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[Neuromancer]

Do we really need another jungle shooter though? I mean, I've played at least 10 in the last couple years.

That's another reason I'm a huge fan of FC2: it was a location that is massive (Africa is massive), but rarely do any games go there.

It's still better than a city or a middle eastern country.

 

[Dipswitch]

Silenced head shots work perfectly. Just look at this video someone posted earlier.

Did you watch the same video I did? The first guy he shoots screams blue murder before he's killed, you hear the 'AI is alert' drum beat music kick in several times during the second and third encounter and the AI barks indicate that they're aware of the player the second he drops the first merc during the third gameplay segment.

They may not be able to locate the player, but they sure as shit know he's out there. That's not stealth gameplay as far as I (And many other people apparently) are concerned.

 

[Magni]

Awesome to hear Massive is on board And I'm so proud to have understood that Swedish exchange after being in Norway this semester haha

 

[MaddenNFL64]

Why talk about FC2 anymore? Dead horse, the game sucked move on already.

Good luck to FC3. Looks great so far.

 

[Shake Appeal]

you hear the 'AI is alert' drum beat music

This doesn't mean AI is alert, it means you fired a weapon. Try it out in the wild and see.

 

[broham]

You guys are so quick to nitpick little things about the game. I wouldn't be surprised if they gave you the option to turn off certain hud elements.

Those little things add up broski.

 

[Omeyocan]

Now that's the FarCry I was looking for ! Too bad to have to wait until 2012.

 

[-BLITZ-]

Far Cry 3 on GTTV!!

Yeah! Watch cuz gives a lot more infos then yesterday.

 

[Ledsen]

This one, right? I put it in the OP.

 

[bengraven]

BTW, love the psycho with the mohawk. I want to side with him, not fight against him. Does he have a hot, bald sister I can romance like Jack from ME2?

It's still better than a city or a middle eastern country.

I think there's more games set in jungles this gen than cities and middle eastern countries put together.

 

[bangai-o]

I will never understand the shitstorm Far Cry 2 receives on GAF. That game is very high on my favs list, next to Deus Ex 1 and the Stalker series.
Maybe the console ports sucked?

well no, the Ubisoft forums pleading for fixes had far more angry gamers in the PC section.

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

Well, I'm loving it. Between this and GR, Ubi has done well.

 

[Deadbeat]

Far cry 2 was like Assassins Creed 1. A lot of good ideas with a lot of bad ones. If they can redeem the series like AC2, itll be great.

 

[Ding]

The frequency of checkpoints, the small respawn time of the enemies and their pin-point accuracy across even the farthest of distances combined to make such encounters frustrating rather than even remotely enjoyable. It's a valid issue to take with the game.

But not all of us had those issues! Far Cry 2 is one of the few games where I honestly believe that the people who didn't like the game were actually "Playing It Wrong"(tm). I guess it would be nice if the game let people play any damn way they felt like, but it didn't. This didn't bother me for some reason.

I had zero problems with the checkpoints, because 95% of the time, I just walked around them. Why in the world wouldn't you? If you don't enjoy doing those fights, why start them? Those guys hate you. Killing them gets you nothing. Why are you antagonizing them? Also, the checkpoints weren't that close together. I guess they might seem close together if you just drove from one to another, but why would anyone do that? You'd be fighting all the time! The game gave you total control over what fights you had to involve yourself in. (At least during the "travel phases" which made up the bulk of the game.)

If you don't like checkpoint encounters, stop having them. Do you know what the definition of insanity is? ; )

I had zero problems with "overly accurate" AI. Believe me, I was killing them, fairly easily, at much longer ranges than the ones they were engaging me at. Dudes on top of sniper towers were about the only ones that were even competitive. (Oh, and that guy at the airstrip with a rocket launcher. He managed to surprise me a couple times! Bastard.) Similarly, I was able to easily sneak up on the AI if I wanted to. (There was really no way to melee stealth kill them, however, so there wasn't a compelling reason to do that, other than to sneak past them.)

Comments along the lines of: "Hopefully stealth will work this time" utterly baffle me. Stealth worked fantastically in Far Cry 2. Do people not know how to crouch and stay in cover? I pretty much played the whole game in "stealth mode" and it worked great. You could even do things like wound a guy, and then kill all his cohorts as they came to check on the racket. It seemed almost unfair the shit you could do to the AI...

