Far Cry 3

So review embargos are up this early? That's usually a fantastic sign.

Any idea what the best pre-order deal is out there for console versions?

The Kotaku review is so positive the comment section is full of people demanding they redo the review with someone who wasn't a fan of Far Cry 2.

http://kotaku.com/5962414/far-cry-3-...

Got to be honest. I had my doubts even though I was looking forward to this but I am glad my doubts are wrong. This is going on my Christmas list.

tanstaafl wrote:

The Kotaku review is so positive the comment section is full of people demanding they redo the review with someone who wasn't a fan of Far Cry 2.

http://kotaku.com/5962414/far-cry-3-...

That's hilarious, since a rabid fan of the last one is far more likely to be critical of all the "gamey" changes they've made.

It actually looks like they might have successfully walked that fine line between keeping what was good, and adding/fixing stuff to draw in a lot of people who hated FC2.

Yay. May have to purchase this earlier than planned.

Game trailers review

Sweet Jesus. This sounds like everything that Far Cry 2 was but with it's flaws removed and everything else improved. Gonna wait for confirmation that the PC port is solid, but otherwise this sounds like a day one purchase for me.

tanstaafl wrote:

The Kotaku review is so positive the comment section is full of people demanding they redo the review with someone who wasn't a fan of Far Cry 2.

http://kotaku.com/5962414/far-cry-3-...

They mention you can't hide the HUD, is there any other review that contradicts this. I really hope the Far Cry 3 team didn't forget to add an option to hide the hud. If not I'll wait a week or two after release for the eventual mod to fix that oversight.

Review round up copied from neogaf

Eurogamer - 10/10
Quote:
That's because Far Cry 3 is all the best things about open-world gaming. It's a glorious anecdote factory, where you manufacture brilliant new memories every time you wake up in a safehouse and head out into the jungle. It's an astonishing technical achievement, as comfortable revealing incredible landscapes over the brow of a hill as it is when the setting sun winks at you through a canopy, or when the heavens open as you stalk wildlife through the trees and long grass. And it always lets you play, but it also controls the tempo - sometimes a little heavy-handedly, but always with good intentions.

In the past, Far Cry's vision of a first-person shooter RPG where you explore, master and then control your environment has always been more seductive on paper than any of its developers have managed to deliver on disc. Far Cry 3 changes all that. For me, this is the new apex predator of open-world shooters. Hunt it down as soon as you can.

IGN - 9/10
Quote:
Far Cry 3 is important for the same reason as Far Cry 2. It’s a shooter that considers shooters thoughtfully, both in the way they’re designed and the way we play them, and then asks us to do the same. Should massacring hundreds be a great way to entertain ourselves? Maybe not. But it is.

+Excellent, flawed characters create dark, mature story twists
+Satisfying character progression and upgrade system
+Unpredictable, exciting, and varied enemy encounters
+Discovering the depths of this engrossing world

– Limp co-op mission design

Strategy Informer - 9/10
Quote:
There’s plenty I haven’t had space to talk about, like the drug experiences or the Indiana Jones temple moments, but if you have any questions just leave a comment below and I’ll endeavour to answer – as this is a particular game where I’m sure you’ll have plenty. Suffice to say Far Cry 3 is definitely the game its predecessor should’ve been, a constantly enjoyable open-world FPS that cleverly weaves in “optional” objectives with a compelling main narrative. Huge open area battles make way for smaller linear missions that are no less fun, with stealth and shooting equally strong. Despite a few technical quirks (seriously Ubisoft, patch the save system), a slight shortage of non-cutscene NPC interactions and the occasional lack of constant threat Far Cry 3 is a triumph that stands out from every other shooter released this year. It’ll frustrate sometimes, but hey, you can punch a shark in the face. In the face!

