Far Cry 2 Masterpiece Avoided

[Laughing Mechanicus]

My thoughts on this game are similar to what Stark has already said - it was the combat aspect of the game that was fun and kept me playing to the end. Even when you end up embroiled in a big firefight and use half your ammo you will still have had plenty of fun doing it, and you can always stock up at the nearest safe house. The only missions that really dragged were the ones where the nearest safehouse or rapid transport hub were very far away, but those were relatively few.

One thing I did find was the later weapons seemed to be a bit too powerful - I unlocked the multi-shot grenade launcher but ended up not using it just because it seemed like it would ruin the combat. The same with some of the later assault rifles, as I recall. In the end I usually stuck with the FAL (purely because I like the design) with a flaregun and the mortar. The mortar was by far my favourite weapon, using it to soften up a base before moving in on foot was very satisfying.

Anyway, it seemed to me like there were way more features planned than were implemented. Skirmishes between opposing factions over control of the checkpoints would make so much sense from a setting/gameplay point of view it cannot have escaped the developers; it would also have been a much better excuse to have more traffic on the roads, like troop trucks or attack jeep squads from the factions, rather than just the auto-aggro murder mobiles.

If they had implemented a system like this, with faction specific traffic, then allowing the player to actually choose a faction would have been another interesting feature to add (again, it seems like something that may have been intended) because then the player would actually need to judge "Will this car attack me?". You could even mix it in with a system whereby even "your" faction has a random chance to try to kill you anyway; seeing as your pockets are stuffed with diamonds it's not unlikely they might. Maybe link this chance that your own faction will betray you to how often you betray your comrades. Again, all this cannot have escaped the developers attention and it would be interesting to see what plans they had for the game initially.

It's a shame the extra DLC for the game never materialised (they talked about adding predatory animals via DLC for example) because it is enturely possible we might have seen some of these features, or similar, added.

[Tanasinn]

For me, Far Cry 2 was just too much of the same thing over and over - and I LIKE FPS gunbattles "just because." The missions all boil down to "blow up X/swipe Y/kill this dipshit" and only ever change scenery...which doesn't count for much, since locations get reused over and over. Checkpoints and such are plenty fun at first, but after a while they're just annoying obstacles in between you and the mission; thank god for deserts being an easy way to avoid checkpoints. There's not much in the way of a story even for an FPS: you're pursuing the Jackal. Occasionally you find a random tape or he appears to mock/save you. The individual African factions are indistinguishable, and while that feels genuine, you also can't get invested in their doings.

The game has its good features. The guns feel good and look good. The wildfire mechanic is legitimately impressive. The engine kicks ass and runs great even on an older machine; I would have liked to see Oblivion on it (and good, too). The AI is actually impressive most of the time, ruthlessly moving to trap you and actually LOSING you if you dive into a stand of trees or rocks (snipers and rocketeers being an ever-annoying laser-guided-pain-in-the-ass exception).

[Stark]

People missing the point of the game aside, I think the pacing is what hurts the game. Now that I'm back in the headspace for the game, it's really not very frustrating at all. The problem is that at the start people think it's a 'normal shooter' (which it isn't) and you have shit guns. If you do the first 4ish convoys straight away and buy decent guns, the game is less frustrating. Once the player actually changes his playstyle (impossible for many) to the rhythm of the game - bouncing between savepoints, replenishing, planning movement to avoid hotspots, etc - it's actually quite easy.

In comparison to 4 hours for 3 missions at the start of the game, the last 3 missions took me much less than two hours, and only had a single 'oh dear 3 spawncars and a guard post attacked me from all directions'. I also did half a dozen cell towers in this time. I think the game was really hurt by not being more forward with the required approach to take - I mean shit, people are talking like they DRIVE ON ROADS! The roads are full of psychos who want to kill you! Why would anyone use roads more than absolutely necessary?

Because most players just apply their existing skills, and when they don't work get angry and quit. I actually find the game extremely pleasant now that I've changed the way I play the game.

