Far Cry 2

[Slowtrain]

I don't mind tough battles, and I don't hate respawns per se. I do hate tedium, however. If I have to travel the same areas and I'm constantly fighting the same battle or taking ten minutes to avoid it, then that's going to be a distraction.

 

 

This is a tough question to answer. Its not a super linear scripted game like Half Life, but its not as empty and pointless as Crysis. Its kind of a cross between a shooter and a survival resource game. You are expected to wander about trying to find stuff to make yourself a better soldier. SO exploration/staying off the roads/poking your nose into remote areas kind of comes with the territory. WHen you go on missions for factions, its still sort of the same thing. You can fight your way down a road or take a less traveled path.

 

If you are really looking for a tight linear game like Half life where every moment has a clear purpose and the devs have carefully plotted your every move, you probably will find Far Cry 2 somewhat tedious. Maybe. I don't know.

 

 

So it's more of a FPS/RPG sort of thing like Stalker? We've got stores and whatnot? I dunno. I could get this on D2D right now. Fry Cry was okay, but I thought Crysis sucked. Pretty graphics, I guess, but I pretty much agree with Gorgon otherwise.

 

 

Its definitely not a rpg. Its a shooter where you get to interact with quite a few people in the world and explore that world. I mean your basically droped into the middle of a small country and you have to survive and thrive. How you choose to go about such is your choice. So its not at all like Crysis. Its much more like STALKER. But still very different.

 

 

How is it for just shootem up fun? I mean, if I wanted to treat it like a run n gun, would it be okay? ...And does it have constantly degrading equipment and how intrusive if so?

 

I would rate the combat as decent so far. But not FEAR level. On normal difficulty it seems less difficult than other shooters I have played. The weapons do have conditions and you can tell just be looking at them what shape they are in. I have an RPG that is covered with rust and looks really gross. I fired it at a munitions truck and the rocket sort of spun out of the barrel danced around on the ground about 10 meters ahead of me then exploded. It was totally awesome. I lol'ed. My next shot hit the back of the truck though.

 

WHen you buy weapons from the armsdealers however they are all in perfect condition. However, they do slowly degrade, but it hasn't been something I have noticed.

[Aristes]

That's a good sign. I don't mind degrading weapons. I just don't want them to do it too fast.

[Slowtrain]

[but now that I have a silenced MP5 I've been a lot sneakier.

 

 

Stealth is actually pretty effective, even if the manual only subtly mentions the fact. I've been sleeping away the days in a safehouse then traveling at night on foot with the machete and silenced pistol, swimming down the rivers and stuff. Unlike STALKER, stealth kills actually work

 

My buddy, the Cuban woman

 

Who is your number one, the one that offers alternative mission stuff? The Cuban woman, Flora, is mine.

 

I think his name is Clyde? Sort of a young guy with black hair.

 

Also, what character did you pick? I'm Hakim Echebbi. I don't think it makes a difference, other what the arms holding your weapons looks like.

 

 

I just took the first one offered. lol. I flipped through the list but none of the seemed any more appealing than the others. I think he is anglo-cuban or something. I did like the super variation on all the potential characters. It was nice not being Joe Smith, US supermerc.

Edited October 24, 2008 by CrashGirl

[Slowtrain]

Isnt anyone else bothered by the strange lack of black people? I mean, for Africa, there sure are a lot of white guys around.

 

 

Well, according to the backstory there are a ton of mercs in country because of the factional conflict. Most of the important movers and shakers of the factions and underground are in fact, black.

[mkreku]

Ok, I bought Far Cry 2 today. Been playing it basically all day since getting it. I like it so far, but the respawn really is ridiculous (on medium difficulty). I took my car, drove in the direction of a mission, fought a bunch of soldiers at a checkpoint, drove perhaps 200 meters past the checkpoint, realized I was going the wrong way, turned around.. and had to fight the same 4-8 people again! They were still standing on the bodies of their former incarnations..

 

But the engine is fantastic! I have everything on max (except Shadows) and 1280x1024 and the game averages 60 fps. No stutters EVER! That's really surprising in an open-ended world like this. But it does feel a bit consolish. All these collecting things, what's up with that? Collect diamonds, sure, but collecting scouted checkpoints?! Makes this otherwise pretty realistic game feel a bit too gamey for me.