Yes, it's true that the insane guys in vehicles meant I pretty much never drove on roads. I just didn't. (Boats were good for long distance, but mostly I just walked, took the bus, or drove overland.) But, the game was still quite fair about things. All vehicles followed a set real-world route that stayed on the roads. If one surprised you, it meant you weren't paying attention, or were just blundering into unfamiliar areas like you owned the place. They didn't just spawn out of nowhere. (Although it could certainly seem like it if you were standing close to a road, out of cover. So... don't do that.)

I had zero trouble with jamming weapons. Seriously, I might of had a gun jam twice in the whole game, and that was only after I had done something incredibly stupid and thus had been forced to pick a piece-of-shit weapon off the ground. Don't do that either.

Malaria was kind of weird, but the "attacks" almost never occurred at a time where they increased your danger. They did put a bit of an edge on things, though. I liked that. It was a cool visual/audio effect. Half way through the game, it stopped happening. <shrug>

What else do people bitch about... Oh yeah, "People talk too fast!" Yeah, that's a real game breaker. I can't argue there. ; ) (Actually I can. They talked at a normal rate. But there were no gaps between their sentences. It was sort of like "gapless playback" was turned on by mistake.)

Enemy respawn times were a bit too short. It was seldom an issue, but having the checkpoints stay empty for longer, and then be re-supplied from vehicles, would have been better.

Oh, and I wasn't thrilled with those scripted events like: "Drive this barge across the lake while dudes mortar you from all directions." That was annoying.

 

[WrikaWrek]

Coolest demo video i've seen from E3 yet.

 

[Dacon]

How was the story in Far Cry 2 pretentious? Kill the Jackal. That's pretty much the entire story.

The entire last bit of the story? It stopped being about killing the jackal completely. It became some ridiculous save Africa bullshit and you don't even really get to kill the Jackal, you die, and you're not sure the Jackal survived or not.

That's what I thought was pretentious. It didn't help that your mates turned on you for fucking diamonds, resulting in a huge clunky fight with them. I don't know it felt like a few times the game was just preaching to you about how hard things are in Africa and shit. Maybe I got the wrong impression, but I really didn't like how heavy handed it was.

Also, for the record I didn't hate the game. I loved it enough to finish it on my old system at an often sub 30fps. Despite its often clunky combat and many flaws, I loved the sense of physicality, the depth and immersion of the world, and the lighting. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it despite how far removed from the series origins the game was.

After watching the gameplay demonstration with developer commentary I am REALLY looking forward to this now. It seems very in line with the original game, and combines elements from the second at the same time.

 

[eshwaaz]

I will never understand the shitstorm Far Cry 2 receives on GAF. That game is very high on my favs list, next to Deus Ex 1 and the Stalker series.
Maybe the console ports sucked?

Most of the issues I had with the 360 version would have been substantially reduced if I had access to the same "save anywhere" feature that the PC version had. Console gamers, for no good reason, got terrible save houses instead. This mostly smothered any desire I had to explore or experiment for fear of losing significant progress to some random kamikaze jeep attack.

 

[endlessflood]

The game gave you total control over what fights you had to involve yourself in.

This was probably my favourite aspect of FC2, and why open-world shooters make sense: they give you complete flexibility in terms of when and where you fight. Want to just cruise around the country-side for 20 minutes, searching for diamonds? Go for it. Want to take on a heavily armed base full of soldiers? Go for it. From listening to the developer interview in the OP I'm relieved to see that they're very aware of the importance of that with FC3. It's also a great way of letting the player set their own difficulty on the fly: if things are too easy, you can just pick fights with more soldiers. If things are getting tough, you can avoid confrontations for a while...

I had zero problems with "overly accurate" AI. Believe me, I was killing them, fairly easily, at much longer ranges than the ones they were engaging me at. Dudes on top of sniper towers were about the only ones that were even competitive. (Oh, and that guy at the airstrip with a rocket launcher. He managed to surprise me a couple times! Bastard.)

