Thompson

Far Cry 3

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The very end of the story is kinda interesting - maybe even kinda... good. Not sure. Jason's barks are particularly stupid in the last hour of the story so that kinda cancels it all out.

Does anyone know if there are optional interactions with the Doctor? Everytime I went back to the cave I talked to my friends but forgot about the doctor.

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My review/screed, based on thoughts I've had all week and crystallized by listening to the podcast today:

It's a mediocre game overall.

It has some amazing open world emergent moments. Tigers attacking pirates, animals intruding on your careful plans, pirates fighting with villagers, and some awesome sights. Some waterfalls and tucked away little fishing cabins are just wonderful for what they evoke.

It has a god-awful UI, intrusive and demanding and insulting. Press E to harvest. Yes, I know. Press R to reload. Really? Is that why my gun stopped firing? Go to the next mission point, or just explore the island. Really? Is exploring the island STILL an option? You only told me 90 seconds ago that I could do that! And 90 seconds before that. And 90 seconds before that. It doesn't trust that you can make your own fun, or remember what you're doing in a game.

And the missions are utter shit, for someone who likes open world games. I approached the Medusa like a stealthy badass, got through the whole mission without a hitch, listened to the radio message and when reinforcements showed up, I thought, 'shit! I better leave!' and dove off the side into the water, swam to the beach, shanked the last guard I'd missed, and ran off down the beach as the reinforcements arrived. I congratulated myself for being an awesome stealthy person and then a mission popup said YOU ARE LEAVING THE MISSION AREA. What? I intercepted the radio transmission. I got the intel I needed and now am heading back to talk to my buddy. Why is this still the mission area? Oh: I check the menu screen and the mission prompt says 'Eliminate the reinforcements'. I can't leave, stealthily and in character with the rest of the mission. I have to kill all the guys who just showed up. Never mind that it's early in the game and I'm not yet a murdering wild man. I'm just a dumb kid on a vacation gone wrong, in way over my head. So it's not in character for me to kill them. And further, they have no further information for me. These enemies aren't standing between me and getting away.

It's just one of those points where you have to kill a bunch of guys. For no reason at all.

And hey, there's nothing wrong with being asked to shoot a bunch of guys in a shooting game. I can already hear the stupid whining that 'oh, you don't like being asked to shoot guys? talk about missing the point...' Missing the point is being mad that there aren't realistically represented caliber markings on the sides of the guns. The game's not about that. But being forced to complete a mission a certain way in an open world setting is stupid. There are so many other verbs I've been given that saying I can only use one, and only inside the arbitrary framework you've just now designated? Bad design. I need to totally disregard this big open mission area that's wide open and non-restrictive? Bad design. Bad, insulting design.

Make me infiltrate a base, clearing out necessary guys and accomplishing my goal. Then have me fight my way back out (the ONLY way out) through the newly arrived reinforcements. Whatever. If that's the experience you want me to have, DON'T show me the open world around me and then say YOU ARE LEAVING THE MISSION AREA. Design the mission area correctly and I won't want to leave it, and won't even think I CAN leave it. It won't bother me. I'll know I'm just playing one of those levels where you don't have that much freedom. But they don't want to limit themselves in their design and not use the big, open-worldiness of what they've built: "look! It's set right there in the game world, no borders, no limits, no load screens, nothing!" But then they have a particular play experience in mind. Only one. This is a stealth mission, followed by a shooting part. Nothing else will do. They can't be bothered to allow me to play with it the way I want to, the ways it SHOULD work, in the big, wide-open world they gave me. So they hamstring the player with artificial and arbitrary boundaries. It's terrible, backwards, hypocritical, shoot-yourself-in-the-foot design.

Outside the main missions there's a lot of fun to be had. Knocking over strongholds and just trying to navigate the world is amazing. (when it's hostile, that is. There comes a point when you've knocked over all the strongholds and removed all the enemies from the world. Yep, they went the other direction from Far Cry 2 and allowed you to eliminate all the human threats from the world, permanently) Stalking animals, coming across random firefights, discovering a cave system, finding a hang glider; all awesome. But then they went and stuck a bunch of 'press the forward key' Call of Duty missions in that open world, and decided to treat the player like the average CoD player; they think we're easily distracted, very stupid, and they only want us to play the exact missions they've designed.

It's summed up by my experience with the Medusa mission above, but there's one other moment that stands out. There's an early-mission QTE that has you edging across a burning beam: It says 'press W' up on the screen in big letters. You know. The forward key. That you've been using to go, you know, forward for the entire game.

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I asked this before, but I only got one reply, and now many more people are echoing the same thing: Everyone keeps saying that the story is terrible. Can someone explain why the STORY is so bad? (I haven't played it.)

People are stating it so matter of factly, that surely someone can go into some detail?

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Bill is the best character in a decent game, which concludes what I have to say on the matter.

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Who's Bill... do you mean Buck :) Buck was awesome "Time for a history lesson"

I didn't think the story was particularly bad, just the usual video game fair. Some of the characters and writing were really fun, especially Buck, Vass and Sam.

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Far Cry 3 seems to echo alot of games in that they're afraid to have a lull in storytelling. The pace is always a neverending rush of adrenaline. Far Cry 2 had great pacing that made the few insane set-pieces much more dramatic, instead of anodine from repeatition.

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...

All that fits perfectly with what I read from the RPS interview with the writer (can't be arsed to find the link ATM). Seems they really did try to make a satire game but just ended up making a game that is roughly the same as the object of their satire (or worse, considering all the annoying pop-ups and whatever). Note: still haven't played it myself.