[The_Saint]

Aside from the somewhat annoying habits the vehicle driving AI has I found it an interesting game mechanic to force people to travel, my play style I tend to take the road less travelled anyway so before the very first safe house I was already driving off the roads avoiding anything that might be on them... because hey, that's where cars drive and nasty people might be driving them. Most people I know who've played FC2 always complain about how the cars are everywhere and seem confused about the concept of not on the roads. Most of the later missions on the first half of the map it's easy to avoid all unnecessary checkpoints and random patrols... I would've complete the second half by now except my disc has vanished on me whilst the laptop was off being repaired

PKM, Dragunov SVD and IED is/was a winning combo for me

[Stark]

For a laugh I just looked at some old reviews - people actually complained travelling took too long. Not the comabt slowing you down - that driving was too slow. In an hour I did a loop of the entire northern map to cap the last half-dozen safe-houses and only fast-travelled once. Turns out reviewers either say 'too small' or 'too big' because they're stupid?

Oh and 'not compelling plot' = 'reviewers are idiots'. Far Cry 2 had one of the most effective stories in years for a shooter. Rememebr 'omg scary girl' is compelling, 'show don't tell narrative' isn't.

[Alyeska]

Driving only took time in relation to missions requiring you to get to specific locations. When you can freely drive and get about by ignoring portions of the map, drives aren't too bad. I just think the vehicle parts of the game feel wrong. Almost makes me sick when playing the game. Something about the perspective.

[Stark]

Funny, I think they're awesome for the same reason. Turns out I'm immune to motion sickness in real life, too? It's not complex traction modelling, but I like the body awareness carrying over into vehicles. Bush bashing = difficult, unsteady and hard!

[Pablo Sanchez]

Oh sorry, no I was suggesting they're not really 'psychic' (like guys in Oblivion), they just have clumsy AI that sees through bushes, isn't bothered by the dark, etc. They still react and have to see things. I use fire to distract them all the time for melee kills; they're not literally informed about player location... unless you don't move.

You're not entirely correct, Stark. If you draw the attention of one of the rare enemies equipped with a mortar you'll see what I mean. Once they're alerted to your presence they will continuously drop shells precisely on your location (and I mean precisely, the shell will drop between your boots if you keep still) without regard to LOS. Since they target where you are rather than where you will be, and the shell takes three or four seconds to arrive this isn't a huge problem, but it does demonstrate what's going on with the AI--if it has an indirect fire weapon, it will target your exact position whether he can see it or not. The best place to see this in action is the Dogon Village in the South; once that fucker knows you're there he'll drop shells on you until you kill him. It also shows up a bit when you draw the attention of enemies with sniper weapons; even taking quick shots from cover and relocating, if the enemy sniper has LOS he'll invariably pick you up despite your best efforts. The appearance of enemy confusion in combat closer in is probably associated with some AI routine that gets broken when they have long-range weapons like mortars and sniper rifles. Like if the AI has an assault rifle, it "knows" where you are, but it's programmed to run around in a set pattern (once you visit the same areas enough times you can basically predict the exact movements of the enemies once you alert them) to "find" you. Mortar and sniper enemies are programmed to stick in one place and shoot at you, so they become much more annoying.

I agree that it's a lot of fun to take a couple guys down and then scoot to another firing position and kick their asses. I can identify two pretty basic changes that would improve the game a lot:
Making stealth useful by allowing you to eliminate enemies with the machete or silenced weapon without alerting everyone nearby, and having guard posts and patrols respawn on a time-based schedule rather than a map-based one. Like if you clear a post it remains cleared until the following morning (for isolated posts) or for 8-10 hours, to simulate the next shift coming on to replace the dead guys. If you could move around the map at night and eliminate solitary enemies who got in your way without alerting everybody in the cell, or you could clear areas for long enough to move freely through them, then the game would be much less repetitive. As it is, the stealthy approach is essentially useless and there are a few areas where you can eliminate a roadblock immediately outside a major objective area, complete a mission, and then as you're leaving the roadblock will be back, fully staffed. The roadblock outside the mining camp in the South comes most immediately to mind in this respect, maybe because the guy in the tower has a Carl Gustav.

