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[Ledsen]

...based on (but not quoted from) this article from RPS

Some choice quotes follow, but you should read the whole thing.

This is a game after all. And believe me, if Far Cry 3 was a food, it would taste like pheasant. Gamey.

There are plants almost everywhere with which to make medicine or ability-enhancing drugs. There are recipes that help you breathe underwater for longer, or follow an animal’s scent trail, or simply heal your wounds. Animals themselves can be hunted down and skinned, allowing you to craft wallets for holding more money, ammo pouches, grenade pockets, weapon holsters (you can only carry one gun at the start and have to craft more of these holsters to hold the maximum of four) and bigger rucksacks for carrying around more loot.


Passing missions and gleefully shooting people (or sneaking up behind them for a bit of the ol’ stabby-stabby) will earn you XP with which you can unlock abilities. Far be it from Far Cry 3 to eschew the trend of putting RPG elements into a shooter. There’s every other species of tree on this exotic island, so why not the humble ‘skill tree’? Admittedly, this does have a neat visual trick to it. Every time you buy a new skill, a small tattoo will appear on Jason Brody’s arm. As you acquire more and more skills the tattoos – said by the Rakyat to bring great power and blah blah blah – start to entwine. The idea is that you’re left with a sexy sleeve that allows you to use men as human shields, cook grenades, heal yourself without medkits and so on. As well as endearing you to tattoo-fetishists the world over.

It’s now that I spot the Komodo dragon. Well, first I hear it hiss, then I spot it. After I riddle it with more bullets than I could have expected a giant reptile to endure, I bend down to skin the beast. And I guess that’s when I do my best thinking – in the idle moments of a game, waiting for an animation to finish – because it struck me how bored I was of skinning animals. Of all these AssCreed-like interactive chores. If I had stopped to take the time to do this in Far Cry 2, I would have been somehow punctured in the chest with a rebar from an enemy hiding in a shrub one hundred feet away. Remember that? Remember how you could never really feel comfortable in the indeterminate African countryside? Not even for ten seconds. Because here comes a jeep, a posse of war-hungry militiamen. Remember how isolated and anxious you felt when you saw the last plane leave the country at the very beginning of the game? How oppressive it was to be surrounded on all sides, not by a pristine azure ocean, but by an unconquerable desert?

Well, I didn’t feel like that when I played Far Cry 3 for the first time. I didn’t feel under threat. I felt safe. And that’s probably the word I would use to sum up my first impressions of the game itself. ‘Safe’. Ubisoft have made a gorgeous, characterful and finely-tuned game. But in doing so they appear to have stripped out what was fresh and vital about its predecessor. I’m just going to out and say it: the buddy system is gone. The most memorable moment of Far Cry 2 for me was running out of morphine and being forced to put my good pal out of his misery with a bullet in the head. (It didn’t matter that he didn’t have a personality as such. So long as he rescued me from death, time and time again, he was my friend). All that is gone, replaced by your bog-standard ‘load-you-back-at-the-start-of-this-challenge’ death. More’s the pity, because it looks like the writers are fully capable of creating some really vibrant characters this time around. And that’s not the only thing they took out. Scavenged guns no longer jam, injuries don’t seem to happen as often… Don’t get me wrong, the second game was far from perfect (and I’m glad to see that when you clear a roadblock in this instalment, the road stays cleared) but it’s like some higher-up execushite walked into the dev studio and ordered them to rip out all the interesting design ideas in time for the sequel because the alternative – to try and build on these mechanics – was too risky. “Play it safe,” says the execushite to the creative. “Play it safe.”

Far Cry 2 is one of my favorite FPS of all-time, which obviously colors my reading of this article. Still, my fears about Far Cry 3 and the consequences of the departure of Clint Hocking seem to have been partly confirmed. Based on the information in the article, they have taken out most of what made FC2 great and expanded and streamlined the game and its systems to the point of blandness, something the AssCreed series has indeed been guilty of in the past (as the author implies). They appear to have crammed as much stuff in there as they possibly could without stopping to consider that restraint was one of the things that made FC2 such a refreshing breeze in a muddy sea of sameness. Guns slowly getting rusty (especially if you submerged them in water) and eventually jamming, the constant sense of danger, the stripped-down UI, the buddy system, even the unique setting. But above all, the immersion that came from the combination of all these elements. "Gamey" is the last word I would use to describe FC2, and now that word is being used to describe its sequel.

