Now that FarCry 2 is out...

[pontifex]

Graphics are pretty damn nice. Maybe not as good as Crysis but close to it and it runs a hell of a lot better than Crysis does on Highest settings.
I'm getting high 40s to 70s FPS with Crossfired HD4850s @ 1680x1050.

Sounds are pretty awesome - random animal sounds and even the wind blowing through the trees. The weapon sounds are very well done also, imo.

I'm not sure how I like the gameplay yet. The enemies sure as hell can take a lot of hits, even if they're just wearing t-shirts.

Lots of enemies...lots of shoot on sight enemies, even if you haven't done anything. There are guard stations all over the game and you can take them out but new guards will eventually show up. Kind of makes it tough to drive around because you'll either have to kill them every time you go by or try to sneak past or just try to rush on through and hope you survive. they like to chase you though, so you might end up having to fight them anyway.

Also, it seems like they can see you in all the brush and stuff without a problem but I have problems losing sight of them.

Trying to make stealth kills early in the game seems impossible. Even if you do manage to knife a guy without him seeing you, the other enemies become alert to your presence. I did just get a silenced Makarov, so we'll see how that goes.

there's some cool stuff that happened though. I was fighting the guards at one station. I was trying to pick them off from far away (a bit difficult with an assault rifle without a scope). Anyway, after I killed them all, I went in close to gather up some ammo and as I was walking around this destroyed car, there was a wounded enemy propped up against the front of it with a pistol and he tried to shoot me.

Another time I saw a guy fall down and then he picked himself back up and started to run away.

The fire effects are cool. I hit a lantern with my knife and it knocked it over. The grass caught on fire and then it started to spread. it found a tree and the fire climbed up the trees, charring it. Eventually just the leaves were on fire and you could see them slowly wither and burn and then the fire turned to embers and burned out.

I'll post some more if I think about some other stuff.

 

[TallBill]

Hmm, I may try it someday when its $20.

 

[AzN]

You get 40 - 70fps in Ultimate settings? Crysis just doesn't scaled too well with SLI or Crossfire.

I get only 32fps average @ 1440x900 max in game detail with no AA with the computer in my sig while I get 37fps with Crysis @ high detail. Looks worse than COD4. It can't compare to Crysis graphically.

 

[Xcobra]

Why was I never into the Far Cry series? I bought the first one long time ago but I found it plain boring. Is there a demo for this one?

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: Xcobra
Why was I never into the Far Cry series? I bought the first one long time ago but I found it plain boring. Is there a demo for this one?

There's no demo, but don't base your interest in it on whether or not you liked Far Cry 1. This one has absolutely nothing to do with it (different developer, different characters, different story line, completely different style of gameplay).

Its odd they even call it Far Cry 2.

 

[Oakenfold]

Keep us posted on the gameplay Pontifex!
Sounds interesting. I may have to pick up my copy this weekend.:thumbsup:

 

[ultimahwhat]

Hmmm, still trying to decide if I want to deflower the copy I picked up today. My will to study instead just isn't strong enough...

 

[43st]

Originally posted by: Slick5150

Originally posted by: Xcobra
Why was I never into the Far Cry series? I bought the first one long time ago but I found it plain boring. Is there a demo for this one?

There's no demo, but don't base your interest in it on whether or not you liked Far Cry 1. This one has absolutely nothing to do with it (different developer, different characters, different story line, completely different style of gameplay).

Its odd they even call it Far Cry 2.

Indeed.. it feels more like GTA to me. For some reason my mouse feels really inaccurate, like it's getting some acceleration from the game engine or something. My first impressions aren't that good.. but I'll give it time. I'm only in the first hour or so.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Originally posted by: ultimahwhat
Hmmm, still trying to decide if I want to deflower the copy I picked up today. My will to study instead just isn't strong enough...

fuck that im installing it now

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: 43st

Originally posted by: Slick5150

Originally posted by: Xcobra
Why was I never into the Far Cry series? I bought the first one long time ago but I found it plain boring. Is there a demo for this one?

There's no demo, but don't base your interest in it on whether or not you liked Far Cry 1. This one has absolutely nothing to do with it (different developer, different characters, different story line, completely different style of gameplay).

Its odd they even call it Far Cry 2.

