Far Cry 3

But Uplay as well as Steam?

You also have to run Origin at the same time, and keep a consistent 12Gbps internet connection.

Playing this game again after a several months long break only to wonder why I bothered. Reason? That fucking completely shitty unfair fucked up bastard of a checkpoint based save system. Kill every single fucking mob bar four on the way to finishing Warrior Rescue Service, get shot by a sniper I am too busy to deal with because I have a Heavy on my ass, get killed two feet from the fucking chopper I am meant to be heading for and I have to do the fucking thing all over again. And again, and again, and again.

We grew out of that checkpoint shit decades ago, games makers. Don't think you have to force us away from proper save systems because you have to accommodate console gamers - they have hard disks too, now, you know. They can quick save all they like just like the rest of us. Don't make us repeat whole long stretches of play because you want to be dicks and use checkpoints. Seriously. It is fucking wrong and you know it.

Jesus, calm down man!

And what the heck are you doing dying in this game, anyways? It's somewhat difficult near the beginning when you are still limited in the amount of gear you can use, lack of perks, low health and such, but about halfway though the game ends up becoming a cakewalk. Then you begin to realize that they added the checkpoint system in as a means of adding difficulty, since save-scumming would make almost all of the missions (Especially the stealth ones) a joke.

It's not too hard to upgrade yourself, you just have to go out of your way to kill animals, pick off checkpoints, and activate radio towers.

I calmed down a bit after I managed to get through that mission I referred to earlier. I even got to the second island after a few plummets into the sea just that little bit too far from the DZ. But I am still pissed at checkpoint saves, especially when one switches to a game that doesn't have them to the same extent, like The Witcher 2 for example, only to realize that when one does get killed in that game the game hasn't automatically saved. Cue screams. Of a slightly Anglo-Saxon nature.

As a game, I actually like Far Cry 3 - it isn't as much fun for me as Just Cause 2 was, but that's mainly because the infinite use parachute and hijacking aircraft in mid air thing isn't there, so minor niggle there. The sudden end to the crafting bit which came not long after I made it to the second island was a bit disconcerting too. The character models are way above my last sandbox game that I played in a big way - Oblivion - but I suppose they would be given how old Oblivion is now. I like the firearms a lot - they "feel" right and they do a lot of damage when I need them to do it.

Overall, it's pretty good.

Some reviews noted how they managed to max out almost all of their skills by the time they reach the second island. Some also believe that it was fully intentional, both as a means of making so you say to yourself "so THIS is what I can achieve!", or that the designers felt the players should be able to enjoy the top-tier skills mid-way through, rather then at the very end of the game where you only have one or two missions left to use them in.

edited 18th Oct '13 10:31:59 AM by SgtRicko

Assuming that's true, I LIKE that perspective.

It works when the protagonist is transforming into a Bad Ass over the course of the game. Rarely did a contrived gameplay mechanic get in the way of that, short of the knife-fights maybe.

Just finished. I chose the "get on a boat" ending but I am not too sure that it is the one that thematically fits the game.

There's many reasons for that but I am too drained to elucidate them. Mibbies later.

They said, five years ago

Man for such an old game I sure am getting a lot of freezing.

In comparison, Assassin's Creed Origins runs at a stead 60 FPS and hasn't crashed once the entire 80+ hours I've played it.

This game really makes you work to become badass, dunnit? Compare Far Cry 4, which gives you MOST of you combat abilities right at the front. All you really ever earn in that game is the ability to ride elephants and extended syringe duration.

edited 27th Jan '18 5:05:53 PM by blkwhtrbbt

Though, I'd argue that's more simply two different schools of thought on video game development.

Should players get all or most of the tools and abilities at the start of the game and just upgrade and refine them or the skills to use them through gameplay?

Or should players actually have to work or spend skill points to get the ability in the first place? Where abilities can give an entire new gameplay concept like 'dodge roll' or 'block' which might otherwise be a given from the start?

I think context is more the difference on that one. While the latter seems more fun in the sense of 'Wow! This will really change how I approach a situation if I can actually block now!', it also can feel a bit strange if the character you're playing is a hardened badass who should otherwise be totally prepared for combat, but just isn't.

Or, worse, the player character uses a gun in a cutscene but you need to be level 10 to use one in gameplay. Ugh!

edited 27th Jan '18 7:54:22 PM by InkDagger

That's why Jason Brody is such a good protag for this game. He's not a hardened badass, but a dumbass trust fund kid thrust into a horrifying kill-or-be-killed situation.

Between this and Far Cry 4? Obviously I prefer the latter. Vaas is good, but he's gone far too early, and his replacement is just a suit. Ajay Ghale is less of an interesting character than Jason, but he's more than made up for by Pagan Min and his rogues gallery. Plus I love the conceit of a game that lets you finish about ten minutes after the start-up screen if you just sit like you were told to.

I think I figured out why I didn't like either of the two ending choices in this game - and it's simple. They're both shit. I mean, categorically and incontrovertibly, worse than a million shitty British soap operas shit.

Stay, and get killed by a nutcase whilst having sex with her, or get on a boat with people who know, not think but flat out know that you are a murderous psychopath by now because they've seen you up to the armpits in the blood of other psychopaths who've found out too late that they were over matched from near the middle of the adventure, and glorying in it?