 

I've only done a couple of missions so far (unlocking weapons mainly) so it isn't repetitive to me yet. My only gripe so far would actually be the respawns. I kind of like the weapons breaking down and stuff.. I had a AK just fall apart in my hand once. That was pretty cool.

 

Did anyone buy the camo suit? I don't have enough diamonds yet to try it myself. Looking forward to it. And I love the Dragunov! The sound for that weapon is really good in this game. Powerful.

 

Oh, and I am playing a tiny Chinese guy with lots of tattoos. My best friend is Warren Clyde and my second best friend is some grey-haired war hero with a Baltic name I forgot.

[Starwars]

I got the camo suit, hard to say exactly how much it helps. It feels easier to sneak up on people initially, but I definetely need silencers for my crap to really take advantage.

 

I actually almost wish we always had to rely on old beat up piece of crap weapons. It's much more exciting when your weapon decides to jam in the middle of a firefight. The whole "order weapons" feel a bit weak to me somehow... Gah, I just wish they had a trading system like STALKER in it. It would've greatly upped my enjoyment of the game I think.

[Slowtrain]

I got the camo suit, hard to say exactly how much it helps. It feels easier to sneak up on people initially, but I definetely need silencers for my crap to really take advantage.

 

I actually almost wish we always had to rely on old beat up piece of crap weapons. It's much more exciting when your weapon decides to jam in the middle of a firefight. The whole "order weapons" feel a bit weak to me somehow... Gah, I just wish they had a trading system like STALKER in it. It would've greatly upped my enjoyment of the game I think.

 

 

I love STALKER:SOC, but the trading system in it was under-developed, under-utilized and pretty much unneccessary considering the insane amount of gear lying around the world and on enemies bodies. The only thing that kind of saved it was when armor degredation was introduced in the first patch, since suddenly at that point it became neccessary to buy replacement armor constantly.

 

STALKER is a great game, but it's got quite a few design problems.

 

 

As far as the respawning goes, perhaps the devs will reduce it in a patch. I always find it curious that some developers go so ape-**** on respawning when so many gamers seem to really dislike it. Respawning enemies seem to ALWAYS generate irate complaints, yet developers seem to still find it neccessary to go nuts with it for some reason.

 

I think it would be cool if the AI would actually have to roll out a troop transport from the city and drive it to a post to repopulate the post with guards. That I think would help immensely with downplaying the magical restoration of troops that were just killed.

[Maria Caliban]

~sigh~ Picked up this game and am struggling. Just got to Mike's for the first time.

 

You know that guy who gives you the taperecorder missions? Next time you see him, look at his crotch. Someone on the art team liked him.

 

I'm confused on the upgrading weapons. I see where their attributes are listed, but how am I to know what weapon is what in the real world. There's assult rifle silver and assult rifle black.

[Slowtrain]

I'm confused on the upgrading weapons. I see where their attributes are listed, but how am I to know what weapon is what in the real world. There's assult rifle silver and assult rifle black.

 

 

Don't they have outlines drawings you can sort of match?

 

Assault Rifle Infos:

 

 

The first one you get is the HK with the wire stock. Soon thereafter you start seeing AKs which have the wood stock. I've seen a rusted AR-16 lying around. It has the little optics on it. The FN is the only other one left. I haven't seen one of those yet.

 

Is that the kind of info you were looking for or did I misinterpret your question?

 

[Maria Caliban]

Yes, they have outlines that pop up when I hover over them, but all assult rifles seem to have the same outline.

 

What is a wire stock? I have a black assult rifle but most people drop silver ones.

 

Anyways, I went to some same to talk to some guy to make him lie to a special forces unit. After battling my way in for a half-hour, I clicked on him and the game froze.

 

*Annoyed squinting of eyes*

[Bokishi]

I like it when the guns jam, it's funny

[mkreku]

Been playing some more now and it's becoming even more obvious that this is a console port. Did anyone try to reconfigure a few keys? GOOD LUCK WITH THAT. I usually play with F as my interact button (default in Far Cry 2 is E) so I changed every possible E to F. Except.. the game STILL forces me to use E occasionally. Like when I am using a stationary weapon. I use F to enter/exit vehicles and I use F to 'enter' stationary weapons.. but to exit I have to press E. Annoying. Same with the weapons mounted on cars.. E E E.

