Far Cry® 2: Fortune's Edition

It took me a while before I completely understood how the game worked. So below I'll give some tips I wish I'd known when I first started playing the game. - Take your time. Scout enemy strongholds and checkpoints to see how many enemies there are and where you can find extra ammo or a mounted gun. Don't rush in using the obvious road but look for a 'side entrance' with less enemies. - Use stealth. As long as you keep a low profile enemies won't attack you. So instead of driving into a checkpoint or compound go by foot. Crouch and stay in the underbrush. Once you get the hang of this it's amazing how close you can get without being spotted. If you use your machete or silenced weapons it'll take even longer before the enemy comes looking for you. - Don't pick up the weapons of your enemies unless you just want to try them out. They're in bad shape when you pick them up and deteriorate quickly. Use the weapons of the weapon dealers instead. Once bought you can pick up new weapons at no cost. You'll also be able to restock your ammo at a weapons dealer. - Save often. After finishing a mission or when you've found a lot of diamonds go to a safe house (or weapons dealer) to save your game. - Only buy the weapons that suit you're playing style instead of buying as many as you can. Invest in things like assault webbing so you can carry more munition instead. This will help you more than having a lot of guns unlocked. - Use the assault truck instead of other cars if you can. It has unlimited ammo and you can quickly switch from driving to shooting. - If you decide to spend diamonds on vehicles invest in the assault truck and swamp boat first. They're the most useful vehicles in the game. By buying the upgrade the vehicles can take more hits and can be repaired in half the time. - Invest in primary and secondary weapon crates. You can store an extra gun in them which you can pick up at any Safe house. This is much quicker then having to travel to one of only four weapon dealers. - When you buy a new gun, make sure to have some extra diamonds (4-8) to buy the two upgrades. It's relatively cheap and makes a big difference in the game. Upgrades stay locked until you actually own the gun. So after buying your gun, log into the computer again to buy the upgrades. - If you like to play stealthily invest in the camouflage upgrade. It's expensive but it allows you to stay hidden much easier. - It's not just soldiers that respawn at checkpoints. Ammo crates and medical kits will also be refilled. Use this when you're running low on supplies. - Download some maps with the location of the diamonds if you plan on going diamond hunting. While some are easily found while you drive from A to B a lot of diamonds are hidden in hard to find spots and are easy to miss. - Use fire to distract and kill enemies. You can use molotov cocktails or a special weapon (i.e. flamethrower) to start fires. - When you accept a mission one of your buddies will usually suggest an alternative way to complete the mission. It will be more difficult but also more profitable. Plus you're buddy will enhance your safe houses if you do him favors. This will add more and more supplies (medkits, ammo, grenades, etc.) to all of your safe houses. This means you won't have to rely on raiding checkpoints to restock. - You can use the cars as stepping stones. This will help you get at some of the diamond cases. I was able to reach a diamond case this way which would otherwise require the use of a hang-glider. I hope these tips will help you enjoy the game (even more). As you can see some tips are counter intuitive and this game asks for a more methodical approach than most of the other FPS. But once I mastered the tips above I really started to enjoy the game. Travelling takes a while but there are a lot of beautiful vistas to enjoy. I also like the way the game immerses you by having a minimal HUD and not switching to a 3rd person view when you're driving or looking at the map. The game has it's flaws but it's not broken unlike other games that have tried to break the mould (Jurrasic Park Trespasser...). It can be hard at times but it's never impossible to finish a mission.

Yes, yes, yes! The only gripe I've ever had with this game was its DRM when it was released many moons ago, but now it's gone! I'm starting to fall back in love with Ubisoft again! Continue to release their semi-modern games minus the DRM.