[Stark]

You're not entirely correct, Stark. If you draw the attention of one of the rare enemies equipped with a mortar you'll see what I mean. Once they're alerted to your presence they will continuously drop shells precisely on your location (and I mean precisely, the shell will drop between your boots if you keep still) without regard to LOS. Since they target where you are rather than where you will be, and the shell takes three or four seconds to arrive this isn't a huge problem, but it does demonstrate what's going on with the AI--if it has an indirect fire weapon, it will target your exact position whether he can see it or not. The best place to see this in action is the Dogon Village in the South; once that fucker knows you're there he'll drop shells on you until you kill him. It also shows up a bit when you draw the attention of enemies with sniper weapons; even taking quick shots from cover and relocating, if the enemy sniper has LOS he'll invariably pick you up despite your best efforts. The appearance of enemy confusion in combat closer in is probably associated with some AI routine that gets broken when they have long-range weapons like mortars and sniper rifles. Like if the AI has an assault rifle, it "knows" where you are, but it's programmed to run around in a set pattern (once you visit the same areas enough times you can basically predict the exact movements of the enemies once you alert them) to "find" you. Mortar and sniper enemies are programmed to stick in one place and shoot at you, so they become much more annoying.

This is 100% true; I just got to the barge section in my replay, and those mortar cunts don't need LOS at all. I think your speculation is probably right, 'good' AI is generally an amount of fakery between the computer knowing everything but LOOKING like it doesn't. The CQB stuff is fine (although anything moveable appears transparent, they can even see through collapsible walls) but the immobile guys are super lame. I have recently run into that gustav guy too; it turns out most of what I remembered about FC2 was from the southern area.

I agree that it's a lot of fun to take a couple guys down and then scoot to another firing position and kick their asses. I can identify two pretty basic changes that would improve the game a lot:
Making stealth useful by allowing you to eliminate enemies with the machete or silenced weapon without alerting everyone nearby, and having guard posts and patrols respawn on a time-based schedule rather than a map-based one. Like if you clear a post it remains cleared until the following morning (for isolated posts) or for 8-10 hours, to simulate the next shift coming on to replace the dead guys. If you could move around the map at night and eliminate solitary enemies who got in your way without alerting everybody in the cell, or you could clear areas for long enough to move freely through them, then the game would be much less repetitive. As it is, the stealthy approach is essentially useless and there are a few areas where you can eliminate a roadblock immediately outside a major objective area, complete a mission, and then as you're leaving the roadblock will be back, fully staffed. The roadblock outside the mining camp in the South comes most immediately to mind in this respect, maybe because the guy in the tower has a Carl Gustav.

Yeah, the stealth aspect is almost totally useless, and you're generally better off just sniping from long range because you can 'confuse' them easily with terrain. If you can find a house you can merrily do laps while killing with silenced and the AI will often be facing the wrong way or crouching, but that's not due to 'stealth' as much as the AI melting due to a lack of cues. My 'favourite' guard post is at the cattle ranch - it's literally 75m down the road, but entering the cattle-ranch submap instantly restocks it. It's not dangerous, though.

[Laughing Mechanicus]

It would be cool if clearing out a guard post stealthily resulted in a much longer respawn time - but that reminds me, I seem to remember a couple of times when I attacked guard posts they fired flares into the air like a signal, but as far as I could tell it didn't call reinforcements or anything like that; has anyone else seen them launch flares and did it have any effect?

One nice side effect of the high respawn rate and fairly lethal combat is it does encourage the player to simply run away sometimes, especially if you are low on morphine or ammunition. Trying to fade away into the jungle after you just stumbled into a group of guys was quite entertaining in itself, and something you rarely experience in an FPS.