I played on Easy and adjusted my difficulty by picking more fights when things were feeling cruisey. It certainly alleviated the "overly accurate" AI problem and is probably the only game where I'd recommend that it be played on Easy.

Yes, it's true that the insane guys in vehicles meant I pretty much never drove on roads. I just didn't. (Boats were good for long distance, but mostly I just walked, took the bus, or drove overland.)

Making sure you always had a decent explosive weapon so that you could bail out of jeeps and blow the fuck out of an enemy jeep a split second before it ran you over (and watch the exploding metal carcass cartwheel over your head) was one of the best parts of FC2!

Malaria was kind of weird, but the "attacks" almost never occurred at a time where they increased your danger. They did put a bit of an edge on things, though. I liked that.

The malaria was an unusual gameplay aspect; I guess it was to make you feel isolated and vulnerable at the start of the game. In FC2 I actually liked that arc of going from being sick and weak at the start to being a total badass by the end of the story.

 

[Neuromancer]

Most of the issues I had with the 360 version would have been substantially reduced if I had access to the same "save anywhere" feature that the PC version had. Console gamers, for no good reason, got terrible save houses instead. This mostly smothered any desire I had to explore or experiment for fear of losing significant progress to some random kamikaze jeep attack.

I liked the safe houses, especially the way (when you set your watch a few hours ahead to take a nap on the cot) you got this outside view of the house showing a speeded up passage of time, if memory serves even the stars moved.

The entire last bit of the story? It stopped being about killing the jackal completely.

<snip>

That's what I thought was pretentious.

Eh. You say pretentious, but I thought it was one of the most interesting endings I'd seen in a while (well, the bit with

Spoiler

the Jackal anyway. Your friends turning on you

was just a dick move.)

 

[Deleted member 80556]

Ubisoft has shown some good demos this year. I think this one is my favorite from the conference.

I am glad they're back to the island setting. I really liked it from the first game.

 

[bengraven]

I liked the safe houses, especially the way (when you set your watch a few hours ahead to take a nap on the cot) you got this outside view of the house showing a speeded up passage of time, if memory serves even the stars moved.

Yes, that was dope. The music and atmosphere was incredibly well done.

 

[bangai-o]

But not all of us had those issues! Far Cry 2 is one of the few games where I honestly believe that the people who didn't like the game were actually "Playing It Wrong"(tm). I guess it would be nice if the game let people play any damn way they felt like, but it didn't. This didn't bother me for some reason.

I had zero problems with the checkpoints, because 95% of the time, I just walked around them. Why in the world wouldn't you? If you don't enjoy doing those fights, why start them? Those guys hate you. Killing them gets you nothing. Why are you antagonizing them? Also, the checkpoints weren't that close together. I guess they might seem close together if you just drove from one to another, but why would anyone do that? You'd be fighting all the time! The game gave you total control over what fights you had to involve yourself in. (At least during the "travel phases" which made up the bulk of the game.)

If you don't like checkpoint encounters, stop having them. Do you know what the definition of insanity is? ; )

I had zero problems with "overly accurate" AI. Believe me, I was killing them, fairly easily, at much longer ranges than the ones they were engaging me at. Dudes on top of sniper towers were about the only ones that were even competitive. (Oh, and that guy at the airstrip with a rocket launcher. He managed to surprise me a couple times! Bastard.) Similarly, I was able to easily sneak up on the AI if I wanted to. (There was really no way to melee stealth kill them, however, so there wasn't a compelling reason to do that, other than to sneak past them.)

Comments along the lines of: "Hopefully stealth will work this time" utterly baffle me. Stealth worked fantastically in Far Cry 2. Do people not know how to crouch and stay in cover? I pretty much played the whole game in "stealth mode" and it worked great. You could even do things like wound a guy, and then kill all his cohorts as they came to check on the racket. It seemed almost unfair the shit you could do to the AI...

Yes, it's true that the insane guys in vehicles meant I pretty much never drove on roads. I just didn't. (Boats were good for long distance, but mostly I just walked, took the bus, or drove overland.) But, the game was still quite fair about things. All vehicles followed a set real-world route that stayed on the roads. If one surprised you, it meant you weren't paying attention, or were just blundering into unfamiliar areas like you owned the place. They didn't just spawn out of nowhere. (Although it could certainly seem like it if you were standing close to a road, out of cover. So... don't do that.)

