Far Cry 2 Preview

[mauricio]

Far Cry 2 Hands-On

By now you've likely heard that Far Cry 2 takes place in Africa. After a slew of recent games featuring jungles as their main setting, Ubisoft Montreal felt that jungles were very much a case of "been there, done that." So the developer set out to try Africa, and to really take advantage of all the setting would allow for.As Amancio tells us, the game world was built before the missions were conceived (using an in-house engine described as "amazing"), and thus we're presented with a realistic slice of central Africa. High-ground offers jungles and eventually forests, lower ground is dryer, with parched grasses and bare foliage interspersed with settlements, placed realistically near rivers and streams that lead to sources in the hills.

Far Cry 2 river screenshot


Far Cry 2 forests screenshot


A mixture of cutting-edge graphics, open-ended gameplay, and sophisticated artificial intelligence made the original Far Cry a hit on the PC. For Far Cry 2, the development team at Ubisoft Montreal is still keeping those essential ingredients-gorgeous, lush environments, tricky AI, and a sandbox mentality-intact while changing up all the surrounding elements, such as the setting, storyline, and characters, to keep things fresh

Far Cry 2 sandy mountains screenshot


Far Cry 2 aili screenshot

Far Cry 2 camp on fire screenshot
The first is that you aren’t forced to play with a particular character. The game offers up a selection of 12 mercenaries, one of which you choose to be your avatar in the game, and whichever you choose will have unique attributes evident onscreen (such as tattoos). Meanwhile, the other 11 become potential “buddies” who can help you as you make your way through the adventure. For instance, they’ll serve as mission givers at various times, and also be there to revive you if the bad guys put you down for a dirt nap.

Far Cry 2 buddies screenshot


Far Cry 2 friend screen screenshot

[mauricio]

You start in a swampy area, with a safe house nearby. Go to the house and you'll meet a couple of characters, one of whom will task you with destroying a nearby pipeline that is a requirement for the mission, while another will give you an optional mission of destroying a transmitter in an enemy camp. That's pretty much all the guidance you'll get; how you accomplish your mission after that is entirely up to you.

Far Cry 2 enemy camp screenshot


The world that the developers have created is pretty impressive, with environments that not only look impressive but also have a lot of interactivity. For example, when attacking one set of enemies, you can lit a whole field of grass on fire with a flamethrower, causing them to run from the house they were hiding in. you can also threw a grenade, which will took out an entire tree, causing it to fall over on one of the enemies. Objects like trees cause damage that's all procedurally rendered, meaning that they can even grow back over time. Speaking of time, the game also has full day and night cycles, so you often have to find places to sleep. Grabbing a jeep and driving through some of the rugged dirt paths was convincing; more impressive, though, was when we grabbed a hang-glider and flew from a cliff, soaking in the African landscape.

Far Cry 2 hang glider screenshot

Far Cry 2 night screenshot
Far Cry 2 grass on fire screenshot


As with the original game, vehicles look to play a big role in the missions of Far Cry 2. As soon as we left Frank's shack with the mission in mind, you have to hopped into a jeep (loaded with a convenient mounted machine gun on the rear) and began speeding toward your destination. Though you always have a map on hand to check for your mission locales, one cool touch is that the occasional street signs you run into in villages will illuminate in the direction of your goal. you can made a few turns and, around the last bend, came to our first objective: a walled enemy encampment full of bad guys that were just begging to be filled full of bullets.
Far Cry 2 jeep screenshot

Far Cry 2 under attack screenshot

Driving into the enemy camp certainly had its benefits, as you can ran one or two guys over in the process, but getting out of the car surrounded by bad guys will make your life exciting and short. The mercenaries that you battle are pretty sharp for AI opponents; they like to move around a lot rather than stand in place and just shoot at you. That means they're unpredictable; just because you see an enemy in one place doesn't mean that he's there a minute later when you go after him. The thick jungle foliage and the cluttered nature of the camp also means that you and your opponents can easily duck out of sight.
Far Cry 2 Vehicle screenshot


Ubisoft is going for a realistic feel to the gunfight; the guns feel very authentic, and you won't want to stand around in the open. You can take a decent amount of damage before you go down, but you're not invulnerable. It's worth noting that the health system continues to evolve. When we first saw the game last year, the idea was that if you were hurt then you would need to perform some kind of first aid to get back to full health. For example, you might need to use a knife to gouge a bullet out of your flesh. However, this process took far too long if you had to do it over and over in a fight, so now there's a segmented health meter. If a segment of health drains partially, it will regenerate if you're not hit for a few seconds. If a segment is drained entirely, you'll need a first aid kit of some sort to restore it. If you're down to your last health segment and are about to die, you might have an NPC come to your rescue, just like in the movies. He'll run up, pick you up by the shoulder, and move you to safety. While he covers you, you can then perform the first aid animation to get back to full health. It's a very cinematic momen
Far Cry 2 fireing on enemy screenshot

Far Cry 2 got hit screenshot

Another cool aspect to the game is the way the game handles weapon damage. Weapons will degrade over time, so you need to keep this in mind as you go through multiple firefights. Sometimes it's best to pick up weapons dropped by enemies, though not always their guns can be just as worn down.Weapons are available most everywhere, it seems. This is because enemies you dispatch will often drop arms that you can use. However, Far Cry 2 handicaps the use of pre-owned weapons by varying their functionality. For example, you may be low on ammo and pick up a dropped rifle—only to find that it’s kind of rusty, making it less reliable. In case you haven’t figured it out, this is something to be categorized in the “bad things to avoid” column.
Far Cry 2 enemy runing screenshot

[mauricio]

Far Cry 2 screenshot

A knife can have multiple purposes: It may be used for its obvious slice-and-dice-a-foe function, but you can see how it could come in handy to dig a bullet out of our character’s leg and gain back some of the crucial health bar. Then syringes in your inventory can provide some med pack-like health restoration.
Far Cry 2 attacking from knife screenshot

Far Cry 2 is such an ambitious game that it's hard not to admire it; Ubisoft really wants to push the boundaries of what is often termed emergent gameplay. This looks to be an incredibly immersive game, though, and we're looking forward to unlocking more. It's going to launch simultaneously on the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 later this year, and all three games are going to be identical in terms of content. The console versions should be extremely comparable to one another, as well. It’s been a while since the last one, but Far Cry 2 just might be a good return for the game series

[feinicks]

I am very happy that games now are going to have spectacular graphics. However, I really think that all these games become monotonous.. just the typical shoot them up!

Awesome gfx though!

[Jerry]

Far Cry 2 requires heavy system requirements maybe its time to update my machine some just posted about
http://forums.techarena.in/video-games/1016890.htm

requires all the latest cpu, motherboard and video car maybe time to udpate my rig

[ThoMas321]

Ubisoft has announced that its Far Cry 2 is completed. The gold, the last stage in the development of a title, has been validated and the action game is now ready to be marketed.

A marketing should not try to intervene and delay the 21 / 23 October respectively in North America and Europe. Recall in passing that two versions of the game will be distributed by Ubisoft: a classic edition and a collector edition. The first will cost EUR 49.99 / 69.99 euros depending on whether you have a PC or a Playstation 3 / Xbox 360 while the second will be 10 euros more expensive.

[Killen]

Available since October 21 last, Far Cry 2 has sold more than one million copies around the world. Ubisoft, through its chairman Yves Guillemot, is proud to announce that its title out on three media "is on course to meet our sales targets." Tested and approved in our columns, the title of Ubi Montreal should enjoy the holiday season to sell even more. That's all evil people wish.