This Post is FarCry from being short.

[Can... can I have my knife back?] -->













FarCry 3. It's a completely different world from the original game; despite a return to the eye candy that's these tropical islands. ["But those tropical islands don't friggin exists on the globe." It's a game, it's pretty, go play it and shut up.]

Seriously though. FarCry 3 and the Original FarCry share many thing that FC2 just lacked. Don't get me wrong, the Sahara was and fantastic, expanse of twisting rivers, grassy planes. Malaria infested mosquitoes, a paradise really. But when you break it down, FarCry has an iconic location and FC2 didn't have that.

The first game was pretty linear in it's world design and set up that subtly told you to; "Go here, kill him, go there, kill them." They'd guide you with invisible walls at the far end of the gameplay zone and would give you the illusion of great space. Inside this illusion they gave you focused choice.
Here's the problem, these are your options. It could come down to skirting your foe and skip the ordeal all together. Or, you could go Sam Fisher and stealthily M.D.K. anny doofus with a rifle or a pistol that dared to enter your sights. Then there was the age old Rambo approach and you could go "Murder Face" and murder everyone... in the face... with a bullet. [D'em be some good choices Kyle!] And good choices they were. Let's not forget that the Hero "Jack Carver" [Sweet name] of the story was used as a test toy for a super serum and became a beast of a man. [Literally] Being able to tear foes limb from limb with inhuman strength, speed, agility and cunning of a feral beast was beyond awesome.

FarCry 2 had almost none of this. The location while expansive... was kinda boring and felt like a weed infested dust-bowl. The Characters in the 1st game were solid, funny, you cared about them.
Not so much in FarCry 2. You were so focused on not dying from Malaria/ [Which was irritation beyond all belief] You had "Allies" [I use the term loosely] you didn't really give a rats backside about and later, you're only friends turns out to be an A-Hole and they betray you. So yeah, all warm a fuzzy.
Don't even get me started on the "We wanna keep this quiet that your helping us... so I'm NOT going to tell my faction you're helping us and they'll shoot at you too when you try to complete your mission."   OK? What the hell?! How does that even make sense. Where was the "F.U." button?

[Counts to 10] Okay, so. FarCry 2's story was a little bit lackluster and the reasoning for some action was pot induced. But the action was fun and the world was HUGE. That was nice, but the Sahara was kinda boring and not that pretty. [IMHO] The weapons were cool and all but they broke down really quickly. Not to mention that damn Malaria wouldn't GO AWAY! and would wait until the worst moment to turn your arms in to noodles and reduce you to a cripple until you stuff your face with pills. [Does this seam like a bad subliminal message to anyone else?]

When it comes down to choice. Man you had it all. You had a target and a location. You could hit them from wherever you want, whenever you wanted, and however you wanted. Night or Day, Rain or Shine, Bazooka or Salience Pistol. It didn't matter. You were allowed to, even encouraged too mix things up. Talk about sweet. The down side was even though the map was huge. You'd pull a "Scorched Earth" on a fort and if you walk more than 600 feet from the place it'd refill with bad guys and guns and they'd be all. "Who the heck is that guy five hundred and ninety-nine feet from us? Let's KILL HIM!" [Not to say they were overly aggressive at times with super human eyesight] <---- That's Sarcasm.

Over all. I really really enjoyed FarCry and it's expansions. FC2 was fun at times but over all annoying. Especially with a saved file corruption bug that kept forcing players to start from scratch regularly. They had great ideas and ambition, but they changed too much. Threw away everything but kept the name.

And this brings me around to FC3. It talk'n the talk right now. It's got the looks, the action, the choices that feel like that openness of FC2 but with the beauty of FC1 and those popping Tropics! Even the story looks like it's got the potential to rock. Weapons look solid and Ubisoft says they won't breakdown like gun shaped "Paper Mache' " this time. You've got so much choice it'll affect the way the story evolves. I even hear they ditched the debilitating disease feature of FC2. [Seriously, who thought that would be fun game-play mechanic?]

In the end. I've got high hopes for FarCry 3. I expect it to be a great next step in the series.

This Game's got the "Nitty" and the "Gritty" packed with all that FPS fun we expect from an experienced franchise. Like I said. I'm hopful. So cross your fingers. FarCry 3 currently has an early 2012 release date. So much of it is potentially in the air; but I'd say right now. They're on the right track.

Later!
-Fox