Far Cry 2

I'm not as negative towards it as you guys are. Massive potential, massive let down, that's what Far Cry 2 is. I've played it most of the way through, it gets a very repetitive towards the end. I've always wondered if some of it's design issues weren't caused by the limitations of consoles. They felt like console limitations to me.

It looks great, no doubt about that. On the PC, the FPS controls just like it should, but the key bindings were nonsensical. Press 5 for map? Huh? I remember being frustrated by a few other non-PC centric controls. Really developers, take the extra day to make it work like a PC game should.

The story isn't half bad (for a shooter), it makes sense at least. I liked the Jackal, how they developed him through the game with the audio tapes, not the one dimensional character that I was afraid he'd be. They really tried to make a point about these small scale wars and their actors and motivations, but they didn't quite execute it correctly. A more linear plot line might have actually helped with that. Normally I wouldn't expect much story or moral lessons from a shooter but I think they were actually close with this one.

A lot of the problem with the traveling was that you could only have one mission at a time. One main story mission would have made sense but you should be able to carry as many side missions with you as you wanted.

Exploring - the environments look nice but diamonds aren't a big need, not much else to discover that's not highlighted on your map. There are some wonderfully crafted areas out there though, yes, it's more of the same but they made it look nice. You can only find the Jackal's tapes by exploring though, they help the story a lot.

Malaria - irritating, just a few more missions to make the game drag along, broke up the story more than it helped.

The gun dealer missions were a mess, unlocking new guns by running missions that were unlocked slowly by the main missions is bad design. Then purchasing guns and having them automatically restock safe houses was a blunder. It made no sense. A simple inventory system, a gun cleaning kit and proper merchants would have gone a long way. If they would have copied Stalker or Deus Ex, it would have been much better. Also the Barrett not being considered a large weapon, stupid.

The respawning is atrocious. Way too fast, way too repetitive. If they would have had a 4 game day respawn timer, it would have been fine. It needed to actually keep track of the vehicles and where they were, not keep respawning them behind you every 1/4 mile down the road.

Some difference between the starting characters would have been a nice touch. One moves slightly faster, one can hold his breath longer, one has a slight bonus to ammo carry, etc. Maybe that's too much to ask considering it's other flaws though.
 
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Then purchasing guns and having them automatically restock safe houses was a blunder. It made no sense. A simple inventory system, a gun cleaning kit and proper merchants would have gone a long way.


I laughed out loud when I discovered how guns were purchased in FC2, it was the final nail in the coffin for me. Feeding diamonds into a computer, and then having the guns appear out of thin air in an adjoining shack, was one of the silliest things I've ever seen in an FPS. It just killed all realism and immersion for me.
 
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Looks like I'm going to have to add Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to the list of shitty sequels. I really enjoyed the first Cod:MW, but the second game has been consolized to the max.

No 'lean' function? No option to disable that huge annoying crosshair?
 
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What would you expect from Activision these days concerning a "dying" platform, bro? Effort? HAH!
 
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The gun dealer missions were a mess, unlocking new guns by running missions that were unlocked slowly by the main missions is bad design. Then purchasing guns and having them automatically restock safe houses was a blunder. It made no sense. A simple inventory system, a gun cleaning kit and proper merchants would have gone a long way. If they would have copied Stalker or Deus Ex, it would have been much better. Also the Barrett not being considered a large weapon, stupid.

Yeah there's a whole lack of realism that really detracts from immersion. It didn't bother me as much as the respawn, but it could have been way better. The focus seemed to be on making things as convenient as possible for the player, at the cost of total loss of any kind of realism. The infinite guns appearing once you've bought one, in case the player lost his. The weapon crates that were linked to every weapon shop and safe house. The generic ammo piles (one bullet fits all guns), and the respawning vehicles. It wasn't stupid enought that there were all these cars and trucks just scattered all over the place that no one owned or cared if you took. But they respawn in the same location, so you never, EVER have to worry about having to walk anywhere.
 
