Bored with Far Cry 2
by Steve Acaster · 10/30/2008 (5:22 am) · 10 comments
After four days, I've come to the conclusion that like many big budget releases, it wasn't quite what it was billed as .....
Nice game world, very pretty graphics, plenty of space to explore. And it definately said huge draw distance on the box ...... well, not really, apart from some parts of open savannah it's still pretty claustrophobic, battles still take place at what in reality is very short range, and dense foliage and meandering cliffs keep the visual range down.
But it is pretty, and graphics are something which have always been spurred on by the FPS genre. And the world is big and open, but with what Ubisoft give with one hand, Ubisoft take away with the other....
The plot is utterly linear, not quite the freedom of choice to work for which ever group I wanted to. The AI cheats (acceptable only when you can't tell it's doing it - a horrifying blow to game world immersion when it's so blatant). There's the slightest of excuses when you accept a mission for a faction and are then told it's secret so everyone you are working for will shoot at you.
That's just a poor excuse for not having to bother with thinking, teams, or real tactics. And then there are sequences were you are set up to be trapped and fail because the devs couldn't think of a more imaginative way to get you from section of the game to another. Again the open ended nature of the gaming environment circumnavigated to linear progression.
So, it's accept mission, blast way across country to objective area, blast objective area, blast way back through respawned enemies and checkpoints exactly as they were the first time to get to debriefing. Repeat.
And if Rambo wasn't bad enough, random encounters. I mean random encounters?! The bane of RPGs since inception. Nothing happening? Enjoying the view? Doing an impression of Attenborough and spotting the cute zebras? Random spawning truck appears and crashes into you all guns blazing.
I don't take Ritalin, I don't have a deficit in my attention, I don't fiddle with my gun if I don't move in 10 seconds. But the game does. Keep still for 10 seconds, feel free to look around with the mouse, but don't use the walk/movement keys. When lying in wait to ambush an enemy or simply enjoying the scenery your view is suddenly obscured by your character fidgeting with their firearm for no good reason. It takes literally seconds, not of inactivity, but not walking for this to happen. Back in the day when trolling meant something, games used to play animations or dialogue after several minutes of complete inactivity (i.e. Tomb Raider - "Are you still there?"), but really..... seconds?
And that is a good illustration of the mentalitly of the game. It's not the Thinking Man's FPS, it's a shallow Rambo game with pretty trees and linear, repetitive game play.
At least the dialogue was superior to most games.
"Wait for my signal, then you come in all Vin Diesel like and top the See You Next Thursday" - that made me laugh, though I've noticed that British characters get a lot more vitriolic swearing in games than other nationalities. Can't remember hearing an American accent in a game say See You Next Thursday.
At least the swearing in this doesn't seem off, unlike in say my pet hate Crysis. The hackneyed dialogue was the real crisis there, not North Koreans or an alien invasion. It seemed to have been written by a petulant teenager who had read the Big Red Book of Cliches.(see a previous blog for my flu medicined fueled rant about Cyrsis in the comments section)
Remember kids, swearing isn't big or clever, regardless of whether the desperate execs of big games publishers happen to think it's how to corner the "mature" market.
"We need to make our games seem more exciting, darker (I hate that term...), throw in the F-bomb and plenty of claret so we get the nc-17/rated18. That way the kids'll think it's really mature to play it."
Maybe they just listen in on XBL too much.....
Anyhow, four days off, so back to my own devepment.
Nice game world, very pretty graphics, plenty of space to explore. And it definately said huge draw distance on the box ...... well, not really, apart from some parts of open savannah it's still pretty claustrophobic, battles still take place at what in reality is very short range, and dense foliage and meandering cliffs keep the visual range down.
But it is pretty, and graphics are something which have always been spurred on by the FPS genre. And the world is big and open, but with what Ubisoft give with one hand, Ubisoft take away with the other....
