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Far Cry 3

Started by ArchieGemmel, December 11, 2012, 12:08:50 PM

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ArchieGemmel

I'm surprised no-one has started a thread about this.

I finished it last week after putting in a few solid days of gaming. Loved it from start to finish, although I found I mostly prefered taking down the outposts to the main story missions. There's nothing more satisfying than scoping out an outpost then taking everyone down without alerting the other guards. Whether its by opening a cage with a tiger in or stabbing everyone from behind.

It's also a lot of fun when you accidentally balls it up and have to go in guns blazing and then something accidentally gets set on fire.

The hunting/flower picking systems worked better than I've seen in most other games, having to level up your holster, ammo pouches etc made these side games much more neccesary than something like RDR or AC3 and can be a lot of fun.

What did everyone else think?

madhair60

I'm hoping to give it a shot soon, Far Cry 2 is one of my top ten games ever, I think.

Neomod

Did they do something about the checkpoint guards re-spawning after being cleared?




Beagle 2

Quote from: madhair60 on December 11, 2012, 12:37:04 PM
I'm hoping to give it a shot soon, Far Cry 2 is one of my top ten games ever, I think.

Really? I gave up on it after a couple of hours because I seemed to be driving around for fucking miles and not doing anything. I've often wondered if I should give it another crack, when does it get good?

The Masked Unit

^Sorry to be that guy, but when you stop thinking about it like it was CoD. There are many annoying things about the game but the joy is to be found, at least to me, in thinking of it like this: "How would I actually behave if I was in this situation?" E.g. doing things as stealthily as possible because the last fucking thing you want is to get caught. If you can be arsed, do that for a few hours and see if it clicks. To me, just sailing down a river while the sun goes down is reward in itself. I would be all over FC3 but I don't really game any more.

Neomod

Quote from: The Masked Unit on December 11, 2012, 02:24:31 PM
To me, just sailing down a river while the sun goes down is reward in itself.

^^ This.

It's a very pretty game that gives you time to admire the scenery.

ArchieGemmel

Once you clear an Outpost that's it cleared.  You can then use it to fast travel from anywhere on the map.

I played it Stealthily wherever possible which felt much more rewarding than just wading in guns blazing.

Junglist

I've put in twelve hours since Friday. Done three main missions, the rest of my time has been spent hunting relics/animals/treasure/picking flowers/playing poker. Its an absolutely beautiful game (although they've ruined the wonderful night/day cycle from FC2), and you really get immersed in the game world.

Wandering around the shore of a beach, only for a shark/crocodile to snap you right up leads to some fantastic blind panic, and as stated, being stealthy and seeing a plan work completely is a joy.

Beagle 2

Quote from: The Masked Unit on December 11, 2012, 02:24:31 PM
^Sorry to be that guy, but when you stop thinking about it like it was CoD. There are many annoying things about the game but the joy is to be found, at least to me, in thinking of it like this: "How would I actually behave if I was in this situation?" E.g. doing things as stealthily as possible because the last fucking thing you want is to get caught. If you can be arsed, do that for a few hours and see if it clicks. To me, just sailing down a river while the sun goes down is reward in itself. I would be all over FC3 but I don't really game any more.

Yeah fair enough, I'm just too impatient for it these days. Every single game plot is bollocks, I'm never that immersed in anything to not tire of nothing happening. Years ago when I had the time I used to enjoy that kind of stuff in GTA games and the like but now when I'm snatching the odd hour here and there, I need to not be doing travelling or admin. I will give it another bash though. ONE MORE BASH.

madhair60

Quote from: Beagle 2 on December 11, 2012, 01:41:47 PM
Really? I gave up on it after a couple of hours because I seemed to be driving around for fucking miles and not doing anything. I've often wondered if I should give it another crack, when does it get good?

It's a game that requires you to immerse yourself, and it absolutely clicked with me - I loved simply exploring the environment, trying to stay out of sight, taking screenshots of its glory.  I've played it for hours upon hours, and I've only "levelled up" once.  I simply don't do any missions.  I just gather diamonds and indulge, with occasional pauses for sniping.

Mister Six

Quote from: Junglist on December 11, 2012, 04:35:20 PM(although they've ruined the wonderful night/day cycle from FC2)

How so? Playing FC2 again now, and finding it mostly tedious, but the Koyaanisqatsi-style timelapse cutscenes when you save the game are awesome. Would be a shame if they - or the generally lovely atmospherics - have gone.

Jerzy Bondov

Quote from: Junglist on December 11, 2012, 04:35:20 PMWandering around the shore of a beach, only for a shark/crocodile to snap you right up leads to some fantastic blind panic
This sounds terrifying. I was also scared of the bears in Red Dead Redemption and the swamp in the carnival level of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 where if you loiter for too long an alligator comes out and gets you. On the other hand being attacked by animals isn't scary in Assassin's Creed 3 because you just get an easy QTE to do. It's when things rush at you and you can't react fast enough that gets to me. Eeek! Do you often find yourself surprised by scary animals in this game?

