Far Cry 2 out 10/22

[McFeely]

I pre-ordered this today because I expect it to be a great shooter. In reading the info about it, it reminds me of Joint Ops with the large battlefield and the day/night time change. I remember back in the JO days how the tide of battles would change once the sunset. Here is some more info;

You are a gun for hire, trapped in a war-torn African state, stricken with malaria and forced to make deals with corrupt warlords on both sides of the conflict in order to make this country your home.

You must identify and exploit your enemies’ weaknesses, neutralizing their superior numbers and firepower with surprise, subversion, cunning and of course brute force.
DUNIA ENGINE – The award winning Ubisoft Montreal dev team has tailor-made this new engine for Far Cry® 2. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire and storm effects, real-time day and night cycle, dynamic music system and non-scripted enemy A.I.
FIRE – Feel the heat of the most realistic fire ever seen in a video game! Use wind and propagation to surround and trap your enemies. Grab your Molotov cocktails or flamethrowers to take out your enemies. Discover for yourself how fire brings a new dimension to the usual FPS gameplay.
DESTRUCTIBLE ENVIRONMENT – No more thinking about obstacles, everything is breakable and alterable, even in Multiplayer mode! The DUNIA engine’s RealTree technology also delivers the most realistic nature deterioration system ever.
OPEN WORLD – Experience real freedom while roaming in more than 50km2 without any loading. Choose your own path in this vast environment. Explore a living African world thanks to detailed artistic research brought to life by next-gen technology.
A HUGE ADVENTURE & HOURS OF SIDE QUESTS – Discover war in its rawest form! Fight for two rival factions, and make your way up to your primary target by any means necessary. Take on over 70 side missions to earn valuable information, new weapons and vehicles.
NON-SCRIPTED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – Dunia technology brings a brand new experience to Far Cry 2. Be surprised by medics dragging wounded soldiers into a safe place. Read fear in grunts’ eyes as your reputation and in-game actions make them want to drop their guns and run for cover. Feel the tension of never knowing an enemies’ reaction thanks to a non-scripted AI.
MULTIPLAYER - Challenge your friends in Far Cry 2 but watch your back because you never know who your true friends are and who might betray you! All the single player technical features are present in multiplayer mode, what you destroy in SP, you can destroy in MP. Far Cry 2 multiplayer features all the modes people love to play and more.Here are the specs:

Minimum requirements http://www.gamestop.com/common/gui/clear.gif Processor : http://www.gamestop.com/common/gui/clear.gif Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz, Pentium D 2.66 Ghz, AMD Athlon 64 3500+ or better http://www.gamestop.com/common/gui/clear.gif RAM : http://www.gamestop.com/common/gui/clear.gif 1 GB http://www.gamestop.com/common/gui/clear.gif Video Card : http://www.gamestop.com/common/gui/clear.gif NVIDIA® 6800 or ATI®X1650 or better Shader Model 3 required 256 Mb of graphic memory

Recommended http://www.gamestop.com/common/gui/clear.gif Processor : http://www.gamestop.com/common/gui/clear.gif Intel® Core 2 Duo Family, AMD®64 X2 5200+, AMD® Phenom or better http://www.gamestop.com/common/gui/clear.gif RAM : http://www.gamestop.com/common/gui/clear.gif 2 GB http://www.gamestop.com/common/gui/clear.gif Video Card : http://www.gamestop.com/common/gui/clear.gif NVIDIA® 8600 GTS or better, ATI®X1900 or better 512 Mb of graphic memory

[McFeely]

Demo that came out yesterday.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/41655.html

[Bucko]

Looks like fun. I pre-ordered on Steam, it's $5 off if ordered before Oct 22.

[EnsignPulver]

Ima JOBA! Standing By, waiting for the dust to settle on this game.

[Bucko]

Ima JOBA! Standing By, waiting for the dust to settle on this game.

I usually like to do same. This one I'm willing to gamble a little on because of what I've read about the multiplayer. I wasn't a huge fan of the original Far Cry, because the mutliplayer was absent, so I kind of ignored the original announcements.

PC Gamer's review said "not only exceeded expectations, but blew them away". PC Gamer is a tougher critic than most sources, so I have a feeling I won't regret spending $45 on this one.