The plot is utterly linear, not quite the freedom of choice to work for which ever group I wanted to. The AI cheats (acceptable only when you can't tell it's doing it - a horrifying blow to game world immersion when it's so blatant). There's the slightest of excuses when you accept a mission for a faction and are then told it's secret so everyone you are working for will shoot at you.
That's just a poor excuse for not having to bother with thinking, teams, or real tactics. And then there are sequences were you are set up to be trapped and fail because the devs couldn't think of a more imaginative way to get you from section of the game to another. Again the open ended nature of the gaming environment circumnavigated to linear progression.
So, it's accept mission, blast way across country to objective area, blast objective area, blast way back through respawned enemies and checkpoints exactly as they were the first time to get to debriefing. Repeat.
And if Rambo wasn't bad enough, random encounters. I mean random encounters?! The bane of RPGs since inception. Nothing happening? Enjoying the view? Doing an impression of Attenborough and spotting the cute zebras? Random spawning truck appears and crashes into you all guns blazing.
I don't take Ritalin, I don't have a deficit in my attention, I don't fiddle with my gun if I don't move in 10 seconds. But the game does. Keep still for 10 seconds, feel free to look around with the mouse, but don't use the walk/movement keys. When lying in wait to ambush an enemy or simply enjoying the scenery your view is suddenly obscured by your character fidgeting with their firearm for no good reason. It takes literally seconds, not of inactivity, but not walking for this to happen. Back in the day when trolling meant something, games used to play animations or dialogue after several minutes of complete inactivity (i.e. Tomb Raider - "Are you still there?"), but really..... seconds?
And that is a good illustration of the mentalitly of the game. It's not the Thinking Man's FPS, it's a shallow Rambo game with pretty trees and linear, repetitive game play.
At least the dialogue was superior to most games.
"Wait for my signal, then you come in all Vin Diesel like and top the See You Next Thursday" - that made me laugh, though I've noticed that British characters get a lot more vitriolic swearing in games than other nationalities. Can't remember hearing an American accent in a game say See You Next Thursday.
At least the swearing in this doesn't seem off, unlike in say my pet hate Crysis. The hackneyed dialogue was the real crisis there, not North Koreans or an alien invasion. It seemed to have been written by a petulant teenager who had read the Big Red Book of Cliches.(see a previous blog for my flu medicined fueled rant about Cyrsis in the comments section)
Remember kids, swearing isn't big or clever, regardless of whether the desperate execs of big games publishers happen to think it's how to corner the "mature" market.
"We need to make our games seem more exciting, darker (I hate that term...), throw in the F-bomb and plenty of claret so we get the nc-17/rated18. That way the kids'll think it's really mature to play it."
Maybe they just listen in on XBL too much.....
Anyhow, four days off, so back to my own devepment.
About the author
One Bloke ... In His Bedroom ... Trying To Make Computer Games ... eventually ...
#2
10/30/2008 (8:11 am)
The saddest part is that it probably made a bunch of money so the execs will call it a success and authorize the development of 10 more just like it 
#3
=)
10/30/2008 (8:55 am)
That's why you should be off playing Fallout 3 and On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode 2, like me.=)
#4
10/30/2008 (10:23 am)
Pick up Little Big Planet, sir! And yes to the Fallout 3 as well. :) 
#5
Give it a shot next payday :P I think I've enjoyed the first couple of hours in this game more than any other in a long time, but then again, I liked s.t.a.l.k.e.r, so to each his own.
10/30/2008 (10:25 am)
I've been playing Fallout 3 the last two days. It's a lot of fun, as long as you don't expect it to be the same as the other two. But, for a fps with rpg and strategic (VATS) elements, I'd say it was well worth the dough. The draw distance is incredible, even on low settings. It's a great example of what should be accomplished on low or high end hardware. Give it a shot next payday :P I think I've enjoyed the first couple of hours in this game more than any other in a long time, but then again, I liked s.t.a.l.k.e.r, so to each his own.
