Far Cry 2

[Brendan]

To tell you the truth Farcry 2 sounds a little boring. Generic human enemies with the occasional lion thrown in for good measure.

I enjoy bizarre fantastical settings. Monsters don’t have to be boring.

[Kareem]

Actually fighting African animals would be pretty cool. I don’t recall a recent first person shooter that let you kill lions, tigers, stampeding giraffes, elephants, or other assorted jungle beasts.

Come to think of it, I don’t see why there weren’t any of those in Far Cry, which was in a jungle island setting.

[Brendan]

@Kareem

Actually fighting African animals would be pretty cool. I don’t recall a recent first person shooter that let you kill lions, tigers, stampeding giraffes, elephants, or other assorted jungle beasts.

Come to think of it, I don’t see why there weren’t any of those in Far Cry, which was in a jungle island setting.

Dude, tigers aren’t African animals.

But it all sounds a bit pedestrian to me personally.

[polar_boar]

You could occasionally run into an ant eater, and sometimes it would try to slurp you up with its snout. Does that count?

Drunkagain:
from the ubi forums:

Engine: Enhanced CryENGINE1, 90% of the code is new

[Zylon]

@Rock8man

The only place I got really impatient with Thief is the second to last level called “Escape” or something. That’s when the story was hurtling toward a conclusion and lurched to a standstill because suddenly you were in this level with grasshoppers and insects and god knows what else, and I just didn’t have the patience left for a long level like that, not with the story being at such a critical juncture.

It’s actually possible to complete Escape! in under three minutes if you have the optimal route memorized. But yeah, that’s very helpful for first-time players.

So one of the supernatural levels that people complain about was a cake walk for me, and as a bonus, I really felt clever for figuring out an alternative way out. Although I do wonder to this day whether the designers wanted to allow the player to be able to do that or not.

They did not. In fact the patch actually increased the “force” of those doors to crush anything breakable placed to block them.

So you’ve never actually played through Return to the Cathedral? That’s a shame-- you cheated yourself out of what’s generally considered to be the most memorable level in the entire game.

[Drunkagain]

@polar_boar

You could occasionally run into an ant eater, and sometimes it would try to slurp you up with its snout. Does that count?

Drunkagain:
from the ubi forums:

Thanks man.

[Prodigy]

@bigdruid

They were the same bastards that hated on the supernatural parts of Thief, leading to the snooze-fest that was Thief 2 (Now with fewer zombies!)

Thief II was probably one of my best gaming experiences ever. The zombie levels in Thief 1 were what made me stop playing…

[christopher]

@Prodigy

Thief II was probably one of my best gaming experiences ever. The zombie levels in Thief 1 were what made me stop playing…

Totally agreed. People actually like the zombie levels in Thief? They were scarier than the regular ones, sure, but the gameplay broke down. Even if you could hide from the zombies, you couldn’t knock them out with your blackjack or backstab them with your sword. You had to kill them with holy water, which they didn’t give you enough of, so once you ran out you were fucked.

[Warning]

I’d take Thief’s zombies over a pack of 300 mph one-hit-kill Trigens.

[spiffy]

@Kareem

Actually fighting African animals would be pretty cool. I don’t recall a recent first person shooter that let you kill lions, tigers, stampeding giraffes, elephants, or other assorted jungle beasts.

Come to think of it, I don’t see why there weren’t any of those in Far Cry, which was in a jungle island setting.

For the first few hours of FarCry I was scared shitless that anytime I was in the water a big ol’ hammerhead shark would come out of nowhere and snap me up. I was pretty bummed, and then actually felt cheated that there weren’t any sharks. Or in that river level, in the murky muddy water, no piranhas.

Ubi, piranhas please.

[Tim_Partlett]

@Kareem

Actually fighting African animals would be pretty cool. I don’t recall a recent first person shooter that let you kill lions, tigers, stampeding giraffes, elephants, or other assorted jungle beasts.

Come to think of it, I don’t see why there weren’t any of those in Far Cry, which was in a jungle island setting.