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I do think any shooter that deviates from the stale fight-your-way-to-the-end-of-the-level formula deserves some credit though. And it's one of the only truly mission based shooters I've ever player.

It would be nice if there were more games like it, just done a lot better.
 
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I actually managed to finish the game. It was fun here and there but more of a headache and it ended with a real downer.

I thought the concept was great though, it was just implemented really badly. The only other shooters I've seen with large open areas, non linear gameplay and missions based were Boiling Point and Stalker. They both suffered from excessive repawn as well though. But I was wondering if there are any others. Has anyone played something similar that you could recommend?
 
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The only other shooters I've seen with large open areas, non linear gameplay and missions based were Boiling Point and Stalker. They both suffered from excessive repawn as well though. But I was wondering if there are any others. Has anyone played something similar that you could recommend?


You could try Just Cause. It's like a cross between Max Payne and Grand Theft Auto, with a huge explorable area. I'm not sure how you feel about the 3rd-person view though.

Wasn't the excessive respawning in Stalker fixed in one of the later patches?
 
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You could try Just Cause. It's like a cross between Max Payne and Grand Theft Auto, with a huge explorable area. I'm not sure how you feel about the 3rd-person view though.

Wasn't the excessive respawning in Stalker fixed in one of the later patches?

Thanks for that. I watched the video review. I'm looking for something a bit more... realistic, if that's the right word.

What would be cool (this would be my fantasy game, I doubt it exists) is something almost like a role playing game with characters you can talk to, buying and selling, quests (or missions), houses you can own to store your stuff and things like that. Think of Fallout 3 but without the XP and levelling up, and it wouldn't be necessary for every character to have a dialog. But that kind of thing. Having your own vehicle you can own and maybe even upgrade would have been cool.

I had that idea for Far Cry 2. If you could buy your own truck, upgrade it with armour plate, different weapons, storage crates where you could stash your guns, and maybe hire a local to man the gun for you so you don't have to stop to shoot. Being able to paint it different colours would be the cherry on top, like different cammo schemes and such.

I'm just dreaming though I suppose. I've got big hopes for Red Dead Redemption but I'm steeling myself for disappointment.

I'm not sure about the Stalker patch to be honest, but I played the addon/prequel Clear Sky and it was just as bad. I had to use a mod for that to make it playable. I loved the weapon and armour upgrading in that game. Loved it. That was how Far Cry 2 should have done it.

Anyway thanks though, I appreciate it.
 
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RDR does look cool, but afaik there's no PC version planned.

It's cool, I've got a 360.

I mean look at this game, how great does it look? I just hope when I finally play it it's not going to be like some arcade game with big floating icons or damage floaters or getting points when you kill someone or something like that. It doesn't look like it on the footage but you never know.

Or it might all be action and flash but little substance and story/characters/plot. I hope not though.

And I hope there's an inventory, and you can scavenge and buy and sell. And different weapons of different quality and damage that you can buy or find. I hope it's not like you just have your two guns and that's it.

http://www.gameplanet.co.nz/xbox/ga...20100406.Red-Dead-Life-in-the-West-trailer-2/
 
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I thought the concept was great though, it was just implemented really badly. The only other shooters I've seen with large open areas, non linear gameplay and missions based were Boiling Point and Stalker. They both suffered from excessive repawn as well though. But I was wondering if there are any others. Has anyone played something similar that you could recommend?

Open world shooters are one of my favourite genres. Here are a couple I like:

STALKER: Call of Pripyat is pretty good - probably the best in the series.

Arma 2 is flawed but brilliant. It's more of a military sim than a typical FPS, though (slower paced). A lot of bugs, too. However, it's got a great editor, so you can create your own scenarios/missions and the mod community has built a lot you can download. It is/can be a system hog.

RDR is the game I'm most wanting right now. Wild West + guns + Euphoria physics = win! At least I hope so. May 18 can't come soon enough.
 
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