Art's JC2 game impressions

[Art Blade]

Ok, around 12 hours spent gaming, enemies are not any more as reckless as before, and their numbers increase. They behave like nervous hornets now. For every fart that escapes me, they send in half a dozen of combat helos  ;D

I upgraded my frag grenade, pistol and revolver to lvl3 each, and I notice the difference. I keep using single hand guns, the pistol for multiple enemies, and the revolver (packs more of a punch) for those hard-boiled cracks out there. A colonel is not so fond of a rocket up his rear end, but he can't stand a sniper rifle shot to the head. Taken out a few of those now. When I get into trouble in any location, I take it down until I get 100% there. During faction missions I still prefer unmounted gattling guns in my hands (walking slowly but breathing lead)  ;D

Man, I love this game!  :)

[spaceboy]

speaking of game world size,  this thread shows an interesting size comparison with JC2 as the biggest viewable in the pic  (other largers ones such as FUEL are just noted) but look at all the numbers as well (and see FC2 in the mix!)

http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=108703

[Art Blade]

wow, that is incredible... Hehe, TDU 600+mi² took around one hour to race at high speed around the isle once  :) FC2 is only shown with one (northern) map. Very interesting comparison :)

I need to go to bed now. 2:50am and I really have to force myself not to continue. JC2 is just great!

[fragger]

speaking of game world size,  this thread shows an interesting size comparison with JC2 as the biggest viewable in the pic  (other largers ones such as FUEL are just noted) but look at all the numbers as well (and see FC2 in the mix!)

Whoa, JC2 is big!

[PZ]

That pic was nicely done - good to have visual comparison, especially if you've not played some of those games before.

[spaceboy]

good observation Art - that only Leboa is shown for FC2.  Not fair!

[JRD]

speaking of game world size,  this thread shows an interesting size comparison with JC2 as the biggest viewable in the pic  (other largers ones such as FUEL are just noted) but look at all the numbers as well (and see FC2 in the mix!)

http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=108703

Wow.... Burnout Paradise is the 2nd biggest!!!
Amazing... and GTA San Andreas is the 2nd smallest.... double WOW!!!!!

When I first saw GTA SA I was really impressed... it feels much, much bigger when playing and on the other hand, BOP seems not so big... maybe its due to vehicle speed, BOP is insane fast sometimes whereas GTA SA seems fast but its only a bl;ur at the edges of the screen

[Art Blade]

Don't forget to read what is to the right side of the graph... the even bigger games that don't have their maps displayed.

[PZ]

... During faction missions I still prefer unmounted gattling guns in my hands (walking slowly but breathing lead)  ;D

Man, I love this game!  :)

Just for clarification to those that are not playing the game, I've been calling these "miniguns", but "unmounted Gatling gun" is more descriptive.  Maybe we should use an acronym "UGG"  ;D

[Art Blade]

now I know those are spelled with one T, thanks ;) Yeah, UGG or GG is a good one  :-X

[Art Blade]

Today the first thing I decided to do was an air race. Sawah River (western part of the map, an isle in a river) which is a 3 star rated race (max difficulty). That race is comprised of 19 goals to hit, each goal you hit unlocks (shows) the next one and so on. You are given a one minute count down during which to achieve a win. Died a couple of times when trying to get used to that small plane, then went for it... 30.36 seconds record. I skipped the bonus goals (which would have given me more time) and yet I think 30 secs sounds unlikely... felt like flying like a couple of minutes. Nice though  :)

[PZ]

On casual, each time you successfully go through a "hoop", some number of seconds (I recall 10 seconds per goal on my last race) are added to your timer.

I'm impressed that you were able to do an airplane race on the PC so short into the game, particularly with the 3 star difficulty  :-X

I still can't fly a plane in a race and actually complete it.

