Far Cry 3 is actually not shit

Not saying you do it intentionally but it must happen in a few games, there is a shame to that as I was thinking back to DQ8 and that had paced things brilliantly if i was even a couple of levels higher tehn i was the game would've been a cakewalk, sidenote totally want that in HD.

Old-School RPGS like DQ8 have a work around though; once you get to a certain level, enemies start giving dimishing returns to the point where it's no longer worth fighting them, ie at level 1 a slime may give you four EXP, yet at level 3 that same slime would only give you 1 EXP.

I played through DQ8 last year (my PS3 being one of the last that were fully compatible with PS2 games) and it was still a really good game, even if in some areas it does feel rather antiquated. An HD re-release would be great, but I still wouldn't buy it. Much like Okami - which I adored on PS2 - I'm not going to spend money on a game I already own just because it has a new lick of paint.

As I said, I find any form of active "level-grinding" in games utterly tiresome; it's why I never really clicked with Star Wars: The Old Republic (being the only MMO I've tried for more than a few minutes), and why eventually even Borderlands 2 got a bit stale because in both examples you're performing increasingly repetitive and mindless tasks for an arbitrary reward that may (though most likely won't) be of use to you.

In fact, that's why I stopped doing side quests in Kingdoms of Amalur and just powered on with the story; outside of the factions, the missions were dull fetch quests which rewarded you tiny sums of money in a game where you can sell items for tens of thousands. It's not rewarding or fun, it just ends up being really, really boring. Oh, and incidentally, I don't think I was overlevelled for that game because various enemies and bosses could still one-shot me if they hit me with their biggest attacks.

You won't have that problem with Far Cry, most of the sidequests are quite welcome as they involve single and double target assassinations, hunting with a variety of weapons, infiltrating and taking out enemy bases (or if you prefer, destructive gunfights) to win territory and a bunch of sidequests each with their own little backstory.

That is if you've been too busy exploring to be bothered with missions like I was in the beggining.

I actually can't say enough good things about this game.

Skip wrote:

That is if you've been too busy exploring to be bothered with missions like I was in the beggining.

Exactly what I've been doing, with the emphasis on clearing out enemy outposts, finding radio towers, hunting and crafting, completing sidequests... all of which prompted Buu to comment on his perception of my over-levelling in this type of game. Which, while never intentional, I can kinda see.

Quote :

I actually can't say enough good things about this game.

I'm six hours in and - barring the usual rather overhwleming open world opening - it's been superb, genuine Game-of-the-year material.

Right, might be spoiler time.

Spoiler:

The game is showing a few cracks in its facade now and then, mostly relating to the story forcing you through linear areas that remove all the choice present in the open-world. Like stealth? Tough, have half a dozen enemies in body armour that are instantly alerted to your presence. Boo. Oh, and some Heavies that are immune to takedowns, headshots and any other form of stealth as well. Double boo. (You do eventually unlock the ability to use stealth takedowns on them, but not until a good while later)

The structure is getting a touch repetitive now as well, some of which may be due to how much I've played the last week (around fifteen hours) but the basic structure on the second island feel like going through a re-run of the first. You know the film Speed? All the stuff on the bus was terrific, then they get off the bus and do it again (but slightly worse) on a train which killed the pacing and tension. This feels a bit like that. The pacing has slowed to the point where if I have to do another fetch quest for someone I'm going to go all Rambo on them.

Here's hoping Hoyt's as good a villain as Vaas. Nah, I doubt it.

Heavies are vulnerable in the back of the head. You can still one shot them with the bow or a sniper rifle.

It is a bit shit though when you're thrown into a gunfight when you prefer playing stealthily. It's the entire reason I carried a shotgun as well as my regular 3 weapons of the bow, a sniper and a flare gun.

Hoyt is a different sort of villain than Vaas, I liked him better personally but you'll see. Vaas is more psycho sort of evil where as Hoyt is much more of a godfather figure, pulling the strings and manipulating people.

In terms of firepower, my loadout for a good amount of time now has been Flamethrower (which stun locks anything, even pesky heavies) Sniper rifle, assault rifle and bow. The sniper and assault rifle are both silenced, which gives you some idea of my preferred play style, though I may drop the AR because it's not really rapid fire enough to cover me in a full-on firefight. The bow was awesome early game, but now I tend to use it sparingly as the silenced sniper has far greater range, better accuracy and no need to account for the curve of the arrow as it leaves your bow. Flame and explosive arrows are still very useful though.

I basically just went through the entire game using the bow and takedowns. My sniper rifle was pretty much just for when I needed someone dead and they were further away than the bow could handle and shooting alarms. As I progressed through the game I used the sniper less and less because I got more confident with the bow at range, man it feels good when you nail someone from ages away with that thing.

Explosive arrows are amazing for dealing with heavies. I never much liked the flame arrows, not surprising really since they were basically just worse flares and I carried the flare gun.

Yeah but carrying the bow and using the flare gun takes two slots, the bow and flame arrows takes one. Stick a flame arrow into a grassy field, and the whole thing goes up in smoke.

Beat this last night, opted to...

Spoiler:

Really good game. Tailed off a little towards the end, and the very linear structure of some of the story missions grates horribly with how well the open-world plays outside the narrative, but it was still a blast from start to end.

That's the same ending I chose. The other one is interesting, worth checking out.

On another note, how amazing is the flying suit? Best thing ever.

Just started. What is up with the story? I mean, a bunch of rich white American kids on holiday on some island, get captured by pirates, have to rescue your friends... Fair enough.

But suddenly I'm fixing radio towers and taking down outposts and making lootsacks out of boar hides and I have this tattoo that shows off my skills and I need to become a WARRIOR and join this warrior tribe and all kinds of bullshit.

Couldn't the main character have just been a warrior on the island already? Did the developers think people wouldn't play the game unless the MC was a white American? It's like those Hollywood martial arts films where all the Chinese people have to help one single white kid to save the day and get a Chinese girlfriend. Plus it would make more sense that the character already knew how to skin animals and stuff, rather than suddenly knowing how to skin a Komodo Dragon 15 minutes after escaping a death camp and going "Ewww" every time he does it.

It plays well though.

It sort of makes more sense as the story progresses.

What the hell? I go through all that to get some mushrooms and he just picks up one. One tiny mushroom. There was loads there. The doctor even said he was having to administer the medicine every hour. TAKE A BUNCH YOU STUPID PRICK.

God damn leopards. There's a goat right there, why come after me?

i'll need to keep an eye on this for nonny's rants

After a perilous trip to radio tower I ended up with two tiger skins and the Recurve bow. I need to craft a bigger weapon pouch so I can carry the bow as well as a SMG and shotgun. I always take a shotgun when I set off into the jungle because it's the best defense against sudden tiger attacks I've found so far, and the bow is just cool.

It made stealthing around the Medusa and the weapons cache easier.

Okay, back to playing this.

It's lucky that I always carry animal repellent. Staking out an outpost looking for a way to sneak in and disable the alarm, when a tiger walks by. Didn't attack me because of the repellent, but the pirates noticed it, and every single one of them ran out of the outpost chasing after it. Which made disabling the alarm easier.

As if you even need to disable alarms.

I like disabling alarms.

Also, why is there lens flare?

Because every game dev thinks making it seem like you're playing the game through a camera lens is realistic. If there's a "Post Effects" option or something disable it, that's what it was called on PC.

But this is a first person game. Why would they put it in to begin with?

Because they think it looks good.

They're dumb.

A_Nonny_Moose wrote:

God damn leopards. There's a goat right there, why come after me?

A moose has more meat.