Far Cry. Yep, I had to post this.

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 7:21 pm

Far Cry is fucking amazing. Bought it yesterday mostly out of curiosity. It was only $40 so no big deal. And I'm happy I did. At 1024x768x32 with all settings at High it runs beautifully. Everything looks really god damn good. I've been in the tropical rainforests of Hawaii before, and this is as close to that experience as you're gonna get in a video game. There's like a vastness to it. But at the same time it's claustrophobic. You can run for hours in a dense jungle not seeing more than a few feet ahead of you and tree canopies blocking out the sky. Then suddenly find yourself standing on the edge of a cliff, staring out to miles of green mountains with the bright blue sky reflected off a distant ocean.

It's not just about looks, though. Gameplay is very solid. Enemy AI works extremely well outside. They'll talk to each other, target practice, patrol around, whatever. In battle they mostly work in teams. If you're sniping a group of mercs half a mile down a mountain, they'll alert guys you don't even know exist of your position. A minute or 2 later a group will sneak up behind you. They go to wherever you were seen or heard last. That's what I love about the infinite rocks item. Cycling through the types of grenades will bring up one type that is simply a rock. Throw it and they will crack off whatever and alert guys. Throw too many and they'll know where you are. Indoors AI isn't too hot. They attack single file, but still manage to find cover which is good.

This is a sniper's wet dream. In fact, if you ever saw that movie "Sniper" with Tom Berenger, it's exactly like that. Sitting prone high in the mountains covered in foliage and trees is so fun. Then spotting guys with the high tech binoculars and planning out what to do next and who will get shot. Because after that first guy is brought down, if someone sees him all hell will break loose. But you can always disappear again and wait for everybody to calm down a bit, except with the added bonus of enemy patrols trying to find you.

Controls are very good. You can lean, go prone, use this awesome hightech binoculars to "target" guys or listen to conversations and stuff far away. There's also an alert meter telling you how aware the enemy is of your presence. Throwing grenades and rocks is easy. It's a separate "Throw" button, so there's no need to switch weapons. Think Team Fortress.

The main weak point of Far Cry is the storyline. It reminds me of a cheesy 80's action movie like Commando or something. Guy gets stranded on a tropical island and has to save his girlfriend while uncovering a strange scientific conspiracy. I'm past the point where you save the girl, then for some reason she wants to split up again on the island leaving you to kill more crappy mutant Apes and mercenaries.

After playing almost nonstop for the last 18 hours I'm still having lots of fun. If you have a decent rig (more like top of the line) then definitely check this one out. When I beat the game I'm going back to play again, because there's so many ways to do shit and places to see it's not even funny.

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 7:48 pm

You've played for 18 hours and haven't finished it? Sounds good.

I pre-ordered it a while ago, should get here on Monday <3

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 10:51 pm

Physix where the sux0r. Played like beying strapped in a wheelchair.

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 11:34 pm

That's the greatest metaphor I've ever read. You were playing a computer game and it felt like you were sitting down? OMG RING CNN!

I licked the demo.

Viktor · Post by **Viktor** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 12:35 am

I thought the demo was great and will be buying it the moment I finish Broken Sword II!

Canis Lupus · Post by **Canis Lupus** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 2:17 am

Hey Max, what's your GPU? Mine's a 9600XT 256MB DDR, so Far Cry should run nicely, when I buy a DVD-ROM drive so I can actually play it.

EvoG · Post by **EvoG** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 2:56 am

Beat me to it.

Farcry is truly awesome. Stalker has its work cut out for it.

As Max said, its just stunning. With foliage THAT dense, you lose all polygonal silhouettes and it just looks like a painting. You'd be hard pressed to find any significant span of empy terrain, if at all, unless of course man made areas.

Physics is great and lots of fun. Vehicles feel great, ragdoll is very solid. The only thing is that bullet fire doesnt' seem to affect a physicallized object.

Speaking of the AI, it doesn't cheat. It uses sight and sound to find its way to you. In one instance I was attacking a camp, and doing guerilla tactics, I was popping in and out of tall grass and moving after each take down. I was startled to watch about 8 dudes bee-line it to my last victim, guns trained, right past my vantage point between two buildings. Its very satisfying...predictable. Nothing gets your heart racing more than when you hear FOUND HIM...HE'S OVER HERE. Its startlingly revealing...great sense of vunerability, moreso than in games where the enemy is triggered to your position no matter what....here you feel like you did do someting wrong and you were 'noticed' and the AI is calling you on it.

