Now Loading Update (10.28.2008) - Not Far From Crying 2 |
 Impressions: Farcry 2 I was actually pretty excited about playing Farcry 2, but after spending about 5 hours with the game... I can't stand its trappings. Picture this, it is an open world FIRST PERSON SHOOTER... so you need to get from place to place by driving (the driving handling is probably the sharpest thing about the game), but get this, nearly every cross-road contains a guard post of some sort and eventually you will have to drive through a bigger enemy location. These halt your progress for up to 5 minutes and all you are trying to do is get from point A to point B (where your objective is). It is the equivalent of playing Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row with the Police chasing you the entire time... constantly firing and with deadly accuracy. You just can't get any damn thing done with the constant attacks. Adding to annoyance is that even if you clear out a set of guards, when you inevitably have to drive back to deliver your objective to your contact... the ****ing guards have respawned just to waste your time all over again. The thing is you might be thinking: "why not just drive through and forget them?" Good thought... except they will hop in their vehicles and chase you down. And one last whopper to just throw more fuel on the fire of annoying game design... the enemies take far to much damage to kill. I hate having to fire 5-8 shots into a guy wearing nothing but a t-shirt and jeans. Headshots kill faster, but with the early guns that isn't viable. To remedy this I thought I'd just swallow my pride and put the game down to EASY from NORMAL... except this doesn't change the enemy difficulty, it just gives you a visible cross-hair (for hip firing) and lets you carry more ammo, grenades and health syrettes by default. You still have to pump lead into enemies, they still do the same amount of damage to you and are still as accurate... It really isn't that much easier. I have a feeling that there is an interesting and exciting game here, unlocking better weapons, doing cool missions, hunting down diamond cases and finally taking out the Jackal... but I can't do any of it because the game won't let me do it in peace. I understand you need to have action, but having to deal with constant attacks when you aren't really doing any harm to anyone is just too annoying for me to stomach any more. I can understand being attacked at the mission objective site and I could even handle getting attacked by the patrolling "technicals" (pick-up trucks with a mounted machine gun) once in a while, but the respawning bullet sponge enemies every where just ruin the game for me. Don't let me stop you from trying the game, I will remind you that these are my own personal feelings / experiences... Maybe I am doing something wrong or something isn't clicking, but I can't stomach playing the game long enough to find out. Impressions: Fable II I never thought I'd say this about Fable II after my experience with the first game... but Fable II is a really fun game. I'm not that deep in to the game, about 8 hours (which is nearly as long as it took me to complete a majority of side quests and finish Fable 1) and while the game is got the same feeling of limits as the first game, they opened up the world making the adventuring aspect of the game much better. And that is enough for me to enjoy the heck out Fable II. I love to explore (which is why the enemies in Farcry 2 are so annoying) and I have spent most of my time so far looking for hidden chests, silver keys and gargoyle statues. I also like the idea of the dog, he doesn't do much in the grand scheme of things, but he's there with you and sometimes will attack enemies you have knocked down. The game is much easier than the first game (which was all ready really easy) but that makes the other aspects of the game reachable by almost anyone not just skilled game players. I will have more on the game soon, if I have time to play it with all these new releases coming week after week. Closing Out I also picked up Dead Space (at the same time as Fable II) and haven't played it yet. I have my trepidations about playing it, as I have stated before I don't like being scared too much, but I am pretty sure I can handle it. I will have impressions of that game too as soon as I play it. I plan to pick up Fallout 3 tomorrow, I might also grab a couple other things while I am down there and I will cover those when I get around to them. I might have to limit myself though I am getting pretty bogged down, but I doubt I will ever hold to that though. I'll talk to either with Fallout 3 impressions or if I don't get to those soon enough, Month-In-Review will hit on the 31st. When they said "The tutorial part of the game is over." they really meant to say "The now everyone in the game world will attack you phase of the game has begun"... bastards. Loading Complete! |
POSTED ON OCTOBER 28, 2008 |
