Jake

Far Cry 2

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I visited Far Cry 2 once, but the screenshot I got from that session wasn't all that great. XCOM simply takes all the time I feel like giving to gaming. XCOM is a challenge and a responsibility, Far Cry 2 is an escape I can't afford while the god damn Chrysalids prowl the Earth.

Regarding your advice about gamma & such, I don't recognize your Far Cry 2 as my Far Cry 2 :X To me, it looks excellent, and the low contrast seems to be an artistic decision and not a technical one. Looks more real and fitting to me without any special settings.

If the designer wanted to have the game flooded with colors & contrast he would have just set it on some tropical Middle American island or something.

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Your gamma settings remind me almost of FC1. I don't know if I like that or not. I don't know if I like Far Cry 2 or not. I'm glad these uncertainties are "problems" in my life. Speaks to how well things go for me =P

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I would never play anything else if there was a Far Cry 2 co-op. But it's not happening. Far Cry 3 is a far more conventional game and it does have co-op, but it's I don't think it has any free roaming component.

well that would be a massive dealbreaker

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I wonder if anyone is as insane as this:

Bought Far Cry 2 about four months ago, played it about halfway through for two months, got to the second map, penultimate difficulty.

Then, erased all my saves, started a new game (with a different character of course). Highest difficulty, and I'm not using the magic in game map or all-knowing diamond finder. Instead, I'm using and marking an actual blank paper map I found online, and I also use weapons until they break.

This is what I have to do because Ubi doesn't allow mods in this game that would allow me to play a more desperate game.

It takes forever to get anywhere, of course, and I march into situations almost completely unprepared.

It's fun as hell.

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there is this: http://www.moddb.com...realism-mod-v13

Harvey Smith linked it on his twitter account once

Yep, I saw that and it's part of why I went back and started the game over with my ridiculous self-imposed rules. But, I decided for my first run to just play the game vanilla. Here's partly why:

This mod (and the one or two other mods available for Far Cry 2) basically edit a long XML configuration file. This is great. However, Ubi's method of obscuring and using their game files means that the XML file is buried within an archived file somewhere, with dozens of other files, many of which are unreadable or have unreadable filenames. These files are not manipulable by the operating system. So, in order to use a mod like this, you have to use a special program to extract the files, edit the single file you want, and repack them, with dozens of original files missing. Then you use this repacked archive to replace the existing one.

So, basically, this mod also removes a bunch of files from Far Cry 2 to alter some features. What do the files do? Are they leaves in the forest canopy? Do they supply sophisticated AI subroutines for the brilliant zebra behavior? Are they just there to obscure precious source code?

Who knows. So I'd rather just play vanilla for the first run, then probably use Dylan's as a guide to create my own mod later.

If Ubi had simply exposed the XML file for editing in the first place, this would be completely unnecessary, of course.

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OMG I just made it to the second map.

But I am also sad

I felt a moral obligation to save the Underground, so all my buddies died.

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I went back to your dad's Far Cry.

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Playing Far Cry 2 again reminds me of the things I miss in Far Cry 2. The fantastic map, which doesn't pull you out of the world. How much better the diamond economy is compared to the fiddly and grindy economy of Far Cry 3. Excellent music and much better sound design. It's odd -- Far Cry 2 has less wildlife and what it does have isn't nearly as well made as in Far Cry 3, but when you're making your way through a rain forest, the sound design makes it feel more alive. I miss the tigers and such that keep you on your toes a bit in Far Cry 3, but the atmosphere and sense of threat is still a lot stronger in FC2.

I like that in FC2 I need to pick my route, while in FC3 you can just go toward the waypoint until you reach it. FC3 starts out pretty safe, and once you've mopped up an island it's sterile. In FC2 I always have to plan my route in order to avoid the most dangerous locations.

Most importantly, no corridor runs. I just saved myself from an ambush by jumping off that bridge in one of the photos.

I feel like FC3 has smoothed out all the corners in FC2 and avoids all the complaints people had of FC2. However, I learned to avoid those frustrations a long time ago, but the new ones FC3 brings along don't seem avoidable.

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This game is trying to make me hate it. Midway through the tutorial mission Carbonell explains how to search for diamonds, and then explicitly says "But don't do that now, you're sick. get some medicine at Mike's Bar." So I start to drive to Mike's Bar, and die of malaria. OK, I must be too slow. Go back to save, try to skip his dialog (I can't) and drive faster. Die. Try again. Die. Restart at an earlier save, try to clear the guard post and drive straight to the bar. Die. Try again. Die. Start at an earlier save, go faster, die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Look up on the internet what to do, die. Try a different search string, wait what? I'm supposed to find the diamonds before getting the medicine? One entire evening of gaming wasted on a poorly written tutorial.

