Far Cry 2

Yep, I'm buying this one and I can't believe that its so cheap for the PC version.

PC Gamer gave it a glowing review as well, 92% I think.

Oh dear...here I am reading this at work when I should be working. Now the only thing I can think about is going to Game and picking this up....forget the projects awaiting completion.

A fantastically written review which makes me want to pack up, go home, lock the door, switch off the phone and fire up my pc :D

WOW a 9, looks ver impressive. I have been waiting for this ever since I first heard it was in production. I absolutely loved the first one and can't wait to get my hands on it. Alas, my up coming exams take priority, plus I have no HDD space left lol. I really like the idea of the health system, I can't wait to see it in action.

A very nice review guys. May I ask what the system specs for the game are?

Originally Posted by The boy 4rm oz
WOW a 9, looks ver impressive. I have been waiting for this ever since I first heard it was in production. I absolutely loved the first one and can't wait to get my hands on it. Alas, my up coming exams take priority, plus I have no HDD space left lol. I really like the idea of the health system, I can't wait to see it in action.

A very nice review guys. May I ask what the system specs for the game are?

page 4 :)

Woops, missed it lol. Thanks.

Nice review, guys! Is it just me or are the graphics not that great? I mean sure they look "good" but imo they lack something.
It's this weird "paintet" style similar to what has been done in Oblivion, I was hoping they'd go for a more realistic aproach.

Having skim read the review and not found anything, have bit-tech any comment on the DRM in the game, the in-game advertising and the use of browser history that I have been hearing reports about?

Originally Posted by TheCherub
Having skim read the review and not found anything, have bit-tech any comment on the DRM in the game, the in-game advertising and the use of browser history that I have been hearing reports about?

We don't have a comment about that to be honest. There is DRM, which we mention. You have five activations on three PC IIRC and you can automatically recall activations when uninstalling if you're connected to the net, or you can ring up Ubi. When Ubi stop supporting the game a patch will be released to address that. That's all very reasonable in our eyes, though we understand there are issues with people wanting to protect their systems and privacy - though that can never condone piracy.

As for the use of in-game advertising and browser history, that's not something we have heard a lot about or noticed in our time with the game. There's certainly not any huge billboards saying "VOTE OBAMA" that we saw in our time with the game.

well time to grab a copy of that on the xbox :D

Originally Posted by CardJoe

There's certainly not any huge billboards saying "VOTE OBAMA" that we saw in our time with the game.

That would be funny though haha. Subliminal...NOT!

Cool review, royal mail should deliver my game today, come on RM :D

"The savannah is very brown after all, so driving cross-country can be a bit of a monotony. Then again, it’s clear that Ubi has tried its best to alleviate this and provide distractions on the way. There are plenty of diamonds to search for and collect and regular guard posts and safe houses to liberate from insurgents."
It's interesting that you saw the regular guard posts as a positive side and not a drawn out hindrance that detracted from the game as gamespy did. They also didn't get the motive of the main character and found the story lacking. I'm wondering if they simply did not find a way around things as you did or just enjoyed things differently. If the game were as they say, "every couple of minutes you encounter a checkpoint that you'll have to shoot your way through or detour around. The first few times you blast through a checkpoint it's fun. After the fifth or sixth time you shoot up the same group of guys at the same checkpoint it gets stale. These encounters aren't tactically interesting and they usually play out the same way, every time." and with the added patrol vehicles, I'd probably find the game as tedious as they did. They ended up giving it 7/10. Were they just doing it wrong? (I hope so.)

i assume you played the PC version joe
did you not notice how the movement and especially the mouse movements are just wrong somehow?
its more than the sensitivity is way too low (sensitivity bar maxed out and its still like mollasses...), its like theres some kind of weird acceleration funkiness turned on
feels like im mousing with my left hand or something, makes the game extremely frustrating for me (and its not just me, i've spoken to a few other people who've played it and said the same thing)
hopefully this is something that can be sorted by dicking with the config file (i did notice a smoothness="1" and ironsights_smoothness="1" in the config earlier, havent tested it yet)
thats the only major issue i have with it though

the crap driving physics, insta respawning bad guy camps (at least you can just drive through them if you dont want to kill the same 5 guys the 10th time...) and africans in t-shirts that can take 30 rounds to the chest wouldnt bother me if it werent for the mouse thing :p

honestly i wouldnt give a 9, more like a 7 or even a 6 if it turns out the mouse thing isnt fixable

I want, that is all

I was hoping for a more extensive run-down on graphical options... :(

Originally Posted by adamc
I was hoping for a more extensive run-down on graphical options... :(

They said in the article that that was coming in a performance review :D

Originally Posted by Hamish
i assume you played the PC version joe
did you not notice how the movement and especially the mouse movements are just wrong somehow?
its more than the sensitivity is way too low (sensitivity bar maxed out and its still like mollasses...), its like theres some kind of weird acceleration funkiness turned on
feels like im mousing with my left hand or something, makes the game extremely frustrating for me (and its not just me, i've spoken to a few other people who've played it and said the same thing)
hopefully this is something that can be sorted by dicking with the config file (i did notice a smoothness="1" and ironsights_smoothness="1" in the config earlier, havent tested it yet)
thats the only major issue i have with it though

the crap driving physics, insta respawning bad guy camps (at least you can just drive through them if you dont want to kill the same 5 guys the 10th time...) and africans in t-shirts that can take 30 rounds to the chest wouldnt bother me if it werent for the mouse thing :p

honestly i wouldnt give a 9, more like a 7 or even a 6 if it turns out the mouse thing isnt fixable

PC version yes, but I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. The mouse was fine for me. I'm using a Razer Deathadder and I prefer a mid-sensitivity of around 800-1000 DPI and I found the sensitivity fine. In fact, I think I actually had to turn it down a notch. There's a difference between sesntiivity on the menus and in the game, that much I know - but I found the in-game performance was fine.

