PZ's impressions

[PZ]

you can also do other fun things such as hanging a govman from a wall by grappling him first then the wall.  You can then go over and melee him to death - do it enough to earn the Pinata Party Trophy!

PS - I like the new JC2 forum!

That's a great idea space!  I always forget about the double grapple  :-[

I'm glad that you like the new board  :)

[Art Blade]

This board is great, I like it too  :) :-X

[PZ]

This board is great, I like it too  :) :-X

I'm glad that you like it too, Art - sure does make it easier to keep conversations organized, rather than in a single huge topic!  :-X

[spaceboy]

• If a govman is standing on the opposite side of a waterway, yank him into the drink - govmen hate water as much as the FC2 mercs.  ;D

Well I find the govmen will keep firing their weapons at you while treading water.  So if you yank them out of a boat you still better take them out or get out of there because they will try to shoot you (maybe not one who was manning a turret if he doesn't have a gun on him I suppose though)

[PZ]

Thanks for the info - I've not yanked anyone out of a boat yet, just from the dock to the water, but boating will be one of my next adventures  :-X

[PZ]

Well, I had a little time to play this morning and started out on one of the small islands on the southern end of the map (at a stronghold area).  Just to the southeast of that was an undiscovered settlement, so I took a quick parachute trip to the spot - as I neared, I realized that it was filled with chaos items, there was a chain link fence around it, and plenty of barracks - lo and behold, a military outpost.

No planes, helicopters, nor SAMs to deal with - no big problem I foolishly thought.  I started in and quickly discovered large numbers of govmen gunning for me, and they even called in a helicopter.  OK, I thought, I'll just grapple the copter and then hose down the compound.  My only problem - three copters arrived, all very angry at my presence.

I managed to grapple one, kill the copilot, and then throw the pilot out the door.  However, during the struggle, the other two copters were firing at me so things were looking fairly red (bleeding out).  Luckily I managed to get both of them just as my copter exploded, but I successfully parachuted down only to discover that three more copters were racing toward me.  I finally had enough and grappled my way out of the area toward a civilian settlement.

I thought that the civilian settlement would be safer, but evidently the govmen got word that I was there, and the action started all over again!  I barely managed to survive.

The take home lesson for me - exercise great care on that small island because it sure is a hornet's nest.  ;D

[Art Blade]

teehee... good story, PZ  ;D :-X

[PZ]

As I was attacking a military base this evening, it occurred to me that one of the reasons I like this game is because of the variety of things to do in a variety of places.  For example, attacking military bases represents high speed, non-stop action that often leads to your character being seriously bloodied. 

When you visit the civilian villages, the pace is mostly slow, unless you cause trouble.  You can experiment with a variety of techniques, and even if you get into trouble, you can usually get out of it quickly.

The larger metropolitan areas are fun because there is lots to see and do.  Performing the spiderman techniques with the skyscrapers is a blast...

... and the above list doesn't even include the main, faction, agency, stronghold, and race missions.

Then you can fly, drive, pilot any of the hundreds of vehicles you encounter in Palau, and each of them has different mechanical physics (I like the large diesel trucks which are really easy to drive).

Using the black market dealers extraction feature allows you to go to any place you have already visited in the world.  As a FC2 analogy, think of being able to take the bus to any area you have visited with almost no travel time.  One cool thing about the extraction is that you are picked up by a helicopter and then you parachute out over the area you have chosen on the map.  As you leisurely float down toward the earth, you have plenty of time to observe the area from high above.

I'm 40 or so hours into the game, and there are literally dozens, perhaps hundreds of areas that I've not visited.  In fact, there are whole islands I've not visited yet (the world is made up of a collection of islands, large and small).

[PZ]

Playing again this morning, I began at the nearest undiscovered area and it turned out to be a small military area - not sure what to call these because their icon is not the usual chevron of the full sized military establishment.

This one consisted of three clusters of buildings on separate small islands - two civilian clusters that looked like a resort, and then the military base.  To earn 100% you needed to do the chaos in all areas.  Fun part was that you needed to discover that the gas pumps for the boats in the civilian area are chaos items.

After completing that area, I began island hopping and discovered the next small military area which had the communications array that rose out of the ground - your task is to blow the top of the array before it descends again - relatively easy with an IED.

