<story><title>Far Cry</title><url>http://ceasarbautista.com/essays/far_cry.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>barrkel</author><text>Rapidly refreshing outposts were the primary source of fun to me: the fact that they respawned meant that there was nothing gained by attacking them, it was much more rewarding to plot a route on the map and sneak past.&lt;p&gt;In fact I normally printed out a map and annotated it with patrol positions to help plan my routes between missions, usually via rivers, quickly fleeing if spotted.&lt;p&gt;Most of the game for me was an exercise in navigating the map at night (sleeping until night if necessary) and getting into a good sniper position for my next target (being sure to be close enough it wouldn&amp;#x27;t reset).&lt;p&gt;I think respawning is justifiable as a mechanic, though it would be better for infinite reinforcements to arrive on an infinite stream of transports. That would probably be too harsh for the people who fight their way through the checkpoints though.</text></item><item><author>knolan</author><text>It’s a great game that was let down by its rapidly refreshing  outposts which made traversing the world a chore. Fortunately I believe there are mods to fix this.&lt;p&gt;The immersion really was great. I loved pulling out my map while driving and trying to navigate while driving; it was utterly impossible to do both tasks well at the same time.&lt;p&gt;The sequels threw out the baby with the bathwater unfortunately but it inspired great new immersive experiences in games like Metro. Even the Ghostbusters game did a great job of placing all the game feedback on your proton pack.</text></item><item><author>Apocryphon</author><text>One of the most underrated games of the last decade. A brutal, unforgiving safari into the inhumanity of war amidst a stunningly beautiful landscape. Surprising that few games since have been set in Lion King country.&lt;p&gt;Although they’re basically Easter Eggs you have to hunt for to experience, the Jackal’s audiotapes are some of the best-written, most hauntingly acted dialogue in video gaming: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=cCJBOZC7XdQ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=cCJBOZC7XdQ&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tom Bissell’s Extra Lives also has a great essay about Far Cry 2.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>leetcrew</author><text>&amp;gt; I think respawning is justifiable as a mechanic, though it would be better for infinite reinforcements to arrive on an infinite stream of transports. That would probably be too harsh for the people who fight their way through the checkpoints though.&lt;p&gt;this is one of my major gripes with open world games like far cry. some of my favorite gameplay is either ambushing patrols or getting surprised and having to fight your way out. I had a lot of fun with the convoy side missions in far cry 4. it gets really boring in the late game though when your weapons are so powerful that it&amp;#x27;s trivial to dispatch the small groups of enemies you encounter. if I start picking guys off deep in enemy territory, there should be some sort of overwhelming response at some point.&lt;p&gt;my other issue is how the stealth mechanics tend to play out in these games. if an enemy sees me kill someone at an outpost, the whole place is at full alarm for sixty seconds trying to find me. but if I just hide behind a tree and wait out the timer, they give up and act like nothing even happened. it makes it feel kinda pointless to clear a whole outpost without getting detected. there&amp;#x27;s no need to destroy the alarms either when the &amp;quot;reinforcements&amp;quot; are only a couple more trucks with enemies.</text></comment>
<story><title>Far Cry</title><url>http://ceasarbautista.com/essays/far_cry.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>barrkel</author><text>Rapidly refreshing outposts were the primary source of fun to me: the fact that they respawned meant that there was nothing gained by attacking them, it was much more rewarding to plot a route on the map and sneak past.&lt;p&gt;In fact I normally printed out a map and annotated it with patrol positions to help plan my routes between missions, usually via rivers, quickly fleeing if spotted.&lt;p&gt;Most of the game for me was an exercise in navigating the map at night (sleeping until night if necessary) and getting into a good sniper position for my next target (being sure to be close enough it wouldn&amp;#x27;t reset).&lt;p&gt;I think respawning is justifiable as a mechanic, though it would be better for infinite reinforcements to arrive on an infinite stream of transports. That would probably be too harsh for the people who fight their way through the checkpoints though.</text></item><item><author>knolan</author><text>It’s a great game that was let down by its rapidly refreshing  outposts which made traversing the world a chore. Fortunately I believe there are mods to fix this.&lt;p&gt;The immersion really was great. I loved pulling out my map while driving and trying to navigate while driving; it was utterly impossible to do both tasks well at the same time.&lt;p&gt;The sequels threw out the baby with the bathwater unfortunately but it inspired great new immersive experiences in games like Metro. Even the Ghostbusters game did a great job of placing all the game feedback on your proton pack.</text></item><item><author>Apocryphon</author><text>One of the most underrated games of the last decade. A brutal, unforgiving safari into the inhumanity of war amidst a stunningly beautiful landscape. Surprising that few games since have been set in Lion King country.&lt;p&gt;Although they’re basically Easter Eggs you have to hunt for to experience, the Jackal’s audiotapes are some of the best-written, most hauntingly acted dialogue in video gaming: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=cCJBOZC7XdQ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=cCJBOZC7XdQ&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tom Bissell’s Extra Lives also has a great essay about Far Cry 2.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>luxuryballs</author><text>Your post made me remember how much of that game was spent driving for me and how much I enjoyed it. Rather than sneaking around I would often just drive at break neck speeds in creative ways like taking cliffs and busting through fences to shortcut past a dangerous hot spot.&lt;p&gt;After reading the article I was thinking of playing through it again, after reading these comments I’m 100% committed.</text></comment>