Indeed.. it feels more like GTA to me. For some reason my mouse feels really inaccurate, like it's getting some acceleration from the game engine or something. My first impressions aren't that good.. but I'll give it time. I'm only in the first hour or so.

mine felt the same way until i jacked up the in game sensitivity all the way. now it's perfect.


ok, the silenced Makarov is fucking awesome!!!! I just took out like 8 guys with it and i didn't even get shot at once. Snuck up on a guard station took aim with iron sights and pop! right in the head! stepped back a bit to see if anyone noticed and 1 guy started looking around. he walked out from behind some bushes and pop! right in the head! did this to 1 or 2 more guys and then a jeep of 3 guys showed up. popped them all with it and then i walked down to a shack a little further down the road and popped 2 guys there.

the sound the silenced mak makes and seeing the blood spray out of a guy's head is very satisfying, lol. I think they did an extremely good job with the weapons so far.

I wish your inventory worked a little differently though. I mean, it's more realistic this way, but I wish I could swap out my RPG with another rifle. I haven't used the RPG at all yet. I did find a grenade launcher and that thing was fun!


i love the wounded guys dragging themselves to cover. i was shooting this one guy and thought i killed him. i'm walking around and i hear this "argh" "ahh" and some rustling. here the guy was propping himself up against a tree. pulled out the silenced mak and shot him in the head.


oh, if your gun jams, keep pressing R, lol. I only hit it once and my guy sat there for like 5 minutes pulling/hitting the magazine and bolt and nothing was happening. i was like wtf? and then hit R again and it unjammed.

I really dislike the monetary system though. Maybe I just need to do more missions that pay me instead of unlocking weapons, lol. finding the diamonds in different areas is cool, but you only ever find like 1-3 max, at least so far anyway. there's a lot of stuff to buy.


the healing system isn't as bad as i thought it would be. and neither is the vehicle repair. i mean, yeah, the vehicle repair is completely unrealistic, but its nice to be able to repair your vehicle and keep going, not that it seems to break down much. seems like they can take a beating, at least the jeeps/trucks with the mounted machine guns anyway.

vehicles handle a lot better than they did in far cry 1 and crysis, imo, although i wish they had different camera views for when driving.

i have had the game crash on me twice now. just throws me back to the desktop, no errors. the last time it happened, things (trees and bushes, etc) started disappearing and reappearing.

 

[YBS1]

I've not played very far in yet at all, not even enough to begin to form an opinion either way but I did notice one very neat thing I don't think I've seen in a game before. After being outside in the sunlight for a bit, if you move to a dimly lit indoor area it takes a brief moment for your eyes to adjust. Very cool, though I don't know if this figures much into the gameplay later on or is just meant as a cool effect.

 

[CrystalBay]

I wish the map was in the hud , instead of having to push 5 all the time . Also not being able to customize more binds is hard to get used to. I mean pressing "use"and "e" to enter and leave a machine gun seems redundant. The graphics are nicer than I thought they'd be. Multiplayer seems pretty shaky as of now hardly any servers and tough to connect to. Will have to play some more before final judgment.

 

[idiotekniQues]

i really enjoyed far cry, so im downloading far cry 2 at over 1400 KB/sec

hooray

 

[CottonRabbit]

The multiplayer is pretty nice despite the console feel on the interface. Hit "ranked match", and quick match, you'll get into a full game. I believe anyone can host a server for the ranked matches, so it's more like hosting an rts game than maintaining an fps server. In ranked matches, the unlocks you get will carry over, while in player matches you get unlocks more quickly but also lose them when you leave the server. Unlocks you get in ranked matches don't carry over to player matches. I'm guessing any custom maps will also be restricted to player matches. Like an rts game, you also can't join midgame in a ranked match, which seems superfluous for an fps, as does the splitting of ranked and player matches. I had some punkbusters problems at first, but I found that the cause of it was looking at my loadout in the lobby before a game starts.

I was worried that 8v8 would be way too small, but the maps are COD4 sized rather than Crysis or the original Far Cry sized. I've played DM, TDM, and CTF so far and they are all pretty solid but definitely not revolutionary. The weapons are quite distinct and fun to use. So far my favorite loadout is the fully automatic shotgun/IED combo. I really like the health system. You can instant heal at any time, but it takes about 5 seconds for your character to perform the animations so any astute player will rush you if they see you duck away. The vehicles are pretty pointless and using the hang glider is a hilarious way to commit suicide.

I'd say anyone who bought the game should definitely give the mp a try despite it lacking some polish. It will probably be a couple of weeks before I have the time to seriously start the sp.

 

[Canai]

UGH what an absolutely terrible game. The tutorial tips are horribly annoying, the mouse in menus is slooooooow, yet in game it's incredibly fast, the monocular has such high sensitivity it's almost unusable, enemies track you through walls and buildings...

Oh, and the jeep accelerates incredibly fast, and can stop within a few meters after doing 120kph, and has ungodly traction.

Oh, and WHY THE FUCK does a 7.62 firing G3 take multiple bursts to drop an unarmored target? One round should drop them. Even headshots don't kill.