#6
However somebody will like it...and I hope that they will enjoy it :)
10/30/2008 (11:12 am)
Yes the game is terrible...nice graphics but you are feeling like you are working while shooting and running around....there is just a serious lack of fun in that game. When i think again...i think that pacman after all these years will bring more fun than 98% of these days AAA titles...Kudos to the rest 2%However somebody will like it...and I hope that they will enjoy it :)
#7
Let's take a look at who is making this game... Ubisoft, right? What they did was buy the Farcry technology, change the setting from forgotten Pacific islands to savannah, push the engine to a somewhat next gen thingie (cmon, you gotta stay in game 30 years to see a tree grow back like in the tech demo), add some hollywood to it and sell it. The entire effort thus is concentrated on shiny features, the stuff that makes you buy the thing. After you get it however, and naively presume you will have a 'game experience' you realize that this is nothing but a consumerist product.
So let's not argue about it; it's obvious, for years now, that big games are merely an attempt to sell hardware and game engines. I mean, how many AAA titles disappointed you so far? I bet not too very few.
10/30/2008 (12:09 pm)
Hm, swearing is both serious and you oughta be clever to swear without pissing someone off : ) However..Let's take a look at who is making this game... Ubisoft, right? What they did was buy the Farcry technology, change the setting from forgotten Pacific islands to savannah, push the engine to a somewhat next gen thingie (cmon, you gotta stay in game 30 years to see a tree grow back like in the tech demo), add some hollywood to it and sell it. The entire effort thus is concentrated on shiny features, the stuff that makes you buy the thing. After you get it however, and naively presume you will have a 'game experience' you realize that this is nothing but a consumerist product.
So let's not argue about it; it's obvious, for years now, that big games are merely an attempt to sell hardware and game engines. I mean, how many AAA titles disappointed you so far? I bet not too very few.
#8
I miss the good old c64 days, when 2 pixels could scare the sh.t out of me. (Speaking of swearing...)
10/30/2008 (2:52 pm)
Pretty software without replay value is not considered a game in my dictionary. It's a benchmarking tool.I miss the good old c64 days, when 2 pixels could scare the sh.t out of me. (Speaking of swearing...)
#9
10/30/2008 (5:25 pm)
@Konrad: c64 nostalgia, woo! I always thought the spider pest in M.U.L.E. was particularly menacing, but then again, I don't like spiders.
#10
Also, I remember a hopeless fight scene in Pool of Radiance (the original one on the 64) - I wonder if I'll see another turn based strategy that will steal true excitement and fright into my heart.
Comparing these great old games with 16 colors and a few pixels - actually using the machine's faults to gain more on-screen space - I just wish things didn't change this much.
Far Cry 2 probably does give some extra in terms of gfx, but sadly, more attention is given to things that are overrated. Overrated by those who do not have memories of simple yet great games, imho.
10/31/2008 (4:04 am)
@Deborah: And when the witch appeared in Wizard of Wor? Scariest thing ever - with the blinking screen and the 8 bit synthesized scream! (I'll have to make that my ringtone...:)Also, I remember a hopeless fight scene in Pool of Radiance (the original one on the 64) - I wonder if I'll see another turn based strategy that will steal true excitement and fright into my heart.
Comparing these great old games with 16 colors and a few pixels - actually using the machine's faults to gain more on-screen space - I just wish things didn't change this much.
Far Cry 2 probably does give some extra in terms of gfx, but sadly, more attention is given to things that are overrated. Overrated by those who do not have memories of simple yet great games, imho.
Torque 3D Owner Matt Huston
Atomic Banzai Games
I haven't played it to much but the game actually made me feel dizzy with all the 'body movement' and 'lens
effects' which can't be good, my friend said the same thing, I guess we must be newbs. In terms of immersion though, I enjoyed it a bit more than Stalker which just came across cheesy in my opinion. Vehicles added a nice element and you mention the Rambo feel as a bad thing but I enjoyed that aspect of it -- I love the Rambo movies :)