[Stark]

I generally don't fight checkpoints unless I actually want ammo or need a car; you can avoid most of them or just blow through, turn a corner, then use the MG to kill the car that chases you. It's only bad once 40mm and gustavs are everywhere... and the gustav guidance guys can keep the laser on you the whole time no matter what you do.

[Mr Bean]

It would be cool if clearing out a guard post stealthily resulted in a much longer respawn time - but that reminds me, I seem to remember a couple of times when I attacked guard posts they fired flares into the air like a signal, but as far as I could tell it didn't call reinforcements or anything like that; has anyone else seen them launch flares and did it have any effect?

If the patrolling jeeps are close enough they will rush into the outpost. It acts as reinforcements ala Crysis but if no one is close enough nothing will happen. Which is one and one of those touches that could be great in an great game if everything had that kind of coding that instead of it being a "summon jeep" it directs any jeeps nearby to rush in. There have been times with bad luck I've gotten three or four jeeps showing up and times none show up.

[Stark]

Yeah, that's the worst shit; the high lethality means if guys come up behind you somehow (jeeps, guard post, any kind of adds really) you can really quickly be totally fucked. Its not unusual to fight a jeep near a guard post, have the guard jeep come over + the guard post guys, AND another spawn jeep arrive... and that's a lot of guys. It's bushfire time.

[Sarevok]

I hated how I little ammo I have. Meanwhile the badguys shoot all day long nonstop. If I kill them I get a measely 20 or 30 rounds. These guys corpses should be loaded with more bullets than an ammo truck. What happens to the bazillions of bullets they waste shooting at me when they die and drop goodies ?

Same for jamming. Has anyone seen the AI soldiers guns jam ever ?

Another problem is that the far cry 2 ai makes the mercs in far cry 1 tactical genuises. At least they could see you and took cover. Far cry 2 dudes stand around shooting randomly. When they do see you however they use x ray vision to hunt you down.

Then there is the problem with various supporting actions. Where is the melee button ? Why do I have to waste time pulling out a lame knife instead of kicking, punching or rifle smacks ? Why cant I drop a weapon I like without swapping it for another ?

The list of problems go on. It is a pretty game to look at but not much good to play.

[Laughing Mechanicus]

Yeah, that's the worst shit; the high lethality means if guys come up behind you somehow (jeeps, guard post, any kind of adds really) you can really quickly be totally fucked. Its not unusual to fight a jeep near a guard post, have the guard jeep come over + the guard post guys, AND another spawn jeep arrive... and that's a lot of guys. It's bushfire time

I found those were the situations where the games was at its most fun, as even though you often died you would could cause a hilarious ammount of chaos before they took you down or you could try an be cunning and escape, using fire to cover you until you are far enough away to patch up any wounds.

That is probably what keeps the combat fresh - it can rapidly change from a situation where the player has all the power and can wipe whole outposts with impunity to a situation where the player is hastily limping away across the dunes, feeling horribly exposed, peppered with shrapnel and listening intently for the sound of a revving jeep engine behind him.

[Stark]

I hated how I little ammo I have. Meanwhile the badguys shoot all day long nonstop. If I kill them I get a measely 20 or 30 rounds. These guys corpses should be loaded with more bullets than an ammo truck. What happens to the bazillions of bullets they waste shooting at me when they die and drop goodies ?

Try aiming. At least make a sensible complaint, like how killing guys in vehicles means they don't spawn pickups (everything is still in holsters).

Same for jamming. Has anyone seen the AI soldiers guns jam ever ?

This is not a Far Cry 2 specific problem; NPC never run out of bullets in FPS.

Another problem is that the far cry 2 ai makes the mercs in far cry 1 tactical genuises. At least they could see you and took cover. Far cry 2 dudes stand around shooting randomly. When they do see you however they use x ray vision to hunt you down.

