First impressions

[PZ]

Nice pics guys  :-X

Torching that merc in your video was just classic, nex 

[JRD]

   :-X

Setting that merc on fire and watchig him running was marvelous. Nice shot on the second merc as well.

Made my day!  :-X

[nexor]

Most of the Molotov carriers I've shot so far burst into flames like that one   :-()

[Stiku]

Well, atleast heavy flamers will explode into the sky, when shooting at their tanks now.

[Art Blade]

good vid, nexor :)

[fragger]

There are a couple of things, good and bad.

The weapons tagging can be turned off. I didn't notice that before. That's good because I didn't like having things becoming tagged simply by being ironsighted.

Occasionally you'll come across a guy on foot walking along the road with a hefty wooden-framed pack on his back. If you interact with him, you can buy and sell stuff with him like you do in a store. This came in handy a couple of times when I was low on ammo. You can sell your loot items to him as well. Safehouses still have the equivalent of vending machines in them, only now they're simply ornate cabinets.

There is an option in the main menu which will allow you to reset all outposts, apparently without having to complete the entire game first. I haven't been able to verify this because I can't yet get to an outpost. There is a kind of starting area, which is moderately sizable but it appears to be enclosed until, presumably, you do at least one mission to open the way... I thought to unlock another tower nearby, and to get to it I had to follow what appears to be the only road out of the starting region, but it was blocked by a couple of overturned buses. However, I found a way around the buses, but then I got a message saying something like "You are out of bounds" with a counter timing down to allow me to get back into bounds. Bounds? Hmm... ????

Hopefully the game will become more open-world once I get out of what I'm thinking of as the starting area. I'd like to craft myself up some more - like getting the skins together for another holster. So far I only have one holster and for a second one I need three wolf hides, but I've only gotten one, and that wolf popped up during the first supply run mission and I suspect he was scripted in. According to the map there are no wolves in this area, just wild dogs.

Looks like there may be a bit of the dreaded linearity happening here...

[fragger]

Dreaded linearity indeed...

As I suspected, not one but a number of missions have to be completed before the player can get out of the initial region, and I still didn't get out of it before I lost interest. The missions you need to complete are rigidly linear and depressingly heavily scripted. There is a lot of talk and long-winded cutscenes which are going to get pretty damned boring and tedious after more than one playthrough (they're boring and tedious the first time around) and all of it is bland and uninvolving. Already there has been one race-against-time mission, and I hate that s#!t. My worst fears about this game are starting to come true - or should I say, my suspicions are being confirmed.

I'm not impressed, not impressed at all. I thought Ubi said they were going to stay away from doing another heavily scripted, one-way game. If what I've just played through is any indication, that was a lot of hooey and each playthrough of this game is going to be even more of a monotonous chore to get through than FC3 was.

I'll stick with it a bit more to see if it goes anywhere, but I'm not holding out much hope. And I'm sure as hell not holding out any hope that this will be a worthy successor to FC2. I wouldn't want to go through the missions I just did a second time, let alone repeatedly.

Dull and disappointing :-(

[Art Blade]

Consider it an extension of FC3, get through the s#!t just to reach the end of the story, just like we did with FC3, and consider the end of the story the start of the game -- open world, wahey. That's when FC3 started to become interesting. And it really got better once the mods were out.. ;)

[fragger]

Yep. I'm hoping that once I get through these initial missions the game will open up into more of an open-world affair, like FC3 did after liberating the first outpost (which is what I'm required to do next, but it's taking a lot longer than it did in FC3). I'll play some more and see, but it hasn't been a great deal of fun so far.

[nexor]

good vid, nexor :)

Thanks Art   :-X
Slowly getting into the game, haven't done a main mission yet, I aborted the mission where I just got my a$$ kicked all the time, didn't have proper weapons at the time, I have most of the weapons I'm comfortable with now so will go and give it another attempt soon   ::)

[PZ]

That's disappointing to read, fragger.  I'm going to get the game at Best Buy because I have a $35 coupon that needs to be used before it expires.

Of course, I could always purchase Kleenex or something like that instead.