What's up with the best buddy's voice acting?

 

[Capt Caveman]

So, is this just like Crysis?

 

[Canai]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
So, is this just like Crysis?

I liked Crysis a lot. This game is a pile of crap.

So no.

Oh, sweet. I can't leave this building without talking to both of my buddies, but I already talked to both of them and now they're just repeating the same lines over and over. Nevermind, I guess you have to stand in front of them, wait for them to say their whole line, then talk to them again and again before it registers you talking to them. What a joke.

And your vehicle disappears every time you go inside a building. Awesome.

Hmm my vision doesn't go all blurry after sprinting for 15 steps. What's wrong with this badass merc guy?

When you walk with your map out, the little green arrow that's you drops off the bottom of the screen, so you have to stop to orient yourself.




What an incredible disappointment.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

I picked up the game today and have played for a about 3 hours. So far I think there ios a lot of agood and lot of not so good. So here goes:

The Good:

-Graphics are pretty darn nice
- No loading times
- Best damn explosions I have every seen in a game (play with the grenade launcher and you'll see what I mean)
-the fire effects are very cool
-savannah areas are wide open and gorgeous
-excellent sound
-the missions I've played so far have been fun
-sniping barrels from afar is great fun
-using a flare gun to start a fire in a town to complete an objective is something I've never done in a game
-game runs extremely smoothly for me at 1650x1080 on the highest settings without AA.
-did I mention the best explosions ever?
-the buddy system has the potential to be cool, though it would be nice to know why your first buddy is your buddy at all. I died escaping from the town, and woke up being caressed by my new found best bud. My characters butt hurt a bit too . . . .
-the malaria plot element is fresh (at least to me), and I am enjoying it so far.


The not so good:
-the two weapon seller missions I have done have been the exact same. Go to point X on map and blow up a jeep that is circling in a predictable pattern.
-the monocle feature is gimmicky and useless at the present time. Though this could easily be fixied in a patch.
-the enemies have x-ray vision and can track you through walls, the underbrush, and anything else solid. I could be the f'ing predator and they would still find a way to shoot me
-The quick load time is anything but quick. I mean, it takes less than a second to save the game, why does it take 30 seconds to load it back up?
-The enemies all look basiocally the same
-The enemies must all be made of body armor, because they take at least three solid shots from a pistol to go down, and many more from a machine gun.
-The voice acting is meh at best. Maybe that is why its called Far Cry 2? I keep waiting for someone to yell "I'm going to shoot you in the face!"

The annoying:
-while I appreciate the devs devotion to first person, the map feature is darn annoying. At first I thought it was cool that while driving the map had to be open on my lap to read it. BUt then I realized that it you basically need the map open at all times while driving, else it you have a 95% chance of getting lost. At least one reason for this is because the enemy checkpoints are so agressive that if you come within 500 yards they start shooting. And running though them will only cause them to hunt you ruthlessly down in a car. What the hell are those dummies protecting anyway?

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Interesting. I may have to look into this after a while (still have yet to start Bioshock, even though I've owned it for 9 months now).

 

[JasonSix78]

Game is great, I'm really enjoying it. Runs a lot better than Crysis and looks great. I'm running it at 1920x1200 with most things set to medium with no AA and it runs a smooth as silk with not 1 stutter after 3+ hours of gameplay. I'm going to fiddle around with the graphics settings some because I think I was too conservative. I figured my poor 8800GT couldn't handle it but it does pretty damned good.

Here's a sample screenshot I took:
Screenshot


I think this game will have great replay value and it seems it will take awhile to go through it once.

Originally posted by: Canai

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
So, is this just like Crysis?

I liked Crysis a lot. This game is a pile of crap.

So no.

Oh, sweet. I can't leave this building without talking to both of my buddies, but I already talked to both of them and now they're just repeating the same lines over and over. Nevermind, I guess you have to stand in front of them, wait for them to say their whole line, then talk to them again and again before it registers you talking to them. What a joke.

And your vehicle disappears every time you go inside a building. Awesome.

Hmm my vision doesn't go all blurry after sprinting for 15 steps. What's wrong with this badass merc guy?

When you walk with your map out, the little green arrow that's you drops off the bottom of the screen, so you have to stop to orient yourself.




What an incredible disappointment.

I haven't had any problems with vehicles disappearing or the arrow dropping off the screen. Might want to check your graphics settings or you may have a botched install. Your character's sprinting limitation comes from the fact that he has malaria and is need of pills which you pick up from a priest later on in the game.

 

[MichaelD]

The game sounds fantastic; exactly like "my type" of game. Thanks, Pontifex and others who've commented.