They take cover; they're just not good at it. Most open-world games have poor cover AI; look at OFP2.

Then there is the problem with various supporting actions. Where is the melee button ? Why do I have to waste time pulling out a lame knife instead of kicking, punching or rifle smacks ? Why cant I drop a weapon I like without swapping it for another ?

Why would you want to drop a weapon and have an empty slot?

The list of problems go on. It is a pretty game to look at but not much good to play.

Why, because it has a bunch of pretty standard 'problems' that could apply to almost any shooter? I dare you, name a shooter where none of these problems apply or admit you don't play any shooters.

Of course it's got problems; my ENTIRE FIRST POST and the POINT OF THE THREAD is that the game is broken.

[Sarevok]

Try aiming. At least make a sensible complaint, like how killing guys in vehicles means they don't spawn pickups (everything is still in holsters).

Dude the problem is them and their infinite ammo guns. Try reading sometime. It gives you information you miss, I expect a game to be fair instead of manufacturing fake challenges by pitting an entire squad armed with frigging laser rifles that never run out against me with a jamming assault rifle and a handful of bullets .

This is not a Far Cry 2 specific problem; NPC never run out of bullets in FPS.

Deus Ex enemies ran out of ammo. Just because 99 % of fps games have this sucky problem does not mean it is not sucky anymore. Infinite ammo sucks and far cry 2 is an inferior game because of it.

They take cover; they're just not good at it. Most open-world games have poor cover AI; look at OFP2.

So far cry 2 again loses marks for having uninspired enemies with no intelligence. Most of the fun in fps games comes from challenging enemies that can use thinking rather than superior stats to fight you. The more smarter the AI is the better. Far Cry 2 is a big failure in this respect.

Why would you want to drop a weapon and have an empty slot?

Because I dont want to carry it and dont want to kill a mook just to drop a shitty gun by picking up another shitty gun ?
Or maybe perhaps stacking pre loaded weapons near a potential firefight could be actually useful ?

Why, because it has a bunch of pretty standard 'problems' that could apply to almost any shooter? I dare you, name a shooter where none of these problems apply or admit you don't play any shooters.

How is this relevant ? Far Cry 2 sucks in respect x, game y does not have x either. So far cry 2 can not be criticised. What the fuck kind of chickenshit arguement is that ?

[DPDarkPrimus]

Stark I am so incredibly happy that we agree about a game.

I picked up Far Cry 2 for $15 at Half-Price Books and I can't see myself paying more than that for it. It's not a bad game but when the flaws that are holding it back from better than "kind of good" are more glaring than next-gen lightbloom faux-HDR, it's hard to comprehend why they would have said "okay let's ship it like this".

I mean for a civil war they're pretty united in the goal of "kill whitey".

[Sarevok]

Yes. The flaws of Far Cry 2 are simple ones. The developers have finished the enormous work of creating such a vast map and then rendering it at gorgeous detail. Its just that they made mistakes when doing the easy part - gameplay. For instance the weapons look, sound and feel great. I spent first hour after install just shooting, hitting and breaking stuff and seeing how far the physics and graphics go. I was not dissapointed. Some of the best surprises did not even involve super duper shader routines or physics functions. One time I shot an ammo box and got surprised when it popped like a firecracker. Explosives that are dangerous and explode when mishandled ? Amazing ! The game felt like it had a lively world going.

Untill you started encountering other characters outside of a scripted scene that is.

[Stark]

Dude the problem is them and their infinite ammo guns. Try reading sometime. It gives you information you miss, I expect a game to be fair instead of manufacturing fake challenges by pitting an entire squad armed with frigging laser rifles that never run out against me with a jamming assault rifle and a handful of bullets .

Yeah... any that's not really surprising. You must have fun hating all FPS games ever. No FPS is fair because AI sucks. Didn't you notice?