But, I could be disappointed, it's happened before.

[McFeely]

Ima JOBA! Standing By, waiting for the dust to settle on this game.

No dive gear but you can swim in it. There is also hang gliding too.


I did see a video of the map editor so I expect to see some good custom maps come out too. I will look for that video and post it up.


http://www.gametrailers.com/player/41617.html

[Bucko]

No dive gear but you can swim in it. There is also hang gliding too.

I did see a video of the map editor so I expect to see some good custom maps come out too. I will look for that video and post it up.


Yeah, from what I read the map editor is one of the best out there, so it's very likely we'll see lots of customization for this one.

[Bucko]

Downloaded from Steam last night, loaded it up this morning before work and just got through playing a few rounds. I only played multiplayer, since this matters most to me... Single player only lasts a few hours of playing time whereas mutliplayer defines if it was worth the buy or not. Shot registering feels solid... BF2 was a great game but I hate the jelly bullets.

Whenever I first get a new game, my initial reactions are negative, probably because it's not what I'm used to, and it takes me a while to get all the settings right, and get used to things. With this game initial reactions are more positive than with a lot of games I end up really liking after getting the hang of it. I have not read the docs at all and there are lots of things I don't know yet, so this is a VERY superficial post.

The mutliplay feels really solid! Graphics and movement are as smooth on my PC as COD4 and I think the graphics are a bit better. The smoothness and overall solidness of the shooting action is critical for me in a FPS game, and this game definately has it.

I played a couple of team deathmatch games and a few rounds of capture the diamond. Both felt very tense. You can heal your teammates when they are down, so teamwork is encouraged.. the teamwork is not as good as it could be yet because everyone in there is still learning. You can also heal yourself if you are not knocked completely down. You need to be somewhere that you can take cover to heal yourself, because you look down at the wound, and the animation varies.. like sometimes you're digging a bullet out of your leg with a knife or injecting yourself.. it's a nice touch that adds a lot to the game over a progress bar for healing, but you are focused on healing yourself so like I said be sure you're in a position to do it.

In the capture the diamond map I played, there are vehicles. It's good old capture the flag, but you can usually jump in some beater car to haul ass to get the diamonds back for a cap, and the vehicles drive well. I think some of the vehicles are armed jeeps where a second rider can mount the gun, I dunno because I only got in a car once or twice and it was strictly to get back and cap.

Fire is part of the game, you can hurl molotov cocktails and if someone runs through the fire that's left behind their clothes catch on fire.. when you heal in that scenario you're frantically patting the fire out. I know there's a flamethrower but haven't used it yet.

About weapons.. I've only played in the default class which starts out with a G3-K, pistol, machete, and nades. I ranked up one diamond and got to unlock a weapon, so I chose the AK-47 and I do like it better and have been playing well with it. I have no idea about the other classes or weapons yet, like I said this is really skimming the surface as it will be many days before I have time to scope it out in detail. I really miss single shot... everything is auto as far as I can tell.. maybe single is available with other weapons.

As I said, the map editor is supposedly fantastic so you can expect lots of custom maps... the interface is designed to help you pick custom maps and there are already lots apparently.. you can sort by popularity and rating etc to choose which ones to download.. very nice!

The menu interface takes a little getting used to, but after I figured out where things are it began to strike me as very top-notch. The first time I loaded the game this morning I thought it felt buggy (the menus, etc) but I haven't noticed it again... it may be that Steam pushed down a patch while I was at work because tonight everything went smooth. I had to turn the brightness and mouse sensitivity up more than in most games.

I play on a 4:3 CRT (I prefer CRT monitors for gaming)... I saw some others saying that the widescreen modes are really 4:3 with some cropped off the top and bottom.. but supposedly there is an update coming for that later.. who knows.. I like 4:3 so I'm just passing that along for those that like widescreen.

It has a little more run-n-gun feel to it than something like Vegas2, but in some of the rounds I played there were some good tactics involved. Overall something about it feels a little like a sibling of COD4, I can't quite put my finger on it.