I had zero trouble with jamming weapons. Seriously, I might of had a gun jam twice in the whole game, and that was only after I had done something incredibly stupid and thus had been forced to pick a piece-of-shit weapon off the ground. Don't do that either.

Malaria was kind of weird, but the "attacks" almost never occurred at a time where they increased your danger. They did put a bit of an edge on things, though. I liked that. It was a cool visual/audio effect. Half way through the game, it stopped happening. <shrug>

What else do people bitch about... Oh yeah, "People talk too fast!" Yeah, that's a real game breaker. I can't argue there. ; ) (Actually I can. They talked at a normal rate. But there were no gaps between their sentences. It was sort of like "gapless playback" was turned on by mistake.)

Enemy respawn times were a bit too short. It was seldom an issue, but having the checkpoints stay empty for longer, and then be re-supplied from vehicles, would have been better.

Oh, and I wasn't thrilled with those scripted events like: "Drive this barge across the lake while dudes mortar you from all directions." That was annoying.

i got to the part where you said we are doing it wrong and were supposed to walk around the checkpoints.


we are supposed to get out of the car, off the main road, go all the way fucking around the other way possible to just avoid that checkpoint.
lol

here is the simple solution that Far Cry2 was never able to figure out. Just give it an hour respawn time. Thats it. Not you walk away and turn around and suddenly they are there again. They dont even give 15 minutes!

 

[DR3AM]

any news on the new rainbow six game?

 

[overcast]

The footage at the conference was impressive as hell.

 

[Truant]

Far Cry 2 is one of my Top 5 games of this generation. Seems they upped the RPG aspects in this new one, so that's great.

 

[Seda]

any news on the new rainbow six game?

Sadly, no, but a new Far Cry was an unexpected treat.

 

[subversus]

The entire last bit of the story? It stopped being about killing the jackal completely. It became some ridiculous save Africa bullshit and you don't even really get to kill the Jackal, you die, and you're not sure the Jackal survived or not.

That's what I thought was pretentious. It didn't help that your mates turned on you for fucking diamonds, resulting in a huge clunky fight with them. I don't know it felt like a few times the game was just preaching to you about how hard things are in Africa and shit. Maybe I got the wrong impression, but I really didn't like how heavy handed it was.

lol, it actually was the best part of the game for me. Not gameplay-wise though.

"Africa wins"

 

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

Just been shown on IGN's Live feed. Same demo, but in true Far Cry fashion, it was done differently. The player used a sniper rifle found at the top of a hill, then used a zipline to get in close before getting on the chopper.

 

[Tom Penny]

I know one thing. The Far Cry 2 engine ran awesome for a game that looked as good as it did on pretty average specs.

 

[Kuran]

From what I've read so far:

Good:
No more checkpoints with enemies who respawn after three minutes.
Fast Travel (For those who want it).

Bad:
On-screen mini-map.
No more weapon degradation.
XP pop-ups after every kill.

I'm cautiously optimistic about this one.

The bad points you listed are really bad, why take out the elements that made Far Cry 2 unique? The weapon jamming system, despite having plenty of room for improvement, was brilliant and hugely atmospheric. Just like the realistic map system and the amazingly atmospheric buddy system where they would bail you out if available. Why not elaborate on these instead of going back to the Crysis model with a ludicrous HUD map?

Far Cry 2 did so many things right... What an incredible game. It's status on GAF is a crime, if it wasn't for the Steam sale I wouldntve given it a chance due to passing it off as just another soulless shooter, and the lackluster appreciation for the game here.

And some say the grap hics were plasticky? Despite being absolutely gorgeous and detailed, with beautiful color choices and the most amazing sunsets/rises in a video game, and I haven't even unlocked the hang glider yet.

 

[Clevinger]

Far Cry 2 was an amazing game that had a few gigantic, glaring flaws that made it a horrible game.

Can't wait for this.

 

[JBuccCP]

The weapons degradation system could've been cool but it had some problems.