[fragger]

lol PZ :-D

I went on and liberated the first outpost and that did indeed open things up somewhat. Those two buses I mentioned have now moved apart and I could get through into the wide world beyond. It does become more open-world after that, but getting through those first few missions was kind of tedious, basically a more long-winded version of the tutorial stretch in FC3. This could become a repetitive drag in future playthroughs. I have still to investigate but it looks as though there may be an option to do manual saves, in which case it would probably be best to do a save immediately after the introductory section to avoid having to go through it all again in future.

Two of the major characters in the game, a woman named Amita and a guy named Sabal, will offer some of the main missions. Mission-getting locations for these two are marked as an "A" or an "S" on the map (I saw an "H" on the map and went to it, and ran into Hurk there, but he didn't offer me any missions, just went through a dialogue, which was actually quite funny). Amita and Sabal are apparently at loggerheads over what should action should be taken next, and whichever one you accept a mission from will apparently dictate the future course of events, which seems kind of interesting - time will tell if and how. I went with the guy to start with, and he sent me on what turned out to be an odd kind of assignment (if you're expecting the gritty down-to-earthness of FC2, I don't think you'll find it here...) I had to help out some allies in fighting off a bunch of bad guys known as "Hunters", who are a little like bow-wielding ninjas who not only shoot arrows at you but can "charm" nearby wild animals to attack you. About as down-to-earth as Phantom Agents.

I did find a gryocopter and had a fly around, and that was actually quite fun. You can shoot any kind of handgun from the 'copter it appears, not just a grenade launcher. I could fire a machine pistol from it. The wingsuit is back and can now be purchased, you don't have to reach a particular point in the game to get it.

A lot has been carried over from FC3 - bad guys patrolling on foot in pairs near unliberated outposts (often consisting of a chopping-type dude with a gun-toting partner), same outpost system with alarms, animals in cages and side missions becoming available upon liberation, radio towers with accompanying supply-drop missions, and some other stuff. After liberating the first outpost I briefly caught a message about a race becoming available somewhere so it looks like those are carried over as well.

I think, as Art suggested, the game could be fun outside of the main story. Cutscenes preceding main missions are still somewhat wordy and I'm finding myself thinking, "just get on with it already". Free-roaming looks like it could be enjoyable, but the terrain isn't as accessible as it was in FC3. It's more like FC2, there are some areas that you just can't get over. I tried to fly over them with the gyrocopter but an alarm of sorts started sounding along with a flashing light on the console, sort of like a stall warning, when I got to a certain height. You can't fly too high, evidently.

Possibly some fun to be had outside of the main missions. It is still early days and maybe the game will make me eat my words further on - we'll see.

[Binnatics]

Good reads Fragger, keep it coming. Nice to follow you on your exploration of this new world. Sad to hear that there's areas that are inaccessible.  ????

[fragger]

Thanks Binn :) I don't think any of us were expecting a breathtaking gaming experience with FC4 - which is good because we would have been disappointed if we had been :-\\

It's certainly not a rotten game but it does lack that certain X factor. It's hard to pinpoint exactly how, but it just doesn't quite engage - well not me anyway. I'll still stick with it for at least one playthrough because it is a good shooter in terms of graphics, etc. and once past the linear, scripted main missions there is a definite potential for good old-fashioned violent fun :-() It looks like there will be a lot of exploring to do and the usual sides quests and activities like the ones in FC3. It is nice to look at, I'll certainly give it that.

Piccie time:

This guy's crazy.

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This is a wandering trader. You can interact with him to buy and sell stuff, just like you do in stores and at safehouse vending cabinets.

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Crater lake. The water looks really nice in FC4.

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Just call me The Gyrocaptain! You can't fly enormously high or fast in it, but it is fun. The control prompts don't stay on the screen all the time, just initially. I think you can stop them from appearing at all in the main menu.

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[PZ]

Fantastic looking pics, fragger - the graphics are stunning

[Art Blade]

yes, I like those pics and stories, fragger  :-X Keep 'em coming :)

[fragger]

Cheers :) The game is a looker. Bear in mind that I have a lot of graphics options turned down to low or medium, with no antialiasing, ambient occlusion or post enabled, and a lower res than native. Still looks fantastic. On a super-duper PC with a smooth frame rate it should be a full-on sock remover.

Well, there definitely is fun to be had away from the story. I just played for an hour or so without doing any main missions and had a ball. Running about exploring and picking fights is the most fun thing for me to do.

