First impressions

[Binnatics]

How I wish to quote your spoiler Fragger, it made me jiggle quite a bit

I am surprised how detailed their copy is actually; my worst fear has come true. I will definitely wait for the bargain bin. On the other hand, I'm quite tempted to play FC3 again; I can't deny I've had a really good time there, 683 hours to be precise :-D

[Art Blade]

I have got 1,739 hours on FC3, most of which was coop online and SP free roaming with mods. That's enough. :-()

[Binnatics]

 :o :-D

[nexor]

I responded twice to your questions Art, unfortunately both times we experienced power outages while I was busy with the postings, been having power outages all damn weekend, sorry about that.
So far I have only come across it while on a mission, I was getting my a$$ kicked so I tried to approach the area from a different angle, and that's when the message came up, if you ignore it and continue moving away a failed mission message appears and you are forced to start over, after the third time I opted to abandon the mission.

[Art Blade]

Sorry about those power outages that ruined your efforts, nexor, and thanks for your reply :) So, it isn't half bad.. at least free roam seems to still be free roam. :)

[PZ]

Although I didn't really like FC3 all that much, it was still an okay game so I'll probably get FC4 one of these days.

[Dweller_Benthos]

More Penny Arcade mentions:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2014/11/21

Comic about how everything attacks you? lol

and a video of awesome driving skills

http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2014/11/20/im-a-very-good-driver

I laughed and laughed, still laughing thinking about it.

And on a personal note, I was in Best Buy over the weekend, picking up the new Pink Floyd CD, and my feet, of their own accord, took me past the PC games aisle. Not sure how I ended up there, or how a copy of FC4 wound up in my hands. Very strange. But, it was the "deluxe edition" or "extended edition" that includes three extra SP missions and Hurk's harpoon gun. So, Hurk is in this game too? Do you chase his monkeys again?

[PZ]

That tuk-tuk reminds me of JC2.

Looking forward to your impressions of the game, D_B

[JRD]

... and so the number of OWG members playing FC4 increases.....  8)  ::)

[Binnatics]

AOW, D_B! Indeed am curious for your inpressions, let's say "in Search for the fun factor" ;)

[Art Blade]

AOW = ? America Offline Wins?

The vid was funny, I followed it to YT and watched it there (you cold have embedded it here like that). I had to laugh at the off-screen explosion of that Tuk-Tuk

[Binnatics]

AOW = ? America Offline Wins?

Sorry, my Dutch auto-edit-languange-checker did that (on my iPhone) and it actually stands for Algemene Ouderdomswet, loosely translated to Retirement funds arrangement. Of course I only wanted to write "Wow"

[Art Blade]

  :-X :-()

[fragger]

  Spell Wrecker Checker strikes again!

My copy of the game is also a "Limited Edition" which includes a DLC code for the Hurk mission and the harpoon gun. I won't bother with that until I can play the game more comfortably - I'm still waiting for a keymapping fix before I play much further. I played the other night mainly to get past the intro sequence and make the game do a save, and while I was at it I played on a bit more just to see what else might be of interest. But I do find it an uncomfortable handful playing with the controls the way they are. I made them a little bit more easy for me to w@&k with but it ain't perfect. Oddly enough, the mouse buttons for aiming (middle) and shooting (right) are working the way I remapped them, but if I try to remap the left MB for moving forward the game doesn't want to know. It's only the LMB - all my other remaps are working fine. But that one remap failure throws my whole playing technique askew :D

I haven't yet done any open-worlding, it's been quite linear so far, which makes me think I may still be in tutorial mode, even though I got a message saying something like "Prologue Ended" after the avalanche bit. Only one mission seems to be available at the moment - go and liberate a tower. I haven't tried any driving yet, and I won't be hopping on the backs of any elephants for a while either - that's a skill you need to level up to, which I'm nowhere near at this remove.

I may play around a bit more tonight, awkward keys or not.

[fragger]

Played a little more. Good news - keymapping has been fixed with a new patch. NOW I can play my way. Woo-hoo :-X

Unlocked the first tower. Same deal as in FC3 - climb up, interact with the apparatus at the top (which will zoom you around to show three nearby locations of interest), zipline back down. Surrounding area of map is revealed and there is the usual associated time-limited speed-run mission to be attempted. Like nex I got attacked by an eagle halfway up the tower and I shot him down, but not until after he'd taken a good beakful out of me. I have a feeling this will happen every time you attempt that first tower, a bit like the snake at the bottom of the first one in FC3.

A fave FC2 feature is back - you can now sleep in a bunk and set your alarm to wake up later. Works as it did in FC2. Night was coming on when I stopped playing but I can't tell yet if day/night cycle works as per FC2 or FC3.

On the way to the tower I heard gunfire, and following it I came across a bunch of Golden Path people fighting a few of Min's soldiers. Same procedure as in FC3 - help the good guys out and they'll give you some money. Now there are women doing some of the fighting too. About time they pulled their weight 8-X

The grapple can only be used in certain places. An icon will appear wherever this can be used and there's always a small bit of wooden structure to indicate where to throw. You can throw the grapple up and then climb, or you can swing Tarzan-style across gaps, then release to land. I mistimed the release the first time and nearly fell down a cliff, luckily there was another ledge below and I was able to grapple back to my start position and try again. You can also swing, release and then grapple a further point whilst still in midair, but only where there are grapple icons to allow this. You can't use the grapple just anywhere unfortunately, which gives the whole thing a Lara Crofty feel. Pity.

Had a bit of a drive too. Driving has yet a different feel to it than in previous Far Cries. There is an option whereby you can hit a key to enter "autodrive" mode in which the game will keep the car on the road while you swing about in your seat to shoot at enemies to the sides and even behind, all while you're on the move. I haven't yet had an opportunity to try this out. You can only do this with a handgun btw, but you can chuck a grenade out the window while you're at it.

