FC3: First impressions

[Art Blade]

First impression: I did what exactly? I downloaded the game from steam (took about one hour) and played it on its release date?!  ??? who, ME??!!  ???

One downer: You will have to connect to U-play (ubisoft) and if purchased through steam that too but apparently it is possible to play single player without having to be online.

OK guys, you'll be satisfied I think. My friend Uzi was right and Binnatics helped me to see for myself (he will start later despite having downloaded it faster and earlier than me).

The biggest fear we at OWG had was whether or not the game would sprout all kinds of XP and whatnot above enemies on shooting them and some such, like Borderlands does. Well, it does not  ^-^ :-X Marked and visible-through-walls enemies exist only IF you use your camera on them which you don't have to.  :)

The little mark you sometimes see is necessary during missions because it helps you to find your way through flora and fauna of the island and boy, are there a lot of plants. Apart from that waypoint you don't see any XP or some such shooting up as it would in Borderlands. Only after a mission you'll get a success message and how many XP you got. The rest, the fight and walking about is just like FC2. But you do have a mini map and sometimes other HUD elements. Most of the time you don't notice those.

There are loads of weapons (little less than 50) amongst which PZ will find his beloved 6P9 and a silencer is available for it as an upgrade, too. Only the damage is a little bit erm, poor. You'll need bigger guns than that >:D

Your safehouses are now amidst villages and the likes, with friendlies running around AND you've got a vending machine (that also buys from you) inside your safehouse allowing you to do arms dealer business at home :-D Actually you can sell almost everything at an arms dealer (funny, why don't arms dealer sell arms? I mean arms as in legs?  :-() ) as well as buy all kinds of things, mostly upgrades, ammo and more weapons.

Unlocking skills to spice up your abilities is easy and unavoidable. Indeed the question is not whether or not but when to spend your XP points on certain skills because at the end we'll eventually get all skills there are, as one of the game reviews stated.

The graphics are even on an old rig like mine more than nice. I can run it on high except two times medium settings (particularly shadows that eat up a lot of graphic power) and I'm on direct X 9c. So if all that already looks nice, you're surely going to get even better results with bigger machines :)

Animals are almost everywhere. I ran into a bear's stinking jaws right away even during my introductory first mission. I fell off a cliff and almost into a bear, hehe  :-D Next I shot a rattle snake in the head, killed pigs, boars, goats, dogs and mercs. I tried to run over a gazelle but that bitch ran away quicker than my bloody old car could go. No Datsuns there but not far from 'em  :-() Driving a car is better and faster now, you're going to cause far more accidents, PZ  :-D

OK guys.. kind of tired, screenies will follow. :)

So far, good game  :-X

[PZ]

Steam???? from the guy that spit venom whenever he uttered the name??? 

6P9!!!  I love it!!! However, I need Gibbed's FC3 tools to mod weapon strength  >:D

Man, I can hardly wait and it is still a few days off for me.  The bad thing is that it is released mid-week, when I have absolutely no chance to play  :'(

[Fiach]

Thanks for that Art :)

[Art Blade]

welcome, Fiach :)

PZ, you'll at least be able to play rather soon  :)

[Art Blade]

This is just after liberating some location. Most of the time I think "greeeeeen..." when I look around.  :-()
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[PZ]

Although green, the layout is reminiscent of the GP south of Mokuba.

Graphics look great!

I pre-ordered so an chomping at the bit  >:D

[PZ]

I can hardly believe that US FC3 release is less than 4 days away... I remember long ago when we were wondering IF an FC3 would be created, and here it is.

[Art Blade]

then you can imagine my surprise when I found myself playing it :-()

The decision was based on the enthusiasm of my Dutch friend Uzi who was already playing it and that the game would run on an old rig like mine. Back in the day when we were waiting for FC2 I knew I had to buy a new computer first -- this one  :-D

[TheStranger]

Sounds great! Can't wait to play it, but first I have to finish my study.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Well, very interesting. I may pick it up when it's out here, see how it goes. But I have too much to do, game-wise, as there's a new mod pack for Minecraft that is just sucking all my time away, Kerbal Space Program has a new update any day now that looks like it will suck away any remaining time (who needs to sleep?). And I keep promising myself to play and at least try to finish Rage, Duke 4 ever and Crysis 2. But I don't see that happening any time soon.