 

About the respawning checkpoints.. Why not just put a simple timer on each spawnpoint after it's been cleared? Just let 2-3 in-game hours pass before more soldiers appear. More realistic, less annoying for the player. Who makes these kind of respawn design decisions anyway?!

 

I finally found the assassination missions (made a mistake the first time I went up to one of those towers which made me think the towers would be part of some larger quest later..). THEY are repetitive and I can't believe they're even counted as "side missions". It's just a NPC model semi-randomly placed in the world along with the exact same message about you having to assassinate the opportune target. Good way of earning easy diamonds, bad that they didn't even bother trying to write some sort of story/character for each assassination.

 

Why is it that every person in the Far Cry 2 world who sees me immediately considers me their arch enemy? I mean, I'm just driving down the road and happen to pass some soldiers in a village a few hundred meters away.. But they immediately open fire at me and when I try to speed away, they jump into their ridiculously fast cars (three times as fast as my own car, even though they are the same model..) and chase me to the end of the world. Just for laying eyes on me?!

 

I got the camo suit too. Let's just say, I still haven't managed to finish a single mission completely stealthy.

 

I'm still liking the game though! It's hard to put down and that's always a good sign.

[Starwars]

I love STALKER:SOC, but the trading system in it was under-developed, under-utilized and pretty much unneccessary considering the insane amount of gear lying around the world and on enemies bodies. The only thing that kind of saved it was when armor degredation was introduced in the first patch, since suddenly at that point it became neccessary to buy replacement armor constantly.

 

STALKER is a great game, but it's got quite a few design problems.

 

It's not that I think STALKER was a perfect game, far from it in fact. But it did offer some variation in gameplay at least, and I think you need this in open games. Far Cry 2 is so utterly simplified for being a free-roamer, I constantly find myself wishing for something to break up the pace a little bit.

[Slowtrain]

It's not that I think STALKER was a perfect game, far from it in fact. But it did offer some variation in gameplay at least, and I think you need this in open games. Far Cry 2 is so utterly simplified for being a free-roamer, I constantly find myself wishing for something to break up the pace a little bit.

 

 

I do agree STALKER was slightly more complex, mostly because it had large numbers of people who weren't trying to kill you, which is my one main beef about FC2, the complete lack of a non-combatant population and/or simply non-hostile population.

 

But other than that I don't see much more complexity in STALKER than in FC2. STALKER had an inventory, yes, and most of the weapons had selectable fire options, and attachments could be actually removed and or attached to some weapons. STALKER made you eat a lot and thus carry food around. STALKER had armor. But those are all pretty minor things.

 

 

All the major elements, random and reptitive missions, faction interaction, repawning guards and enemies, world exploration and goodie hunting (artifacts vs diamonds), are incredibly similar.

 

FC2 only lacks mutants and radiation.

[Slowtrain]

I got the camo suit too. Let's just say, I still haven't managed to finish a single mission completely stealthy.

 

 

This is the only place I am going to disagree with you. I don't even have the camo suit and stealth is awesome. I've cleaned out entire guard posts with a silence pistol and the machete. I am currently torn between buying the camo suit or buying a silenced MP5 with and some better ammo carriers.

 

Yes, in the bigger installations stealth is harder because there are so many more eyes. But even still I was able to sneak all the way in to the airfield and get right up next to an mission target before a guard saw me. Things went to hell at that point of course, but eh, its an FPS not Thief.

 

 

 

 

Its funny, but I don't even notice the respawning. I guess it has to do with play style. I will say that unlike STALKER guards do not respaqn in an area you are in. I had a huge battle at the railyard and afterwards spent about 30 minutes searching the area thoroughly and no guards showed up or spawned in. In STALKER, I would have had about 2 minutes to get myself out of there before a wave of new bandits showed up.

[Slowtrain]

Yes, they have outlines that pop up when I hover over them, but all assult rifles seem to have the same outline.

 

What is a wire stock? I have a black assult rifle but most people drop silver ones.

 

 

The wire stock is the part from behind the trigger to where it goes into your shoulder. The HK is pretty unmistakable.

 

The AK is also unmistakable. It has a lot of wood. When you hold the weapon you can see the brown up by the barrel and down by the shoulder. The idle animation, which plays after several seconds of standing around doing nothing, shows it clearly.