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Well, whatever the intent of the writer, it's a badly designed game. The missions don't support the open world, and deliberately frustrate player expectations and agency. And not in an interesting way. It's not like I'm being frustrated by the inability to interact with the missions in the various ways I should be able to but then going, "Hey wait, isn't it my fault that I have the expectations I have in this game? Shouldn't I be examining my expectations and questioning them?"

That doesn't happen. And saying that it sort of should have and I missed the point by not having that moment is the lamest kind of self-protection.

He has a minor point, the author. There is definitely some tension between the open game world and the intense forward pull of the plot; go rescue your friends is silly when you can also wander around picking flowers and killing boars. But just having that in the game doesn't equal deconstructive criticism of gaming. It just means there's the tension of conflicting goals in the game design and the story design.

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So I find sharks in video games terrifying. They are usually faster then you, they are strong, and you cant fight back in the water (Videooo Gaaammmess).

The ENTIRE time I was playing Far Cry 3 I avoided being attacked by the sharks because I figured it would be some horrible insta-death feeding frenzy situation .... similar to Crysis.

So after I beat the game I decided to see what would actually happen. I jumped in the ocean and waited. I saw a shark getting closer and spot me, I cringe as it launches itself at me preparing for my own gruesome death...

...The shark is literally the least scary predator in the whole game. All he does is nibble you and swim by, taking like 4-5 passes to kill you. Its like sticking your finger into a goldfish bowl.

Even the stupid aggressive ostrich looking birds kill you faster.

My conflict with the shark embodies this games problems perfectly. Your expectations will undoubtedly be let down so fucking badly at some point by this game, like mine were with the shark. Maybe its when every time you try to plan a sneaky base attack a tiger randomly spoils your plans. Or maybe it will happen when you can only carry a handful of extra ammo because while you are a masterful tiger hunter, you still havent crafted the goat-leather ammo pouch. Or maybe it will happen when you arbitrarily fail a mission for leaving an area. Whatever it is, it will happen.

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crocodiles are still terrifying though. I suspect it is literally impossible to see them before they have you qte flailing for your life. I've certainly never seen one until it was already on top of me. Also you mention that you did this after you finished the game, but I posit that sharks are a lot scarier when you only have 2 life bars and are worried about running out of breath while diving for a relic or something. I mean all the wildlife is generally less scary by the time you're levelled/geared up.

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crocodiles are still terrifying though. I suspect it is literally impossible to see them before they have you qte flailing for your life. I've certainly never seen one until it was already on top of me. Also you mention that you did this after you finished the game, but I posit that sharks are a lot scarier when you only have 2 life bars and are worried about running out of breath while diving for a relic or something. I mean all the wildlife is generally less scary by the time you're levelled/geared up.

I have to disagree here. Even with a lot of health the other animals, like the Tiger, are still quite strong and can mess you up. The Shark just isnt scary at all. The first time the crocodile got me I was surprised Even the first time a leopard got me I was taken aback. The shark was boring.

But, about the crocodile...

The crocodile always hides in the swampy areas where there is heavy foliage covering the water. If you find one of those areas and then jump in the water a few feet away you can watch the crocodile and all they do is just sit there and wont even move unless you are right in their trigger volume. They are quite boring once you see behind the curtain (or behind the lilypad if you will)

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They are quite boring once you see behind the curtain (or behind the lilypad if you will)

tumblr_lo9m46LKP81qhafj6.gif

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The crocodile always hides in the swampy areas where there is heavy foliage covering the water. If you find one of those areas and then jump in the water a few feet away you can watch the crocodile and all they do is just sit there and wont even move unless you are right in their trigger volume. They are quite boring once you see behind the curtain (or behind the lilypad if you will)

To be fair, from what I understand that's not very different from the behaviour of actual crocodiles.

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Has anyone else got this weird glitch. My cry guy has a grenade protruding out of his right wrist, it's been there ever since I hit the second island. Every time I go swimming or gliding I can see it.

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Has anyone else got this weird glitch. My cry guy has a grenade protruding out of his right wrist, it's been there ever since I hit the second island. Every time I go swimming or gliding I can see it.

Just another piece of sweet-ass body modification.

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ahh you unlocked the secret tatau explode-mode punch

Ka-pow tatau

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39 hours seemed to go by really quick, so it must be doing something right. But on the other hand, I think I really hate this game and I'm yelling at either the gameplay mechanics, glitches, or idiot characters constantly and usually quite in disgust.

Then I start it up again an hour later, so I don't know whats going on. I'm probably better off just installing FC2 again to scratch that itch that I think FC3 is substituting.

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Argh! I am so sick of far cry 3 taking the control away from me right at the most crucial points. I wanted to have an epic firefight with vaas in the jungle, testing my skills against him, not suddenly have to play guitar hero to stab him! The game play in this game is so good, why does every story mission have a qte or new mechanic to complete it? What were the game designers thinking? This game has no respect for its players.

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Has anyone else got this weird glitch. My cry guy has a grenade protruding out of his right wrist, it's been there ever since I hit the second island. Every time I go swimming or gliding I can see it.

Try rolling down a hill. It may attempt to return to its natural environment.

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I kind of have a feeling that Far Cry is the new Final Fantasy. Just a place for people to try different ideas with a genre from one company. At the very least that is what the series itself kind of feels like at this point

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Ah man, those fucking sharks in Crysis. They just did not give a SHIT.

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The game is pretty good! Otherwise I wouldn't still be up at 5 in the morning. Some of the systems feel as dumb as many people have said already, though. And the dumbest things of all are the various item and other descriptions in the menus.

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