[fragger]

Thanks for your impressions thus far, Art :) Sounds good so far!

It occurred to me that this is a good time for southern hemisphere dwellers to get into the game, right at the start of a steamy summer. Should add to the immersion value :-()

[Art Blade]

 :)

OK, FC3 is still amusing me.  :-()

Now that I'm well into the game although not following the main plot so far, for the time being, I can easily say: the game delivers. The reason for me to temporarily ignore the plot: It is a survival type of environment and your character's background doesn't quite fit in so you are probably better off discovering, developing, and honing your skills and erm, capacities, before you go on.

At first all you have is a machete and then you're forced to buy a 1911 pistol. I didn't want to continue that naked so I started to explore. The open world nature of the game allows you to do that as long as you wish between missions which is very nice. Downside: you cannot prevent the game from reminding you every now and then (say, every 5 minutes) that you have to get to a place where the story mission will continue. You get to see a pop-up message in the top left corner that keeps telling you the same thing over and over again but fortunately the message disappears after a few seconds just so it can reappear with a sound. Audio-visual reminder, thank you. You'll learn to ignore it, though, as you would if and when your alarm clock kept nagging every five minutes.. snooze  :-()

Exploring will teach you that you are not alone. I must have come across (read: killed) at least 15 different types of animals and about the same amount of different mercs so far. There have been probably another 15 types of vehicles so far which was fun: Datsun-like small city cars, Jeeps, technicals, jet skis, "dune" buggies, quads, some sort of coast guard boats, zip lines.. I know there are hang gliders, too, but I haven't yet tried one.

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Vehicles, which includes cars, actually take damage. Funniest two car encounters: I watched mercs go wild and sink themselves and their Jeep in which they were riding in some kind of lagoon and of course neither one of them could swim  :-() And, I was bombing down a road in my car when I saw two mercs on patrol, they were walking towards me. So I thought I might as well run them over and hit the first of them slap bang in the middle which resulted in a massive surf of blood washing over my windscreen along with a teeth-rattling tremor and the sound of all kinds of things of my car breaking plus the obligatory "AAAAaaargh" of the deceasing merc  And don't fall off a cliff or some such. On your way down you can already hear glass break and see how your car deteriorates. If you're really unlucky, you'll come to a stop sitting in a wreck  :-D And you get hurt in your car, quite badly and quite easily.

I've seen different weather types, including a thunderstorm. There is a day/night cycle, too.

What you might want to do (all three of us, Binnatics, Uzi and I did the same) is to explore and upgrade. Collect plants to craft syringes that heal, temporarily make you a better hunter with super senses, protect you from burn damage and so forth. Collect animal skins to get more weapon slots (you start with one, max is four), be able to carry more ammo, and so on. By the way, you can buy mines and C4 plus remote detonator as well as really powerful hand grenades  :-D. The better your upgrade, the more demanding the animal which skins to get. For instance, I had to hunt sharks and leopards  ??? ^-^

And.. and.. and..  :-()

To be continued.

Oh, and.. get the game  :) :-X

[JRD]

Great review Art... much appreciatted!  :-X

From what I read so far I gathered: explore is the key to survival; artificial dumbness is back; lots of guns, vehicles and animals; get the game!!!!!  8)

Hell Yeah!  >:D

[Binnatics]