Overall I think the multiplayer is going to be popular and gain wide appeal. Some of the reviews I've read are hit and miss, going from 8.5 of 10 up to 9.4 of 10. But that kind of variation is to be expected.. Some of the shooters I've ended up liking the best got really shitty scores, often times focusing on some aspect of the single player without recognizing the greatness of multiplayer.

Speaking of single player, I haven't even loaded it up yet, it's supposed to be very open ended and fantastic. Maybe I'll comment on that later, I thought my multiplayer opinions would be more relevant to the rest of the OSG guys.

Is it going to be the shooter of the year? Quite possibly.. its hard to say... the second map I played was a lot more fun than the first so I really need to get a feel for the game as a whole.. you can't judge it by two maps. At this point I'm definately glad I bought it.

[Bucko]

One more thing.. the default graphics it detected for my PC were "very high" for everything. I bumped a few settings that I thought matters most up to "ultra" to see if it impacted framerate. It was still just as smooth and made a big difference in the graphic appeal of the map. So if you get it, screw around with graphics settings to see what works for you.

[Ninja]

Nice initial review Bucko! I went to WallyWorld to pick up the game and the resident electronics guy had a blank stare on his face when I asked him if they had the game yet, which should have already been on the shelf.

[Bucko]

Nice initial review Bucko! I went to WallyWorld to pick up the game and the resident electronics guy had a blank stare on his face when I asked him if they had the game yet, which should have already been on the shelf.

You can download it from Steam if not opposed to that business model, and forego the sales tax and the gas money to the store. If you've got a wicked fast connection you could even play tonight. It was about a 2-3 hr download for me.

[McFeely]

Well I was all set to start playing it today in sunny Florida, but real life happened. I had to go out of town for a family emergency and now that I am here in cold Virginia everything looks okay. I will post somewhere else the details. I hate to hijack a good review. I can't wait to Far Cry 2 it is sitting on my desk at home. Good job Bucko.

[Bucko]

Well I was all set to start playing it today in sunny Florida, but real life happened. I had to go out of town for a family emergency and now that I am here in cold Virginia everything looks okay. I will post somewhere else the details. I hate to hijack a good review. I can't wait to Far Cry 2 it is sitting on my desk at home. Good job Bucko.

Hope all is well on the family front, and no worries about hijacking the review, post it here or anywhere that feels right. I mostly just wanted to capture my very first impressions while they were fresh in my mind. It takes me at least a couple of days to fully assimilate a game and get a feel for how much I'm going to like it, so I may post more feedback for those considering getting it as my opinions evolve.

[Roo]

Keep the reviews coming....I'm waiting on this one and see how you guys like it. When Pulver pulls the pin, I will. :) :) Hell may freeze over before that happens though!!!!

[Ninja]

You can download it from Steam if not opposed to that business model, and forego the sales tax and the gas money to the store. If you've got a wicked fast connection you could even play tonight. It was about a 2-3 hr download for me.Funny you mention that because as I was walking out of the store empty handed I thought to myself "Chalk one up for online sales". I got home and checked Steam but didn't pull the trigger. Being a Steam customer, how do you like the service? Does the Steam client have to be running all the time to validate your game?

[Bucko]

Funny you mention that because as I was walking out of the store empty handed I thought to myself "Chalk one up for online sales". I got home and checked Steam but didn't pull the trigger. Being a Steam customer, how do you like the service? Does the Steam client have to be running all the time to validate your game?

I love it. The games cost the same as retail, minus any sales tax or shipping fees or gas driving around a store looking for things that are usually not in stock when they first come out anyway, I don't have swap DVDs to play different games, my Steam games get patched while I sleep so I'm always to date and don't have to guess which patch I need, I can start downloading the game right when it's released, Valve games like TF2 make it easy to join the same server as friends and to chat and see who's online (I think a lot of folks use xfire for that, I dunno I've never used it).

When Steam first came out I was hesitant to change from the retail store approach but now it's my preferred method. I do sort of miss the old days where I used to go into CompUSA or Best Buy for games and they had all the latest titles.. or in a place like EB Games where the clerk was sometimes a knowledgeable gamer and could tell you what sucked and didn't. But I think the popularity of consoles put PC games too much on a backburner for retail stores so I still go to those stores but usually for other things.. sometimes I do buy retail, but I prefer not to have boxes/manuals/jewel cases all over everywhere, and I don't have to deal with lost CD keys.

