he’s right – and I dearly hope he is – that will stand up as one of the best game reviews of 2008. Of one of the best games.

While Far Cry 2 is very definitely just a shooter, Edwards’ review suggests that Stalker’s “wide corridor” model (that I loved so much) is going to be made to look shabby by this seamless 50km world, as executed by a talented, well-funded studio. I can’t wait to get to grips with the kind of freedom in an FPS that has previously only really manifested itself in GTA games. This latest trailer doesn’t make the longing any better, showing off loads of the open world stuff, including character dialogue, gun-play, speeding vehicles, and the ubiquitous fiery explosions. The dynamic story-telling perhaps doesn’t lend itself well to trailers, but trying reading our previous interview with the lead designer to get your head around that a bit better.
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I don’t know about you lot, but all that Far Cry 2 coverage left me with a few questions about the game. So I dropped a line to Mr Clint Hocking, a creative director at Ubisoft Montreal, and the lead brain on Far Cry 2. He’s a clever sort, and was patient enough to talk about how non-linear storytelling works, how your NPCs buddies operate in the game world, how bits of a car can be your undoing, the potential for exploration in a 50km tract of videogame Africa, the “visceral punch” of the injury system, and how people will overlook the awesomeness of a guided missile system.

Read on for a verbal monsoon of all things Far Cry 2. This is a game worth paying attention to.

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Well, it seems like it, anyway. I promise not to post any more. Unless it’s tomorrow.

This clip (conspicuously marked CONSOLE FOOTAGE, but hey so what) shows off some forest sequence with sniping, sneaking, and killing. And some interface! See that intriguing map and compass bit. Oooh.

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UK-based blogchums Videogaming247 were clever enough to remember to go to Leipzig (unlike us) and consequently they’ve come back with special Far Cry information. Ubisoft Montreal are, apparently, already in the initial stages of the third Far Cry game. Here’s the interesting bit:

“There are still things we want to do with the African setting, and I think it’s safe to say we’ll continue to explore it. That said, we might find something new and compelling about the Antarctic setting that wants us to make the next game there, but honestly, we’re still at the preliminary stages.”

If Far Cry 2 ends up being good I rather hope this third game has a brief iteration time, rather than being another four-year project.

Could the best bit of Far Cry 2 be the map editor? That’s what my secret Ubisoft contact has been reporting – and now there’s a trailer to back up his ludicrous claims, which you can see after the jump. The lengthy mapping footage shows a map being put together with a gamepad – a sequence which inadvertently reveals that there’s a hang-glider in Far Cry 2. There are also “over a thousand” miscellaneous objects. Excellent news.

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I can’t think of why Ubisoft would have released even more Far Cry 2 footage except to show off what their new tech can do. It’s running at some chronic level of detail in this trailer, which also has a jolly good soundtrack. It’s the trailer equivalent of driving round town in your new Ferrari, or something. I still think this could emerge as GOTY.
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Lots of excellent new in-game footage here, with some detailed commentary by Clint Hocking. It turns out that you can even take a little nap to fast forward time. (And in the game! Aha!)

EDIT: You can check it out here since the embedded version seems to be broke.
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