One of the few open world FPS games. There is a central plot line you will need to follow if you want to finish the game, but you don't have to do only that all of the time. There are many side missions you can do which are not integral to the plot and they are not needed to finish the game, but provide various rewards, be it unlocking of weapons, extra diamonds (the currency in the game used to purchase weapons,equipment, manuals and upgrades for weapons and equipment, and a couple more things), etc. The setting of the game is an almost lawless country in Africa where senseless violence prevails all. You need to find one person and...deal with him. To do that you will need to find him and reach him. To achieve that you will need to complete storyline missions for one or the other main warring factions in this country. Most of the time of the kill/destroy variety. Doing so you get closer to your main objective and also get paid in rough diamonds which as I already mentioned, is the currency in the game. The missions are anything from not that hard to "are you kidding me? I can't possibly do that!" level of difficulty. There are always at least 2 ways to complete a mission. As you were asked by the leader of the faction, or as a buddy asks you to do it. Buddies are some NPCs who not only provide you with these alternative ways of completing missions, but also with what is basically a second chance when you are (almost) dead, saving you the time to replay the part of the game since you last saved. To explore the huge world you can use either public transportation, bus, or one of the freely available in various places vehicles. From ATVs to SUVs, to various 4x4s and trucks. From various engine propelled boats, to flying contraptions. There is no lack of ways to travel. The world is filled with patrols and checkpoints of troops. All of them hostile, no matter what. Depending on the section, they respawn every X amount of time as long as you are not in the area. This provides either an extra challenge, excuse to use your weapons, or something you will hate to have to do. I have gone through all phases, from liking it to hating it, to loving it lol. In the end, you will learn to accept it, or of course give up the game. For me, it is an unfortunate necessary evil which doesn't take away from the game that much to not want to play the game, most of the time. The graphics are superb, if your system can handle them, set them to max and enjoy. Better than Crysis IMO. The sounds are really good too. The weapon selection is good, though it could have been better. One minor issue is that each weapon falls into a category, and you can only carry one of each. The free DLC provides extra weapons which kinda help with this. You can play the game stealth, but you have to be seriously stealthy because once the enemy is aware of you, they will not stop looking for you. Oh and something that is not seen in most FPS. The enemy AI troops will try to flank you and surround you. Watch out! Overall a very good FPS, well worth the asking price of 9.99 here. I bought it full price the week it was released and I never regretted it. It has it's quirks, but as long as you accept them, you will have a great time. If not, then you are missing on one of the best FPS of the decade.

I for one can't stand this game. While the graphics are beautiful, even by today's standards, the game is flawed on a fundamental level. I expected a fairly realistic open-world FPS where I would be able to deal with objectives in numerous ways, depending on my play style. This is not the case. Every mission has the same formula (get from point A to point B and kill/destroy C - stop by point X if you'll like to make the getaway easier). This usually means a lot of driving, before entering a small location that I usually cleared out in a few minutes regardless of difficulty or play-style. There are usually 2-3 entrances/exits to point B, but it really doesn't matter which one you choose. This, however, is not my main problem with this game. My biggest problem with this game, is how it perfectly portrays the problem of the "uncanny valley". It's obvious that the developers wanted to create an illusion of freedom, but it is just that - an illusion. This becomes fairly obvious the moment you attempt to grab the high ground - if there's a ledge higher than 0,5m, you wont be able to climb it due to invisible walls. The game world, while beautiful, is lifeless. There are few animals, and no carnivores, reptiles or insects whatsoever. For the most part the world seems like an empty backdrop. Furthermore, there are close to no civilians. The game tries to explain this (everyone has already fled), but seeing how large the game world is, it comes of as cheap game design. There are however quite a few people out to kill you (pretty much anyone you'll encounter outside the small neutral settlements). Even the faction you are currently helping will try to attack you. You are told this is due to the fact that you are on a covert mission for said faction, but after a while, it becomes painfully obvious that it's because of poor game design. The AI is (with a few exceptions) horrible (running directly towards gunfire regardless of difficulty). I'd say the AI is on par with "Sniper - Ghost warrior". The developers have tried to camouflage this, by giving your enemies a vast amount of health (when I shoot an enemy wearing nothing but pants and shoes 5 times in the chest with a G3 at point blanc-range, I expect that enemy to drop). Another problem is how enemies re-spawn. The game world is split into sections. On any mission you'll pass through 3-10 sections (if you go in a straight line and use fast travel - if you don't, you'll pass through even more sections). In every section you'll encounter enemies to sneak by or kill. You'll quickly get tired of sneaking past them, and eventually start to kill them. Only problem is, upon returning to that area, all enemies will have re-spawned. This is a problem on several missions where you'll pass through a certain section several times in mere minutes, having to kill the same enemies again and again, ruining any illusion of realism you might have. You could of course choose to travel by another route, but having to choose another route due to poor game design ruins any illusion of freedom you might have. The physics are bad. A truck should be able to pass through a small fence or tree with no problem whatsoever, this is not the case in Far Cry 2. Fences no higher that 1m make for impassable obstacles for both vehicle and man. All of these flaws I could live with, if the game didn't prey upon realism (weapons malfunction, healing means removing bullets and putting on bandages, vehicles break down). But seeing as the game does in fact prey upon realism, these flaws are in fact game breaking. At any point you are painfully aware that you are playing a game, and seeing as this game was meant to be realistic and immersive, this ruins any fun you might have had, if the developers would've chosen a different game design. IMO this game stands as a perfect example of how not to design a game. Any developer struggling to avoid the uncanny valley should play this game to learn from it's mistakes. Anyone seeking an entertaining/different/engrossing FPS-experience, should play something else.