As far as I know all your games still work if you're disconnected from the Internet. I think if you launch a Steam game from the desktop item or start up menu it loads the Steam client, I'm not sure but I'll try to remember to shut down the client next time I do that to see what happens. I usually keep the Steam client running because the silent patching is great and it's kind of like an instant messenger for all your friends, you see them come online and can see where they're playing etc.

[Bucko]

Here's a collection of reviews... currently it has a metascore of 88.. For some comparisons C0D4 has a metascore of 91, Vegas 2 has a metascore of 78. Not that this means a lot because a lot of people put a great deal of value on single player, I personally dont.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/farcry2?q=far%20cry

[McFeely]

Wow I am glad didn't open the game. After reading some of the reviews and this postin the UBI forum.

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1521068375/m/9961034796

Damn I am disappointed, but then I did get sucked in to UBI for Ghost Recon and Vegas. Sounds like the same shitty MP lobby interface. Maybe I will swap it for the PS3 version. Must remember UBI and EA are whores.

[Bucko]

Wow I am glad didn't open the game. After reading some of the reviews and this postin the UBI forum.

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1521068375/m/9961034796

Damn I am disappointed, but then I did get sucked in to UBI for Ghost Recon and Vegas. Sounds like the same shitty MP lobby interface. Maybe I will swap it for the PS3 version. Must remember UBI and EA are whores.

Yes UBI and EA are whores, Valve is one of the only good publishers left and the rest are corporate weasels, but Mac the people in that thread are idiots. They are bitching about restrictions in ranked mode. Ranked mode supports only official FarCry maps, and maybe they did something to avoid team stacking to avoid point farming sluts. This game was designed to encourage custom maps, so there is regular player mode for that. They keep talking about "parties", which is apparently an xbox thing, I can't really speak about but I don't see what's to stop folks from going into servers in player mode like they do in any other game.

Maybe I'm not understanding all the issues here, I have not yet played tonight but the average person that comes out whining on forums when the game first comes out, before it's patched etc usually has an IQ of 50 and can be completely ignored. I'm not saying break the shrink wrap based on my opinions, I really haven't played it enough to know if I am going to be hooked for months but I do have a pretty good vibe on it so far. I wasn't sure about Vegas 2 first either and people did NOTHING but bitch about that game.. but a few patches got things right.

I think the custom maps, and the fact that you can create your own and publish them through the interface might just give this game a lot of longevity.
As for the PS3 version, I can't comment since I don't own one... this is a PC and console port same as COD4 and Vegas 2 were, so there might be some trade offs there. All I know is I can't stand to aim a gun by moving a stick, I need a mouse.


From the manual:

Matches
In Far Cry 2 Multiplayer you can choose to play Ranked Matches or Player Matches:
Ranked Matches: Matches players based on skill and experience. Wins and losses in Ranked
Matches affect a player’s rank. Ranked Matches only support official Ubisoft® Far Cry 2
Multiplayer maps.
Player Matches: Lets you set the parameters of the type of game you want to search for or
play. Player Matches support official Ubisoft Far Cry 2 Multiplayer maps or maps created using
the Far Cry 2 Map Editor.
Creating a Match
Creating a match allows you to customize any number of settings while acting as host. This
includes choosing the map and dictating time of play, whether team kills are punished, and
more.
Quick Match
Connects you to any game available from the most recent matchmaking playlist you selected.
While you cannot select specific details, Quick Match lets you jump into a game as quickly as
possible.
Join Match
Search through a list of available matches based on a variety of settings.

[Ninja]

Wow I am glad didn't open the game. After reading some of the reviews and this postin the UBI forum.

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1521068375/m/9961034796

Damn I am disappointed, but then I did get sucked in to UBI for Ghost Recon and Vegas. Sounds like the same shitty MP lobby interface. Maybe I will swap it for the PS3 version. Must remember UBI and EA are whores.Ubi botched something? NO WAY! :D After reading that thread I think I might avoid this one a bit longer until I hear more.

