Far Cry 2
No doubt Far Cry was a good game - but Fary Cry 2 on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC is shaping up to be even better. Kotaku has an excellent feature on the upcoming release of this FPS/sandboxer of a game, so here’s the skinny:
“Where at its heart Grand Theft Auto IV is an action game, Far Cry 2 has its roots deeply embedded in the bedrock of shooters and from what I saw during my short time with the game it seems to remain true to those origins.
I asked the developers about the similarities and he seemed genuinely surprised, I think that’s because most of these similarities are obvious design decisions made once you’ve decided you want to create a sandbox game and the parallels are for the most part quite superficial.
Friends for instance. In Grand Theft Auto IV, you can call them for help, but they don’t really get involved in missions. In Far Cry 2 they are your salvation.
Playing through a chunk of the game, I got caught up in a particularly hairy firefight. As is often the case when I play games with an option for a stealth approach, I stumbled into an enemy camp and managed to alert just about everyone there without firing off a single shot.
Soon I was taking fire from all sides. As would be expected, the aiming and controls in Far Cry 2 are excellent, well-honed mechanics. Whether you’re sniping, firing off rockets (which can be laser guided to a target), or just popping off rounds from a rifle, it is easy to land precision hits, even on the go.
The enemy artificial intelligence seemed quite robust after I tipped them off to my presence. A man in a wooden watch tower fired off sniper rounds at me as men tried to flank me from both sides. I managed to take out the sniper and two men and then blew up a nearby gas canister to try and distract the rest of the bad guys. Unfortunately, that seemed to attract the attention of nearby men, who cruised into camp on a jeep.”
Assassin’s Creed Ending
In case you’ve played through Assassin’s Creed on Xbox 360, PS3 or PC then got to the end and said to yourself ‘now just what the hell was that about?’ - here’s a breakdown of it over at CVG. Here’s a quick snippet:
“Q. Who is Subject Seventeen?
A. That would be you, Desmond.
Q. Is Desmond actually Altair?
A. No, Desmond is a descendent of Altair, and by using the Animus he’s able to locate Altair’s memories that are hidden in his DNA. This means that Altair had at least one child after the events of Assassin’s Creed - otherwise Desmond would not have Altair’s memories locked away inside him.
Q. What’s all this writing about?
A. The room’s previous occupant, Subject Sixteen, left all of the writing that you can see for Desmond to read.
Q. Okay, so why can I not see it until the end of the game?
A. Abstergo washed the messages off of the walls and the floor, but Desmond is able to spot the messages by using his Eagle Vision.
Q. Wait a second. You said that Desmond wasn’t Altair! What gives?
A. He’s not, at least, not yet… Read through Vidic’s emails and you’ll stumble across one that mentions ‘The Bleeding Effect.’ Vidic reports that, after using the Animus for a given length of time, some previous subjects were unable to distinguish between their ancestors’ lives and their own. Their genetic and real-time memories have literally ‘bled’ into one another, which is why Desmond is able to use the Eagle Vision power at the end of the game.
Q. Why only the one power?
A. Be patient! Assassin’s Creed is the first part of a trilogy. By the end of the third game Desmond will have a lot more moves to play with…”
Great stuff eh? I’ve not completed it myself yet but I’m hoping to soon. For the detractors out there, just go and play it a bit more. Granted it suffered from the hype machine, but it is one of the best third person assassin-em-ups (yes that’s sarcasm) there is out there.
Who’s That Then (Here’s A Clue - NG2)?
Do you know who that is? Well do you? I’ve give you a clue - it’s the star of Ninja Gaiden (and of course the coming sequel, Ninja Gaiden 2). It is of course, everyone’s favourite ninja, Ryu Hayabusa! He’s looking more deadly than ever in this trailer and this is one game that looks to be an absolute must buy if you like third person actioners. Whilst it may be a little toned down compared to the original Ninja Gaiden, for some this will be a draw, as it was known for being… well… difficult at times. Ninja Gaiden 2 is an Xbox 360 exclusive due to be released on 6th June 2008 and this here UK games blog will certainly have a review for you. In the meantime, go and watch that trailer again. Just look at that Izuna Drop!
Hilarious Kotaku Parenting Story
Kotaku has a brilliant article on on a Daily Mail story about a woman who gave her children a DS to share, only for them to start exhibiting bad behaviour. Here’s a quick sample:
‘ Hand over the Nintendo and without any effort, you have a window of about two hours of peace, with your child doing something quietly constructive.
Except, it’s not. What is constructive about playing football on a tiny screen, or washing a virtual dog, or watching a hideous pink pony trot around a pink palace decorated with shells?
Fighting to get onto the machine was bad enough, but it was worse when they were forcibly dragged from it.
Our Nintendo had taken the guise of a small but toxic drug which, little by little, was poisoning my children.’
Poisoning her children? Not very likely that a handheld would do that now is it? How about the fact that she bought one very desirable toy and then forced them, without any rules, to try and create a regime of sharing between them? I mean surely that’s doomed to failure anyway. Expecting the console to babysit her children for two hours at a time was also not advisable. Ho-hum, more bad gaming press…
Fallout 3 - Expect It To Be Brilliant
Gamasutra had a chance to talk to Bethesda, the lucky buggers. This here is an excerpt from what they had to say. Judging by it, Fallout 3 should be Oblivion but with even more depth. Amazing.
‘Where are you guys now, and how much do you have left?
PH: Where are we… We are still in alpha, so right now we are in the part of the process where we are ripping things out, putting things in, fixing stuff that’s in and making it better, or fixing stuff that’s in and making it work better, with the goal that within the next couple of months, we’re going to get the content complete where we stop adding or changing content, and just focus on fixing the game problems, the balance in the game, the relationships.
How is that whole process relative to, for example, Oblivion at this point in the development cycle?
PH: In terms of where we are?
Yeah, in terms of where you are, and in terms of your.
PH: Oh man, we’re way ahead of where we were on Oblivion.’