Some of the wild animals are tough, and dangerous. I saw a rhino nearby and chucked a grenade at it to see what effect it would have on him. All it did was make him cranky, even though it went off right under him :-() He ran off initially, but then came back with a vengeance. I was able to climb onto the roof of a nearby building to get away from him, and still he hung around looking daggers at me and waiting for a chance to have another go. They're huge, they're fast, they'll charge at you from quite a distance away, and they're flipping scary when they're coming at you with their heavy rumbling footsteps. If they connect with you they do a lot of damage, and they're quick with the next charge. If you can't get something like a big rock between you both you're in serious trouble - you no sooner shoot up a syringe than you're being butted again.

At one point I had two of them on the road ahead of me to contend with, and they were choosing between whether to go after me or two civvies further along. While I was pondering on the best way to deal with the situation a snow leopard pounced on me from behind and gave me a good clawing. I've also been bitten by snakes on two occasions. When they bite, your health will keep gradually declining until you hit up a syringe to stop the venom. Even then, it will decline a little more before it halts, so you don't want to wait too long before restoring.

Found a hovercraft, they're great fun. They'll go on water and land, and I had a fun time whizzing up on to the land and slip-sliding all around :-X I also pinched a 4WD with a .50 cal mounted on it after wasting the goons who previously owned it. The sound of that baby is phenomenal >:D In fact all weapons sounds are terrific in FC4, they have a real punch to them. I got a recurve bow - yay! I discovered that if you kill an animal with an arrow it's considered a "clean kill" and you get a double skin from it.

Friendlies still manage to run over each other ::) Only thing is now, when they get hit they really go flying, it's quite amusing. There are some funny non-fatal glitches, like the one nex posted earlier - I shot a guy and he took off into the air like Superman. These sorts of quirks have always actually added to the enjoyment of these games. I also saw what I think was a vulture just sitting high in the sky without moving and I saw a tapir get stuck in a rock.

Driving while shooting a handgun is doable but a bit of a juggle. In order to keep autosteering going you have to keep your weapon aimed. Keeping on the gas, aiming and shooting is tricky. The game will steer the car for you, but if you let up on the gas you'll just roll to a stop. If you stop ironsighting, after a moment the game reverts back to manual steering. So there's three controls to monitor, essentially. Just a matter pf practice.

There is still a wee issue with keymapping. You're supposed to be able to set your foot controls and vehicle controls separately, but changing one will change the other accordingly, e.g. whatever key you remap to walk forward will automatically remap your drive forward control to the same key, and vice-versa. A tad annoying, but not a disaster.

There are plenty of random mini side missions that pop up. A cool one is when sometimes you'll see some bad guys driving around in a big truck. If you take them out and get into the truck, you'll be prompted to drive it to a particular location such as a liberated outpost. Once there, you'll get a monetary reward and a free ammo top-up. There are hostage rescues, civvy-defending missions against attacks by wild animals, and many other situations that just pop up at random from time to time as you move around. Whether you get involved in them or not is entirely up to you, but you'll always get a reward if you're successful.

Free roaming is definitely going to be the way to go in this game. Being able to reset outposts whenever you like is a welcome addition :-X

[Art Blade]

excellent.  :)

[nexor]

fragger :lol

I found one thing that'll stop a Rhino fragger, the PKM!  but then you should be at a safe distance so you can empty the magazine into him
But yeah, they look real scary close up....    :-D

[Art Blade]

there is something else that can soften up a rhino very nicely.

Spoiler

acquire the ability to ride an elephant, then ride an elephant and let him headbutt the rhino but it will take more than just one attempt. :)

[PZ]

The graphics alone now have me a bit interested in the game  :-X

[nexor]

The graphics are very good PZ, but then again, all the FC games have good graphics

[Binnatics]

Keep it coming guys.  :-X ^-^

One question; Can you shoot the trader?

[nexor]

Yes you can Binn, you can even ride him over, he also scares very easily.
At one time I spotted him while desperately needing more ammo, in my haste I stopped my vehicle too close to him, he bolted and took off running, I ran after him in an attempt to communicate with him so I could purchase ammo but he kept on running and disappeared into the bushes.

[PZ]

Here's the million dollar question - if you kill him, can you steal all his wares?  >:D

One of the features I found really funny in older AC games was when you could bribe town heralds - then steal back your money