God is a Geek - 9/10
Quote:
There’s no way people will have been expecting Far Cry 3 to be as good as it turned out. Not many First Person Shooter games allow the player to become so invested in the character that they’re playing as, instead hoping that the player will project themselves onto the usually silent protagonist. Far Cry 3 is a resounding success, the sheer amount of things that you can spend your time doing make it a purchase that screams value for money. Add on top of that the story, the voice acting, the multiplayer aspects and all the gameplay elements which make Far Cry 3 a joy to play from start to finish, you’re left with a game that will be in most people’s Game of the Year nominations.

Official PlayStation Magazine - 9/10
Quote:
Far Cry 3’s real triumph is blending so many elements into a cohesive whole without any feeling extraneous or tacked-on. Every element works and has its place, and contributes to a narrative that may not be class-leading but certainly exceeds expectations. It also possesses the perfect balance between steadily empowering you, yet never allowing you to feel overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of what’s on offer – something even a game as great as Arkham City couldn’t manage. And what’s on offer is a hang-gliding, parachuting, quad-biking, shark-punching rebellion that satisfies on just about every level. It may not be reinventing the wheel, but it’s refining it, smoothing out the imperfections and sticking a ‘Wish You Were Here’ sticker on the hubcap.

1up - B-
Quote:
Far Cry 3 works best when you're left to your own devices; I loved cruising around the expansive maps via land, sea, and air, and the general business of capturing bases presented interesting stealth puzzles that I often had to approach from different angles before finding one that worked. Missions tailored to serve the story, on the other hand, do a great disservice to the open world antics that exist outside the question of whether or not Jason Brody's murder of thousands will affect his immortal soul -- a question that's ultimately dismissed with just a single sentence by the patronizing ending. Yes, Far Cry 3 offers a handful of great-looking set pieces -- especially when Jason trips on psychedelic drugs -- but these attractions are ultimately just that: a guided, on-rails tour through some pretty scenery. If you're going into the game expecting the dark and savage tale of lost humanity promised by previews and trailers, just cut out the middleman and rent Francis Ford Coppola's take on the same idea -- it'll save you 50-odd bucks and at least 20 hours.

Game Informer - 9/10
Quote:
Concept: Return this open-world shooter to a lush jungle setting and fill it with activities
Graphics: The gorgeous and varied terrain invites you to explore every nook and cranny
Sound: When you hear a hissing sound, brace yourself. Those Komodo dragons aren’t friendly
Playability: The refined gunplay (now without firearms malfunctions), more forgiving checkpoints, and wealth of side activities make this a much more enjoyable experience than Far Cry 2
Entertainment: This is one island adventure you won’t want to miss
Replay: Moderate

Video Gamer - 9/10
Quote:
Far Cry 3 shines in its campaign, which is more layered and compelling than any game proffering a power trip through escapist ultraviolence has any right to be. You could dismiss it all as offensive macho garbage, sure, but you could also read it as a unblinking look at the primal appeal of becoming capable at dishing out violence and how the confidence this confers can both attract and repel others. It's the sort of impact that could only be made by a video game, as in this medium neither responsibility for one's actions nor risk to one's well-being are realistic concerns. It's like disconnecting one's mind from reality; nothing is real, everything is permitted and madness is the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card.

+ Superb story and characters
+ A detailed open world
+ Tons of enjoyable content
- Occasional fiddly missions

IB Times - 7/10
Quote:
Gameplay: 7/10 - Absolutely fantastic shootouts, hampered by bad pacing and too many stat bars and icons
Graphics: 10/10 - Staggering, beautiful. Far Cry 3 is a watershed moment for how games look
Sound: 8/10 - Great weapon and ambient noises, with superb voice performances across the board. The music is a little too bombastic and occasionally gets intrusive
Replay Value: 8/10 - There's plenty to do in Far Cry 3, too much in fact, and the whole island is massive. You won't get bored quickly
Overall: 7/10 - A really good game that's let down by several narrative missteps and a patronising fixation on "content."