And PS, saying you run out of bullets just means you can't shoot for shit. I'm playing on hard and do fine ammo wise, even when I'm wasting my primary slot on an MGL. Turns out the weaponset lets you adjust how much ammo you have to suit your playstyle? Just buy an MG, sit up on a hill and gun everyone down.

Deus Ex enemies ran out of ammo. Just because 99 % of fps games have this sucky problem does not mean it is not sucky anymore. Infinite ammo sucks and far cry 2 is an inferior game because of it.

Oh god you're one of THOSE. At least you admit you hate 99% of all FPS for the same stupid reasons. Prove infinite ammo makes a game bad, without reference to your own preference.

So far cry 2 again loses marks for having uninspired enemies with no intelligence. Most of the fun in fps games comes from challenging enemies that can use thinking rather than superior stats to fight you. The more smarter the AI is the better. Far Cry 2 is a big failure in this respect.

Did you just repeat yourself? If you think the challenge or fun in FPS games comes from enemies that 'use thinking rather than superior stats to fight you' you're literally retarded, and FC2 badguys aren't that great - they have less health, are hopelessly inaccurate, etc. Oops. The enemy in FC2 doesn't seem really any worse than OFP2, a ridiculous 'for serious' squad shooter in which people stand around, get shot, move poorly, etc. It's not great, but it's nowhere near as serious as 'oh dear spawning jeeps'.

Because I dont want to carry it

Why not? Who cares? How is this important?

and dont want to kill a mook just to drop a shitty gun by picking up another shitty gun ?

So your problem is ... what? It doesn't have an inventory system? Well shit, I guess Halo and Gears suck too, because I can't drop guns. Swapping items is functionally identical, because in these games there is no penalty to speed etc for total weight of items.

[quote="Sarevok"Or maybe perhaps stacking pre loaded weapons near a potential firefight could be actually useful ?[/quote]

Or perhaps you could learn to shoot?

How is this relevant ? Far Cry 2 sucks in respect x, game y does not have x either. So far cry 2 can not be criticised. What the fuck kind of chickenshit arguement is that ?

It's relevant because it shows you're a retard. If you don't like FPSs, that's fine; but that doesn't make FC2 especially terrible. Your insistence on infinite bullets, weak enemies and a complex inventory system are personal problems. Plenty of people in this thread have highlighted actual issues with the game - including myself - that don't boil down to 'I suck at playing this game why isn't it more like Deus Ex'.

I like Sarevok's petulant whining, because it PERFECTLY illustrates an attitude playing FC2 again has reminded me of. Many people CANNOT LEARN. They don't want to play a new game; they want to play the old game with new graphics. They want games to follow their own design expectations instead of adapting to the design of the game in front of them. This is usually seen in the OMG COMMANDERS CUPOLA brigade in RTS - where people complain because omg tanks don't work that way game sucks, instead of actually learning how the game plays - but FC2 is an unusual game that doesn't always follow convention, and this appears to break people's brains. Look at this joker; he complains he runs out of bullets when Africa is wall-to-wall ammodumps and you can carry seven hundred bullets. He complains you can't drop guns for no reason. People complain roads are full of badguys. People say the large world is great and then complain it takes too long to get anywhere in the same breath. The ability to look at a game, see how it works, and play that way - not the way you played XYZ Shooter - is really lacking.

Of course, much of the time it's not necessary because games really do suck. But few people criticise FC2 for it's gunplay, it's action, it's art, etc; it's always the (often broken) design decisions. Much of the time, those problems go away as soon as you respond to them and change your playstyle to suit. So are they really problems?

As an aside, when I did the Goku falls mission, I had a poor loadout (Gustav = not very useful) and hipshooting an SVD killed my ammo supply. I had a -great fucking time- using rusty .45s to kill everyone outside, but I bet most people just would have whinged.

DP, do you have the 360 or PC version? The 360 version looks kinda wierd graphically, because it seems they just ditched the bloom/etc from PC without changing the textures. And having played it a bit, you can really see where the money ran out and ideas were dropped. Like, the 'reputation level' seems to control how far you can sprint. The sickness level is... something?