Finally I ended up at another area called the sawmill - never saw anything like it before.

Again, I'm amazed at the variety of areas that the developers have created using much of the same content items - makes each one feel somewhat unique.

[eor123]

I just bought JC2 and a PS3.

I hope I can get as fully immersed in and enjoy it half a much as FC2.

[fragger]

Nice reads, PZ :-X

[spaceboy]

I just bought JC2 and a PS3.

I hope I can get as fully immersed in and enjoy it half a much as FC2.

hey sweet eor123!   360 and a PS3?  nice  8)

I think you'll really like JC2.  It's such a great world of chaos and fun. 

[PZ]

Nice reads, PZ :-X

Thanks fragger!   :)

I too hope you get into the game eor123 - if you find half as much in JC2 as you have in FC2, we're going to see some interesting posts   :-X

[PZ]

A few interesting impressions:

• After clearing an area, I stole one of the wheeled tanks and started driving the roads.  Eventually I caused enough trouble to get me into a tough fight - my tank started smoking so I bailed out and fought on foot.  When done clearing out the govmen, I went to the top of a building to retrieve a weapon part and noticed that a faction ally was driving off in my smoking tank!  He had his own escort - it is interesting that the AI in the game allows a variety of action.
• I was walking the road when a faction truck with mounted gun passed by - I grappled aboard and the driver told me that he was going to look for govmen we could have fun with.  We got into a tight spot, and I jumped out to fight on foot and when I ran back to the truck, the driver was not in the gunners position and told me to hop in.

The fascinating thing is that you never know what is going to happen, and the unexpected things that occur make the game all the more enjoyable.  :-X

[PZ]

Here's another interesting detail - I was working my way through a military outpost and as usual, a govman copter was called in to make short w@&k of me.  However, this time, in his eagerness to get me, the pilot actually hit the hillside and crashed his copter!  I had no idea that this kind of "mistake" was programmed into the game.

[fragger]

Cool! It's good to see "human" error programmed in :-X

As opposed to the "DDs" in FC2, which are not so much errors of judgement as examples of just plain klutzy driving ;D

[PZ]

I had fun today in a small town.  There was a large Church bell tower in the center of town, and lots of chaos items to dispose of.  I had the black market dealer drop off 10 C-4 charges and I placed them on each of the chaos items, plus rigged a couple of car bombs which were strategically parked next to govmen assault trucks.

First I picked up all the weapons and vehicle upgrade parts and then I made my way to the top of the Church tower to detonated all the C-4 charges - what a fireworks display - vaporized all chaos items plus the govmen trucks.  100% completion with the flick of a single button.

[Art Blade]

very nice  ;D

The vids I've watched always impressed me when something blew up, the sound of explosions is really cool, I like that "THUMP" or "FUMP" sound a lot  ;D

[PZ]

Yes, the sounds are very nice - almost can feel the sonic boom  ;D

One sound is kind of funny though - When Rico (you) runs, it sounds like a tennis ball being hit with every foot fall.

[Art Blade]

hahahaha, that's a lot better than in ArmA2 when you sounded like carrying heavy boxes full of cutlery  ;D ;D ;D

[spaceboy]

speaking of sounds.  I like some of Rico's comments.  When he survives a big fall he often says "Son of a Mia!"  And if he survives an explosion he simply says "Ouch"  I don't know it's just funny.

[Art Blade]

I've noticed that he comments a lot of things, last time (after he blew up a big construction) I heard him say "that was fun" in a way that reminded me of DukeNukem3D.

[PZ]

hahahaha, that's a lot better than in ArmA2 when you sounded like carrying heavy boxes full of cutlery  ;D ;D ;D

lol, funny you should mention this - I've decreased the volume of the music which allow the other ambient sounds to be evident - when Rico runs, he does jingle like he's carrying cutlery!  ;D

[Art Blade]

jingle LOL  ;D ;D ;D

[eor123]

I'm trying to like JC2 but after 4 hours of gameplay, I decided to return it.

I've been playing Uncharted II which has softened my position on third person shooters so I'm going to give JC2 another chance.

I recall I wasn't that fond of Far Cry II the first few hours I played it.