Sunday 26 May 2013

FC3 Review: Silly Batteries!

Hello my awesome readers!
Here is the first part of my review of Far Cry 3!
Hope you enjoy :)

See the other part of the review in the post below.

Keep being awesome!
I'm That Dude

Far Cry 3 Review!

Hello my awesome readers!
It's me, That Dude! I've been playing some great games, one of which was Far Cry 3! I have actually beaten this game, so I'll be able to do a full review on it.
So, I recorded a video with some details of the game in it, but I was not able to cover everything in time I had to film, due to battery problems.
I will write this post to be paired with the video, so I'll continue from about where it left off.
My camera shut off, cutting off my sentence, so what I was going to say was that you can push the boat back into the water if you run it onto the beach :P Yeah, really important! Though I did say a little more before I noticed my camera was off :-/
So, there is a huge amount of content, such as side quests, skill trees, and mini games. Side quests include activities such as supply drops, which are little races against the clock to get to a certain point. There are mini quests where you hunt down a pirate in the area, or hunt an animal with a certain provided weapon. The mini games include different gun challenges, knife throwing competitions, and even poker! The poker in Far Cry 3 seems to work even better than the one in Red Dead Redemption! Though I'm still terrible no matter what game I'm playing it in XD
There is a huge arsenal of weapons, with multiple variations in each category. For example, there are about four handguns, such as the Desert Eagle, and 44. Magnum. These two being the more heavy duty of the class. Some of the lower handguns are able to be fitted with silencers, giving the player reason to choose the less powerful weapon for its stealth capabilities. Pretty much all the weapons have healthy amounts of attachments, though the (Minor Spoiler) flamethrower only has the option of using a bigger fuel tank, which is almost mandatory because it's a real gas guzzler! lol
There is not a huge amount of variation in attachments, but it's forgivable since there is a fun selection of weapons. The unique weapons include the bow, flamethrower, flare gun, welding torch thingy, four shell grenade launcher (reminds me of the China Lake in Black Ops), and the wing-suit (Which isn't a weapon, but it's a tool of sorts, so I'll mention it).
As I've said before, the island is huge! There is plenty of exploration to be done on the two massive islands, and there are plenty of vehicles to get you around the place. You can travel by land, sea, and even by air occasionally. You've the idea of land and ocean vehicles in my video, but I didn't get a chance to show you the gliders. They work the same as the wing-suit, but you find them at different locations.
Now, I've talked about the world plenty, but how is the game play?
Firstly, we should cover gun mechanics. They are pretty much what you'd expect from a FPS, so no real need to comment on them. What is notable is how the game doesn't restrict the player to only carrying two guns as in COD and other shooters. Players can carry up to four weapons, once they have crafted the various weapon holsters. This brings us to crafting, an interesting game mechanic as players must hunt and skin animals to upgrade different aspects of their gear. Basically all of the upgrades have to do with carrying more of specific items, such as ammo, weapons, money, and there is also an upgrade to carry more looted items. It is a little odd that you have to hunt a different animal for each upgrade, as simply making a bigger wallet out of the same material that you started with makes more sense than having to go and hunt a shark. Though this may not be that realistic, it is a good way to make players explore the island as animals are found in different areas of the island. As for the missions and story. I found the story a little odd at some points, though Vaas is an excellent bad guy! He has an insanity about him, and you never know when he's going to fly off the handle, and he is so well voiced and such a well done character. I won't get into story as I don't want to spoil anything, though it isn't the best story because it has several undeveloped plot points having to do with unexplained (spoiler) magic, as well as some characters that felt like they could have been left out. But, I'm not going to get into that, though feel free to ask any questions and I'll answer, but just for the safety of those reading this post, I will leave as many main story spoilers out of it. So, missions are not overly difficult or special. There will be you're infiltration missions, you're rescue missions, and you're sabotage missions. There are also some treasure hunting missions! I can't remember all of them though, and I think most of the fun is in playing in the open world with all the unlocked goodies at the end of the game. I'm not saying the missions that the game has aren't fun, but I can't say it's anything I haven't seen. There are also several turret sections, so you can decide if you like those or not.The game also features multiplayer co-op missions! I haven't really played these, but they look like something you could have fun playing splitscreen with some friends. The game also includes you're standard FPS multiplayer, with pretty much what you'd expect, so no real important comments to be made on it. What is really cool about multiplayer is that you can actually design and make your very own multiplayer maps! Both on PC and console versions of the game. This is a very cool feature to play with, and you may have seen why in videos where people have set up large battles, pitting pirates against bears, tigers, or other animals :P I feel this may be how the map maker is used most, but I'm sure there are also some great serious maps out there too.
Far Cry 3 is a game full of content, and I have to say it is one of the best games I've played within the past year!
I give it a 9 out of 10! The weapons, the world, the way you can interact with it all make for a great experience outside of the missions, and the missions themselves have their good moments, though not as fun as messing around outside of them. The story is moderately good, though I only liked a handful of characters, one of which was done really well! (Vaas)
Mechanics are good, and tigers are absolutely terrifying! Though not as scary as the Komodo Dragons D:
Hope you enjoyed my review!
Keep being awesome!
I'm That Dude

Sunday 12 May 2013

Hey, Hey! It's Mother's Day!

Hello my awesome reader!

It's that time of year when we show appreciation to that special lady. Of course, I hope we all show appreciation for our mothers all year round, and not just one day :P But anyway, today I will dedicate this post to moms everywhere.
So, let's raise our glasses of water to those incredible individuals! Moms do so much for us. They raise us, love us, teach us, and put up with us when we go through those wonderful teenage years lol Yeah, the ones where we are so very agreeable! Looking back at my own teen years, I have to say my mom had her work cut out for her :P
There have been challenges in my life, but many of them were made easier with the help of my own mom :)
She helped me study for school, helped me learn how to cook, though my scrambled eggs still need work :P She was there when I needed answers to questions and when I just needed to talk. I love my mom, and I'm glad I've been blessed with such a good one.
So, to all those mothers out there, though I kinda doubt any will be reading this, happy Mother's Day :)
Keep being awesome, and give your awesome mom a hug :)
I'm That Dude.