Far Cry 2 is a masterpiece and easily the best in the series. The formula introduced in 3 is ok but 2 was amazing.

I disagree heavily with that characterization. FC2 felt incomplete and a little hacked together - my memories of it include
- settings on the map (like, large mansions or military barracks) that would be the setting for a mission where you go in to kill some VIP or something, then later be completely repurposed to be the setting of another mission with a totally different story and no connection to the previous one
- enemy outposts that, no matter how many times you destroy them, keep respawning the next time you drive by

The result is that it feels like you're not actually doing anything in this world. You drive around it to do missions but none of it changes. I also don't recall much in the way of bonuses or stuff to do besides missions that would encourage you to go off the beaten path and explore. The wildlife was cool though, as was setting stuff on fire.

The formula introduced by 3 improves a lot of these complaints drastically:
- outposts are larger, have a bigger effect on the surrounding area, and taking them over (which is harder and feels like more of a challenge) is permanent
- lots more reasons to get out and explore (watchtowers, collectible items, places of interest)
- COD-ish perk/upgrade system added more variety to gameplay and allowed varied approaches to missions
- hunting animals for upgrades adds a new dimension of missions and gets you more involved with that aspect of the game

I think calling FC2 "a masterpiece and easily the best in the series" is both some serious hipster **** and involves looking back on it with rose colored glasses. It has an 85 on Metacritic (3 has 90/91 on PS3/360), it wasn't exactly revolutionary when it came out - it felt like the skeleton of something that just needed a little more to be great, which 3 was.

haha I'm sorry, I thought the masterpiece part would give away I was trolling, I was under the impression that Far Cry 2 is generally considered extremely overrated. I lasted like 4 hours and couldn't finish it, literally the only thing I liked about it was the setting. Since you talked **** on it though let me add:

Annoyance over strategy was the overall theme in Far Cry 2's design.

- Enemy outposts respawning was a good example and speaks for itself.

- Guns jamming added nothing positive to encounters and was a cheap way to up difficulty. It limited how you planned your approach since you already had ammo and inventory management, having your gun break randomly kind of made a lot of that feel pointless.

- Malaria became nothing more than tedious and annoying instead of being something strategic like Zombrex in Dead Rising 1 for example.

- No HUD. This sucked so bad. To look at the map you need to put your weapon away, scroll to the map like an old school FPS because there was no weapon wheel, press and hold another button to look at the map and then get some ****ty map that takes up around 30% of the screen. It's a garbage system that is again more annoying than anything. There's also no way to keep track of ammo in the game window without actually counting your shots.

The last 3 points I made were done to make the game feel realistic but when you have the problems you mentioned like respawning enemies and re-used environments then the game because one big contradiction. So yeah, I don't think it's a masterpiece or the best in the series, I think it's a bad game in a really cool setting. I've only beaten Far Cry 1 and 3(which I enjoyed) and haven't played the most recent ones. Don't really have much interest for 5 either tbh.

I never played any of the Far Cry games, but I was reading others saying to play Far Cry 3 first to see if you even like the series. I believe it just came off sale on Steam so might be worth waiting for another sale.

I read the Polygon FC5 review so I wasn't arguing blind; have never played any of the games.

The text of the review makes the position clear and makes it easy to decide if the game is for you. I see no contradiction in their 6.5/10 - the issues he expressed were enough to take it down a couple of points for him (and/or their panel), which is fine.

This is bad, this "but IGN's scores are INCONSISTENT!!1!" argument. Was it the same reviewer? If so, did they not change/grow over the last few years? Has what we expect from games not changed? Are games art, or are they a simple matter of doing some objective thing well and adding new bells and whistles each year?

I really don't care if a bunch of 15-23 year old nerds who glance at a review score without reading are "misled".

But also:

His review is bad and has bizarre standards. Sure, he's entitled to his dumb opinion, and I'm entitled to call it dumb and not read his reviews anymore (which looks like it won't be difficult - your point about "was it the same reviewer as 3/4?" made me curious, and this particular author appears to spend most of his time writing commentary with clickbaity titles and has zero reviews to his name before the FC5 review for at least the past several months of articles of his I scrolled through).


Regarding this quote specifically:

Man you have the same disease. Doing an objective thing well and adding new bells and whistles is ****ing great if it results in a fun, well-integrated experience. It's also great if games can be art and tell a meaningful story of some kind, but due to their interactive nature, they don't have to do that in order to succeed because there's a number of other ways that games can be fun.