Are you sure you're pressing Accept on the menu when you turn up the sensitivity? Honestly, I had no problems, no issues, no borked gunshots or aiming. It was fine.

As for the regular checkpoints, yeah, I could see them as problem possibly. They are plentiful, so if you're trying to go somewhere quickly then they might slow you down. That said however, whenever I was in a rush I either just drove around them, ploughed through them with my jeep, or got the bus and fast-travelled across the map instead. When there are several ways to get around or ignore them then I don't really label them as a problem.

Originally Posted by adamc
I was hoping for a more extensive run-down on graphical options... :(

Yep, it'll be my pleasure to benchmark the hell out of Far Cry 2 next week :D

What I need to know is if the DRM is preventing play after any or all of the Microsoft utilities Process Explorer, Process Monitor, File Monitor and Registry Monitor, have run on the same system.

This is currently preventing me from playing Crysis Warhead, and is really frustrating. In order to start the game, I'd have to restart my machine to clear out the kernel drivers. As a result, I have had Crysis Warhead here in its DVD packed for over a month and I have *still* not had the chance to play it - I need those utilities for work (software engineer) - restarting and starting up all my applications and setting up all the windows across all monitors "just so" would take too much time.

So that's my question: is the DRM as asinine as Crysis Warhead? If so, I'll pass, thanks. Burned once too many times.

Originally Posted by barrkel
What I need to know is if the DRM is preventing play after any or all of the Microsoft utilities Process Explorer, Process Monitor, File Monitor and Registry Monitor, have run on the same system.

This is currently preventing me from playing Crysis Warhead, and is really frustrating. In order to start the game, I'd have to restart my machine to clear out the kernel drivers. As a result, I have had Crysis Warhead here in its DVD packed for over a month and I have *still* not had the chance to play it - I need those utilities for work (software engineer) - restarting and starting up all my applications and setting up all the windows across all monitors "just so" would take too much time.

So that's my question: is the DRM as asinine as Crysis Warhead? If so, I'll pass, thanks. Burned once too many times.

Dual boot, one for work, one for games?

Originally Posted by CardJoe
PC version yes, but I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. The mouse was fine for me. I'm using a Razer Deathadder and I prefer a mid-sensitivity of around 800-1000 DPI and I found the sensitivity fine. In fact, I think I actually had to turn it down a notch. There's a difference between sesntiivity on the menus and in the game, that much I know - but I found the in-game performance was fine.

Are you sure you're pressing Accept on the menu when you turn up the sensitivity? Honestly, I had no problems, no issues, no borked gunshots or aiming. It was fine.

yeah im sure ;)

its not just sensitivity, its more just how it moves
its hard to explain but if you think back to say Q3, that was just perfect as far as movement goes
it wasnt in anyway realistic but the engine reacted exactly how you expected it too, Source is pretty damn good too
this just seems... wrong somehow, its the exact opposite of Q3 in terms of 'naturalness' i know its not just me though!
i dunno, but it definately breaks the immersion for me :(

Originally Posted by Hamish

yeah im sure ;)

its not just sensitivity, its more just how it moves
its hard to explain but if you think back to say Q3, that was just perfect as far as movement goes
it wasnt in anyway realistic but the engine reacted exactly how you expected it too, Source is pretty damn good too
this just seems... wrong somehow, its the exact opposite of Q3 in terms of 'naturalness' i know its not just me though!
i dunno, but it definately breaks the immersion for me :(

Posting to agree with this, the mouse movement is definitely off - it's not unplayable, but it is certainly annoying and if they were trying to make it "realistic" in any way IMO at least it just turned out frustrating. The mouse moment in the menu is definitely different than ingame (it feels more accentuated on the menu than ingame) but theres a definite slight input.... I dunno whether to call it lag, or non-linear acceleration. I remember farcry feeling a little like this too but much less pronounced, and you could fix that by playing with the console settings and turning off the funky mouse stuff, but this doesn't seem to have the option :(

Aside from that though, of what I've played its a good game - it's been pretty fun so far even though I've fought with the mouse movement the entire time :(

Dont know how they can get away with calling it Far Cry 2 when it has absolutely nothing to do with the previous game in terms of characters or story.

Its no different to ID releasing Doom 4 and calling it Half Life 3.

Ubisoft are just pimping off the far cry name.

Why not Quake did it.

Originally Posted by Hamish
yeah im sure ;)

its not just sensitivity, its more just how it moves
its hard to explain but if you think back to say Q3, that was just perfect as far as movement goes
it wasnt in anyway realistic but the engine reacted exactly how you expected it too, Source is pretty damn good too
this just seems... wrong somehow, its the exact opposite of Q3 in terms of 'naturalness' i know its not just me though!
i dunno, but it definately breaks the immersion for me :(

I know what you're talking about. In (some)modern games there's some crazy 'mouse acceleration' even after you turn it off in 'controls menu'(and disabled in windows too). It often causes me problems with aiming, as crosshair ends up far behind target after quick mouse movement(I'm using Razor Diamondback, so it's not case of crappy cheap mouse). Besides Q3 - in Serious Sam you can change mouse settings so that it reacts with lightning response, no 'additional movement or movement scaling'. Though I really can't understand, why they didn't recommend this settings, it's simply the best experience I ever had. And for sake of gamers - they should release and highlight that piece of source code so that other devs can use it too:)