[Art Blade]

thanks :) I got killed like 5 or 6 times more or less at the start and one very spectacular mishap when trying to fly a vertical loop (slammed into the ground instead of pulling up).  ;D

Actually all you need to do is this:

• don't use the mouse
• use the steering keys as little as possible
• try to predict where your plane is going before you correct its path

After the race I discovered a couple of locations with that plane, visited the Miles High Club (nice), took their local plane and found Panau International Airport where I successfully landed my plane. Hijacked a big airliner there (after the pilot had done his job with the lift-off) and found Panau City and its districts. There I abandoned the airliner so it disappeared unnoticed (sea), grabbed my favourite bike (an equivalent of a Yamaha 250 although they changed some letters in that name hehe, love the sound of its engine) and did a city tour. To my surprise, down at the Residential District, I found a colonel. Courtesy of my sniper rifle, the city only heard a loud bang and Rico going "AHAHAhahahahar!" (colonels are easy to pick with a headshot) ;D

[PZ]

I've been playing the game for a long time now, and haven't encountered that Colonel - in fact, I've spent most of my time in the rural areas rather than the cities.  Looks like I've lots of fun times ahead.

[Art Blade]

That city is impressive. I spent some time driving around there on my bike, occasionally being shouted at "THERE HE IS!" and managed to lose my pursuers quite easily. Man.. this game is still so new I am easily impressed with what I see there, incredible.  :)

[batdog]

... 30.36 seconds record. I skipped the bonus goals (which would have given me more time) and yet I think 30 secs sounds unlikely... felt like flying like a couple of minutes. Nice though  :)

Note that all the races in the game are countdowns and that each checkpoint gives you an extra 10 seconds (I think), so your 30 seconds will be the time you had left after your initial minute (?) plus 10 seconds times the number of checkpoints you passed through.  So the ultimate goal is to get the MOST time remaining at the end of the race.

[JRD]

Don't forget to read what is to the right side of the graph... the even bigger games that don't have their maps displayed.

Oh... sure... right... ::) :P :-[

Thats explain one side... BOP being big - in fact I was right, it's big, pero no mucho  ;D ;D

But GTA SA still impressing me... I remember it being huge!!

[Art Blade]

hehe :)

"pero no mucho" is Spanish (castellano) -- I thought you spoke Portuguese, do you use the same words in that case? :)

[JRD]

No... in Portuguese it would be mas não muito. We use a few spanish expressions from nuestros hermanos (our brothers) though, but in a funny way. Sure thing many words are the same and can be used in both countries.

[Art Blade]

thanks, JRD :)

And thanks, batdog, for your info about races  :)

[Art Blade]

I am still happy with single shot weapons, I still use my pistol and for special occasions my revolver (never dual wielded). The sniper rifle is dedicated to colonels. I use hand grenades a lot for destruction, and if I ran out of them I resort to c-4. All of those are upgraded to lvl4 but the revolver which is lvl3. Now around 2000+ kills of which 500+ were headshots. I have to remind myself to keep calm and aim rather than spray and pray  ;D

[Art Blade]

Although I spent almost 50 hours playing the game, I still wouldn't say that I was familiar with it. Well, the controls (default layout) are now familiar, I learned how to use the grapple and the glider well, and I got used to the "wonky" feeling the game controls impart. What I mean is, this game world is so incredible huge that I feel a stranger to basically every place, even if I passed through some of the locations more than once. Other than FC2, you don't revisit a place. There are like 400 villages, harbours, airports and whatnot to be discovered and discovering them takes most of the time I spend. Which in a way feels like being a tourist on a massive sight-seeing tour. I like that :) Unlike a tourist, I steal vehicles or get supplied with weapons and vehicles, furthermore I kill soldiers and destroy government property. I like that, too  ;D

[Art Blade]

Currently I am busy tidying up Panau City's districts. The city is huge... So I am happy with my fully upgraded sniper rifle, climb rooftops, and from there shoot colonels in the head (now 22 total) and also take down water towers from quite a distance with a single shot. On my way around I collect goodies such as armour and weapon and vehicle upgrades, along with some random drug drops (erm, drug dops.. are those like acid drops, only with drugs in them instead? Nice sweets they have there LOL). When I see a propaganda trailer or a statue, I take them out, too. There is no better hiding place than on top of somewhat higher buildings that govmen can't see from down on the streets. I played probably two hours now in the city, and they never caught me :)

[PZ]

Good tip - I've hardly used the sniper rifle because the view through the scope is so poor in my opinion - now I might have to try it.

[spaceboy]

I should try that as well Art - sounds like a good strategy.