They do seem to have fixed the stuff that needed to be fixed, like the lack of interesting characters apart from the main villian, the instantly respawning guards and (I assume) the hawk-eyed enemies, but in the process of throwing in everything but the kitchen sink in terms of RPG elements and density of content, we are approaching something that is closer to a theme park ride than a survival simulator. And that is entirely the opposite direction I was hoping for the series to take.

 

[Dusk Golem]

While I haven't been keeping up with the game but have passive interest in it, worrying about the game being too safe is something completely I definitely didn't imagine to hear after the E3 event with his mohawk, random tigers and neon dream sequences, and 'Let's start our E3 showing with titties!' approach.

 

[EatChildren]

Yeah, it's pretty clear they've streamlined the shit out of, if not removed completely, the more unique mechanics from Far Cry 2. I'll still give it a chance as I want to try out the sandbox environment, and Far Cry 2 was hardly flawless, but the boring setting coupled with the anti-Far Cry 2 design decisions leave me kinda eh.

 

[Router]

Good. The second game was a fucking pile of shit when it came to enemies being a threat.

 

[Salsa]

read this on the toilet today


yeah, I feel like im gonna enjoy it but Far Cry 2 will still hold a special place in my heart. That game's something else and had a ton of balls, too bad they pussied out

 

[Dennis]

What is safe about this?

Up the difficulty.

I like what I am hearing. In FarCry 2 everyone was out to kill you all the time and teleporting jeeps where up your ass every 5 minutes.....good riddance.

Remember how you could never really feel comfortable in the indeterminate African countryside? Not even for ten seconds. Because here comes a jeep, a posse of war-hungry militiamen.

Yeah, I remember. Remember hating that.

Games don't have to throw shit at you constantly to be entertaining. Let me explore and seek out danger if I want it.

 

[MormaPope]

I detest and loathe Far Cry 2, and I really don't take issue with not being in combat every 10 seconds so I guess Far Cry 3 would be an improvement for me?

 

[Salsa]

what I wanna know is if the UI is still some modern warfare crap with numbers and exp and shit all over your face

 

[Dusk Golem]

Good. The second game was a fucking pile of shit when it came to enemies being a threat.

FC2 has its definite flaws but there definitely was a constant level of threat. Probably since everyone in Africa seems to have an agenda against you for whatever reason.

 

[broham]

I was afraid this was going to be the case when I noticed a mini map on the HUD back when they put out the first gameplay footage. Still keeping my eye on it though.

 

[Salsa]

I was afraid this was going to be the case when I noticed a mini map on the HUD back when they put out the first gameplay footage. Still keeping my eye on it though.

give me back my harry potter map

 

[MormaPope]

FC2 has its definite flaws but there definitely was a constant level of threat. Probably since everyone in Africa seems to have an agenda against you for whatever reason.

Far Cry 2 is like the Home Alone of videogames, except you're the burglars and all the traps are exactly the same.

 

[subversus]

these complaints sound insignifficant to me. What I care about is freedom and AI. It seems that the game builds on Far Cry 2 in that regard. Weapon degradation sucked anyway. Buddy system was good but just because it let you approach missions in different way. But I can do it on my own just as well.

 

[Ledsen]

I detest and loathe Far Cry 2, and I really don't take issue with not being in combat every 10 seconds so I guess Far Cry 3 would be an improvement for me?

That's not his complaint, read the article. He's saying all the design decisions they made have been in the direction of other popular shooters, instead of fixing the flaws of FC2 and expanding on the many things that were unique and great about it.

 

[StuBurns]

This is good news for me, considering I hated FC2.

 

[Dennis]

these complaints sound insignifficant to me.

This. Or perhaps more precisely they fixed a lot of the issues with FarCry 2.

 

[Salsa]

here's the thing: Far Cry 2 is memorable. It's a polarizing game because it's different from everything else, enough so as to have 2 really strong "I hate it" and "I love it" camps with actual respectable reasons behind it.

Far Cry 3 (so far) looks like something i'll forget about by 2013.