1. Only applied to you. Enemies weapons never jammed. Surely you've had scenarios where you were down to the last guy, got him in your sights, pulled the trigger and *jam*....oh shit. Well the reverse should happen too.
2. Too black and white. Weapons from arms dealer pristine, all found weapons are pieces of rusty shit.
3. No way to repair/clean. Give us a maintenance kit to buy and let us salvage parts from found guns, instead of having to find a locker place and swap them every time. Put the onus on me to keep my gun clean instead of having it degrade over time no matter what. Let me develop a "relationship" with my gun (yeah it sounds dumb but I'm thinking of the beginning of Full Metal Jacket).

Similar stuff applies to other ideas (car repairs, malaria, the two factions, etc.). They had some sound ideas, but they just left them at their most basic possible functions and didn't delve any deeper to make them real gameplay considerations instead of just random annoyances.

It's a shame if they just ditched stuff like this though instead of elaborating on them. The Bioware approach I guess.

 

[BobsRevenge]

Most of the issues I had with the 360 version would have been substantially reduced if I had access to the same "save anywhere" feature that the PC version had. Console gamers, for no good reason, got terrible save houses instead. This mostly smothered any desire I had to explore or experiment for fear of losing significant progress to some random kamikaze jeep attack.

I actually found my no-quick-save run more fun than my regular one on PC. It took a LOT of discipline on my part, but in the end it provided an experience that felt closer to how the game was initially designed... I guess. I dunno, it did feel more natural for FC2 in particular. The game was definitely not designed for quick-saves.

The inclusion of it for PC gamers was a concession that makes TONS of sense and I in no way rebut it. Just saying that, for me, the no-quicksave experience is superior for FC2.

 

[Larson Conway]

Damn, just saw the demo for this. WAT DA FAAACK at that insane opening scene. Looking forward to this game!

 

[Neuromancer]

I actually found my no-quick-save run more fun than my regular one on PC. It took a LOT of discipline on my part, but in the end it provided an experience that felt closer to how the game was initially designed... I guess. I dunno, it did feel more natural for FC2 in particular. The game was definitely not designed for quick-saves.

The inclusion of it for PC gamers was a concession that makes TONS of sense and I in no way rebut it. Just saying that, for me, the no-quicksave experience is superior for FC2.

Yeah I think there's something to be said for living with the consequences of your actions. This one guy wrote a whole blog about his experience with the game, after he decided to play it as if he only had one life, and no reloading the game if things went bad:

http://drgamelove.blogspot.com/2009/06/permanent-death-episode-1-inasupicious.html

Made for an interesting read.

 

[Shake Appeal]

But not all of us had those issues! Far Cry 2 is one of the few games where I honestly believe that the people who didn't like the game were actually "Playing It Wrong"(tm).

...

This is the post.

When anyone blunders into this or future threads about this game to toss off a post about how 'bad' or 'flawed' Far Cry 2 was, they should be forced to read this post before they can press Submit Reply.

 

[Oemenia]

Far Cry Instincts was awesome, great MP, they should be trying to implement that.

 

[JB1981]

Just saw the demo walkthrough. Looks fucking amazing.

 

[Neuromancer]

Just saw the demo walkthrough. Looks fucking amazing.

Did you get a feel for the game as being as open as FC2 was?

 

[g23]

Far Cry 2 was awesome, they should have had a true sequel to it set in Africa again. This game looks pretty good though.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

Are they demoing the PC version with a gamepad in that gametrailers clip?

 

[Magni]

Far cry 2 was like Assassins Creed 1. A lot of good ideas with a lot of bad ones. If they can redeem the series like AC2, itll be great.

That what I've always said. And since AC II was amazing, I have very high hopes for FarCry 3. I just need to get around to finishing FC2 before it comes out though.

 

[beast786]

Just Cause 2 was the best looking open world game on my PC and on 3D. And was fun as hell.

This looks like it has a potential to take over. Cant wait for it.

And my PC is drooling.

 

[Neuromancer]

Giant Bomb interview with the creative producer:

Link

This game continues to sound awesome.

 

[Radogol]

It's probably old news, but I just found out who they got to replace Clint Hocking:

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=8007523&

The Witcher is well loved around these parts, isn't it?