Nah, I prefer door number three. Stay. Headshot the nutter and rule until you're too fat and old to do the job anymore and someone comes in from the outside, like Martin Sheen's character in Apocalypse Now, and carries on the cycle. By shooting you in the head.

Because that fits the Kyrati tribal culture as depicted in the game more than that idiotic plan of the female nutcase does.

I've always wondered about the ending where Pagan gets away after showing you Lakshamana's shrine. Does that mean you're supposed to be taking over the kingdom? Or that Ajay had to return with the unfortunate message that Pagan escaped, and that whichever rebel leader remains still gains control?

I suspect the devs left that ending deliberately vague to allow players to make their own fanon interpretations, but realist/pragmatic part of me knows there's no way either Sabal or Amita would accept Ajay actually taking power in any sort of way. Well... maybe Sabal to a limited extent, because for all his faults he's surprisingly a bro and at least tries to minimize the shitty news in the ending a wee bit. Can't say the same about Amita.

That's why you put a bullet in the survivor's head. Really helps solve the issue with turning the Golden Path into ISIS or the Khmer Rouge. Now, does Ghale have the right stuff to rule the place on his own, especially since the country is totally deprived and goon squads are what passes for administration? That remains to be seen.

I took out both surviving faction leaders in alternate playthroughs. Seemed the right thing to do at the time. It would have been better if Ajay had been shown to have taken over, but I'm pretty sure that if the game gets referred to in future titles, that's going to be the canon ending.

I've never really understood why he's so disliked. I like his character development. I like how the other characters actually react to Jason, how the player's objectives and actions are making him more of a Bad Ass and detached from the violence.

The Mighty Whitey trope might be a valid criticism, but it's not really a trope that bothers me in this context. The game spends a deal of time pushing him away from the scared, helpless prisoner he was at the start. So what if he's a white dude indoctrinated into a tribe of darker-skinned warrior people? The game doesn't portray his whiteness as an overly positive thing, and it's his lessening morality that defines his progression throughout the game, not how badass he is for being white and better than the natives. Mighty Whitey only bothers me when I feel it's used at the expense of the story, like in that Jackie Chan/Jet Li film The Monkey King where they shoved random white teenager into the spotlight.

Jason's not the deepest, most emotionally complex video game protag I've ever seen, but then I don't think any of the other Far Cry protagonists were any better in this regard.

edited 28th Jan '18 9:05:32 AM by Soble

I have to say though, it's jarring playing a Far Cry game where you can't hide the corpses after you shoot them. Like, the only dragging available is for takedowns.

This is weeeeiiiird

I think that's the problem.

He's pretty basic when it comes to a lot of things. 'White Fratty American College Student' is all you really need to know about him. Like the Hardy Boys or something. He doesn't have much history or personality to him.

And, while I see that as partially the point, I can see why people might be turned off by the base-ness of his character or, for those who are starved for representation otherwise, will be disappointed in what could have made a more interesting character.

That said, I think they went too far in the other direction with Ghale. His origins and connection to the area were great, but aside from a few scenes, he was one step away from a Heroic Mime. I think they overcorrected in response to the complaints about Brody's personality, when they could have focused on how Ghale reacts to his parent's culture and being thrust into violence (which if done well could have been great).

The latest one will have a fairly flat character that lets them customize said character fairly easily. When it comes to player characters you are kind of damned if you do damned if you don't.

edited 28th Jan '18 2:59:17 PM by TuefelHundenIV

I disliked Ghale because I wanted to have more of a character personality with him.

I also note there was a bunch of Executive Meddling behind Far Cry 3. One of them wanted to write a Deconstruction of these sorts of games with the writer talking about how the game was essentially a parody of typical fighting survival games (he wrote the ending where the beautiful native priestess casually murders you after You Have Out Lived Your Usefulness) while the other writer wanted to do a serious Heart of Darkness story about how your average college student goes nuts with the power and purpose of being a warrior in a non-Western world.

You disliked him because there wasn't enough of him?

I don't really get that. In contrast, I really liked the little bits of Ghale we do see, and I think we really ought to have had a loooooot more. As it is, Hurk gets more characterization than we do, and most of our characterization is speculation on the part of Pagan Min as to what we are like, much of which comes across as projection.

I loved Ajay's interactions with Mumu Chiffon. Over all, I think FC 4 had the potential to outshine 3 by a considerable amount, but so far the protagonist characters in 3 are more interesting.

I say this because I don't consider Amita and Sabal to be protagonist characters.

I feel a little bit for De Pleur in Far Cry 4 - a disgruntled Int Op from the US cast aside, jobbing for a Warlord. His wife is clearly having an affair and he is either oblivious or in denial. Yes, he's a vicious torturer and drug runner, but he's a bit like Jake - he went native easily.

Of course, it's also because he's a bit of a pathetic figure - murdering a family to keep Noore on side and he's just... weak. I can't hate him, I can hold him in contempt.

I finished FC 3 and Blood Dragon, but couldn't get to the end of 4 - that sodding final hallucination mission against that BLOODY GIANT BIRD.

Got bored after that.

edited 30th Jan '18 9:07:35 AM by JerekLaz

Um... the Thangka missions are entirely optional and not necessary to get to story end.