DoomMunky

Why wait for Ubi to patch the game when you have crazily dedicated modders for a game with no SDK? Holy fuck. This is a partial list: in the link above, each one of these is a link to a mod. It looks like the 'Compilation mod' is the rolling update of the most-requested features (you can only have one edited 'patch.dat' file at a time).

Turn off the music, find the right gun for you, and don't worry about your completion percentage. Just go to Africa, and stay there until you can't any more. That's the way to play Far Cry 2.

I loved the discussion about the creative process, and how helpful and inspiring it is to listen others talk about theirs. I find it amazingly refreshing to hear others' struggles with the creative process, and welcome any more links to things people find inspiring. I found the Stephen King book "On Writing" (which is, amazingly, about writing) incredibly helpful. He goes to great lengths to demystify the writing process. One of my favorite quotes: There's a lot more in there that's wonderful. Also, in the link below, writers talking about their writing process. Maya Angelou says hilarious stuff, and there's a great link to Vonnegut's process in there, too. http://www.brainpick...utines-writers/ New Year's resolution time! List of books to make you a better reader and writer. Elizabeth Gilbert's on the importance of just showing up for creative work. Just keep coming; that is honorable all by itself.

I am still playing with no UI! It's amazing. I can't imagine going back, like, ever. I anticipate a few QTE problems in the future, but until then? Hells yeah. So immersive, especially because I don't use the camera tagging. You can also try this: http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/734046-Mods-for-Far-Cry-3?p=8773981&viewfull=1#post8773981 It turns OFF the obnoxious UI prompts and makes everything else really see-thru, and removes the mini-map entirely.

Ha! Nice. I was creeping around an outpost and trying to draw guys out, one at a time. I get one of the drunken dudes down, and draw another one over with a rock. I knife him but another drunken dude sees us and starts running at me, screaming "mother FUCKER!". I whip out my silenced pistol and fire as fast as I can and he explodes in fire. He was just winding up a molotov throw and I'd hit the bottle. He falls at my feet, burning, and I run back up the hill, hoping the flames don't catch me. After I catch my breath, I realize the rest of the camp isn't alerted, either. No one has heard or seen me, or heard one of their number exploding into flames and dying. I resume my stealthy creeping with a smile on my face.

I can't get the effing pirates to come to me, no matter how many stones I throw, so I drop a mine. The second I put it down they all freak out and run right at me. I dash away and nearly die when it explodes, a pirate flying through the air to my right. I heal and run down the hill. One guy chases me and I take him down with the shotgun. I crouch behind a bush and wait to hear the rest of them. There were at least five, so I know I'm in for it if they find me. After several seconds of total silence I creep out and find they've all been blown up by the mine. I mosey back to the shack where the leader is. He sees me and starts firing, taking cover behind a big tree. One shot to his legs occupies him for long enough for me to run up and stab him. 'Wanted: Dead' mission complete. Sweet.

Wow. I used the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmlogT8X4_0 to turn the HUD off and it's the game I want to play. No HUD means no mini-map, no UI popups, no nagging mission reminders. All of the things that annoy me about the game; in fact, the main things wrong with it. No 'Press R to reload', no 'Dingo tongues', no 'explore the jungle, or find Cidra's earrings'. There's no '26 dollars' popup, or loot popups like 'someone's keys'. It also means there's no health bars, no enemy-awareness indicators, and no 'press a button now to do a takedown'. But you know what? They've overdone the player-assist stuff so much that you don't NEED any of those things! There's a sound when you enter takedown range. There's a sound when you start getting seen by enemies. There's red screen-edges and greyness to your vision when you start to get hurt. It's suddenly exactly the game I want to play: It's amazing to be in the world, not viewing it through a screen.

So this 'going into cover' thing, and 'blindfiring'. How do you do this? My stats screen says I have 100% accuracy from cover. I'm like, 'hell yeah!'. then I realize I've taken 2 shots from cover. Well. A bit less impressive.

I can highly recommend not using the camera to tag things at all. I turned off weapon tagging, too. It makes stealth actually challenging. If I need it I use the syringe that shows the enemies ("through scent" ha!), which gives a nice 'oh shit it's wearing off!' sense of urgency. I've also taped a small paper circle over the minimap. It makes the game way, WAY better. I actually explore. I have to look through buildings and actually see them to find the loot boxes, not just zip through them with half an eye on the minimap, heading toward the gem icon. Covering the minimap makes it a game about paying attention (and there's still enough UI frippery that I can orient effectively). Again, highly recommended. Anecdote: I was scouting a pirate encampment from a hillside when I heard growling nearby. A tiger was basking in the sun about 10 feet to my right. It hadn't seen me. I crept away and pulled out some C4, thinking it would be sweet to blow it up and get its pelt, but throwing the C4 alerted it to where I was, and it started to charge. I hammered the trigger button and nearly died in the blast. My vision goes grey and I fall off the hill, running away to the sounds of the camp being alerted. "What the hell was THAT?!" they say. I never did find the tiger body.

Holy crap. Found this at a coffee shop. Basically a Traditional Wizard in Morrowind, for some reason. Also you can see the water through the Wizard. Which, you know, holy crap.

Man I love this game. I've been listening to a lot of Idle Thumbs lately, and I think it inspires me to experience my games more as a set of stories. To examine what's happening as a set of weird narrative moments. I try to justify everything that happened in terms of an emerging narrative, and it makes for much more enjoyable and funny gaming, even if it has a lot of cognitive dissonance. Anyway, my story: I'm working my way through a twisty conspiracy in one of the major cities, and the man who leads it has me by his fireplace, and is explaining why he's done all these horrible things. I ask, "Why are you telling me this?" He responds, "Oh, don't worry, you won't leave here alive." His apartment explodes into battle, and suddenly his five or six servants and henchmen are all wailing on me at once, crazy spells flying this way and that. I'm good at stealthy kills, not so much at direct confrontation, especially not with more than one person. So I run out into the town and his men and women are hot on my heels. I'm running down stairs, up on ledges, getting vantage points and firing down at my pursuers, chugging potions and am totally scared. Or is that exhilirated? But I can't keep this up. I dash into the tavern and run up to the sellsword. "500 gold and I'm yours," he says. I say "Done!", pay him, and suddenly the tide of battle turns and the tavern becomes a killing floor as he wades into them with his bastard sword, hacking away at them, shield bashing them into submission. When it's over I stagger out of the inn, loot all the bodies I can find, and continue unraveling the conspiracy, a new buddy at my back. Bad. Ass. -- Also, here's a fun one. I am investigating a murder, following a blood trail up a snowy street, when my assassination target walks past me. I stand over the blood trail of the murdered woman the local justice has begged me to bring justice to, pull out my bow (while quickly checking no one is around), and let an arrow fly. My target flies off the top of the stairs she's standing on and crumples in a heap. I put my bow away and continue following the blood trail. There's a murderer on the loose, and I need to bring them to justice.

WHY hasn't Chris talked about this on the podcast, EVAR? He said back in the old days he's a huge fan of grappling hook games, and this is basically the best grappling hook implementation ever. Get on it, Remo!

Thanks for that, vimes. I'm also pretty tired of super violence in general (the blood spats on the walls behind the Combine I shot in HL2 were unnecessary IMHO) and it's good to hear someone else is...questioning it, too.