Good review Art! :-X

I completely agree with you. I can only append some experiences I had myself. One big question mark to me was the behaviour of the game with DX11. So far, DX11 has been a big bummer for me, except for Dirt2 and 3. The rest of the games that used it did show laggy visuals or no visuals at all. I must admit; FC3 does a great job with it. I had to lower shadow quality (thanx Art for the tip) to make the game run smooth, but it wasn't necessary to downgrade to DX9. That would have been a bit disappointing, since I saw huge difference between DX9 and DX10 in FC2. The visuals are a blast. Really nice effects. I had to get used to some light effects in the beginning, some stuff seemed a bit too glancing like plastic, but you get used to that. And once you've seen a DX11 sunset in FC3, you don't want nothing less ever again :-X ^-^

My second observation was, and that's an important one: The sound in the game, and also some graphics design components, gave me that specific feeling of FC2. The voice actor of Vaas must be a new guy, but somehow he could have just spawned out of Sefapane. I haven't played FC2 in a while, but the moment I got through the initial video and (quite linear) introduction level, I felt like coming home in a somewhat sunny part of the jungle in FC2. When I realised that, I knew this wouldn't turn out to be a disappointment. Not-At-All! The world is sunny and colourful. It's a place where you want to be. And suddenly you feel the danger when you realise that you've entered enemy territory. I like the side-activity /-missions as much as Art and did the same. Explore and start collecting stuff that can give me better equipment. I love to hunt for animals. I saw a tiger once, but he killed me, because I was low on bullets :-\\
I did find a hang-glider and the ease of controlling the thing is promising. I think I could really travel a large distance with it before having to land; the landing was kind of difficult though. Almost killed myself :-D

Here's some screenies that show the beauty of the world and the DX11 touch to it:

Never change a winning theme:
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Sunset:
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My first hang-glider ride:
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Dune-Buggy 2.0:
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Red evening sky:
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A prayer to the sun:
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Any more questions?

Buy the freakin' game!!!!!!

... or wait to its release date >:D >:D >:D

[Art Blade]

Thanks, guys :)

very nice pics there, Binnatics :)

I play on directX 9c due to my vidcard's specs and even that looks nice. Uzi, who compared dx11 with dx9 said the water was more lively with dx11 while it appeared to be comparatively still with dx9.

FC3 finally does what we wished for in FC2: factions do start "merc wars" on their own without us having to force them to  >:D :-X You can sometimes hear machine gun fire and when you go check it out it will either be mercs shooting predators (dogs, tigers, boars and the likes) or indeed a clash of two rivalling faction patrols. NICE :-() :-X It is as if JustCause2 was integrated into FC2, in a way. NIIICE!!  :-D

More than once I observed mercs fighting animals and I decided to help the animals by shooting the mercs in their heads from behind  >:D Then I decided to treat myself to a new tiger fur and whatever animal there was, I'd just slice and dice 'em and flay them dead or alive  >:D

Oh man, it is just great.

We tried coop together, a "conference call" with Uzi, me and Binnatics simultaneously chatting (steam allows to invite more than one person into the same voice chat) was a lot of fun.

Co-op is a completely separate part of the game. You get your own intro video for it and choose one of four characters and you will start to earn XP and upgrades and all the stuff that will be saved independently from the SP career. We had tons of fun, well worth playing that, too  :) :-X

[Binnatics]

Agreed on the coop part. The design of the coop levels is quite linear, but it's designed in  a way that you can play nicely together and really need each other. I can't exactly pinpoint the reasons why you feel dependant on your team, besides having to protect the team-mate who carries the bombs and reviving fallen mates, but you really act like a squad in the warzone. It's a pleasant way of playing. There are pop-ups on-screen though, for headshots and-or multi-kills. But that's something I like in multiplayer games ^-^

[Art Blade]

Hell yeah  :-D In co-op we all got some kind of rewards and were even allowed to "accept or give it to a friend" -- nice  :)

[Fiach]

I got to play the tutorial last night at a friends house (up to the radio antenna) it is definately one beautiful looking game (360)  :-X

[PZ]

I'm thrilled that you're finding the game fun because I recall that you were thinking of skipping this title.  :-X

Regarding the mercs; do they have the same or similar funny dying sounds as in FC2?