Well, that is a geographical issue. You don’t tend to get many big mammals on Pacific islands. Far Cry did have pigs, birds, fish and insects, though.

There will be animals in Crysis too.

[Kareem]

@Tim_Partlett

Well, that is a geographical issue. You don’t tend to get many big mammals on Pacific islands. Far Cry did have pigs, birds, fish and insects, though.

There will be animals in Crysis too.

Aha, thanks for the info Tim.

Glad there will be animals in this one. Earlier snarky comments aside, I’m pretty sure Crytek have learned from the pitfalls they fell in while making FarCry - after all it was Crytek’s first title. Hopefully Crysis will overcome those mistakes, and FarCry 2 also seems to be in good hands.

[TylerG]

@christopher

Totally agreed. People actually like the zombie levels in Thief? They were scarier than the regular ones, sure, but the gameplay broke down. Even if you could hide from the zombies, you couldn’t knock them out with your blackjack or backstab them with your sword. You had to kill them with holy water, which they didn’t give you enough of, so once you ran out you were fucked.

Flash bombs worked too. But I agree the fact that you couldn’t disable the supernaturals easily was what made people hate them. Most people preferred to play as more of a stealthy assassin than a thief. But with the supernaturals you couldn’t.

[Damien_Falgoust]

@Prodigy

Thief II was probably one of my best gaming experiences ever.

Indeed. The storyline wasn’t quite as cool as Thief 1, but the gameplay was awesome. That rooftop level kicked forty kinds of ass.

[John_Sansker]

Got my hands on a copy of the October PC Gamer and read the Far Cry 2 preview.

Yes, bring it on.

However, some sticking points for me.
I can’t shoot endangered species?
Bah, then let me shoot some poachers.
No large predators?
Oh come on, how much fun would it be to try a mission at night and run into a pride of lions munchin down a Zebra they’d just killed?

[spiffy]

Gamespot has a preview of Far Cry 2 up – http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/farcry2/news.html?sid=6177348&om_act=convert&om_clk=multimodule&tag=multimodule%3Bpreviews%3Bstory%3B5&page=2

Sounds fantastic-- pretty much everything I was hoping Stalker was going to be. Entirely unscripted AI, dynamic changing environment, vast go-anywhere world with no loading screens, destructible driveable vehicles, no central plotline except your end goal. Damn!

As for you 360 people… "For now, Ubi Montreal is focusing entirely on the PC version of the game, as Hocking says Ubi wants to reestablish itself as a premiere PC developer ". Sucks to be you.

[Incendiary_Lemon]

Its looks and sounds great. Easily exceeds my expectations for a Far Cry sequel.

[Kunikos]

@John_Sansker

However, some sticking points for me.
I can’t shoot endangered species?
Bah, then let me shoot some poachers.
No large predators?
Oh come on, how much fun would it be to try a mission at night and run into a pride of lions munchin down a Zebra they’d just killed?

I agree. Let me do whatever I want in the sandbox, and then just give consequences for my actions. If I shoot an endangered species, then send the local military after me (I believe they are the ones who hunt poachers in some parts of Africa). If I shoot a poacher, send the poacher’s buddies and/or the authorities after me. It’s already a game with M for Mature rating, so what’s with the artificial limitations in the name of morality?

[Anti-Social_FatMan]

emergent gameplay is the best, and technology driven emergent gameplay (genuinely cyclical ai, hierarchical factions, fire spreading to grass and trees) hasn’t really been done before at all, at least not on this scale - boiling point was a swing and a miss, and stalker ended up being something else entirely

question is, though - should we believe it? all developers hype their games to shit, and ubisoft hasn’t been showing much pc love recently with their inhouse stuff

farcry 2 sounds awesome, but i think judgment should be reserved until there’s gameplay videos at least

does sound pretty fucking awesome, though - i love the thought of being able to maybe lure some enemies into a jungle area then turn the whole place into an inferno - hope there’s a flame thrower on the weapon list…

[Quitch]

Yeah, lest we forget how the Half-Life 2 Strider showed emergent behaviour when it adapted by walking under a bridge… cough