Utter Shit

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on December 12, 2012, 10:28:40 AM
Do you often find yourself surprised by scary animals in this game?
I think the most scared I have ever been by a game was in the original Tomb Raider, one of the early levels. The game led you in quite slowly and you got into the habit of just wandering around surveying the scenery...then you drop into a little courtyard, and a few seconds later you hear some rumbling, just before you get mauled by a fucking giant bear. Chances are you probably died because you got blinded by panic and couldn't react properly. So you start again, better prepared this time. Anticipate the bear, shot in the head, and it's lovely and calm again. Oh, there's a little pool there, not done any swimming in the game yet, sploosh...AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ALLIGATOR AHHHHHHHHHHHH DEAD.

Fucking terrifying. The underwater bit is particularly horrible because you know that you're quite literally out of your depth and completely fucked if there's anything in there...it makes for a really tense atmosphere any time you ever go into the water.


Junglist

Quote from: Mister Six on December 12, 2012, 06:13:59 AM
How so? Playing FC2 again now, and finding it mostly tedious, but the Koyaanisqatsi-style timelapse cutscenes when you save the game are awesome. Would be a shame if they - or the generally lovely atmospherics - have gone.

It just feels fake. Obviously it is, but they way the sun used to set/rise quite beautifully on FC2, well it doesn't feel right on this. Its not a major thing, but it was something I loved about 2. Rain just appears out of nowhere.

Junglist

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on December 12, 2012, 10:28:40 AM
This sounds terrifying. I was also scared of the bears in Red Dead Redemption and the swamp in the carnival level of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 where if you loiter for too long an alligator comes out and gets you. On the other hand being attacked by animals isn't scary in Assassin's Creed 3 because you just get an easy QTE to do. It's when things rush at you and you can't react fast enough that gets to me. Eeek! Do you often find yourself surprised by scary animals in this game?

You basically have to mash a button in this to get them off you. Was being all stealthy earlier, only for a snake to grab my arm. It makes you stay on your guard 24/7. 'Hunt a tiger with a bow' is a fun sidequest. It needs three hits to go down, but the first hit riles it right up and it'll charge at you. Likewise when you're just picking flowers, you hear a rustle, and bang, a tiger's trying to rip your throat out.

Zetetic

Quote from: madhair60 on December 11, 2012, 10:08:15 PM
I simply don't do any missions.
I think that's still got to be a criticism of sorts.


Big Jack McBastard

I can't say much about the story yet as I've only done about 3 missions, but I did spend ten hours roaming about, exploring and kicking the odd bit of ass yesterday which was rather engaging. The paranoia I played the second one with came in mighty handy right off the bat.

Big Jack McBastard

I think it's fair to say you play an asshole. 'Rich boy goes nature raping' is this game in a nutshell, albeit with a 'crash to reality' start. The number of endangered species you have to kill would be enough to have Greenpeace after Jason's hide for their wall. He's pure class this guy, right after he's finished plugging the last golden tiger through the skull with his poncy fibreglass bow, he's after a pristine alabaster rhino horn key-chain to make his quad-bikes go faster, or something equally crime-against-naturey.

Jason Brody. Urgh.. the J.D-from-scrubs-looking tiger/tortoise/shark/Bird of Paradise/even madder rarer shit-murdering psycho. I hope he suffers more at some point.

Never mind nicking all the relics and cash at the islanders shrines, the same people who call him 'brother'.

Pure class.

Big Jack McBastard

2 dead bodies on the floor, woman is picking over them:

Woman: "This smells so good."

Creepy, maybe she's supposed to be a plant picker and those bodies are just ill placed.

10 minutes later, same scenario in a different location, there's no plants, just corpses:

Woman: "This all looks delicious!"

Okaaay, so.. cannibals? Lovely.

Big Jack McBastard

Looks like I've cleared the top of the map of enemy bases now, just did my first few chained takedowns which were nice, tried it out on one of those 'Wanted Dead' contracts, thankfully it was a pretty confined space so I could shift from kill to kill pretty easily. The poker players have kicked my ass in every match I've played so far, even when I was being sensible they pulled the rug out from under me every damn time.

I've spotted a few odd patches of grass textures that aren't flush to the floor so you get floating grass in some spots though that seems to be an enduring common problem in big game worlds I've seen it in New Vegas (quite a bit) and Skyrim (not much) too, also a shark went invincible when it got caught in the wreckage of a boat I was stood on so I stood there and laid into it with my new Shredder, despite it's Swiss cheeseifying it was only when I chucked a grenade at it that it finally dislodged and buggered off completely unfazed.

I do enjoy firing just two silenced rounds into a cage from a hilltop and watching a tiger or bear run amok in the enemy camps, it's netted me a few 'no alarms no alerts' clearances too.

I wish the menus would shut up a bit, I don't need to be constantly prompted to do shit, I'm getting near the end of the crafting challenges though (the skinning animation could do with being a but more RDR) so hopefully it'll tail off a bit in the second half of the game.