If the numbers don't help readers answer questions like "if I wanted to play a Far Cry game which one(s) should I play" then what point is there to having numbers? And if you need to have played the previous games and the game that is the subject of the review to fully understand the review I think you've gotten the point of consumer-oriented product critique all sorts of ass backwards.

"Far Cry 5 wasted a good premise with the same old wacky sidekick tonal gibberish instead of having a good story" should be the heading of a chapter in your "Far Cry: a franchise retrospective" thinkpiece, not the launch weekend review.

But seriously I don't think it's fair to punish a game for making the antagonist David Koresh instead of Donald Trump.

Far Cry Blood Dragon is the absolute best in the series.

Plenty of shots at Trump in there too.

Blood Dragon is incredible but a bit of an abbreviated experience compared to the full games. Great way to sample like 8-12 hours of gameplay before diving into a numbered entry.

Hmm I didn’t see a Warframe thread, anyone hooked on it here? I’m generally loathe to get into grindy F2P stuff (already spend enough time on Eternal) but so far it seems potentially very fun and nothing else has really grabbed my attention recently.

I put a few hundred hours in to Warframe, mostly 2014 but revisited it for 50h or so last year. Incredible F2P game. Satisfied the loot-grind addiction in the early days of PS4 prior to Destiny released.

Yeah I do enjoy a good loot grind and the game is pretty well made, a joy to play, and massive. My bet is I’m overwhelmed by all the systems and quit but for now it’s sort of scratching my gaming itch. I’ve been struggling to get into the kInd of stuff I used to love (Witcher 3, Dishonored 2) so anything that excites me is...exciting, I guess.

Thanks guys for bringing Warframe to my attention. I'm ****ing loving it. Only a couple hours in, but man this game is smooth and makes you feel like a badass.

I've been struggling to get into more common/popular games as well. Abandoned Witcher 3 and Monster Hunter World pretty early on (although not totally giving up on MHW) and kinda fell off with Dishonored as well.

Guess our addled brains just need to be constantly rewarded? Are you on PS4? I’m same name as on here. It’s kinda fun to have no clue what’s going on and slowly figure stuff out while also shredding fools

If either of you are on PS4 and want in a clan without the need for any actual socialising, during my time I grinded enough to build my own ghost clan dojo with all research labs (tho maybe there's a new one I didn't build by now) with many of the items researched. Basically gives access to another market area where you can buy lots of item blueprints, and at the least gets you access to a trading post you can use for trade so you can use the trade chat and not have to deal with the relays. Also gets you a nice silent tab in the chat window

Alternatively, joining an actual active clan may not be a bad idea if you're that sort of person Or the other alternative, grind the vast stacks of resources to build your own may be a tempting thought (it was for me LOL)

Probably doesn't mean anything or make sense to you at this point, but when/if it does feel free to hit me up.

Also if you're on PS4 and have PS+, check the PSN Store for "Warframe Starter Pack", there is at least one maybe two. Free (albeit untradeable) platinum (use it to buy frame / weapon slots is my advice, maybe a sentinel) and multi-day boosters, some mods and the like.

The Warframe Wiki is amazingly in-depth and a very useful resource. The subreddit isn't too bad either

I’d love to join your clan for now, how do I do that? Same IGN as here on PS4. Not really in it for the social aspect or the full grind so that would be a huge help. I’ll work on fleshing it out if need be though. I did get the starter pack and followed peoples’ advice to buy weapon slots for now but I still have like 200 that I’m holding onto; so far the only real challenge I’ve had was the Jackal boss to grind Rhino, 2/4 parts so far.

This Far Cry is like they turned a Cabela's into a videogame, I'm having a blast. Is Primal worth checking out?

Primal is really good. It gets overlooked as a Far Cry game and some seem to think it was a weak outing, but I don't really see why - had a ton of fun with it.

Billy Mitchell's scores have been removed from Twin Galaxies' leaderboards and he's been banned:

https://www.twingalaxies.com/feed_de...ords-removed/4

New trailer for RDR2 looks amazing. I haven't played the first game yet, but found out it's available for for free on ps4 if you have a PS now account. 7 day free trial, so I guess I know what I'm doing this weekend.


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.gam.../2300-6443789/

So... am I the ONLY one who didn't like the RDR2 trailer? I've seen nothing but praise, but something isn't sitting right with me, and I can't put my finger on it.

That it didn't look like actual gameplay?