Games Radar - 4.5/5
Quote:
The thing is, Far Cry 3 doesn't need a strong multiplayer component because its single-player campaign will keep you invested for dozens of hours. You'll be eager to explore every bit of the tropical setting, to drive along the beach or hang glide over the ocean. You'll want to find lost treasures in the sunken ships that line the island's periphery and stab sharks to death for their valuable skins. You'll be compelled to save Jason's friends--even if they're super annoying--because attempting to do so means experiencing some of the most interesting missions you've likely seen in a shooter. And when tigers, bears, or other distractions randomly interrupt those missions, you'll have some pretty awesome stories to tell. That's just how Far Cry 3 rolls.

YOU'LL LOVE
Far Cry 3's theme of insanity
Exploring the huge, tropical island setting
The organic gameplay

YOU'LL HATE
Feeling torn between making story progress and taking on side content
The god-awful cast of good guy bros
Getting bored with the lackluster multiplayer offerings

Inc Gamers - 9/10
Quote:
So yes, if you can deal with some rather heavy themes which range through drugs/murder/prostitution/domestic abuse/slavery/rape, then Far Cry 3 is something you should absolutely buy. It’s got flaws, but none of them change the fact that it’s a fascinating exploration (both physical and analytical) of a beautiful environment that hides a rotten core. And if you’re not into that, then hey, it’s also a really good open-world shooter.

Brutal, dark, well-written, and deeply enjoyable. Far Cry 3 takes a lot of its predecessors ideas and makes them work.

CVG - 9.4/10
Quote:
Power through visual hitches and a strained finale to find a spirited, brilliant open-world gem packed with extreme pursuits, stunning scenery and hoards of savage animals - both man and beast alike.

UPPERS
Improves on the last game in every way
A 25-hour singleplayer packed with pursuits
Incredible sense of scale, and of fun
Four-player co-op is a quality diversion

DOWNERS
Consoles suffer some technical difficulites
The finale disappoints
Official Xbox Magazine - 9/10
Quote:
Far Cry 3 isn't too much of a departure, once you actually get to grips with the landscape that stretches behind that fidgety, histrionic exterior. It is, however, handily the best game in the series so far, and deserves to hold its head high among this winter's noisy crowd of sandbox offerings. If madness is repetition, this is one reworking of a formula I don't mind losing my mind to.

+ Glorious, vibrant world
+ No penalty for exploring
+ Honed stealth and takedowns
+ Serviceable multiplayer
- Technically inconsistent, with some dud subsystems

EGM - 10/10
Quote:
SUMMARY: A story that puts you on the edge of your seat from the second it starts. The deep, skillfully scripted campaign is something every gamer should experience.

THE GOOD: The best blend of story and open-world action I’ve ever played.
THE BAD: Less multiplayer, more awesome ending, please!
THE UGLY: The thought of playing “pin the tail on the donkey” ever again…

Rock Paper Shotgun
Quote:
Far Cry 3 is a huge thing, and I am only really reporting on the lavish single-player campaign here. There’s co-op and true multiplayer, too (although no dedicated servers, as our newsfeed previously noted). There’s even a map editor app for multiplayer, as there was with Far Cry 2.

And let’s make a note of something about this third game as I close: It’s better than Far Cry 2. Whether or not you liked that game is, I think, irrelevant. Because it has kept what was good – the mad rallying of the driving, the fire propagation, the needlessly horrifying first-aid – and builds on everything else. For some people, I am sure, this will be game of the year. It’s certainly the game I hoped Far Cry 2 would be back in 2008. This new game doesn’t quite manage to clinch 2012 for me, but I have awkward tastes. For most people, I suspect, this will be cocktails and barbecues on the beach. Right as the year closes, we have another reason to be cheerful.
GamePro - 90/100
Quote:
Hervorragender Insel-Shooter mit riesigem Umfang und toller Story.

+ eingängiges Shooter-Gameplay
+ packende Geschichte
+ viel zu entdecken
+ tolle Insel-Atmosphäre
+ haufenweise Abwechslung
- Welt wirkt stellenweise leer
- KI lässt sich einfach a
XboxFront - 8/10
Quote:
Es ist die Technik, die dem Spiel den Boden unter den Füßen wegzieht. Far Cry 3 hat mit einer permanent niedrigen Framerate zu kämpfen, die zu deutliche Abstrichen in der Spielbarkeit führt. Weitere technische Unzulänglichkeiten wie extremes Kantenflimmern, schlimmes Tearing und eine komplett verhunzte Lippensynchronität sorgen dafür, dass wir zu dem Fazit kommen, dass ein Kauf von Far Cry 3 für Xbox 360 nicht zu empfehlen ist. Mit entsprechender PC-Hardware gehört das Spiel hingegen zu den besten Shootern des Jahres!