I've only got one vehicle left to try apparently, I'm putting my money on 'ACP/tank' though I'd like it to be 'chopper'.

Al Tha Funkee Homosapien


chand

Got this for Christmas and have really got into it. Hated Far Cry 2, but only because I could never go fucking ANYWHERE without getting into a random battle or clearing a checkpoint only to have to clear it again on the way back. This fixes that, and there's a much greater feeling of reward for all the tasks like clearing outposts and climbing radio towers. The hunting works fine and it has a better feeling of being a real world that you're just observing than 2 did.

It's much easier to take a stealthy approach, too. 2 acted like stealth was an option but it didn't work as well, it felt unpredictable whether you'd get spotted or not. The addition of the camera which tags enemies, the ability to throw rocks to lead guards away and the use of bushes and stuff for cover makes stealth feel like it's actually possible, and clearing an outpost without an alert is really satisfying.

Mainly I've preferred the non-story stuff to the story, which isn't usually the case for me in open-world games. Part of it is that it feels more convincingly like a real world. I just tried to take over an outpost but when I got there it was being attacked by a fucking tiger. So I picked a spot on a hill, zoomed in on the camera and watched the tiger murder all but one of the guys I needed to kill before he finally succumbed to their bullets.

It does get a little bit much at times though, the amount of deadly animals. I had an hour where I was trying to take an outpost and got killed by random bear attacks three times. Also, the goddamn komodo dragons. Aside from that the only stuff I really dislike are the shitty dudebro characters. And though they're sometimes well done, I've pretty much had my fill of trippy dream sequence bits where eeeeeeeeeeeeverything iiiiiiiiiiis craaaaaaaaaaaaazy and you have to walk for ages in a straight line marvelling at things until you get back to the game. After a year where I'd experienced similar stuff in The Darkness II, Max Payne 3 and Dishonored I'm no longer excited by it.

Obel

Quote from: jutl on December 19, 2012, 01:38:24 PM
It's ironically bad writing.

Yeah, bollocks! Fucking bollocks! I completed this last weekend and it's just bad writing. You can dress it up like it's a clever subtext about male misogynistic fantasy all you like but it's still an extremely juvenile, badly written story that doesn't cast a critical eye over current games so much as wallow in the exact same tropes.

And Alice in Wonderland quotes? What a cliche!

I really really enjoyed Far Cry, honestly. But this isn't a game that warrants analysis. There's absolutely no subtlety despite the writers claims to the contrary. There's another game that came out last year which does a far better job of throwing gamers bloodlust right back in their faces and that was Spec Ops: The Line.

Thursday

I've never been one to complain of 3d sickness but christ this game has me dizzy, will the screen stop fucking shaking for one second?

The Βoston Crab

I've never enjoyed open-world/sandbox games (except Oblivion for a couple of weeks) nor FPS (besides HL2). I've never got into GTA. I think RDR is fun but the controls are so stilted and awkward, it continually takes me out of what would otherwise be an incredibly immersive experience. Rockstar need to remember that games should be fun to control. Just Cause and Saints Row feel cheap and show the seams too much. That said, I think Ubisoft nailed it here.

It feels great to run around, there's just the right sense of weight and speed to movement. I like that you can get up steep slopes with a combination of run and jump. Close combat feels right, the hitboxes are spot on. You hurt just the right amount when you should do. Shooting is perfect. Damage is perfect. Takedowns are available exactly when they should be, they're never cheap or glitchy. The learning curve and power-up curve is spot-on. The balance of story and free play elements is just right and you never feel you're rucking with reality by delaying missions. The swimming is good and not too punishing. There's nothing quite like getting chased by a couple of tigers and diving off a cliff, opening your wingsuit and then plunging into the sea, only to emerge quietly near an enemy camp and take them all out. Events segue perfectly into each other. There's just the right amount of threats at any one time.

I've not finished it yet, I'm taking my time over the last few story missions. The writing is not nearly as clever or satirical as it would like to imagine, and I think Vaas was a much more interesting bad guy than Hoyt (and the generic privateer/soldier stuff is not as much fun/as interesting as the pirate stuff) but I'm still loving every minute of it. My GOTY.

Thursday

Who plays with the music off? I was starting to find it really ruins the atmosphere.

TIAL

At the moment I play with all the sound off (or very low) and listen to podcasts whilst I go leaping off mountains with my wing suit.

Alberon

I've been enjoying FC3 so far. I tend to snipe from a distance doing outposts and I usually wimp out and get in a position to shoot the alarm points out first.

Though the direct approach is fun too. I had a gunboat and just ran alongside a waterside outpost and just opened up with the machine gun. The whole place was on fire very quickly.

There's also an outpost filled mostly with attack dogs. I ran a lot of them over when I drove right into the middle of the place before bailing out and picking off what was left.


mrfridge

Love this game. It can get a bit repetitive but if it's fun who cares.

I think tonight I'm going to try strapping some C4 to a jeep then driving it into an outpost before jumping out and setting the bugger off.

I've not got the wing suit yet, sounds great...