Far Cry 3

I'm with you man. I am enjoying FC3 a lot for what it is. I also am coming to terms with the fact that I love FC2 an unreasonable amount.

Podunk wrote:

I'm with you man. I am enjoying FC3 a lot for what it is. I also am coming to terms with the fact that I love FC2 an unreasonable amount.

What he said. I think I'm going to go back and replay FC2 after I finish FC3.

Been playing some ghost recon future soldier recently and it's interesting how the games are similar and different. In both, you'll find yourself assaulting a base or something and needing to recon enemy positions. In GRFS you have drones and sensor grenades to help you. In FC3, the magic camera and various serums that aid perception.

But whereas in GRFS, you have explicit stealth (where being spotted = auto fail) versus non stealth (where taking everyone out without being spotted = impossible) mission segments, in the non-story outpost assaults in FC3, it seems as if taking everyone out without being spotted is always possible and yet you have the option to fail at stealth and then either run away and try again or just bring the noise.

It's a shame the coop in FC3 doesn't really work the same way as the outpost assaulting in SP. I would play the heck out of that, a kinda inverse horde mode.

What I'm saying, I guess, is that I don't really care that the outpost assaults are repetitive. They're super fun.

I like the outpost assaults. Each one seems different tactically which keeps them from feeling repetitive.

I have also enjoyed the last two story missions I played -

Spoiler:

burning the drug fields and "infiltrating" the research ship.

The one before it was kind of cool until it devolved into a turret sequence.

Some of the side missions are weird:

Spoiler:

In one, I came across an old woman chattering about a plane on fire that had flown over her house and asked me to go look into it. I go find the plane and it's all rusted out. I find some old guy who tells me the plane went down 10 years ago and that there was no old woman. Not sure what to make of that one.

The second was where some guy wanted me to take pictures of dead pirates to help "show the islanders that the pirates can be killed". But when I gave him the pictures I took, he almost had an orgasm over them. Messed up, is what that is.

And the game is beaten. 49 hours. That was fun. The highlight is definitely the first parts of the game where you are starting out with limited supplies and in search of some animals to craft better gear.

Spoiler:

And flaming turtles

Blind_Evil wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

Thanks for elaborating Podunk. I've actually got a very strange and apt comparison to make, though I kind of doubt anyone else here has played the fourth game involved. I'll get into it in the morning.

So, reading Podunk's analysis brought to mind a game that I've seen Far Cry 3 compared to - Skyrim. Expansive, pretty, brimming with well explained systems, unexplained fast travel.

And the part about FC2 reminds me a lot of another, less friendly open world RPG - Dragon's Dogma. The quest markers are very vague, the world is terrifying and unfriendly, it features very limited fast travel that's explained in the fiction (I should note that I don't personally think in-fiction explanations for things like this are more or less immersive). Dark Souls is actually probably the better comparison here but Skyrim and Dragon's Dogma is more apples-to-apples.

Skyrim was #2 on my GOTY list last year. Dragon's Dogma was my #2 this year.

With that in mind, I don't really see why I shouldn't appreciate FC2 and FC3 in separate but equal (hmm) ways.

Far Cry 2 was definitely my Dark souls. Guards respawning kept the world populated. The fact that, if you got sloppy, the guards at a regular outpost or in a passing jeep could kill you kept the tension high when travelling and I wasn't even bothered that, on the 360, you could only save at safe houses so getting killed meant restarting at the last safe house you visited.

My first impression of Far Cry 3 is that there is a whole new game on top of the game I want to play. I usually love crafting and gathering but there seems to be a thick crust of it over what was the pure Far Cry 2 experience. At the moment it doesn't seem right but I'm sure I'll get into it.

The A.I. seems a lot less intimidating. In Far Cry 2 I often felt like I'd stirred up a hornets nest when I took on a group of enemies (a lot of dirty flanking hornets) at first it seemed crazy that they were getting around behind me but after a while you could spot them running on the flanks to try and out manoeuvre you. I really like fights where you can't really see people and are firing at the last spot where you saw a muzzle flash through the foliage but it's also nice to be able to mark guys.

Not sure about Hold X to interact with stuff. What's wrong with good old Press X. I'll get used to it (every game should have the same control scheme damnit! :P)

I loved the way grenades tore up foliage in 2. I'm sensing it won't happen in 3 but the game if gorgeous in 360 and clearly has other delights in store. I had a funny encounter with bandits and Komodo dragons but I'll have to post it later. I have to go and do Christmas. Sigh

Finished this up tonight. I watched the other ending on youtube and I'm glad I picked the one I did. However! I need a favor from someone that picked...