Pro und Contra

+ authentische Charaktere
+ riesen Umfang
+ abwechslungsreiches Gameplay
+ innovative Mehrspieler-Modi
+ Map-Editor
+ sehr gute Sprecher

- katastrophale Framerate
- grobes Tearing
- starkes Kantenflimmern
- nicht Lippensynchron
GameTrailers - 8.6/10
Quote:
Like hell I'm sitting through the worst video streaming software on the internet to take notes of what they say.

Kotaku - YES
Quote:
WHY: Far Cry 3 does so much right: It's an exhilarating and empowering adventure that marvelously combines player freedom with shiny technical polish.

My Two Favorite Things
Realizing that my 20th base raid had been just as exciting and unpredictable as my first.
Running up a winding mountain ridge before hang-gliding off. It never gets old.

My Two Least-Favorite Things
Every time Jason Brody would pipe up to tell me how he was feeling about things.
The inability to turn off the HUD, mini-map or objective markers.
EDGE - 8/10
Quote:
Far Cry 3’s main missions are nothing special in and of themselves, and include one or two exhausting slogs and limp stealth sections, but the campaign does a better job than Far Cry 2’s storyline when it comes to providing an alternative to the open emergence of the player-authored escapades. Sure, it’s liable to all go a bit surreal, at times, with sequences that ram home the insanity theme, but its protagonists are sympathetic and charismatic, and the villains are loathsome, and it frequently forces Jason into the kind of confined spaces that he never finds outside.

Regardless, Far Cry 3 is at home in the jungle. Wild, reactive and unpredictable, it’s where the series still feels so distinct from other FPSes. It’s built from many of the usual ingredients, including guns, explosive barrels, and thoughtfully placed cover, as well as few less usual ones – tigers, for a start – but refuses to tell you how to approach things or what to do with them. Visiting Rook Islands is no package holiday, then, but it’s a great place to make your own fun.

Hardcore Gamer - 4/5
Quote:
After endless hours of play, though, that’s the only major complaint I was able to come up with, which is pretty amazing for a game of Far Cry 3‘s scope. There’s a giant world to explore here, loaded with details and fantastically pretty. Whether you’re stealthing your way through a ramshackle outpost or climbing a radio tower on top of a mountain, it’s always engaging, pulling you effortlessly from one scenario to the next and hitting all the right notes along the way. It’s fun to plant an arrow in the back of an unsuspecting enemy, and it’s also fun to find a hidden cave on the side of a cliff that leads to ancient ruins. Far Cry 3 lets you set your own pace and play in your own style, and that makes it almost impossible to put down.

Also looks like it's going to slaughter video cards. Keep in mind this is with no AA.

IMAGE(http://www.abload.de/img/far-cry-3-test-gpus-17xjhz.png)

It's weird to me that it's that hard on videocards. It's certainly very pretty, but it's not any better looking than a few other games out there that run WAY better at higher settings than anything on that graph says

Thin_J wrote:

It's weird to me that it's that hard on videocards. It's certainly very pretty, but it's not any better looking than a few other games out there that run WAY better at higher settings than anything on that graph says :|

I'm with you. I wonder if they just did a bad job of optimizing it?

Aw... My 460 is crying...

I played FC2 quite a while after it was released. I remember thinking I should have played it earlier. But now we're at a time when it's often wiser to wait for all-in-one editions rather than to buy at launch.

Someone should invent a time machine and release this a year after FC2.

Woohoo! My 2x 680s are awaiting you! So glad to see it's good.