[Bucko]

Ubi botched something? NO WAY! :D After reading that thread I think I might avoid this one a bit longer until I hear more.

Ninja, don't judge on only one thread.. heres another one:

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1521068375/m/4451096796

Some people like it, some don't. The top of those forums is here: http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/1521068375

I would recommend looking through the threads a bit, reading the comments thinking through what aspects of a game you like and dislike and use that as a basis of decision. Too often a game gets discarded because of some bad rap, that turns out to be a great game 2 or 3 weeks after release because of patches. Vietcong was the same way, people absolutely slammed it.. later people picked it up and went "oh my god how did this get by me".

The one thing about this game is it has nothing to do with Far Cry 1. I know Mac you said you really liked FC1, and in that sense you will be vastly disappointed in this because it's a completely different game. However, the multiplayer takes a crap all over FC1 which pretty much had no reasonable mutliplayer at all. It was all about single player in that one. The whole environment is different in this one, the developers of the game itself are different.

I will try to post more thoughts if I learn them, I haven't had time to load any games up tonight as the gf is requiring my time.. I may be on, playing something a little later tonight.

[Bucko]

BTW the server matchmaking some of these peeps are complaining about has nothing to do with the typical "look for server, agree on teamspeak, and join" that we do with games now.. I think these folks just haven't navigated their way around the UI yet... I'm getting used to it myself.

[Bucko]

Ok, tonight after a bit more play I ran into a show stopping bug.

On one map, I saw a hangglider at the edge of a cliff. I saw another dude take off on it and it looks like way too much fun. Seeing as it's a capture the diamonds map, seems like a good way to get inside their base. He goes sight-seeing apparently, I hid in a small hut near it waiting for said hangglider to respawn after he got shot down (hey, wasn't his fault, we're all new at this). I run up and grab the glider, launching off the cliff. But, the regular navigation keys, even the ones I bound to vehicles don't work.. So I'm kind of just gliding straight ahead. Out of curiosity I try WASD keys which is not my normal layout.. ok, I can steer with those... I was a sitting duck for too long though, so I got nailed.

After that, my key mappings were gone. What's worse, nothing I can do seems to restore them. I can go into key mappings and choose default, and it puts everything back at WASD. But when I reassign everything, it shows me everything is reassigned, but in game they don't work. That just plain sucks! One of the more unexcusable examples of bugs I've seen, ever in a game.

Before I go on my usual tirade, let me say I have a deep understanding of how things work on the software development starship and while I might have been one of the first victims of this bug, I may be the last, because it is trivial to fix, and will probably be fixed in a couple of days. Before the bug, I was having plenty of fun in multiplayer, and because of that fact, the overall originality of the maps and quality of the graphics I will definately go back. In the meantime they need to fix this, and quick.

Now for my tirade. In a software shop, you have experienced programmers and not-so-experienced programmers. A company like EA or Ubi, which operates like WalMart Corporation entity, realizes that the experienced (i.e. expensive by the hour) talent needs to develop the core game, but then they ship the grunt work off to India or some shop in the midwest that promises low rates to do things like the installation and the non-sexy configuration work like keymappings. Why spend expensive talent on something that seems like clean up work?
Wanna know how these low rates come about? By hiring whipping boys that, when they are told "make that happen by 5pm" they say "sir yes sir".. The thinking here is that by bullying them into thinking they will lose their job if they don't make the deadline, they will be motivated to perform. The end result of that to the company is "do what it takes to pass a cursory quality assurance test, call it done then go home". The end result to you and I is a game that is otherwise an impressive piece of work, but has bugs in things like the installation or config files that simply make the game unplayable.

In the long run, these minor things get fixed. No need to do it right the first time, with those cheap offshored labor rates we can afford to get it right on the fourth or fifth time, right? God knows we don't want to miss the deadline. If we don't make that deadline, the CEO does not get his 1.2 million dollar bonus and for fucks sake boys we can't have that, so come in on Sunday or we will send the thing to India, Asscrapistan, or whoever is the lowest bidder.

Back to the game for a minute.. its a nice game. Give the big corporations time to patch, because that's what it takes at the discount rate. Key mapping is a very simple part of the game and yes they should have got it right the first time, but you can thank the software development economy that has evolved over the last 8 years for that one.

