Just fired FC3 after a long time

[JRD]

... and found out the next missions is the Medusa  8)

Best mission in this game!

My past self left me a game with pretty much all upgrades done, except the ones you need a special animal you may find at the Trail of the Hunter (or whatever it is called). He (me) also left almost all towers and guard posts undone which means I can get a lot of fun while remembering how to properly dispose of the red shirts in this game.

It is actually a nice game. Good fun exploring and hunting and you have nice weapons available with a good amount of attachments to customize your loadout. I found myself with a silenced sniper, the bow, silenced MP5 and a PKM for when the party gets loud and crowded  >:D

I just spent an hour or so clearing an outpost and a tower and hunting some animals. Good fun!  :-X . I had forgotten how much fun it is to attack an outpost and free roam. I also remember how disappointing the draw distance on this game is and how bad things look from mid to long distance, especially when you zoom in using your sniper scope. I may just get the rest of my friday evening and dust off my game.

I do enjoy FC3. I just didn't hit the main story path yet and will surely be annoyed to do the giant big boss again but I may go all the way again.  8-X

[Art Blade]

the game is good as long as you don't touch the main missions. :-()

[PZ]

Have a great time, JRD!  That is one of my favorite missions as well.  I wish all of them were on par with that one.

[fragger]

I do still quite enjoy FC3 and still play it. I have a manually-saved game which I made right before the final mission to play poker with Hoyt. I played that game by whizzing through all the main missions as quickly as possible and leaving everything else alone, so that there are no towers unlocked and no outposts liberated (except for the tutorial ones), lots of skilling up to do, lots of hunting/crafting left to do, few relics and letters collected and most weapons unpurchased. Because it was a manual save, I can fire it up anew and when the game subsequently starts autosaving it does so in the corresponding auto slot, leaving the original manual save unchanged for the next time I want to start it all over again.

All the fun of the free-roam without the main missions :-X

[JRD]

The more I play it the more I appreciate the simplicity of FC2. Simple mission design that allows for free experimentation and gameplay. This is what we miss the most and seems to be exactly what the CoD, 12 year olds, name calling, sugar bomb filled fan boys doesn't get, which is why Ubi left us, mature players, down.  :D

There was basically one simple task to do in all missions in FC2: kill, steal or blow something up at a given location. When and how you accomplish that is up to you. Add that to an open world map and you have a true sand box setting.

Brilliant.  :-X  :)

But noooooooo, Ubi had to please the masses by adding a train-track-shoot-out level design philosophy to the game.  \:/

[Art Blade]

correct. Unfortunately so.

[PZ]

So true, JRD - that's why I have gravitated back to FC2 rather than FC3

[fragger]

Likewise. The absence of linearity in FC2 is its greatest strength (endgame part excepted). I've played FC3 enough times that I can do the main missions in my sleep - utterly boring. Way too restrictive, way, way too many long cutscenes to sit through and too much racing against time.

Heh, one thing I'd completely forgotten about when I got back into FC2. I shot up a guard post and took down all three mercs that were present. Then I wandered in and promptly started getting shot in the back. I was like, "What the...?" I'd forgotten all about those pistol-packing wounded mercs :-[

I'm alternating between four games at the moment - FC2, FC3, Civ V and Civ: Beyond Earth. The earlier versions of both franchises are better than their sequels, IMO.