Boris Stoke

Far Cry 4: A grenade rolls down everest

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Dan Hay sure seems to habe the next far cry lications decided.

So weve had two tropical, one african plains and now snowy mountains...

Next one must be some former soviet war torn place like Georgia or Ukraine.

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Didn't you basically describe what a good game is right there?

You've got a point, but I feel like I explained myself. The story and story missions were rubbish, and also completely missed the point of open world design. Open world design I'm interested in, at least. 

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Oh yeah, you did. I didn't meant to take what you said out of context. I completely agree with the negative points you brought up. The story kinda faded away for me as I skipped every cut scene or went and made a cup of tea if I couldn't.

 

The fact that the enemies disappeared was my most hated aspect of it. The world felt more empty and more boring each time I progressed. It made me feel like progression was a bad thing. Whereas in FC2, there's constantly something to do - which surprisingly people felt was a bad thing. I guess there's no pleasing gamers.

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RockPaperShotgun posted an interview with the narrative director of Far Cry 4. I'm equal parts intrigued and jaded about what's being said, especially with the assurances that Pagan Min will be a vivid, interesting, and lovable villain. The closest that they got to selling me on him was this:

 

Pagan Min is almost the hero of a Far Cry 3.5. The prequel to Far Cry 4 would’ve been Pagan Min arriving in Kyrat 20 years ago and capturing the outposts. So the throughline of the story is someone returning and helping the rebel faction to take back those outposts. That’s really the simple throughline of the plot.

 

The comments are also pretty good. RPS now has a policy of disabling comments for the first thirty minutes an article has posted, which has seemed to make for longer and more considered responses, positive or negative, from people who've actually taken the time to read the article itself. Well... the first few comments, after which Nathan Grayson's "one-man war against Ubisoft" becomes the dominant topic of conversation just because he brought up how Ubisoft handles diversity.

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 I recall the player reception to Far Cry 2 being universally so-so. I don't think it would have even sold what it did if it weren't for the high expectations set by its predecessor

I wonder if Far Cry 2 launched as a seperate new IP, avoiding this brand confussion, might it of done better.

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I've always wondered what kind of human being would have that thing in their possession. Like, if I were ever in someone's domicile and they had a plastic statue of Pagan Min sitting anywhere where I can see it, I'm not really sure what I'd think, but it wouldn't be a good set of thoughts, I suspect.

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If that was sitting next to that Dead Island bikini torso thing*, you would probably consider the Pagan Min statue downright elegant.

 

 

* Oh god, they actually shipped that monstrosity.

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Oh god, they actually shipped that monstrosity.

 

Wait, really? I thought there was an apology and a retraction... No, you're right. They apologized, but insisted they had good intentions and the torsos had already been made so they were going to ship them anyway.

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Wait, really? I thought there was an apology and a retraction... No, you're right. They apologized, but insisted they had good intentions and the torsos had already been made so they were going to ship them anyway.

 

Yup. They made it available in retail for "those customers who wish to purchase it."

 

Which sounds an attempt to shift responsibility (or whatever) simply by explaining how retail system works.

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I used to know this girl in college whose apartment was covered in nothing but video game collector's edition statues, Nightwish posters, and elf yaoi. It took me far longer than I care to admit to realize that she was kind of psychotic.

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Imagine being on the team that made this trailer, and then seeing the schlocky garbage that the marketing department tacked on the end:

 

I actually thought it was pretty stylish (minus maybe the FPS gameplay demonstration shots). My reservations about the story being palatable remain, but I'm pretty excited about the open world bits, as I was with 3.

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Honestly, I think an entire thread could be dedicated to those premium editions for video games. You get the game you want and a box of crap for the low low price of roughly twice as much.

 

They must sell a ton of them or else companies would have stopped years ago, the psychology of someone who collects/buys that stuff would be interesting dissect; or at least entertaining to discover their lifestyle/culture. 

 

Imagine being on the team that made this trailer, and then seeing the schlocky garbage that the marketing department tacked on the end:

 

Honestly, it's the same reaction working on every game, the marketing, sales, or promotion of a game is usually 100% disconnected from most members of the team and it's really cringe worthy. Most game companies have zero taste.

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Imagine being on the team that made this trailer, and then seeing the schlocky garbage that the marketing department tacked on the end:

Haha god that really is quite awful.

