Far Cry 3 is actually not shit

No infinite patrols respawning every two minutes but no shortage of enemies either. No ridiculous unfun mechanics like malaria but plenty of depth through crafting and hunting. A stealth system that actually works (if you choose to use it) because enemies don't have x-ray vision. Archery. A somewhat diverse skill tree system with stuff that's not passive boosts. This is what Far Cry 2 should have been.

How valid is mostly just using a bow and being some sort of awesome archer?

It's pretty much what I've been doing, so yes. It's completely silent, kills in one hit and you can recover your arrows so it's extremely effective.

When I heard it had a proper wildlife/hunting system it got my attention. Won't be buying it anytime soon but it's at the top of my bargain bin list.

do I need to have played the first 2 for this ?

might get it for christmas or something..

Nah they're completely independent of each other so you don't need to touch the first two unless you really want to. The first is decent if you don't mind it being a little dated but stay away from the second.

This game is actually a lot of fun. Running around raining silent death on enemies with a bow and and knife is a lot of fun, and it feels good when you manage to pull off something particularly awesome.

I think this might be my favourite game this year, at least nothing else immediately springs to mind and I can't remember anything else this year that's made me lose track of time like this has. It also makes you feel like Indiana Jones at times.

Spoiler:

is co-op fun?

I haven't played it because Skip hasn't bought the game yet, I've heards it's decent though.

is their a hunger meter or other survival aspects?

No, the only practical reason to hunt/gather is to craft various drugs or upgrade your gear.

bummer. ever since mgs3 i like survival elements in jungle settings

Survival elements are reduced to not getting your shit fucked right up by wild cats and thylacines.

This game is actually pretty goddamn huge. I mean the island you play on. It's massive. I've been exploring for ages, and I don't think I've been on half of it yet.

There is nothing quite like hang gliding down from a cliff into an enemy base and taking down a sniper from the air.

Neo wrote:

I think this might be my favourite game this year, at least nothing else immediately springs to mind and I can't remember anything else this year that's made me lose track of time like this has. It also makes you feel like Indiana Jones at times.

Spoiler:

Yes and shortly after this screenshot you start feeling like Nathan Drake.

I got this today (it was half price in one of GAME's deal of the week thingies), and it's pretty impressive. The graphics look great and the character models, lip-synching and voice acting are superb. Pity the frame rate is a bit choppy, and there's noticable and frequent screen tearing but I guess it's running on a seven year old console so I shouldn't be surprised.

Oh, and when everyone says the island is massive they mean it. It's freaking huge. I thought I'd covered a decent chunk of it in the opening few hours until I realised my map was zoomed in... then I zoomed out and I've covered barely ten percent of the given area. This is a big, big game world.

I like the way upgrades are quite organic. I was moaning initially because I only had one weapon slot and then I realised that was my own fault; the game doesn't gift you items, you have to make them. Want another weapon? You need to make an upgraded holster, which means you need materials, which means you need to hunt, kill and skin the local wildlife. Mind you, the whole "tatau" thing is weird. It's a tattoo guys, even if it seems to have a life of its own.

Final mention goes the use of sound. I'm playing with my wireless 7.1 headset, and it's just awesome. You can hear animals moving in the dense jungle long before you see them and can easily pinpoint there location. You can also pick up random enemy-chatter, some of which is typically amusing, if oft-repeated. (I've heard three guys moaning about the local whores giving them the clap). Guys, use a rubber. Problem solved.

Anyway, I'm around four hours in and I'm calling it a night. Jason - who I don't feel much of a bond with because I can't see him - just rescued his Mrs from Vaas after trying to burn them alive. Jason's getting a bit more confident in himself now, and I'm curious to see where the gmae goes now.

It's actually quite refreshing because Jason is a character in his own right and has a character arc of his own. Not just another nameless fps protagonist.


But if you think the world is big now just wait. There's another island almost as big as the one you're on now.

I really need to get back to this.

I've spent a cpuple of hours just dicking about and trying to learn the mechanics, and in doing so I've managed to max out most of my gear already and still have half a dozen skill points to use even though the vast majority of skills are still locked.

I'm carrying a silenced sniper rifle, a flame thrower, bow and silenced assault rifle, so I'm fairly well set now. I do wish I had access to more of the skill tree - it seems odd that they're locked until certain missions rather than being able to upgrade as and when you have the required skill points - but the game is a blast.

Oh, and the wildlife... don't ever underestimate it. I took down three buffalo with one well aimed grenade, and moved in to skin them, only to be murdered by a tiger that was also stalking said buffalo. Of course, barely an hour later I came across an enemy outpost with a tiger in a cage, one well aimed shot later and said tiger is free and is going through enemy troops like a hot knife through butter. I only had to snipe two of the guards, the tiger did the other four before he ran off.

I'm having a lot of fun so far, I just hope the game can maintain the story and not get too repetitive in terms of exploring, hunting and crafting.

Do you often find yourself overlevelled in games? When you were playing dark souls you were pretty much 20 levels above me right off the bat. Have you ever come across being a bit too easy at that pace?

Yeah the animals can be quite savage. You can just be walking along minding your own business and then bam suddenly a tiger out of nowhere and you're dead. They really do tear through outposts though, sort of takes away the fun, unless you mix it up a bit. For instance it's fun to let loose some caged animals and see how quickly you can take the enemies down while they're distracted using your Legolas skills.

I think the most tense moment in the game so far was when I was hunting tigers and I had to be careful. As I was using the bow and hadn't upgraded my health at that stage I could really only take one at a time so I had to take it slow, get the drop on a tiger and kill it quickly. Tense but good fun, genuinely felt like a big game hunter.

Superbuu3 wrote:

Do you often find yourself overlevelled in games? When you were playing dark souls you were pretty much 20 levels above me right off the bat. Have you ever come across being a bit too easy at that pace?

If you do sidequests and are decent at the game (exp bonuses for doing things well) it's pretty much guaranteed that you'll be overleveled at some point. It's why I play on the highest difficulty, so that despite being a killing machine I still die pretty quickly and have to play better.

Superbuu3 wrote:

Do you often find yourself overlevelled in games? When you were playing dark souls you were pretty much 20 levels above me right off the bat. Have you ever come across being a bit too easy at that pace?

There's no levelling in Far Cry 3, at least not in the tradional sense; here, someone an hour into the game could quite conceivably take down someone at end game if they were the more skilled player.

I think part of the reason I may seem to others to be over-levelling is that I don't like to rush through games. I take my time, explore off the beaten path. If, as a result, I level up a few times, or gain access to new and better skills or gear then so be it. Is that why I tend to find games - even notoriously tough ones like Dark Souls - somewhat easier than most people? Maybe, but I don't do it to make things easier, I do it because that's the way I play games. It may seem robotic and systematical to some (the process of entirely clearing one area before moving on to the next that is) but it's an old trait from playing too many RPGs where you couldn't back track, if you missed something you couldn't just go back and get it later, that was it, tough luck, you had your chance and you missed it.

Back to FC3 though, and as Neo has already said, the game is more than generous with gifting you experience and skill points. The way things are going, I daresay were you to complete every sidequest in addition to the main story you'd probably have earned enough experience to level from zero to the skill cap twice over.