At least I made it through. I'm playing on a PC, so I couldn't throw my controller through the window. Now I'm just suffering with the respawning check points and endless driving.I see glimpses of the brilliance (the whole damn game is built to be emergent) but I'm not there yet. 9 hours played and only 8% completion, and I'm employed, and have dogs, and a significant other. At least I finally figured out what F5 was for.

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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. :)

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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. :)

That's easily the best part--I've been to Africa, and Far Cry 2 nails the savanna. I do like to feel like I'm making progress, however. Off to go assassinate a chief of police.

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I don't remember such problems with the tutorial, although I suppose it's such a long time ago... I wouldn't use the quicksave very much, except perhaps when you've pulled off a big mission. Instead, learn to avoid the check points when you can, even the roads if you don't have a technical with a machine gun. A big part of the game is planning your route in order to avoid trouble.

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a technical with a machine gun.

I was all set to make a Borderlands 2 joke but then I learned that this is actually a word for a car with a gun. Huh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_(vehicle)

I love this bit from the wiki page:

The term technical describing such a vehicle originated in Somalia in the early 1990s. Barred from bringing in private security, non-governmental organizations hired local gunmen to protect their personnel, using money defined as "technical assistance grants". Eventually the term broadened to include any vehicle carrying armed men.[1] Technicals have also been referred to as battlewagons, gunwagons,[2] or gunships.

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Done! Steam says 47 hours, but at least two of those were paused while I walked the dogs or poured a drink. It's got issues, most of which are well know (long travel times, kamikaze enemy vehicles, repetitive missions, etc.) and I also had a few times where the physics got in the way of completing missions--the nitrous truck would get hung up on the geometry of the garage, for example. I did get a sense of why Far Cry 2 is so well loved: Running into a pair of buffalo and thinking I was a bout to have a Franics Macomber moment, only to have the animals fall over dead as they hit the side of my car. Shooting a guard in the face just because he said I didn't have the guts. Watching enemies scramble as a case of ammunition detonated in their midst.

My most Idle Thumbsy moment was nailing an oncoming assault truck with a grenade launcher, watching it arc up in the air, and the dawning realization that it was headed right for me. Ouch.

Does anyone know why the ending series of missions is so linear? I'm assuming it was on purpose, but can't think of a good reason why it was designed that way.

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Probably just logistics. Somebody must have liked them, considering that's how they did Far Cry 3 in its entirety.

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I took another stab at this, this time on PC (thanks Steam sale!) and it's finally clicking. It's much brighter and crisper on the PC, runs smoother, and the mouse makes aiming (and combat in general) feel natural and intuitive. Granted, I'm only two hours in, so there's time left for me to get sick it, but I think I'm in a different state of mind than when I first tried it. For one, I played Stalker, which is exactly this game set in a different universe. For another, it's fun to think of the way the narrative and the mechanics work so well together. And look what happened just a mere two hours in!

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I'm playing through the first Crysis right now, having passed over it when it came out so many years ago, and it along with Far Cry 3 have taught me to love the gunplay model for Far Cry 2 all over again, even though all three games are theoretically from the same lineage. Whether I'm calmly sniping a guy from a distance or frantically shredding him up close, Far Cry 2 impresses with the ease of its lethality. Crysis especially has embarrassing moments where both parties unload full clips at each other to no effect.

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The best part of getting it in a steam sale is that it comes with those promo weapons (silenced shotgun, rocket crossbow, double-barreled sawnoff). Still my favourite loadout, though the bolt-action sniper rifle gives it a run for its money.

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First buddy lost. The logistics of the buddy missions seem rather poorly thought out. "Go help me do this thing that will undoubtedly make your original task harder, then I'll go and 'ambush' a group of soldiers, get quickly overpowered and need you to swoop in and save me." I approached from a bluff overlooking the failed ambush and sniped all but one soldier. The dude couldn't even finish off that one soldier. It was ridiculous. I guess he just wasn't cut out for the life of a far cry guy.

Still enjoying most of the game though, the landscape is very cleverly designed. You get a great sense of exploration while taking the long way around checkpoints. I don't agree with whoever said the waterways were safer though. There may be less checkpoints, but you have way less options in approaching them when you're in a narrow river surrounded by cliffs. I also wish there was a more elegant solution than just stopping your boat or truck and switching to the gun, getting shot constantly while the animation plays itself out. Something like Borderlands which allows you to just remotely operate your vehicles guns when you're the only one driving it. Just seems odd that the main vehicles of the game are two-person vehicles in a game designed for just one player.

I'd like to continue the screenshot tradition. Truly a lovely game. More to follow.

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Lots of buddy missions make your original mission easier, although at the cost of having to do the buddy mission itself which may not be much easier.

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