Best part for the mod people, the editor is by far the most advanced one I've ever seen. You can have the game world running while you're editing. Not in 'gamemode'(which you can easily pop in and out of at will while building), but just in basic god-mode editing. AI will do stuff, walk around, fire at targets, all while you're planting trees or painting terrain. Its very easy and for those with the inclination, I could see you guys maybe knocking out some fun, Fallout-y stuff. Why this engine vs. Unreal lets say? Well considering the true outdoorsey feel, massive polycounts and all the highend wiz bang visuals, competent and flexible AI and huge draw distances, that abandoned military base in the side of the mountain off in the distance is quite compelling. If you've ever look at southwestern arrid deserts packed with their unique flora, this would be the engine to do that in. Coupled with very fun vehicles with big guns, and its gold.

Oh, and yea you need a tits machine. I'm on a 3.2 P4 with fancy Guru mobo, gig ram and an FX5900 with an SATA 8 meg HD, and it can get sluggish with all high.

Cheers

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 3:00 am

I have a GeforceFX 5700 Ultra, but with a 3.0 ghz machine so anything you throw at it will run fast. Though you should definitely be able to handle Far Cry with medium-high settings. There isn't a computer that exists today that will be able to run everything maxed out at 1600x1200. People with the newest and most expensive computers expecting to jump right in with their usual graphics configuration are in for a not so pleasant surprise.

After playing for most of today I still haven't beaten it. With the random saves points (you can't control when to save unfortunately) it really pushes you to keep going. I'm mostly taking the silent hand of God route. Sniping and picking off what's left after a long bloody war between mercs and mutants. And I'm telling you, it's cool as hell sitting half a mile ontop of a peaceful mountain watching the carnage far below with your binoculars. That was one part of a massive level I just played, and I chose to drive through most of the first half in a big armored truck thing.

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 5:31 am

How do you think I'll hold up? I run an old Ti4600 and a 1.73gHz with a gig of ram. I really need to get a new PC with all these high end requirements coming out.

Max-Violence · Post by **Max-Violence** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 7:33 am

jetbaby wrote:How do you think I'll hold up? I run an old Ti4600 and a 1.73gHz with a gig of ram. I really need to get a new PC with all these high end requirements coming out.

Well, I'm on a 1.3 p4 512 RDRAM and the same video card and the demo ran pretty well at the medium-ish settings.

I actually wasn't planning on buying the game, but MMRW's massive amounts of praise changed my mind (I know full well how difficult it is to please FO fans...).

Wolfman Walt · Post by **Wolfman Walt** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 9:28 am

Thing that intrigued me right off is that it has 5 installation disks. Whats the current record?

Forty-six & Two · Post by **Forty-six & Two** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 11:37 am

Wolfman Walt wrote:Thing that intrigued me right off is that it has 5 installation disks. Whats the current record?

Isnt UT2004 on 6 disks?

Im gonna DL the Farcry demo when I get home from school.. I planned on doing it a month ago, before I got a 9600XT, and now that im reading these tales of grandeaur, I canÃƒâ€šÃ‚Â´t stop myself from DLing it =).

How do you think it will run on medium settings with a P4 1,7, 768 Pc-800 RDram and a 9600XT 128 mb card?

BlackDog · Post by **BlackDog** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 1:03 pm

I was sadly unimpressed with Far Cry, when in the Beta and in the demos. I'll probably pick it up when its around $10-20. But for $40? Not worth it. I'll save my money for much more worthy things.

EvoG · Post by **EvoG** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 1:34 pm

Its very much worth it...unless of course you don't like these kinds of games.

Its got tremendous atmosphere. Its got length(I beat games in a matter of a couple days, here I'm still hammering on it, playing for pretty much 2 days straight...easily 20 hours now and I'm far along and not near the 'end level'). Its challenging even for a diehard fps'er like myself(flipp'in hard as hell). It has a truly next gen engine, which lends itself to greater immersion and challenging AI. This simply isn't 'another fps' to be thrown in with the rest.

And truthfully, the best of what this game offers just isn't in the demo's. Hell the very first levels are more impressive than both of those demos. Demo one showcased the engine sorta, but you truly can't appreciate how vast it can be (its a very small map compared to some of the monster sized levels). Demo2 was more of the same but then had the VERY uninteresing caverns. Either they showed their most tame levels to save the good stuff for the game, or they just threw a dart and landed on both of those...they were going to release the 'boat' demo a few days back and decided against it cuz it was deemed 'too cool' to ruin it. It is wicked cool.