All that aside, expect bugs in ANY new game from EA or Ubisoft. Mark my words that Left4Dead won't have these kinds of problems, because Gabe Newell is a former Sr. Genius at Microsoft, and I have read in depth his software engineering philosophy -- part of which is "it will be done when its done".. And that means quality. For an Ubi or EA game you have to give it some time, because it's corporate weasel Walmart-managed.

[Pongo647]

I'm in. Like it. Multiplayer will evolve I'm sure.

[Bucko]

I'm in. Like it. Multiplayer will evolve I'm sure.

Overall this is a really nice game.. they just need to patch the silly crap like key bindings. I went into single player and they work fine, something fubar'ed my mutliplayer keys... they've fallen and can't get up.

I found single player immediately immersive. Part of that may be because nobody has ever done this African setting before, so you don't get the "same old" feeling like in some other settings.

[Bucko]

Well after a full 45 minutes of dicking around, wondering why key binds didn't work in multiplayer but worked in single player, running through about two dozen different tests and so forth I figured it out.

As long as I leave the default chat keys (T for all and Y for team chat), it does not screw up all my mappings. I was trying to map T to Heal, but I bound that to MouseButton5 instead. As long as I don't screw with those keys everything's groovy.

So I'm back in the game. I will likely play tonight so Pongo if you're gonna do some multiplayer tonight, look for me on TS and we'll get some teamwork going. People are already getting better at paying attention to which team mates need healing etc. Custom maps are already getting created, I played on one a little earlier with some nifty hanggliding possibilities :)

So in short the keybinding thing is not as bad as I thought. A little persistence and patience goes a long way. Those who tend to use WASD or other default keys would never notice this problem. I've mentioned it on their forums, they'll fix in a patch I'm sure.

[SpinaL]

Got it Wednesday and havnt looked back, huge map no load times. Havnt even tried multi yet. Still wandering around lookin at all the eye candy, grass fires deforming trees when shot, pullin bullets out of my arm with pliers..lol.
Fun stuff dont care about the console kiddies opiniuns, Not sorry I spent the bread, put my wheel up for awhile and off to fraggin in the jungle, been listening to bungle in the jungle, (Jetho Tull).....LOL.

[Bucko]

Got it Wednesday and havnt looked back, huge map no load times. Havnt even tried multi yet. Still wandering around lookin at all the eye candy, grass fires deforming trees when shot, pullin bullets out of my arm with pliers..lol.
Fun stuff dont care about the console kiddies opiniuns, Not sorry I spent the bread, put my wheel up for awhile and off to fraggin in the jungle, been listening to bungle in the jungle, (Jetho Tull).....LOL.

Glad to see another on board Spinal! I only played the first few missions on single player but was quite impressed -- the environment as a whole is very immersive, and I think the "not on rails" factor will appeal to those who like RPG questing and FPS games. The engine this thing is built on is really nice.

By the way I found a benchmarking tool on the hard drive in the game directory, separate from the game, that let's you experiment with different settings to optimize frame rate without starting the game. I will probably leave well enough alone because it's gorgeous on current settings, smooth as the COD series, and yes the wicked fast maploads are a nice change from the norm.

[SaskNewfie]

Looks like I may have to jump on the bandwagon sometime this week before the vets get too much experience...

[McFeely]

Well now it sounds better. I fly in tomorrow tonight from DC so I will get to try it either Monday morning or night after work. I guess I will keep it.

[Bucko]

Some thoughts after tonights multiplayer (I'm still learning the ropes myself):

- Go into Player servers, not Ranked servers while learning. Keep in mind that weapon upgrades in this mode only last as long as you're on the server. This may be what everyone ends up playing long-term, because custom maps are only available in this mode. Also keep in mind that you are not padding your enemies stats if you get owned in this mode....stats in this mode are discarded and not globally tracked. So don't get discouraged, find what works for you and what doesn't.

- You can do "quick match" and it will find a server with a good ping for you, but when playing with friends you usually want to list servers at the bottom.. this brings up the server browser. Pay attention to the filters on the right because they default to pretty strict options and can limit the server list a lot. Set them to "any" to get the most servers coming back.