It does however, sound like the game's in desperate need of Patch 1.0. Which I'm sure is already in the works. That seems to be the thing for the past couple of years; release the game buggy as hell and fix it with Patch 1.0. The original Stalker was almost unplayable in it's as-released form.

I hope said patch comes out soon; my copy of FC2 is in the mail as we speak.

 

[Canai]

Originally posted by: JasonSix78
Game is great, I'm really enjoying it. Runs a lot better than Crysis and looks great. I'm running it at 1920x1200 with most things set to medium with no AA and it runs a smooth as silk with not 1 stutter after 3+ hours of gameplay. I'm going to fiddle around with the graphics settings some because I think I was too conservative. I figured my poor 8800GT couldn't handle it but it does pretty damned good.

Here's a sample screenshot I took:
Screenshot


I think this game will have great replay value and it seems it will take awhile to go through it once.

Originally posted by: Canai

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
So, is this just like Crysis?

I liked Crysis a lot. This game is a pile of crap.

So no.

Oh, sweet. I can't leave this building without talking to both of my buddies, but I already talked to both of them and now they're just repeating the same lines over and over. Nevermind, I guess you have to stand in front of them, wait for them to say their whole line, then talk to them again and again before it registers you talking to them. What a joke.

And your vehicle disappears every time you go inside a building. Awesome.

Hmm my vision doesn't go all blurry after sprinting for 15 steps. What's wrong with this badass merc guy?

When you walk with your map out, the little green arrow that's you drops off the bottom of the screen, so you have to stop to orient yourself.




What an incredible disappointment.

I haven't had any problems with vehicles disappearing or the arrow dropping off the screen. Might want to check your graphics settings or you may have a botched install. Your character's sprinting limitation comes from the fact that he has malaria and is need of pills which you pick up from a priest later on in the game.

Yeah after the meet your best buddy missions, my cars have disappeared both times. As far as the map falling off the bottom of the screen, my best guess is that it's due to the cropping and fake widescreen bullshit that they put in the game. As far as the malaria restricted running, why the hell would they put such an artificial limit on how far you can sprint in a game that boasts such a large world? I'm going to give the game another shot, but I'm sorely uninpressed so far. I also had the black screen issue when I first started the game, but the config file edit fix worked for me.

 

[MichaelD]

Canai: Maybe the bad guys are stealing your cars? I dunno...the game seems pretty advanced. :laugh: Maybe you can buy a car alarm? How cool would that be?

J/K I don't have the game yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

 

[nitromullet]

I'm enjoying it so far, but I'll have to keep playing to see how it goes. One thing is for sure: this is console game ported to PC. The whole thing with the save houses gives that away, as they are completely unnecessary on the PC because you can just hit F5 to quick save anywhere.

Graphics wise it looks pretty good overall. The fire effects are nice, but overall the world is very 'brown'. Then again, I'm pretty sure that the savanna is pretty brown... If anyone is going into this game thinking that it will be like Far Cry 1 or Crysis graphically, they will be disappointed, as the Dunia engine is not anywhere close to the Cry Engine2. Ubisoft clearly has different priorities and objectives than Crytek. It seems that they were more focused on making the system requirements more reasonable and using their talents in art direction to make the game look good, as opposed to the brute force approach that Crytek took. Overall it makes Far Cry 2 a more enjoyable experience to get into than Crysis because you can just set it up and play without having to tweak the system/settings to make it playable.

For those interested, you can show your fps in game by using the console "~" and "showfps 1" (no quotes of course, and note the absence of an "=" between "showfps" and "1", "showfps 0" turns it back off). I generally bounce between 30-50fps @ 1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF DX10 w/ v-sync on with everything cranked on the rig in my sig. For me, so far the game has been rock stable. No crashes, no texture issues, or any stuttering (micro or otherwise) whatsoever.

 

[Canai]

Ugh I just can't do it... this game's a freaking joke. I never realized that Africa was made of a lot of canyons with roads in them and groups of guys at every intersection.

I really love how I can be sneaking around the back of a building when AI inside the building starts shooting at me through the building - without anyone ever spotting me. Being surrounded by guys in buildings shooting at you is worse than actually being under direct fire. The AI just keeps shooting, regardless of any walls or buildings in their way, but when you move to a position where they actually have a clear line of fire, you can't tell where it's coming from because everyone around you is shooting at walls. Wallhacking AI and guys with bulletproof t-shirts are worse than trigens

If they fixed the AI, controls, and level design, this game *might* be bargain bin material. Might. As it stands now it's a PC to console to PC port, and it picked up the worst of both worlds along the way.

I do like the sound design though, but that doesn't save this game from the "why did I buy that???" pile.