Spoiler:

staying with Citra. Does that fill in the wings atop the tattoo? I feel like I'm missing out on something cool and I don't know why.

The narrative isn't great, but that's not really why I play shooters, and it's a genre that doesn't lend itself to quality storytelling. Solid 8/10 overall, but I'm not writing or thinking much more about it.

A little further in and I've had some nice gritty fights. The quest reminder box popping up all the time was annoying at first but I'm successfully ignoring it now (I'll be happy if we get a patch to disable it.) Now I've crafted better bags for ammo, loot and money I'm feeling happier. It helps that I have my trusty silenced MP5 back They kept a lot of the noises the weapons make when being handled which is oddly pleasing.

The komodo dragon thing was basically a keystone cops affair with me out of ammo taking out a road patrol while three komodo dragons ran after me like some kind of homicidal rug. The wildlife adds a ton to the game.

Last night I was a few feet into a tricky base when I heard a subdued tiger roar very close behind me. I slowly moved to one side and the tiger stalked in through the hole I'd just used. It didn't seem to notice me holding my breath in a grassy corner and instead went after the guys on the base.

Higgledy wrote:

The quest reminder box popping up all the time was annoying at first but I'm successfully ignoring it now (I'll be happy if we get a patch to disable it.)

They already patched that in. It's in the options area.

BlackSabre wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

The quest reminder box popping up all the time was annoying at first but I'm successfully ignoring it now (I'll be happy if we get a patch to disable it.)

They already patched that in. It's in the options area.

I'm on 360. I didn't see it in options. Are you on PC?

Ah, yeah, that explains it then. Patch may not have hit console yet. Still, it is awesome. As soon as I had it, it's the first thing I turned off.

BlackSabre wrote:

Ah, yeah, that explains it then. Patch may not have hit console yet. Still, it is awesome. As soon as I had it, it's the first thing I turned off.

It sounds like they've been getting a lot of feedback on that one. I'm sure they'll do it on consoles eventually.

I am crossing my fingers for DLC that adds the FC2 map and watch back in. And I would love the convoy ambush missions again. Otherwise, this game is a significant improvement in every area.

Reaper81 wrote:

I am crossing my fingers for DLC that adds the FC2 map and watch back in. And I would love the convoy ambush missions again. Otherwise, this game is a significant improvement in every area.

I think the issue they didn't include it at the time was that they couldn't think of a way to implement it with their new "unlocking the map" idea. Which ,I just thought of a fix to that issue. After completing each radio tower you pick up tiny pieces of the map for that area and when you look at zoomed in there is tape along the edges where you had to tape the map together.

Now I kinda want this as either a mod or a path because this feature along would sell me the game, even during a crunch for money.

Simple fix? The map is an app on a tablet.

Which is to say, dudebro already packs four weapon systems, a blade, explosives, and an SLR. Surely he has room for a tablet.

Podunk wrote:

I'm with you man. I am enjoying FC3 a lot for what it is. I also am coming to terms with the fact that I love FC2 an unreasonable amount.

I think in the end I liked Far Cry 2 more, and part of the downer is that I would have liked to see what Clint Hocking would have done applying lessons learned to Far Cry 3 as opposed to what they seemed to do without him which is whitewash all the mechanics to make it as accessible as possible and take away a lot of the personality.

That said, I'm still getting a lot of the great feeling that few shooters these days have that also happened with FC2, where you feel like you're using your own tactics to handle a combat scenario instead of being forced by the game into doing a specific action, and where events happen out of randomness that would have been relegated to a scripted QTE in other FPS's. So, still happy to have a AAA shooter that at least tries to do things differently.

Got this for Christmas. A little disappointed that the framerate goes through the floor whenever I get into any serious kind of action.

Hyetal, what is your secret to such crazy high scores in the Trials? What wonders have the Rakyats shared with you? I've tried to beat a couple of them and I can't even come close before time runs out.

-edit-
The last one I tried is the one where you're given an RPG and put on a hill and they just keep throwing jeeps and helicopters at you. I blow up everything they send and all the time barrels in sight. The only thing I haven't tried is maybe sneaking down there and knifing the guys as they drive up for the extra points.

Honestly, that one glitched out for me. It was just about to end, I hit a chopper, it crashed, and I assume it caused a chain explosion by a spawn point, because it racked up a lot of points before the time ran out.

For the others, I've gotten most of my points from stealth kills. The knife and gun steal abilities help a lot.