The villain is still the main draw for me

 

[industrian]

Hearing the roar of a jeep's engine in FC2 is one of the greatest "you're pretty much fucked" indicators in gaming history.

 

[subversus]

That's not his complaint, read the article. He's saying all the design decisions they made have been in the direction of other popular shooters, instead of fixing the flaws of FC2 and expanding on the many things that were unique and great about it.

that is not what he is saying

 

[Dennis]

Is it still a big open world?

Then it is not really like those other big shooters which are horribly linear.

And the graphics looks vastly improved over the plasticine foilage of FarCry 2.

 

[broham]

Hearing the roar of a jeep's engine in FC2 is one of the greatest "you're pretty much fucked" indicators in gaming history.

That sound sent a chill down my spine every single time I heard it. My next immediate thought would be if I had a buddy ready to save my ass if I got run over.

 

[Ledsen]

This is good news for me, considering I hated FC2.

Hating FC2 does not mean you have to enjoy another open-world game filled with pointless chores masquerading as "RPG elements" that do nothing but pad out your playtime. But if you do, I'm sure the article is encouraging.

that is not what he is saying

it is though.

that’s probably the word I would use to sum up my first impressions of the game itself. ‘Safe’. Ubisoft have made a gorgeous, characterful and finely-tuned game. But in doing so they appear to have stripped out what was fresh and vital about its predecessor.

it’s like some higher-up execushite walked into the dev studio and ordered them to rip out all the interesting design ideas in time for the sequel because the alternative – to try and build on these mechanics – was too risky. “Play it safe,” says the execushite to the creative. “Play it safe.”

 

[Loudninja]

Good.Far Cry 2, even though I enjoy it was annoying.

No matter when no matter when, no matter how many times you clear a place out enemas were everywhere.

 

[MormaPope]

That's not his complaint, read the article. He's saying all the design decisions they made have been in the direction of other popular shooters, instead of fixing the flaws of FC2 and expanding on the many things that were unique and great about it.

What if I found nothing great in Far Cry 2?

And Far Cry 2 wasn't that deep, that was its problem. Malaria? More like suck some pills down like they're Advil and you're instantly better. Car broke down? Tighten the radiator screw! Do a boring fetch and murder quest for a buddy and get....a higher loyalty stat!

Not to mention logical fallacies and plot holes that make my head hurt. How do you transfer diamonds as a digital currency? Why chase me down when I don't have supplies and my arsenal is a sniper or AK like everyone else?

 

[Dennis]

No matter when no matter when, no matter how many times you clear a place out enemas were everywhere.

I think I hate respawn more than anything else in shooters.

It completely kills any feeling of accomplishment on clearing out an area of enemies.

In an RPG, at least the XP aspect makes respawning enemies something more than just a chore.


LOL, enemas

 

[kittens]

these complaints sound insignifficant to me. What I care about is freedom and AI. It seems that the game builds on Far Cry 2 in that regard. Weapon degradation sucked anyway. Buddy system was good but just because it let you approach missions in different way. But I can do it on my own just as well.

Agreed.

 

[Rufus]

That sound sent a chill down my spine every single time I heard it. My next immediate thought would be if I had a buddy ready to save my ass if I got run over.

RPG to the bonnet solved that problem (or explosive darts, though those were DLC). Staying off the roads helped tremendously, too.

 

[StuBurns]

Hating FC2 does not mean you have to enjoy another open-world game filled with pointless chores masquerading as "RPG elements" that do nothing but pad out your playtime. But if you do, I'm sure the article is encouraging.

But I don't trust their opinion to align with mine at all, because it's written from the perspective FC2 is good, and I couldn't disagree more. Just knowing it's radically different is good news to me.

 

[Salsa]

What if I found nothing great in Far Cry 2?

And Far Cry 2 wasn't that deep, that was its problem. Malaria? More like suck some pills down like they're Advil and you're instantly better. Car broke down? Tighten the radiator screw! Do a boring fetch and murder quest for a buddy and get....a higher loyalty stat!

Not to mention logical fallacies and plot holes that make my head hurt. How do you transfer diamonds as a digital currency? Why chase me down when I don't have supplies and my arsenal is a sniper or AK like everyone else?

