Far Cry 2 Catch-All
I had completely written off Far Cry 2. Don't ask me why, I don't know. I just didn't care. Now I do.
First, it's being developed by Ubisoft Montreal.
Second, the game looks amazing.
Third, the plot. There is no plot. Far Cry 2 claims to be the first open-world FPS (Stalker was a mix of linear and non-linear). At the start of the game you wake up in a hotel room with the game's villian, the Jackel, saying he's given you malaria and you'll die soon. He leaves a gun with a single bullet in case you want to end your life.
From there, you have a 50 km stretch of Africa controlled by 2 opposing factions whom you can play off each other. Particular NPCs can provide you malaria medicine (increasing your max health) if you meet their demands. There is a neat map system with a physical map that your character holds in one hand, and a compass to orient yourself in the other.
The developer also talked about pie-in-the-sky concepts like replacing scripted sequences with many generic AI behaviors - the developer called these "micronarratives" which let the story react to the player's actions. Like any other open-world game, the devil is in the details. I believe it when I play it. However, this IGN preview is promising:
You can set grasslands on fire, which will actually require more fuel to start and maintain if it's just after a rainstorm, cut trees to bits with your machete, and blow up nearly everything. To see the world you'll have access to gliders and be able to coast out from orange mountains across the desert plains or section of jungle. Dust storms will occasionally start up as well, there's a full day night cycle in the game, which currently Ubisoft Montreal is saying will take about six hours to run through.Once we're able to play we'll be able to deliver a better sense of how the game feels, but from watching Ubisoft demo their product it seems like you're free to do whatever. Driving vehicles into town and detonating them in front of groups of enemies, lashing flamethrower fuel against explosive drums, sniping from afar, or sneaking in and setting explosive charges were all methods of attack and infiltration shown to us. You can even deliver non-fatal wounds to enemies in the open to draw out others, as the AI is programmed to drag their wounded behind cover. When the other enemy shows his face you can hit him with a sniper bullet as well, just like the scene from Full Metal Jacket.
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I think I'll ignore this one until I get 100% bullet proof confirmation that there are no effin mutants.
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Bring on the malaria! The no plot sounds like a good idea, and I really dig the static map with compass alternative to the traditional minimap.
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Good to see we have a James Bond caliber villain to work with here.
I didn't see anything in that list that couldn't also be called a baby step from what Crysis already did, which however impressive under the hood it may have been, did not really translate to a lot of "holy cow, I can't believe those enemies just did that" moments.
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Wow, I hadn't been following this at all either. Open world? Non-linear? Sign me the hell up!
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I'm not sure why but I'm just not too interested in this. I guess maybe Crysis has spoiled me. Maybe the non-linearity will change my mind but I need to see a lot more before I jump on this.
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The whole Malaria gameplay mechanic sounds incredibly annoying.
With that one exception, it looks great. But if I have to stock up on malaria medicine and give myself a dose very often to keep from dying I'll be throwing the disc out the window long before I finish.
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I'm always both skeptical and excited whenever a truly "open" game like this is announced. On the one hand, the lack of scripted sequences and linearity can make for some truly memorable and unique experiences. On the other hand, those experiences will likely be few and far between. Without true AI games are inherently limited in the kinds of experiences they can provide and a dozen or two hours of play in these worlds (once the "rules" are known) typically reveals their very generic nature.
Hopefully you can snipe mosquitoes. Or maybe there's a character class with sickle cell anemia.
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A game where I can stalk and stealth-kill from start to finish and that reacts to how I choose to play? Bring it - even if it is lazy story telling
Just not sure my rig can handle the pretty scenery, lol.
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OMG.
BTW how come it's developed by Ubisoft in Montreal and not Crytek in Germany?
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This actually sounds interesting to me, and Ive been apathetic so far. The concept at least gives you some reasons to play unlike CryFail.
Ubisoft bought the rights to Far Cry and everything associated with it from Crytek which is how they self-funded Crysis. Ubisoft has and will be developing all future titles in that series.
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The first Far Cry and Predator, at least the XBox versions, were good, but seemed to be missing many targets to shoot at, and the ATV controlled loosely. Good games, gorgeous water that sometimes made me thirsty, but I needed more to shoot.
