Well it's all going rather well isn't it?!
It's all back, the site is looking rather tidy and everything is motion, with 2 new guest writers, welcome, and the other 2 crows working hard in the background, making corporate decisions, hiring and perspiring.
If you like what we have so far but think something is missing we would like to know, so feel free to comment on any aspect!
Right, that's quite enough of being so nice about things, I've been off my game for far too long, and it's obviously ruined my angsty ways of tearing something down and reconstructing it sarcastically. So, what have I brought to the laboratory this week?
Far Cry 3.
That's right. That really good game. That didn't break ground, but was a good all rounder.
I'm not here to sully it's good name, or give away any spoilers, it's worthy of the 10/10 it got, but...
I am here to ask, did it? Did it really do that well?
I remember liking it from what I played a few weeks ago... ...uh huh... ...weeks... ...That's it's first problem for me. I lost interest. I didn't get in to it. I felt the plot was missing something compelling. You were thrown into the action so fast, and without any desire or aspiration or even compulsion from the build up. The buildup being a 2 min unskippable cut scene of youths enjoying a holiday of drinking, tits and skydiving.
Then it going all wrong and them being captured by some kind of village bandits ran by one of the best, scariest, darkest characters I think I've ever seen in a game...
But this happens a lot, and not just to me, most of the people I know that have played Far Cry 3 have said the same thing, it's great, but I lost interest about half way through.
For me, personally, I found it to lack commitment. One moment I am introduced as a scared, naive and inexperienced holidaying twenty-something that has wound up a hostage. The next moment, i am wielding 4 large weapons holstered in fine tiger skin pouches i made after conquering half an island unaided... ...oh, no, wait. I was aided. Once.
That's my second gripe: The game has 'friendly' NPC's. That always turn up when you no longer need them. FC3 will see you stealth your way round an heavily defended enemy encampment as well as it will let you 'Rambo' your way through it... ...alone.
When the first encampment is introduced as a gameplay mechanic you take it as part of a team, clearing it, primarily by yourself however as the AI is less than shall we say, good. But regardless you feel aided, secure in the knowledge you can use that ally as a distraction at least. But then once conquered. You face the subsequent 200 odd encampments alone. This taught me 2 things, 1, that you can't trust anyone, not even the blue team... and 2, that the developers are still lazy. Something Far Cry 2 suffered from terribly.
You might argue that having a team with you all the time is silly, well, I would argue that flamethrowering a tiger in the face, then harvesting it's fur for a rucksack to carry more explosive arrows is silly, but then who am I to question the games ethics.
But a cut scene to introduce them, once you say 'Start' the invasion, would be cool, like even if you pulled out a radio to call for backup, in fact, that would've been useful in many situations! They should make it so.
Overall the game is pretty much flawless I have to be honest, it plays well, the menus are clunky and slow to load, but make sense, the plot is weak but improves and is succinct and not a dominating feature of the game. The graphics are stupendous for it's scale and the gameplay is varied for a repetitive action game genre. There is a lot of replay value but the game taxes itself in that area by being so long and somewhat repetitive, that you probably wouldn't wanna jump back in after finishing it put it that way.
It's one of those games that you'll remember being better than it was, that you'll likely not finish, or go back to, which is a shame, but it is good, just not amazing, so close, yet so far. I really wanted to enjoy this game more than I did, and I think deep down I am blaming that on the multiplayer more than the single player.
It was stale, unoriginal, and once again lazy. The 'Co-Op' is a term I would use loosely to describe this. It was custom designed missions for up to 4 players, the first of which you could do blindfolded riding a quad bike through a supermarket's games section with your dick between your legs shouting at the old ladies in the way that your tail is cold; But immediately after that, if you are anything like me, and only have 1 friend, you will find it very, very hard to finish the rest. [No bonus points if you're sat reading this and thinking 'But I did it all alone']
So to sum it up, because this rant has ran on, and isn't that interesting, it's ok, totally worth the money, completely well made and thoroughly impressive on all formats. But it's crap, missed a whole bunch of stuff that would've taken it beyond incredible and into the history books, and you'll sit talking about it with your mates for about 10 minutes before you realise you all did the same things in different order.
Take it or leave it, I'm out.