Dude being as objective as I can, its a BARGIN at 40 bucks when everything else is coming out at 50+. I mean hell the editor alone is worth 40 bucks if not more. The sense of being in this world is worth 40 bucks. The creepy Jurassic Park feeling is worth 40 bucks. You tell me whats 'worthy'(plz don't say Fallout3

)

Dunno...haven't been this mesmerized or impressed in a game in quite a LONG time.

I also want to rephrase what I wrote last...Stalker has its work cut out for it, BUT, after playing around with the leaked copy, THEN playing Farcry, Stalker could at least be very fun to explore...though now I'm going to be very spoiled by Farcry's AI...everything else is going to be too easy and lackluster now(you get decent at beating down Farcry enemies and you're a champ in any 'regular' fps), though to add, you never really get 'good' at beating them, you just learn to not make hasty judgements...I still get 'jumped' by a clever AI deciding not to call me out, instead having them flank me, sneaking(they saw something odd which is why they'll investigate), while I'm scoping out a valley with the binocs and scare the shit out of me.

Cheers

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 3:43 pm

These last few years were miserable with one giant let down after another. But with UT2k4 and Far Cry I'm like a born again PC gamer. If you haven't bought anything for a long time and have a good rig, get those games and fuck everything else. Seriously, I haven't played for such long stretches in forever. One is the perfect action game, the other is the perfect slow paced sniper game. And both look and run extremely well. Plus you can't find them over $40 so it's like 2 for the price of one with way more bang for your buck than any other title.

STALKER is fucked. No way in hell can they match Far Cry. And if they do my head will literally explode. With expectations as low as mine this doesn't happen often. Someone at Blue's News nicknamed it STALKER: Interest Lost. I thought that was funny.

Oh yeah, and I hope to god UbiSoft realizes what they have in their hands. It's like Valve and Half Life or Epic and Unreal. With a ton of support and community feedback Far Cry can be one of the biggest games of all time. I have doubts because not everyone has a computer powerful enough to really enjoy it. Being the first to leap into the next generation technology could cripple them. We'll have to wait for the sales figures.

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 5:49 pm

My god, just from that demo I am hell bent on buying this game. Assoon as I can get a ride it will be mine. and how was UT2k4? Apperantly good, but can I get reasoning? Is it just a big huge fragtastic FFA?

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 5:54 pm

From that demo, I think the best part, like you said, is the sheer atmosphere. You are surrounded by a BEAUTIFUL jungle. The decarying remnants of a World War Two era military installation, that downed Zeke in the jungle, the dilapitated huts mixed in with high tech military technology make for a beautiful game. I need tog et this game. NOW.

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 8:17 pm

About UT2k3...hmmm...first of all there's nothing I can think of that's bad about it. There's a shit load of maps (over a hundred), lots of gametypes from the basics like Deathmatch and capture the flag to Onslaught, Assault, and Invasion. The vehicles are perfectly designed in that they're easy to jump right into and kick a lot of ass. You have a flying thing, hovering dealy, jeeps, tanks, a bigass thing called the Leviathan which is literally a giant moving platform of death several players can control. Assault is awesome. Each level is like a mission from a singleplayer game. For example, one level you have to fight through a post apocalyptic city and blow up a rebel base in these subways. Another starts off as a space sim (think Wing Commander or a simplified Freespace) where the attackers have to blow up some stuff then fly into the hangar of an alien ship and go on foot to the core and blow the whole place.

UT has always been a multiplayer game at heart, but the bots are very VERY good. I can't stress that enough. Most of my time I've spent vs. bots because right away they know what to do, act realistically, can use all the vehicles, and generally play better than most humans.

The game looks great, and with all settings maxed at 1600x1200 resolution it never slows down for me. UT2k4 is the very definition of polish. Read the reviews on any website. All are above 90% and aren't bullshitting for a change.

Viktor · Post by **Viktor** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 9:11 pm

jetbaby wrote:How do you think I'll hold up? I run an old Ti4600 and a 1.73gHz with a gig of ram. I really need to get a new PC with all these high end requirements coming out.

That's very close to my set up (which is being upgraded tomorrow) and I ran the demo fine at mainly medium settings although the frame rate dropped way down when I maxed out the settings.

EvoG · Post by **EvoG** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 10:22 pm

Oh yea! You had to bring up UT2k4.

ONSLAUGHT!!! It fucking rocks, though it suffers from VERY stupid players(online). But get a good match with players that understand the fundamentals and communicate, and it just awesome.

UT2k4 has all the goodness of UT2k3, 100+ maps, gorgeous characters to chose from, flipp'in huge maps, all sorts of editor training videos if you buy the dvd, and fast as hell with loads of detail.

I'm getting Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow right after I type this, so its a good time to get behind on work.

CHeeRS