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I'm starting to really look forward to this. The idea of playing a 4th party in a 3 way conflict has a lot of cool potential.
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I think it sounds good, but this is essentially how STALKER (I refuse to type . after every letter) started out. "Completely open world", "do what you want", "drivable vehicles", "factions with their own motives you can play off each other", etc, etc.
I hope they pull it off because it always sounds neat, but I'll believe it when they actually ship it with these features.
I wish someone would remake Trespasser in this fashion (minus the arm simulation - or at least do it better) as that would be something I could get excited about.
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Granted this quote is from souldaddy and not the actual developers, but if it's a mechanic where malaria medicine is similar to Hearts in Zelda games or the DNA synchronization stuff in Assassin's Creed, I'll be okay with it.
It would make sense as a mechanic as well, as you get more and more medicine to treat your malaria, you become closer and closer to fully healthy. So you start out close to dead (when the enemies are easier) but as the game progresses (the enemies get harder and/or more numerous) you are healthier and healthier when taking them on.
Sounds like a fun game to me. I'll be polishing my sniper rifle in anticipation.
Fletcher wrote:
Confirmed. Check out the IGN preview:
Right with you on that one. I believe Kaostheory is correct about the basics. You have an "infamy" rating in the game, the more you kill the higher your infamy and the less likely civilians will give you medicine. Basically, the more you kill, the less health you have. I do know you can pass out, so the details are still unclear.
"Once you can accept the universe is matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy." -- Albert Einstein
As long as the level of difficulty for Far Cry 2 is vastly improved over the original (by that I mean not being killed by 60 million guys with fantastically good eyesight in 3 seconds of being spotted on easy) then I will be more than happy to entertain this on my system.
The video looks very good, and again it's going to be one of those "envelope pushing" games which will make all PCs cry, you can just see it. I would really love to see a demo from gameplay aganist some naughty people with big bands and noises and all those things which make you feel manly.
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That's promising. The tech demos shown are impressive but won't deliver a fun game on their own, remains to see if the open gameplay can bring some fun outside of the novelty factor. Seems worth keeping an eye on from now on.
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meh! I not falling for another crysis again. It looks good but whats the point if 3/4 of the people one arth can not play it because of uber rig requirements... Also what about multiplayer? Who gives a crap about single.
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I'm interested in seeing it, but agree with samfisher about the difficulty curve. I'm just now playing the original Far Cry (thanks GameTap) and one of the things I find annoying is how I can be crawling through the underbrush in a jungle at night and some guy on a hilltop halfway across the island sees me and hits me with a rocket launcher. (It's that stupid Hawaiian shirt, isn't it?)
I'm also glad to hear no mutants. I'm also tired of those damn trigen leaping onto me from 100 yards away and knocking me from full armor/health to dead in two swipes.
And the less I say about my total inability to control a vehicle in the game, the better. Fortunately I can just ignore those.
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I rarely gape at a tech demo, but the reactiveness of the environment is impressive. The plant growth algorithm is pretty damn cool!
It would be far too much fun to be able to casually walk through a busy little town during the day, discretely plant a few explosive here and there and then wait until nightfall to come back and siege the place. My evil imagination will be going overtime plotting mass murder!
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"Once you can accept the universe is matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy." -- Albert Einstein
That's the make or break mark for me, especially in the FarCry universe. If I can employ stealth my opponents sure as hell better be limited to realistic senses. Thermal goggles and the likes? That's fine, but none of this superhuman bullsh*t... it just ruins the stealth aspect of the game and you might as well go in all guns blazing.
Kind of like Farcry.
And Crysis.
Damn.... we're screwed
"What exactly is a squirrel licking beta grabbing frump digger?" ~trichy
"Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines and brudda.... I hurt people"
But this game isn't done by Crytek it's from Ubisoft Montreal, which gives us hope for a more balanced AI
Fletcher wrote:
Well, you might want to know that not only is Ubisoft Montreal making the game, but Clint Hocking is the creative director of it. He was the lead designer on Splinter Cell and the creative director on Chaos Theory (the one where they started implementing more open-ended solutions to the levels). This is the first game where he was the lead right from the beginning, so chances are the stealth portions will be good.
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