The skills are actually no longer in tree format, you can jump to any skill in the table. However many skills require a prerequisite mission to be completed, or some particular action/achievement to be accomplished, to unlock. Also some skills cost one skill point to purchase, others cost two. Some may cost more, I don't know yet.

Still trying to get a good frame rate. I've had to drop my res and most detail options to low. It's quite playable now, but I lost a lot of lovely detail getting there. I may have to upgrade my graphics card after all. All my other specs meet the requirements, it's only my graphics card that's letting down the side as far as I can tell.

So does the new stuff add up to a more involving FC4? Dunno yet. I don't think there's as much to the story as in the earlier game, which might be a good thing in this case. FC3 had too much story with too many attendant cut scenes needed to move it along. FC2 showed that you can have plenty of story involvement without getting bogged down with a lot of cut scenes, but given the nature of this game I think too much story could actually be a hindrance. It's still too early to tell, but all indications so far are that it won't put a terribly great hook into me personally. It has the potential for fun I think but not for any kind of great immersion.

I'll post a few more screenies soon :)

[JRD]

Nice impressions fragger!  :-X

I'm glad you fixed your key mapping and is now able to play. The game sounds like fun and provided I don't get too hooked on Black Flag as soon as it drops it's price for the holidays I might also invest on FC4.

Good thing about the sleeping feature. It is something I truly missed in FC3.

Any sunsets worth glancing at?

[Dweller_Benthos]

The most funny thing in that video I posted was when he finally gets out of the burning car, gets the fire on him put out, then gets attacked by a pig.

I've yet to install the game, waiting for a time when I know I won't need the computer or internet connection for a few hours. I'm sure there will be tons of updates to install. Nice to hear the key mapping has been fixed, though I don't use the mouse buttons to move, so that might not have been an issue for me anyway.

[PZ]

Nice report fragger, +1  :-X

... still waiting for you to report on the first boss mission  8-X

[Binnatics]

 
Indeed great report! Dunant how so many things are the same in FC4

[nexor]

Your'e right D_B, the initial installation only took about 45 min, then the damn UPlay installation/update took about 6 hours  :o

[Art Blade]

six hours updating? ???

Fragger, nice report and I'm glad that you can now at least play the game :)

[PZ]

 ??? wow... 6 hours!

[fragger]

Cheers fellas :)

A couple of things I forgot to mention. One cool thing - you can now pick up a dead body more than once. In FC3, once a deader was on the ground, that was it, you could no longer drag it around. Now, instead of dragging a body, you sling it over your shoulder and carry it, meaning you can move around faster and thus get it out of sight quicker than you could in FC3. Also, if you drop the body, you can pick it up again. I tried to drop one over a cliff, but I wasn't close enough at first. So I picked him up again and this time, down he went. Just as well for him that he was already dead, because his bouncing off of ledges and rocks on his way down would have hurt a tad >:D

The other thing was that even though I haven't experienced a full night-and-day cycle yet, I'm thinking that it will be like FC2. The fact that you can set your alarm to wake at a certain time seems to suggest that. We'll see in time, I suppose. Get it? We'll see in time? Sorry...

Any sunsets worth glancing at?

Not yet mate. I've only experienced one nightfall and the weather was kind of gloomy at the time. There was some snow falling too. But at least it didn't abruptly get dark like it does in FC3, it seemed to be a more gradual transition. We'll see, there might be nice sunsets at other times.

... still waiting for you to report on the first boss mission  8-X

If there is one, you'll certainly hear from me about it ;)

[fragger]

Here's a few more piccies:

This is the crafting screen. The options and categories are pretty much what you're used to in FC3.

[smg id=7411 align=center width=600]

The map. Looks nicer than FC3's, and is also zoomable. At lower left is Banapur, this game's equivalent of Amanaki Village (note the fast travel icon on it). I'm in the centre of the map here, at the tower I just unlocked. The little parachute icon to the right of my position indicates a delivery-type mission available. I'm still getting the hang of what all the icons represent, but pop-ups tell you what they are when you hover the pointer over them. Loot crate, vehicle and hang-glider icons are pretty much exactly the same as they were in FC3.

[smg id=7412 align=center width=600]

Here's another dead guy I chucked off a cliff, on his way to a permanent dirtnap on the road below. Happy landings, numbnuts!

[smg id=7413 align=center width=600]

The grapple procedure. When you find a place to use the grapple, the - well, grapple - icon and a prompt appears (the little yellow reticule next to the icon indicates something else - my current objective. It just happened to lie in the same direction as the grapple location at this point). Holding your interact key throws the grapple (in my case, the Spacebar).

[smg id=7414 align=center width=600]

Once thrown, the grapple will hook on but nothing will happen until you choose another key (Detach will simply free the grapple).

[smg id=7415 align=center width=600]

In this case, I needed to do a Tarzan-swing to the ledge below, just to the left of my hand. The procedure is: Tap the Ascend Key - in my case, RMB (fire) and you start swinging across. Then hit your Jump Key to let go of the rope and drop on to the ledge. You should let go right at the furthermost extremity of the swing. Let go too soon, or too late after you start swinging back, and you'll miss the ledge and fall. With a little practice it's not too difficult, and in this case - the first grapple in the game - there is a "safety" ledge below the target one if you miss, and you can grapple back to the start point for another try. If you hold the Ascend key instead of just tapping it, you'll climb up the rope for as long as you keep holding down the key. You can Descend again if you climb too high to get up enough of a swing. Sometimes all you need to do with the grapple is use it to climb up to a higher point, without doing the ape-man thing.

[nexor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l-5i-T-8AQ&feature=youtu.be
And the fun begins   :-D