- A lot of the people running servers are new so they have not learned to name the server properly yet. Unfortunately this means a lot of servers have the same name, which defaults to the map name. This too shall pass as learning takes place :).. Tonight when I created (temporary nondedicated of course) server I called it Bucko to make it easy to find... going forward I will probably put OSG in front of that to make it easier for OSG folks to find.

- Netcode in this game is wickedly efficient! I started a non-dedicated server that had many people joining, thinking it would get laggy as it filled up. Not the case at all.. I later found out my gf was surfing the web in the other room during all this, which blew me away. I never felt network lag in any round, ever. Unprecedented.

- Even when you're running a server, there does not appear to be a way to change teams. This sucks and they sure as hell need to fix that. Hard to get on the same team as your buddies. Even if you're running the server you cannot autobalance or manipulate teams apparently. At first I thought this is a deal-breaker for clan play, however you can password protect a server and play only with your buddies, which is a decent workaround assuming you can get at least 4 playing at once.

- The mounted machine guns, both stationary and vehicle-mounted are the most fun (and most useful) I've seen in any game.

- The environments are amazing and graphics seem to get better as you play.. some of that may depend on your graphics card.. expect it to be a bit more hardware demanding than COD4 but nowhere near as demanding as Crysis. Like I said I have yet to see a network lag or framerate stutter.

- The in-game chatting (typing) has a really short line limitation and does not stay on the screen long. There is no in-game voice chat as far as I can tell.

- Hanggliding is a lot of fun and a nice way to get across the map quickly (assuming you don't get shot in the process), but it seems you have to use WASD regardless of your vehicle key maps. The thing to remember is that it's not a plane, so if you descend, don't expect to get back up easily.. lol.. stay high until you get ready to land. Landing usually goes smoothly.

- Vehicles are well done and very important on certain capture the diamond maps, so get used to jumping in one and zipping around. You can also repair them at any time without any special equpment by hitting your use-key on the hood (you are vulnerable while working the socket wrench).

- There are two types of healing... self-healing, which you can do as long as you are not knocked completely down / unconcious. If you are knocked down (i.e. if it says "you are wounded") it means you must wait for a teammate to heal you... If you're not healed in 15-20 seconds or so you bled out and your dead. If your enemy decides to come up on you and unload his gun while you're down, you're dead (that aspect is similar to last stand perk in COD4). If you are wounded but don't want to wait for healing you can just respawn by hitting "E" or whatever your use key is bound to.

- Be prepared to have fun, get killed a lot when you start out and don't get discouraged if you die... that's part of the learning process and we all start there.

[Bucko]

This seems to be turning into a blog of my in-game experiences with FC2, but I suppose it is what it is.

After that last post, which I hope helps get folks up and running, I was planning to hit the sack but I couldn't resist one last game... that alone defines whether a game is a keeper or not. Some games I get a sense of "ok I need to play that since I paid for it", and other games make inspire me to come back even when I'm too tired to play. I had hoped to be asleep an hour ago, but something made me go back. This is a good sign.

When I went back, I started a ranked server to see how bad I would get owned. The interface is great for controlling map rotation.. so, not being familiar with most maps I selected 3 of them at random for the rotation :)

I guess people were choosing the quickmatch option (auto server matching) because it seemed like within seconds, 16 players filled the server I created. I wondered if things would be laggy or not. They definately were not for me, and I didn't see anyone else complain (although we were pretty busy killing).

I had one of the most intense and amazing FPS shootouts I've had in years, even though I had already decided I was too tired to play before reluctantly starting this server. These fuckers on ranked servers are not screwing around! Dudes were putting down cover brush fires with flame throwers, which is 100% true to the trailers I'd seen. In fact I'd say that once I got the hang of some things, this game even exceeds the trailers, and that's something I don't say often.

When I say intense, I mean it was challenging in a big way. In a way that could potentially discourage noobs, which I still am but I'm also a tenacious noob and not easily discouraged. While it was going on I felt I had to not only be on the ball, but after I watched my score sit at gooseegg while others were getting kills, I realized I needed to go snake-eyed (heh) and start thinking tactically. That paid off... the moment I started playing like it was a real life and death situation, using the environment to my advantage, THINKING TACTICALLY (I'm separating tactics from strategy because the game moves too fast to strategize), I started doing reasonably well.