[PZ]

Dang, Binn, that was an outstanding series of pictures!   :-X

They remind me so much of my beloved FC2, but of a second generation nature.  I'm now even more excited to get the game, but it doesn't release for me until Tuesday.  :-\\

[JRD]

Regarding the mercs; do they have the same or similar funny dying sounds as in FC2?

yeah... and are there merc wars? Do you cast a shadow? What's the music like?

Man... I'm looking forward to this game!  Just like you, PZ, I'll only be able to play tuesday and weekdays are never good gaming days for me!  :-(

[PZ]

I forgot all about the music; really loved it in FC2  :-X

... and the Datsun dummies, can you outflank them as in FC2?  I'm looking forward to some of the humorous things that the mercs are capable of.

Although I'll pick up the game on Tuesday, like JRD I cannot play until the weekend  :'(

[shelmez]

This game has eaten me)))) It has everything that was missing in the second part. Fly a hang glider amazing!! Goodbye family, my children do not see me for three days)))) My wife said she will go to a neighbor to live, because it does not have the damn game))))) My cat shot herself from hunger)))) I love this game!!!

[Diwas Amatya]

This game is beautiful, that is all :)

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[Art Blade]

@shelmez: 

:-X

@JRD:

are there merc wars?

I might have to rethink the layout of my posts.. they go unnoticed  ???? just kidding, JRD, but check my last post:

FC3 finally does what we wished for in FC2: factions do start "merc wars" on their own without us having to force them to  >:D :-X

So the answer to that is, "YES!"  :-() And no, no shadows, and no idea about the music -- I've switched it off which is what I do 99% of the time with about every game I have  ^-^


@PZ:

I haven't heard many merc sounds so far except for the one "AAAaaaargh" caused by me running over a merc  :-D Most of the time I kill from far away with a sniper rifle so I am too far away to hear anything. Knife takedowns only produce a gargling sound with all the blood filling their mouths they can't produce much more than that. And the rest of the times I am usually too busy to actually pay attention or the battle noises are too loud  :-D

Outflank Datsun Dummies.. not sure. Apparently that type of vehicles is for the player and random "civil" people of your own friendly guys; mercs tend to drive in whatever kind of military vehicles. Which means that all mercs I've encountered so far were quite hostile: they'd much rather attack than waiting for you to outflank them and driving is quite dangerous in FC3. Cars are a lot faster than in FC2 and they take damage extremely fast. More than once I've just banged into something like a rock or tree or other car and my ride started to display all kinds of damage up to emitting black smoke.. time to take a walk or to fight for your life.  :)

I haven't seen mercs doing any humorous things except the one patrol Jeep that careened into a lagoon. Mercs do have quite a few of the FC2 idle motions such as trying to wave away flies and I heard a few of the lines we know from FC2 when they are searching the area, like "I see you! where is he?" or some such. And new lines like, "I am sweating like a pig here."

So far the mercs seem to be more serious now; as is the environment (hostile animals). Mercs aren't just one type of mercs like they were in FC2; here they have different types with different aggression levels and behaviours. Overall, they are no clowns but quite dangerous instead. The whole game is quite serious and challenging which is nice and humour is more subtle and more likely to be found within missions.

Currently I am progressing in the story line a bit because I need to unlock new stuff (which means I can't spend any more XP points on my skill trees. I have all that were unlocked and now I simply have no choice but to go on in order to earn new skill tree options.

You'll get sucked into the game easily once you're acquainted with how the game works and how to do this and that. Great game and very addictive. Usually it goes like this: I want to get from A to B because there is something I need (i.e. a certain species to hunt for skins needed to upgrade some gear). On my way to B I get distracted almost the moment I leave my safehouse and I keep losing myself in the environmental challenges. I pluck a flower (for syringes/potions) here, kill an animal there, run away from another animal, see something unusual like a grotto which I need to check out, kill more animals, kill some patrol mercs.. and am about to run out of ammo so I need to go back to A. Without ever having reached B.  :-D One really needs to focus  So many distractions and incidents..  ^-^ :-X