I started a new FC2 playthrough...

[Art Blade]

amazing how someone can talk for one and a half hours non-stop about FC2. Nothing new in there for me but indeed, interesting for someone who doesn't know the game. After this vid, they'd either buy it or not.

[LinkHero]

A

After this vid, they'd either buy it or not.

The same can be said before they watched that video (or any other video), since those are the only two possibilities...

[Art Blade]

now that you mention it.. let me rephrase it: After that vid, they either wouldn't buy it or they would.

[fragger]

Good video. And this is why I think FC2 is such a unique game - you get the sense that although your character remains aware that there's a whole civilized world beyond his immediate surroundings, the stark reality and brutality of the part of the world he finds himself in is so compelling and confronting that the larger world beyond his horizons becomes meaningless (the dialogue of the reporter, Reuben, kind of brings that home). His surroundings become his entire world. The "heart of darkness" aspect of his existence swallows up his reality, and the fact that he is finally reduced to working WITH the guy he was ostensibly sent in to eliminate is quite a singular piece of storytelling - for a video game at the time (has the Jackal woken him up to the true reality of the situation, or has he become so inured to killing and poisoned by malaria that his reason has become obfuscated?) There is more "below the surface" of FC2 than there is in most other games, a kind of unsettling real-world subtlety (if you think about it) that very few other games, if any, fail to put across. I think it's a rare gem of a game in that regard. It has depth for those who contemplate it.

We had a discussion a while back on the old site about exactly where in Africa FC2 may possibly have been set. I'm convinced it's Mali, as the "Sahel" region borders that country to the north (the Sahel region is a kind of natural buffer zone which lies between the northern deserts and the more jungley areas further south, and both types of terrain are seen in the game). Also, the Dogon people primarily inhabit Mali.

Regarding game aesthetics, even after all this time I have yet to see a game with such evocative "time of day" lighting effects as FC2. Sometimes you can almost feel the atmosphere, taste the dust, and feel the damp of the fog. And as an amateur astronomer, I don't think I have ever seen another game with such an authentic-looking night sky as FC2's, with lattitudinally-accurate and recognizable constellations (assuming the game is set in Mali) and even a Milky Way. The moon always looked way too big and sometimes oddly-lit, but I can overlook that in view of everything else they got right

[Art Blade]

agree on all of the above (albeit I think you meant manage as in succeed, not fail: "There is more 'below the surface' of FC2 than there is in most other games, a kind of unsettling real-world subtlety (if you think about it) that very few other games, if any, fail to put across.")

The atmosphere was really great, I loved misty early morning moments.

[PZ]

Same - I like the weather, fire, and the sleep cycles, which for the time was most excellent.

[nex]

I have a sneaky suspicion all the FC2 devs left UBISoft before FC3 was developed 

[PZ]

It certainly seem so. I think FC2 came out of the Montreal branch - not sure of the others.