Ah okay, I still have a few skills to unlock so chaining those probably goes a long way to it.

I'm almost done with the game, and I decided to step into co-op in order to get the trophies (complete the 6 co-op missions). There is a whole leveling system (both yourself and your guns) as well as a collection system that goes towards getting mods for your weapons. There's a slightly interesting plot that focuses on four survivors of a pirate attack trying to get their money back from a traitorous captain. However, the gameplay is just run and gun, without any of the subtlety of the single player campaign. Also, the missions are too long - they take about 40-45 minutes to finish. Mass Effect 3 had a wonderful multiplayer system, which had a great progression, and the matches were over in 20 minutes - in and out, no muss no fuss. Far Cry 3 missions seem to drag on and on, with no sense of climax. I've got four more missions to get through, but that will probably be it for me and multiplayer.

Still, it is awesome. As soon as I had it, it's the first thing I turned off.

That was my only real frustration with the game. The story being mediocre to poor wasn't that big a deal, overall, but that constant bonging was annoying as hell. (fortunately, in later missions, it seemed to get less insistent.) With that patched out, I'd have no real complaints about the fundamental engine at all. At that point, it would be just pure flow.

Man, the way they handle light in that game, at least on high-end hardware, is like nothing else I've ever seen in a computer game. Starting a climb at the base of a hill in dusk, shadowed enough that the automatic electric lights on a shack turned on, only to reach the summit, and be in direct sunlight, with long shadows on everything, and everything in the exact correct color shade for a sunset, was just freaking amazing. It looked so real. It felt exactly like I'd actually climbed a small hill, like my monitor had turned into a window instead of a computer game.

I wanted to use 'unreal' to describe the feeling, but that mixes engines, plus unreal is a bad adjective when I'm being super impressed at how real it was!

Malor wrote:

It felt exactly like I'd actually climbed a small hill, like my monitor had turned into a window instead of a computer game.

It's quotes like these that I really hope find their way back to the developers.

And done with the co-op trophies. What a pain in the rear! I know that if I want to get all the trophies I will have to do some un-fun things, but that was extremely frustrating. I headed back into the main game and took over the last two outposts, and I took over the last one without being seen. I'm back to loving this game.

TL;DR - Play single player only, unless you are a trophy / achievement whore.

This is, I must admit, rather a good game. Love the bow.

I'm starting to think that the ultimate strategy would be to retreat to the village and only venture out again after two weeks of sun, sangria and siestas. By that time all the pirates would have been eaten by wildlife or have killed themselves in traffic related accidents.

The more I play the game the more its faults annoy me. Yes as noted the story is lame, and listening to your character speak for me is far more annoying than any quest-reminder popups. I'm just a little bit onto the second island and the story has just gone from weak to {ableist slur} along the way. Oh, and what's this? A fail-state stealth mission where you can't even stealth kill anyone? Glorious. The game teases with freedom and then so many of the story missions are just boring corridor runs or stupid instant-fail setups like this one I'm on, which almost seems straightforward until "I should find a safer way in" - if that rings a bell with anyone, I've heard my dumbsh*t character say that at least ten times now, its the one time I wish he would say a bit more because I have no idea what to do next here. Lame.

AcidCat wrote:

Yes as noted the story is lame, and listening to your character speak for me is far more annoying than any quest-reminder popups.

Oh hell yeah.

Spoiler:

The spontaneous "rally the troops" speech (for no reason mind you because when you go to the other island you leave all the Rakyat behind) was ridiculous and his "I know who I am and I'm staying here" goodbye speech approached being literally painful.

AcidCat wrote:

I'm just a little bit onto the second island and the story has just gone from weak to {ableist slur} along the way.

Oh lord, how can it get worse?

What's jarring is that some ancillary characters like Dennis and Vaas are well done IMO.

Aristophan wrote:

And done with the co-op trophies. What a pain in the rear! I know that if I want to get all the trophies I will have to do some un-fun things, but that was extremely frustrating. I headed back into the main game and took over the last two outposts, and I took over the last one without being seen. I'm back to loving this game.

TL;DR - Play single player only, unless you are a trophy / achievement whore.

I actually really enjoy the pvp multiplayer and think the coop is okay.

No fail stealth missions suck. Especially ones that take you back fifteen minutes. Really especially when there's an obvious place to put a checkpoint. For a game that has (this far) been respectful of my time this just makes me more pissed.

This might be it for me for this game. Or maybe I am just raging.

Schizophrenic Game of the Year.