 

Trailer was pretty rad otherwise...

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Honestly, I think an entire thread could be dedicated to those premium editions for video games. You get the game you want and a box of crap for the low low price of roughly twice as much.

 

They must sell a ton of them or else companies would have stopped years ago, the psychology of someone who collects/buys that stuff would be interesting dissect; or at least entertaining to discover their lifestyle/culture. 

 

 

 

Honestly, it's the same reaction working on every game, the marketing, sales, or promotion of a game is usually 100% disconnected from most members of the team and it's really cringe worthy. Most game companies have zero taste.

 

What is an acceptable display item then?

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Now that we've almost drained the well on Far Cry's racial insensitivity, does anyone else feel uncomfortable with the way animal violence is handled in this game? I don't really have a problem with the core ability to kill animals in a game. It's one thing to build a wildlife simulation (which I think is great), but Far Cry 3 and 4 build systems that deliberately encourage you to exploit and kill animals. And all for what? To build a big leather satchel to carry more assault rifle ammo and then sell animal skins on the black market. This isn't a survival simulator like Minecraft where you must eat just to stay alive. Far Cry has a built in poaching simulator, which is made more authentic by the fact almost every animal in Far Cry 3 was endangered in the real world. There are even missions where you must kill one-of-a-kind animals for the biggest and best equipment upgrades. 

 

I know people always say "but but but you also kill PEOPLE so why aren't you complaining about THAT huh!?!" The truth is I don't like killing people in video games either. Whenever a game like Metro Last Light, Dishonored or Deus Ex offers a pacifist run I always prefer that because it feels less gross and I think it provides a more interesting and unique gameplay challenge, as well with using dialogue skills in RPGs like Fallout. I also wish the experience system was removed from these games, which exists to create even more incentive to kill people that you don't need to engage with, just so you can get better at killing even more people.
The system of animal crafting is made even more gross by the fact it is exists to fit into the core feedback loop at making you more effective at killing humans for it's ever-growing cycle of violence.

 

:spiraldy:

 

However I think there are some differences between violence against animals and humans in video games.

 

-Killing humans usually makes for a much better gameplay experience than killing defenseless animals that offer little or no challenge. Humans have more complex AI with a wider range of behaviors and tactics, and compared to animals they exist on a more level playing field in terms of combat ability. Therefore reward comes from the challenge of fighting them. What would the reward be for killing animals without the craftables? How much time did people spend killing animals in Far Cry 2? Most people probably shot a few zebras, got bored after a few minutes then forgot about it for the rest of the game. It's one thing to kill tigers out of self-defense, but like I said my main issue is with the way the game creates incentives for killing.

 

-Most of the humans are antagonistic and will risk their life to hunt you down, while the game discourages you from killing allies. I can't speak much about the enemies in Far Cry 4, but in 3 they were total scumbags. Pirates, private mercenaries, slave traders, rapists, endangered animal traffickers, torturers, sadists, war criminals. Animals are a neutral party and don't have the moral responsibility of humans.

 

So when I see a large number of people react to the news that you can ride elephants into enemy camps in Far Cry 4 my reaction was not "omg sick baddass elephant mofo lolz." Set against Far Cry 3's politics towards animal exploitation, my reaction was "this game has finally achieved 100% complete parody of itself."

 

Having said all that, I really want to play this game just so I can test how viable it is to do a vegan playthrough. I also want to avoid killing humans as much as possible, but that will be a necessary evil of getting through the main missions. I would have done this in Far Cry 3, but I expected that game to be much harder than it actually was, so this will also act to make a weak ass shootyman game have some decent challenge to it.

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@COLLEGEBABY - I wonder if you can BUY animal skins instead of murdering animals. But then I guess in that case you're just supporting virtual animal slaughter industry, so it's not much better.

 

100% would support an NPC to whom you could take leaves and bark and shit and have him turn 'em into vegan knife sheathes and rocket-launcher slings.

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Watched the

on this last night (WOO FRIDAY NIGHT). Just felt sad. Sad, sad, sad, and I want my infinitely respawning checkpoints back and just let me buy ammo pouch upgrades at a computer terminal in a little shack and oh, for god's sake please please please give me back a silent protagonist please.  Ugggghghhhhhh "PROGRESS"

 

Honey badgers, tho, so it's not a total disappointment.

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