Just got 'Far Cry' (PC)
 

This game is just flooring me with it's graphics. With the system I have, I'm running it with all the settings maxed out. It's simply gorgeous. THIS is what I wanted to see. Not the random corridors and rooms of Doom 3, but a lush, tropical island. Birds in the sky, bugs, blades of grass, endless vistas, seemingly intelligent adversaries... just stunning to me.

Out of the box, there were problems. Some sound issue, and water surfaces didn't look right. Getting the 1.4 cumulative patch resolved all that.

So, while I do some googling, is there anything I need to check out or do with Far Cry? I'm just playing it now, so please, don't spoil the story for me!

I saw something about there being a special AMD 64 version, but I'm confused... does it require the 64 bit version of Windows to do work?

Any other spoiler-free comments appreciated!

P.S. Props to CompUSA, seemingly the only store that still has this on the shelf!

Yeah I've seen sales for it a lot lately (and it just popped up on Gametap too).

It's a very cool game, and I hope Crysis is just as good.

I just discovered the render mode options. I set it to "cold," since I read that is the most realistic. I don't think I'd like "cartoon," because I don't want everything outlined in black.

Anyone know what the paradise and improved settings do? Is cold going to give me the best image?

Where I'm at in the game now, it's night. Looking forward to seeing what the cold mode looks like in the day.

P.S. It's amusing reading some old posts where people are talking about how they can't run this with the settings that high. Ah, the advantages of newer hardware!

If you have a nice video card (Radeon X800 or above, or GeForce 6x00 or above) you can enable HDR for even nicer looking visuals.

To enable HDR type the following into the console... \r_hdrrendering 1

The value shown here can be anything between 1 and 11, each selection will use slightly different settings for HDR rendering. The general consensus is that using a setting of '7' gives the best results, but everyone will no doubt have their own preference.

I agree, great looking game, even though it came out before Doom 3, I liked the outdoor graphics much better. The open ended gameplay was something fresh from the standard corridor shooter. Can't wait for Crysis now.

It is interesting that in this game you can approach an objective from any feasible direction. Do you follow the road or path, or stay in the jungle? Sneak up from over the hill, or swim underwater. Take 'em out with the sniper rifle, or go Rambo?

Of course, some tactics will be more successful than others, as I've found.

It's also cool to sit and listen to the mercenaries chat with each other. They really seem, well, real. Talking about keeping guard, dinner, ethics (yikes!), and what you the player have been up to.

As in my sig, I do have a good graphics card, a 7900GS. What exactly would HDR do? With that scale, which way is better? If I mess with this, could I mess up the game?

What's weird to me is this game, AFAIK, didn't get any big recognition, when it clearly should have. I had never heard of it. Not even its packaging screams "impressive." A marquee title like Doom 3 gets all the attention (not undeserving, mind you), while a gem like this goes almost unnoticed. A shame.

I still have the same hardware I had when Far Cry came out. :(

I remember it being pretty big when it came out, and stayed big for a while, even after the release of Doom 3.

It doesn't hurt that it spawned a Console version (not a port, the console version also spawned a sequel and Wii abortion).

In fact it's pretty much one of the few name brand FPS games out there now (recognized names) afaik... and Crysis can't come soon enough.

When Far Cry came out, I was living with my W98, K6-2 machine. I was totally out of PC gaming because I knew I couldn't run anything current.

Yeah, the Wiki entry makes it sound like it had a good rate of sales, and it's a good sign that it was successful enough for console conversions to be made.

Is this Crysis coming from the same camp? Is it related to Far Cry, or a totally different game?

Ubisoft now owns the rights to the name/franchise of FarCry.

The original FarCry creators, Crytek, are the ones making Crysis which is pretty much the natural continuation of FarCry in substance but not name. Plus it looks just like FarCry, but with some really fancy additions :).

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/cr...om_clk=gsimage

So this probably means that it will be two years or so before the average consumer has a PC powerful enough to play Crysis on max settings. Ah, Crytek is such a graphic whore. :lol:

The console version, Far Cry Instincts, is a huge pile of shit compared to the PC original Far Cry. Crytek did not want anything to do with the console version, so Ubisoft developed it internally. As a result, Instincts is VERY different. The PC game has outstanding AI; the console game's AI is dumber than a box of rocks. The PC game was fairly nonlinear; the console game was strictly linear. The PC game has amazing graphics that still hold up well today; the console game is plain ugly. The PC game also has about twice as many levels. Far Cry = :bow: Far Cry Instincts = :yack:

Yes, Crytek developed both PC Far Cry and Crysis. For all intents and purposes, Crysis is Far Cry 2. Like RichC2 said, Ubisoft owns the Far Cry name, and since Crytek is no longer with them, they cannot call the game Far Cry 2.

Far Cry definitely became a pretty big deal, as an alternative to Doom 3 and Half Life 2 back when those were released. Personally, I was never really impressed with it but I probably never got far enough in to appreciate the AI. Maybe one day i'll try it again...

I don't think the AI was good at all in the PC version.

Even on Realistic, there were numerous times where enemies would just sit there or ignore me completely when I was shooting at them, especially the guys in boats or manning the mounted guns. Other times, there'd be two guys together, I'd kill one, and the other guy would look around for a few seconds and say that "he must have been hearing something", despite the corpse of his buddy sitting a few feet away.

Then you'd have the opposite effect, where guys, especially guys in towers or guys with rocket launchers, would be facing away from you, then would turn and immediately spot you from a quarter mile away, without an binoculars or scope, and shoot at you with 100% accuracy from any distance. Cheap AI != good AI.

Here are some comparisons...

http://www.hardocp.com/images/articl...ZMfd_4_4_l.jpg

http://www.hardocp.com/images/articl...ZMfd_4_7_l.jpg

lol altimus i see you took my advice about playing some of the older top games hehe. Glad you're having a blast.

this game started as something to show off the power of the new nvidia line up, well new at the time of release. it wasn't supposed to be a game for release at all, but kinda nifty they changed that. multiplayer wasn't bad, but i didn't think it was good either. still a nice looking game for being as old as it is. have they kept support up for it?

Further example of the AI...

I just finished on realistic. On the final level, the guys with rockets would just kill each other and themselves. I'd position myself so that when they faced me, their left arm was behind a wall while their right arm and head was in plain view of me. They'd just sit there and fire the rockets straight into the wall in front of them, gradually killing themselves. I was only a few feet away from them, yet they just sat there hurting only themselves.

You finished on realistic??? :bow:

It is true that the AI does make some stupid decisions, but overall the AI is still better than the typical FPS.

Even the FEAR AI, which is well regarded for it's amazing AI, still makes some stupid mistakes once in a while.

As far as I can remember, Far Cry was the first game where enemies would actually try to flank you instead of running straight at you.

I finally finished this game tonight! I was kinda put off by being limited to autosave, so it took me quite a while to have the patience to get through it all. That last level was a bizatch... Also, I think this game was a little bit too long for me, if that's possible. Still, quite an excellent game, and some gorgeous visuals. Glad I was FINALLY able to finish it...

I managed to get through the whole game without cheats until that last level. It was a bitch for sure.

My buddy worked on Far Cry. Moved to Germany and everything.

He said it was a great experience to work on that game.

I'm not very good at games like this, but I did make it through Level 1. ;)

Oblivion looks even better, but will probably chug on your system.

Well yeah Oblivion looks better because it is barely a year old. Far Cry is 3 years old.