Any word on HUD customization? I've read a couple of things that have seemed to indicate the HUD is completely non-customizable - always a big turd in the punchbowl for me, especially if the videos I've seen are indicative of the finalized HUD. Does the PC version feature any opacity setting/marker disable/contextual fade options, etc.?

It had totally passed me by this was releasing this week. That is some collection of reviews. FC2 is one of my favourite games, and if this has taken the things that worked and added yet more awesome, it's a must-buy IMHO.

Those benchmarks are on maxed out settings right? If I tune down the settings, my poor old GTX460 would still run it right? My PC suddenly feels old.

Happy Dave wrote:

It had totally passed me by this was releasing this week.

It's not out for two weeks (12 days but close enough).

And so begins the collective butt-hurt that begins with a game that exceeds the capabilities of years-old PC hardware...

SuperDave wrote:

And so begins the collective butt-hurt that begins with a game that exceeds the capabilities of years-old PC hardware...

"Can it run Far Cry 3?"

Haha. I was thinking that exactly.

Edit: Come to think of it, benchmarking Far Cry 2 had its issues too. The frame rate would always take a dive any time there was gunfire and brush fire on screen. I expect the game will still run well, but may be plagued by the same pitfalls.

I'm not sure either of my main rigs will run this game in 3 30" LCD's mode... Yes!!!

Blind_Evil wrote:
Happy Dave wrote:

It had totally passed me by this was releasing this week.

It's not out for two weeks (12 days but close enough).

Ah, thinking in work deadlines, thought I was a week ahead of myself.

It's possible the settings they are using in that benchmark includes some weird DX11 feature that saps power and/or isn't integrated well, like how turning off Advanced DOF in Metro 2033 or Tesselation in Arkham City can more than double the framerate. Or a new improved beta driver for cards will come out closer to release. Considering none of the reviews so far even decide to mention that it's a resource hog make me think something like that is going on.

EDIT: Hmm, this Gamespy article sounds like the game actually is a system hog, so now I don't know. Would like to see a DX9/DX11 comparison though.

Gumbie wrote:
Thin_J wrote:

It's weird to me that it's that hard on videocards. It's certainly very pretty, but it's not any better looking than a few other games out there that run WAY better at higher settings than anything on that graph says :|

I'm with you. I wonder if they just did a bad job of optimizing it?

Ubisoft are very hit and miss with their PC ports. Some are great, some are unoptimised junk. I really hope this doesn't end up being that bad on the shipping version because wow.

Kind of surprised to see reviews going up so early for this. It isn't out for at least a couple of weeks is it?

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Kind of surprised to see reviews going up so early for this. It isn't out for at least a couple of weeks is it?

It happens from time to time when a publisher is really confident it'll score well. Game's out 12/4.

Day One Perch.

Podunk wrote:

Day One Perch.

Yep.

As someone who loved Far Cry 2 so much (probably my favourite shooter over last 5 years), everything I hear is very encouraging.

How my Core2Duo and GTX 260 is going to handle it, though, I do not know

Blind_Evil wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Kind of surprised to see reviews going up so early for this. It isn't out for at least a couple of weeks is it?

It happens from time to time when a publisher is really confident it'll score well. Game's out 12/4.

Considering they were going to release it long after Black Friday and in the month nothing usually comes out - even though it was clearly ready so far in advance that review copies are already out - my guess is Ubisoft did not expect this game to turn out as well as it did. Then they started seeing that reviews were actually quite positive compared to expectations and decided to eliminate the usual embargo in order to improve buzz.

SuperDave wrote:

And so begins the collective butt-hurt that begins with a game that exceeds the capabilities of years-old PC hardware...

I feel I have the right to complain since at this exact moment I can't afford a new graphics card thus I'm stuck with my Geforce 9800 GT which works like a charm on so many games but it seems like it is about to get slaughtered.

Heck I've been telling my parents over and over again that I need a new graphics card and put it number 1 on my Christmas list but it seems like the 300 dollar price point for the Geforce 660 TI is too rich for the parents of a college student.

It seems like my decision to or not to play Far Cry 3 has been ripped from my hands till I get a better card.