[born in shadow]

As an aside, when I did the Goku falls mission, I had a poor loadout (Gustav = not very useful) and hipshooting an SVD killed my ammo supply. I had a -great fucking time- using rusty .45s to kill everyone outside, but I bet most people just would have whinged.

Shit like that was what got me so into the game. Granted, if you prepare properly, you likely won't run out of ammo before hitting an ammo dump/store (random jeep swarms aside) but when you run out, the firefights are pretty tense. I had a hell of a time running around grabbing peoples' shitty guns and trying to get as much use as out them as I could before, or coming to realization I needed to get the fuck out of dodge since I was getting shot to shit.

I think the sickness level is supposed to work against your sprint ability, or aiming or something, but fuck if I ever figured it out. It's too bad a lot of the features the devs talked about didn't make it in, but as it is, the game is damn fun. I always got a kick out of the lack of crocodiles in the rivers, not like Africa is known for them or anything

[Stark]

I actually think stuff like the money balance really hurts the game - when I played on PC, I got the 50cal in a mission and nursed that bitch for ages, because it was so awesome. It woudl have been nice if the crates weren't so expensive, so you could keep such guns stored earlier. Since it was a sniper the jamming wasn't really a problem, and I kept it so long eventually it EXPLODED. It's a shame you so quickly buy a G3 (or whatever) and never really see the wear until you run out of bullets.

It'd be nice if the enemy guns had a random level of wear too, instead of all being fucked already.

EDIT - it actually reminds me of the first Hitman, where gunfights were awesome chaotic things where you constantly discarded and scooped up new guns as you killed people.

[Pablo Sanchez]

I actually think stuff like the money balance really hurts the game - when I played on PC, I got the 50cal in a mission and nursed that bitch for ages, because it was so awesome. It woudl have been nice if the crates weren't so expensive, so you could keep such guns stored earlier.

If you get aggressively about the hidden diamond caches you'll have more than enough money to get whatever you want.

Since it was a sniper the jamming wasn't really a problem, and I kept it so long eventually it EXPLODED. It's a shame you so quickly buy a G3 (or whatever) and never really see the wear until you run out of bullets.

I think the main problem with the guns in the game is that certain are white elephants, especially since you're limited in what you can carry. Basically half the weapons in the game are curiosities at best, with obviously superior alternatives available. I mean, why ever carry a pistol when it uses the same slot as the SMGs and M79? It's fun to set shit on fire with the LPO-50 or cut dudes down with a shotgun, but other weapons have way more utility.

[Stark]

By the time you're wasting money on crates you basically have u limited mney. My suggestion is a reworking of the econ to stretch the period where holding on to guns is useful instead if just buying an infinite supply. I think guns should be more expensive relatively, and more balanced, so the 'rusty gun' early phase lasts longer. I bet this died in beta testing, however. There is way too much money in the game, especially in the south where 1 mission = lifetime gustav.

[DPDarkPrimus]

DP, do you have the 360 or PC version? The 360 version looks kinda wierd graphically, because it seems they just ditched the bloom/etc from PC without changing the textures. And having played it a bit, you can really see where the money ran out and ideas were dropped. Like, the 'reputation level' seems to control how far you can sprint. The sickness level is... something?

I have the 360 version, which looks just fine to me, except that the grass is obviously just flat textures when you've got your face buried in it.

The NPC models could be a bit better but it's not like you get up super close and pay attention to any of them except your buddies, who are markedly better-looking than the grunts.

As I said, the game has flaws, but I agree with you that it can still be a fun game. I wish I could find the 50 CAL because I am a sniping whore. I found whatever the back-loaded RPG is on a mission and I've been carrying that sucker with me ever since. It's my "nice try buddy" solution to random aggro gun trucks. I've only had it misfire on me once, and that was on a VIP mission where I ended up switching to the SVD and sniping the driver out anyway.