Si Tye.
It's all back, the site is looking rather tidy and everything is motion, with 2 new guest writers, welcome, and the other 2 crows working hard in the background, making corporate decisions, hiring and perspiring.
If you like what we have so far but think something is missing we would like to know, so feel free to comment on any aspect!
Right, that's quite enough of being so nice about things, I've been off my game for far too long, and it's obviously ruined my angsty ways of tearing something down and reconstructing it sarcastically. So, what have I brought to the laboratory this week?
Far Cry 3.
That's right. That really good game. That didn't break ground, but was a good all rounder.
I'm not here to sully it's good name, or give away any spoilers, it's worthy of the 10/10 it got, but...
I am here to ask, did it? Did it really do that well?
I remember liking it from what I played a few weeks ago... ...uh huh... ...weeks... ...That's it's first problem for me. I lost interest. I didn't get in to it. I felt the plot was missing something compelling. You were thrown into the action so fast, and without any desire or aspiration or even compulsion from the build up. The buildup being a 2 min unskippable cut scene of youths enjoying a holiday of drinking, tits and skydiving.
Then it going all wrong and them being captured by some kind of village bandits ran by one of the best, scariest, darkest characters I think I've ever seen in a game...
But this happens a lot, and not just to me, most of the people I know that have played Far Cry 3 have said the same thing, it's great, but I lost interest about half way through.
For me, personally, I found it to lack commitment. One moment I am introduced as a scared, naive and inexperienced holidaying twenty-something that has wound up a hostage. The next moment, i am wielding 4 large weapons holstered in fine tiger skin pouches i made after conquering half an island unaided... ...oh, no, wait. I was aided. Once.
That's my second gripe: The game has 'friendly' NPC's. That always turn up when you no longer need them. FC3 will see you stealth your way round an heavily defended enemy encampment as well as it will let you 'Rambo' your way through it... ...alone.
When the first encampment is introduced as a gameplay mechanic you take it as part of a team, clearing it, primarily by yourself however as the AI is less than shall we say, good. But regardless you feel aided, secure in the knowledge you can use that ally as a distraction at least. But then once conquered. You face the subsequent 200 odd encampments alone. This taught me 2 things, 1, that you can't trust anyone, not even the blue team... and 2, that the developers are still lazy. Something Far Cry 2 suffered from terribly.
You might argue that having a team with you all the time is silly, well, I would argue that flamethrowering a tiger in the face, then harvesting it's fur for a rucksack to carry more explosive arrows is silly, but then who am I to question the games ethics.
But a cut scene to introduce them, once you say 'Start' the invasion, would be cool, like even if you pulled out a radio to call for backup, in fact, that would've been useful in many situations! They should make it so.
Overall the game is pretty much flawless I have to be honest, it plays well, the menus are clunky and slow to load, but make sense, the plot is weak but improves and is succinct and not a dominating feature of the game. The graphics are stupendous for it's scale and the gameplay is varied for a repetitive action game genre. There is a lot of replay value but the game taxes itself in that area by being so long and somewhat repetitive, that you probably wouldn't wanna jump back in after finishing it put it that way.
It's one of those games that you'll remember being better than it was, that you'll likely not finish, or go back to, which is a shame, but it is good, just not amazing, so close, yet so far. I really wanted to enjoy this game more than I did, and I think deep down I am blaming that on the multiplayer more than the single player.
It was stale, unoriginal, and once again lazy. The 'Co-Op' is a term I would use loosely to describe this. It was custom designed missions for up to 4 players, the first of which you could do blindfolded riding a quad bike through a supermarket's games section with your dick between your legs shouting at the old ladies in the way that your tail is cold; But immediately after that, if you are anything like me, and only have 1 friend, you will find it very, very hard to finish the rest. [No bonus points if you're sat reading this and thinking 'But I did it all alone']
So to sum it up, because this rant has ran on, and isn't that interesting, it's ok, totally worth the money, completely well made and thoroughly impressive on all formats. But it's crap, missed a whole bunch of stuff that would've taken it beyond incredible and into the history books, and you'll sit talking about it with your mates for about 10 minutes before you realise you all did the same things in different order.
Take it or leave it, I'm out.
Si Tye.