[Slowtrain]

Been playing some more now and it's becoming even more obvious that this is a console port. Did anyone try to reconfigure a few keys? GOOD LUCK WITH THAT. I usually play with F as my interact button (default in Far Cry 2 is E) so I changed every possible E to F. Except.. the game STILL forces me to use E occasionally. Like when I am using a stationary weapon. I use F to enter/exit vehicles and I use F to 'enter' stationary weapons.. but to exit I have to press E. Annoying. Same with the weapons mounted on cars.. E E E.

 

 

Eh. I've played plenty of PC games that had keys that didn't reassign properly or at all. I think STALKER had some.

 

FC2 may be a console port, but nothing I've seen in the time I've played screams port. Yes, the PC version has save points, but it also has the ability to save anywhere and quicksave (which I don't use and I think should have been left out, using only save points makes the game much more interesting). The controls, notably the mouse, seen fine.

 

If it is a port, it is a good one and I have no complaints.

[mkreku]

Eh. I've played plenty of PC games that had keys that didn't reassign properly or at all. I think STALKER had some.

Doesn't exactly excuse it though, does it?

 

FC2 may be a console port, but nothing I've seen in the time I've played screams port. Yes, the PC version has save points, but it also has the ability to save anywhere and quicksave (which I don't use and I think should have been left out, using only save points makes the game much more interesting). The controls, notably the mouse, seen fine.

I agree, the controls are smooth and precise. I still would want my own keys, thankyouverymuch. I also agree on the savepoints (another rather obvious sign this is a console port). At first I really thought I had to save at savepoints and went into one and slept as short as possible time in the bed to get that "Continue and save" prompt. And I read the manual, trying to figure out why there's even a quicksave if you have to use savepoints anyhow. Then I tried quicksaving at random and instantly loading the game.. and found out you can save anytime, anywhere! Talk about inconsistent! "You unlocked a new safehouse. You can now save your game here!". Whoop-dee-doo! Now I can save the game in yet another one of a gazillion places that I could save in before!

 

I love Far Cry 2, don't get me wrong. It's exactly the type of game I enjoy playing. Very rewarding combat, amazing vistas to explore, some RPG features (would have liked more though), interesting and mature story, vehicles (although I can't get to grips with the hang-glider). I just wouldn't call it perfect.

[Kaftan Barlast]

the PC version has save points, but it also has the ability to save anywhere and quicksave (which I don't use and I think should have been left out, using only save points makes the game much more interesting).

 

 

And by interesting you must mean frustrating, because thats what 99% of gamers think when they have to restart from a savepoint a hundred miles fom where they died.

[Slowtrain]

the PC version has save points, but it also has the ability to save anywhere and quicksave (which I don't use and I think should have been left out, using only save points makes the game much more interesting).

 

 

And by interesting you must mean frustrating, because thats what 99% of gamers think when they have to restart from a savepoint a hundred miles fom where they died.

 

 

Are you speaking generally or specifically?

 

Yes, generally speaking, if a game requires save points and is not well-balanced there can be a lot of frustration for the gamer. This frustration can occur with any area of a poorly balanced game, not just save points. Random crashes can also be extremely problematic when dealing with save points.

 

Speaking specifically about Far Cry 2, since I was in fact speaking specifically about Far Cry 2: Far Cry 2 is one of the easiest shooters I've played in a long time, plus there are enough save points to choke a horse. The game is incredibly stable. I have not had a single crash in many hours of play. There's no reason to have a save anywhere feature in this particular game.

[mkreku]

Hmm, I've reached a decision in the game and I don't know what to do. If I was able to name my save files (a feature most PC GAMES have), I'd be able to save before the decision and try which path suits me best. Now I know I'll lose the "Before" file sooner or later due to player incompetence with these generic file names

[Zoma]

Ugh. What's with the sluggish mouse control for this game? It makes it so difficult to aim efficiently at moving enemies.

[Slowtrain]

Ugh. What's with the sluggish mouse control for this game? It makes it so difficult to aim efficiently at moving enemies.

 

 

Did you adjust the mouse sensitivity in the options? I think I had to turn mine almost all the way up to get a decent mouse response.

[Aram]

This game could have been so much better than it is. That seems to be a big problem with games today. It's even more infuriating than simply buying a bad game.

[Maria Caliban]

Ugh. What's with the sluggish mouse control for this game? It makes it so difficult to aim efficiently at moving enemies.

 

Annoying, isn't it?