This was an absolutely brutal match! It reminded me of competitive CS play back when people were competing for the $250k prize. I started off slow, but when I realized these folks didn't come to snooze I woke up and started playing hard, and overall came out with a decent score, but 2 guys out of the 16 were absolute monsters. I'm only pointing that out because it's critical to not get frustrated by losing in this game -- the ranked matches WILL challenge you.. remember these guys are already unlocking their weapons in ranked mode as they play, so if not being at a disadvantage is important to you and you want to play in ranked mode, I'd recommend getting started. It's just like a MMORPG game, the early-adopters will have better rank and in many ways get more out of the game.

Personally, I don't think ranked mode is the long-term future of this game. I think that will be Player Mode, which you start new on every game. But I wanted to log my thoughts as I embark in this game. I realized tonight how intense and tactical this game can be on the right map with the right players.

As for my question in the previous post, is it shooter of the year? I am leaning toward yes at this point, much more so than before. It's one of those games that's easy to jump into, but there's a learning curve for playing well. I'm getting the feeling that you have to get owned a lot in ranked mode before you learn how to play well -- no pain no gain. I know that will turn some off, but overall I'm really liking this.

[Bucko]

Looks like "Uprising" mode will become the main team play mode. It's like a Team Leader mode in Vegas2 combined with regular capture the point. You have points A, B and C. Only the captain can capture, so at least a couple of offensive players need to travel with him or otherwise keep him alive, heal when he's down etc. because he will be focused on capping and cannot shoot while working on a point. If you cap all points, you now need to kill their captain. If there's no conclusive wins I guess it gives the win based on time points were held.

Those who enjoy sniping are really gonna love some of these maps. There is one with lots of mud huts and places to get up high and guard the points down in the valley. With sniping, the initial gun is bolt action but before long you upgrade to the Dragonov which is much better. There's also the sabatour (stealth class) that has a dart gun (basically a sniper rifle) that's silent, good for getting a hiding spot and taking them out from a distance.

The environments/graphics continue to amaze. Explosions are spectacular. Watching a moving vehicle take one from your grenade launcher is a hoot. Flamethrowers are fun. Different classes are better for certain maps depending on how you like to play. I haven't tried all the classes yet.

[SaskNewfie]

Well, I broke down and bought the game today. I've only played single player yet and I must say, I'm enjoying it so far. Hopefully i'll jump on sometime this week for some multiplayer...

[Bucko]

Well, I broke down and bought the game today. I've only played single player yet and I must say, I'm enjoying it so far. Hopefully i'll jump on sometime this week for some multiplayer...

Hope to see you on Sask.. I don't play as much during the week but will be playing this weekend for sure.

[Bucko]

Interesting article on map editor:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/farcry2/news.html?sid=6199399&om_act=convert&om_clk=newsfeatures&tag=newsfeatures;img;3

[McFeely]

Nice maps. Can't wait to try multiplayer. Been working on my single player when I can. Good story mode. It reminds me alot of Just Cause which I played for about 3 weeks last year sort of a jungle GTA. I never could get into the original GTA, due to my family values and hatred for thugs.

[Pongo647]

Nice maps. Can't wait to try multiplayer. Been working on my single player when I can. Good story mode. It reminds me alot of Just Cause which I played for about 3 weeks last year sort of a jungle GTA. I never could get into the original GTA, due to my family values and hatred for thugs.

I concur! GTA is crap because of that. Hopefully we get our server up and running soon.

[Bucko]

Nice maps. Can't wait to try multiplayer. Been working on my single player when I can. Good story mode. It reminds me alot of Just Cause which I played for about 3 weeks last year sort of a jungle GTA. I never could get into the original GTA, due to my family values and hatred for thugs.

GTA San Andreas was too "in the 'hood" for me, but GTA3 and Vice City weren't like that and were pretty good. Some told me that San Andreas gets less "gangsta" later in the game but I didn't stick with it long enough to find out.