 

[Neuromancer]

Very good and promising preview/interview with 'narrative director' Jason Vandenberghe at Eurogamer:

This is classic Far Cry gameplay, and Ubisoft Montreal seems to have a good handle on what its players want: options for tactical improvisation combined with a survivalists' sense of cobbling your attack together from whatever comes to hand. You'll enter many situations without much equipment; what you need will be there, but you'll have to find it, and the more inquisitive you are, the more you might uncover.

"The core to this fantasy is that I don't have any resources, I'm on my own, it's the 'man alone' fantasy, right? I need to survive through my own wit, talent, skills - my actions will determine if I live or die. That feeling is core to why this context is so fun," Vandenberghe says.

"The best way to do it is to create randomness in front of the player - and a clear objective. You do need to say, 'You need to get to the helicopter.' But between here and there, there's not a path. What happens in players' minds is that they look at it, they don't see a clear path, and then their style of play takes over."

"All you have to do is go online and search Far Cry 2 and examine the discussions, and four or five key points pop out as areas for improvement. It's unanimous.

"I had the same response. I would really like... to have some kind of fast travel, that would be great. It would be great if when I destroy a checkpoint, it doesn't come back. It would be nice if the checkpointing system was more friendly. I think it would be cool if I could hide and not be seen from a distance, if the enemy detection felt fair.

 

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

I never played the first Far Cry, but I did play the second one. Didn't really like it. A lot of its flaws really stopped me despite some cool concepts. If Far Cry 3 has a great story and tweaks all the problems from the second one, I'm in. The video really looks cool. Plus, the character talks this time around, so that's a plus.

 

[Clevinger]

Very good and promising preview/interview with 'narrative director' Jason Vandenberghe at Eurogamer:

"All you have to do is go online and search Far Cry 2 and examine the discussions, and four or five key points pop out as areas for improvement. It's unanimous.

"I had the same response. I would really like... to have some kind of fast travel, that would be great. It would be great if when I destroy a checkpoint, it doesn't come back. It would be nice if the checkpointing system was more friendly. I think it would be cool if I could hide and not be seen from a distance, if the enemy detection felt fair.

Thank you! Fix those and I'm in.

 

[RedSwirl]

Far cry 2 was like Assassins Creed 1. A lot of good ideas with a lot of bad ones. If they can redeem the series like AC2, itll be great.

I'd agree with this, I just hope that they don't make FC3 less open-world than FC2 was. That's what I loved about FC2 - it was a truly open-world first person shooter that still felt as detailed as a conventional FPS. I still want to be able to travel to a location on my own, plan, and execute every detail of each objective my own way.

I can understand the fast travel thing, but I honestly really enjoyed driving through the game world, but then again I also enjoyed the sailing in Wind Waker. My only real big problem with FC2 was the fact that it gave you this big open world, but all you did was shoot people, and that made the overall experience feel somewhat hollow. My favorite area of the game was this little village made of mud brick houses in the shadow of a mountain. The village looked beautiful, but you just shot up a few people there and blew up something and then left, never to return.

Maybe it's not Far Cry's business to actually create a fully living, breathing world with towns and people you can interact with without killing them, but it would be pretty nice.

 

[Ding]

i got to the part where you said we are doing it wrong and were supposed to walk around the checkpoints.

we are supposed to get out of the car, off the main road, go all the way fucking around the other way possible to just avoid that checkpoint.
lol

Yes and no.

Yes. To put it (over)simply, you have two main choices in Far Cry 2 regarding checkpoints: You can walk/drive/sneak right up to them and engage in some sort of firefight, or, you can keep your distance and pretend like they don't even exist. Given the utter pointlessness of killing those guys over and over, every ten minutes, I usually chose the second option.

(Actually, I think you got some sort of credit for "discovering" checkpoints. So I would typically sneak up to each of them, and zoom my rifle onto one of the first-aid kits or ammo crates that are scattered around. That gave me credit for the checkpoint, and I'd sneak off again.)

No. If you were already in a car, you wouldn't get out of it to bypass a checkpoint, you'd just drive the car around the checkpoint. That's why people call them "off road vehicles". There's no real reason to ever be on a road, and plenty of reasons to steer clear of them. (eg: Diamonds, discovering cool locations, soaking up atmosphere, and the almost total lack of people trying to kill you.)

I agree that the respawn time for check points should have been bumped up.