Jason Preston
Writing

The new PCGamer cover story is on Far Cry 2: me want

Jason Preston · 2 min read ·

[Image: far cry 2 article]I got my new PCGamer issue in the mail yesterday (it’s the October issue already - man these guys are on top of things) and this issue has one of those cover stories that just makes me slobber uncontrollably: Far Cry 2. The first Far Cry, the one made by Crysis, I picked up for about $20 on the discount shelf at Best Buy. I have no idea how I got so lucky.

The sequel promises to be just as good or better. I can tell because the plot is described thusly:

After you’ve selected your avatar by picking from a series of photographs, you’ll begin the game by waking up in a hotel room located in central Africa, stricken with malaria and on the verge of death. The man you’ve been hired to assassinate is sitting in front of you, pretty much laughing at your plight and sarcastically wishing you good luck because you’ve just walked into the worst place on Earth. Luckily, you recover from your malaria and set out on your journey to track him down once and for all.

Oh, and this game is also set in Africa. Hopefully it won’t be a big racist-whatever argument-thing.

It sounds like the team at Ubisoft taking over for the sequel (while the old Far Cry team spends waaaaay too long putting Crysis together) knows what they’re doing. The article has some sweet ass screenshots and Chuck Osborn describes with almost delicate reverence the awe-inspiring power of moving graphics, real-time wind and weather effects…and fire.

[Image: far cry 2 screens]I highly recommend picking up the magazine for the article. It’s good stuff.

So, let’s recap:

  • 12 different main characters to choose from

  • Completely destructible world, down to individual leaves on trees

  • “Betrayals” and plot points depend on your decisions (=replayability!)

  • Research showed that an immersing, unique environment was the most important factor, so they’re making an immersing, unique environment

  • The 11 guys you don’t pick in the beginning will show up as your “friends” throughout the game.

  • Weather responds to your “mood” and to the difficulty of particular situations

Supposedly the single-player “campaign” (as far as I can tell this means a bunch of missions, kind of GTA-style) should take 20-25 hours to complete. For me that’s a pretty big chunk of time. I’ll get my money’s worth, that’s for damn sure. The bad news is that it’s slated for Spring 2008, which means I need to wait.

But the good news is that in the meantime I can veg out on Bioshock, Hellgate: London, and maybe a little HL2: Episode 2 if I’m lucky.

Also, and on a complete side note, Gary Whitta explains in his column at the end of this issue how he just adopted my exact gaming setup. Guy knows what he’s doing ;)