I dont think anyone's saying FC2 is particularly deep. It was a "systems" game, and that's whats interesting about it. There was a lot of stuff to tinker with and it was a REAL open world sandbox experience. You could approach any situation wichever way you wanted, literally, so much so that the game was indeed "broken" in certain aspects. It was a playground. The kind of game where you limit yourself or do a permadeath run (fucking intense), shit like that. From the looks of this (scripted events + QTEs) it looks like they have taken much of that out and that's what bothers me.

 

[Loudninja]

these complaints sound insignifficant to me. What I care about is freedom and AI. It seems that the game builds on Far Cry 2 in that regard. Weapon degradation sucked anyway. Buddy system was good but just because it let you approach missions in different way. But I can do it on my own just as well.

Yes I agree,although I didn't mind the weapon degradation, it was not a problem to me.

 

[Dennis]

RPG to the bonnet solved that problem (or explosive darts, though those were DLC). Staying off the roads helped tremendously, too.

Traveling on rivers in boat was the only acceptable way to travel.

 

[subversus]

Hating FC2 does not mean you have to enjoy another open-world game filled with pointless chores masquerading as "RPG elements", doing nothing but padding out your playtime. But if you do, I'm sure the article is encouraging.


it is though.

oh, it's totally not. What he says is that they removed two things that had minimal impact on what made the game special, i.e. the vast landscape which allowed freeform approach to combat and reactive/agressive (even though it was dumb) AI. I loved Far Cry 2 but that's because I never knew what would happen next, not because there were buddies and degrading weapons.

As for RPG elements STALKER had tons of these "pointless chores" and guess what, people LOVED THEM and considered it one of its best qualities and stand-out features of the game. So no, they are not pointless, they are good if done well.

Traveling on rivers in boat was the only acceptable way to travel.

I used buses

 

[Scotch]

Hearing the roar of a jeep's engine in FC2 is one of the greatest "you're pretty much fucked" indicators in gaming history.

It baffles me how people could think that was great, considering you would hear that jeep's engine every 30 seconds or so.

Far Cry 2 was such a turd. This article makes me excited for FC3.

 

[Loudninja]

You really didn't have much to do in FC2 world besides finding diamonds and safe houses.

 

[Dennis]

Thread backfire?

GAF is more excited for Far Cry 3 than ever before!

 

[MormaPope]

I dont think anyone's saying FC2 is particularly deep. It was a "systems" game, and that's whats interesting about it. There was a lot of stuff to tinker with and it was a REAL open world sandbox experience. You could approach any situation wichever way you wanted, literally, so much so that the game was indeed "broken" in certain aspects. It was a playground. From the looks of this (scripted events + QTEs) it looks like they have taken much of that out and that's what bothers me.

Those systems though seemed like an obstacle in my way rather than enhancing the experience. If those systems were taken out and the time spent on AI, atmosphere, wide variety of land and air vehicles, wide variety of weapons, NPC's, towns, villages, and anything else that felt rushed and non existent in Far Cry 2 I think many people would've enjoyed it much more than what people got.

 

[Salsa]

Thread backfire?

GAF is more excited for Far Cry 3 than ever before!

its pretty well known that the FC2 defense force is pretty small

Those systems though seemed like an obstacle in my way rather than enhancing the experience. If those systems were taken out and the time spent on AI, atmosphere, wide variety of land and air vehicles, wide variety of weapons, NPC's, towns, villages, and anything else that felt rushed and non existent in Far Cry 2.

well that's why is so polarizing. When I first played it it caught me off guard and I was surprised at how different I found myself playing it when compared to other games. It's a very flawed game, dont get me wrong (it used some interesting programming workarounds in its time to pull off the big world, wich resulted in the constant respawning etc), but it was a really fresh experience at the time and I appreciate it all the more for what it tried to do.

Far Cry 3 could have learnt from those mistakes and pushed that kind of gameplay forward in a much more polished way. Instead they lost their balls and decided to play it safe, that's the bad part of this.

 

[Rufus]

Traveling on rivers in boat was the only acceptable way to travel.

Nah, take a jeep and go off-road. Much quicker.
There are checkpoints by rivers too, and unless you had a sniper rifle with you those could turn rotten quick, since you were stuck on the damn thing.

 

[TemplaerDude]

I used buses

I think I bused once.

I'm really torn, part of me really hates that game, but I also played it for probably 20 or 30 hours and loved the shit out of it. The checkpoints were a fucking annoyance, for sure, but there are some moments you can pull off in that game that were so fuck-shit awesome.

But those fucking checkpoints. God dammit, fuck that game.

 

[subversus]

GAF is more excited for Far Cry 3 than ever before!

After reading the article I certainly am.

 

[The Return of]

its pretty well known that the FC2 defense force is pretty small

For a good reason too. Can we finally get a great Far Cry game please

 

[Loudninja]

There are plants almost everywhere with which to make medicine or ability-enhancing drugs. There are recipes that help you breathe underwater for longer, or follow an animal’s scent trail, or simply heal your wounds. Animals themselves can be hunted down and skinned, allowing you to craft wallets for holding more money, ammo pouches, grenade pockets, weapon holsters (you can only carry one gun at the start and have to craft more of these holsters to hold the maximum of four) and bigger rucksacks for carrying around more loot.

This sounds awesome.

Love the RPG elements as well.

 

[reptilescorpio]

Loved Far Cry 2. I've been playing it on PS3 lately after getting it free through PSN+ and even though it isn't as great as the PC version I have been having a fun time back in that world.

Probably pick up Far Cry 3 on sale next year, doesn't draw me in as much as I expected.

 

[Ledsen]

Thread backfire?

GAF is more excited for Far Cry 3 than ever before!

Obviously I know exactly what most of GAF thinks about FC2 and the knee-jerk reactions this thread would get, I just don't give a shit because all I want is for Far Cry 3 to be a sequel to Far Cry 2. The rest of the world can have their skinning minigames and XP popups if I can just have that, but it seems like I can't.

 

[RoboPlato]

Everything that they mention as a negative in that article sounds like a positive to me. FC2 has some amazing, forward thinking ideas that also had the worst execution ever. I wanted to love 2 but couldn't. Even if 3 isn't ambitious at least it will allow them to get the proper basics in place and carried out well enough to be able to get more ambitious in scope and features later on instead of trying and failing to polish the right elements of the game.

I love the RPG like elements and Red Dead style hunting stuff. I think it adds a lot to a game like this and is a good way to add stuff to the game without getting too bogged down in the details.

 

[MormaPope]

The guy that wrote the article is complaining about side activities that you don't need to participate in, in Far Cry 2 you had to have malaria, you had to either be off the radar completely or get bushwhacked at every outpost or on every road. Far Cry 2 took place in Africa yet there are barely any animals, in Far Cry 3 animals exist and they can fucking attack your enemies.

 

[def sim]

I like the second game well enough, but put in me in the camp that can't relate with the writer of the article. I felt indifferent toward or, outright, disliked a lot of what he found interesting. In particular, the constant 'threat' of enemies. It made the combat feel like a chore more often than not and, having read this thread, I'm glad I'm not the only one. It's a cool concept that just didn't work.

 

[Squire]

What is safe about this?

Up the difficulty.

I like what I am hearing. In FarCry 2 everyone was out to kill you all the time and teleporting jeeps where up your ass every 5 minutes.....good riddance.




Yeah, I remember. Remember hating that.

Games don't have to throw shit at you constantly to be entertaining. Let me explore and seek out danger if I want it.

Everything he's mentioning sounds like it comes down to taste. He says the design is safe, but my take away is it's also solid. "Interesting" as an element of design, I like. I really do. But the problem with that approach and what understandably turns people off (and no, I'm not typically one of those people) is interesting =/= fun. In fact, it can = annoying or even infuriating.

So, I sympathize with those for and against. I like what I just read though. Sounds very MGS3 to me. Very good

 

[Dabanton]

Already sounds better than the dead dog that was FC2.

I take it we don't have rubber banding enemies and stuff like cheating AI in this one.

 

[Kydd BlaZe]

After reading this article, it sounds like they've taken out all of the shit that I fucking HATED in Far Cry 2. Good riddance...

I couldn't stomach Far Cry 2 enough to finish it because of annoying shit like jamming guns, enemies appearing every 5 minutes, and bland characters. In this case, I'm glad that Ubisoft decided to streamline things a bit here.