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WARNING to all CDRW drive owners

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 225 / 294
Date: March 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Just a friendly warning to all CDR/CDRW/DVDR/DVDRW drive owners. UBI Soft as a "feature" on their PC software that prevents installation from any drive with write capacity. Why they feel that will slow down a game cracker, and why they don't mind blowing off an entire segment of the market, is entirely beyond me, but that's not the point here. Call UBI Soft tech support BEFORE buying this or any other PC game from them, and check to make sure whether or not you will be able to install. Software (such as Chessmaster 9000, to grab a random UBI product as an example) doesn't come with a warning on the box (in "some" cases, they claim -- I haven't found a single box that does), nor is there a warning on the Amazon product pages (short of reviews like this). One could speculate that they're perfectly happy to let people buy their software knowing some won't be able to install it, but I'll leave their motivation to give no warning to consumers to your imagination.

UBI Soft's tech support has said that this "feature" extends to *all* of their PC titles. So fair warning, particularly to folks with laptops where DVD/CDRW drives came standard, ask before you buy. Perhaps if enough people have a problem with this flawed policy, UBI will smarten up. "Flawed" because limiting installs to drives without write capacity isn't going to slow a determined game cracker/pirate down, it's only going to prevent normal consumers from being able to install the game. Worse, they don't find out until they've opened the package and tried to install, which in some cases is enough to prevent a return and refund from the seller.

I'm certain this game deserves more than 1 star, and suspect it will see some good reviews from people who are able to install, but I can't give it more than a single. That's a commentary on UBI Soft and their "feature", not about the game itself.

Awesome graphics, solid gameplay, good fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 54 / 58
Date: May 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I'm having great fun with this game despite running it on a mediocre system that can't run the game in full graphical flourish. I have a 2.0Ghz P4, 512Mb RAM and an ATI 9800 (the base model, not Pro or XT) card with 128Mb RAM. So it's decent but hardly cutting edge.

Despite the fact that of the eight customizable graphics settings, I have set four to "medium" and four to "low", the graphics are simply the best I've ever seen, on any game at any time. The sky looks absolutely real, the water has noticeable depth and shimmer, and the foliage is lush and crisp. The character models are great -- muscles bulge, clothing wrinkles, and blood sprays in a most vivid fasion. This game alone makes me want to shell out a few thousand for a bleeding-edge system.

The game play is quite solid first-person shooter fare. There are no huge breakthroughs, though there are nice details like a stamina meter for running and holding your breath. The weapons selection is nice -- enough variety to keep you interested but not so broad that there is much overlap. The voice acting is a model of over-the-top action cheesiness, and the bad guys shout their lines with such enthusiastic machismo that you have to laugh. Fun stuff.

The only gripe I have at this point is weak online play. Much of this is no doubt to my location in Asia, which leads to some horrible ping. But it seems I am not alone in thinking the multiplayer needs a bit of tweaking. I guess there is a patch coming out in June that will hopefully resolve some of these issues.

Bottom line: Top-notch job on graphics and setting inject fresh life into the FPS genre. Well worth it, even if your system has to make compromises.

"Paradise Gone Wrong..." -- Everything Else is Right

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 26 / 28
Date: April 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Where to start, where to start? Well, first let me tell you that I am a huge FPS (first-person shooter) fan, whether it's mindless fragfests like Serious Sam or stealth-oriented action like Deus Ex or the Thief series. I've been waiting for the "next big thing" in FPS for quite some time, namely Half-Life 2, but I think the next big thing has arrived sooner than expected, and its name is Far Cry.

Let me get this out of the way before I go on: Unless your PC is is a stud monster with preferably 2.5 - 3.0 GHz processing speed, lots of RAM (1,000+), and a gaudy video card (Radeon 9800), you won't get the full effect from this game. Still, even on a mid-range system with graphics toned down to medium, you will be absolutely blown away. I know I was, and still am.

Using the supercool Crytek engine, Ubisoft has created a game that features sensational graphics, terrific AI, decent plot, and unusual locales, namely the Caribbean. Where this game stands out is its graphics engine, which lets you see for miles and offers an unparalleled setting ever seen in a computer game. But be warned: don't expect to just walk into huts on the sand and start blasting away at mercenaries. These guys are good, calling for cover and flanking you every chance they get. You'll have to think about how you're going to approach each mission, and even then, you'll be required to make quick adjustments, thanks to the assault jeep that just showed up right behind you or the gunship that is raining missles from the sky. No two missions are alike, as the AI learns as they go, adjusting to your moves and reacting accordingly. Terrific stuff.

The voices are a little over-the-top, which absolutely fits this very over-the-top game. The standard "mad scientist creates some monsters from human DNA" plot is a bit trite, but the presentation of the entire game makes up for it, with engaging cut scenes and terrific direction to your next objective. Overall, though, sounds lend a distinct feel to the game, as the birds chirp when you're outside on the island and waves lap against the shore, or your pinned underneath a palm tree with a chopper armed to the teeth sending death from above, the whup-whup-whup filling your ears as the world goes black.

Real-world weapons are at your disposal four at a time, and they do the job very nicely. Crouching and arming yourself with an MP90 in the islands has never been so much fun. And you can drive many, if not all, of the vehicles in the game, including jeeps, assault trucks, gunboats, and even hangliders, which is a nice change of pace from the usual duck-cover-shoot tasks involved with each mission.

Each mission is very well defined, but by no means is this game linear. You can get to the endpoint any way you want. If you want to take the whole guerilla army on headfirst, go right ahead. If you want to sneak around and shoot them from underneath the huts, you can do that too. Ubisoft has put the entire game in your hands, and it makes for some truly exciting, innovative gameplay. Some people will have a problem with the difficulty level and overall problems with getting it running at decent speed on a minimally equipped system, but look past this. Also, the auto-save system is a little annoying (no quick saves), forcing you to go through the same mission until you get it right and it reaches the next auto-save point.

Not since Half Life has a game been so immersive, so unique, and so rewarding in its gameplay. Far Cry presents PC gamers with a tough challenge that shouldn't be missed.

For hardcore gamers only

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 22 / 28
Date: July 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Casual gamers need to take note that this is a VERY difficult game on any setting. I finish all the big FPS games on normal difficulty without any problems, but this one was sending me to the load screen CONSTANTLY on its easy setting. Your character spends most the game in a constant hail of bullets from enemies that are mere specks on the horizon. Anonymous, unpredictable death is very common as the hitpoints for the player are extremely low (relative to other games) even though he's supposed to be wearing body armor. If you're not a gaming ninja with unlimited time to spend honing your FPS skills, you may be in for a frustrating experience.

The Current King of FPS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: May 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Superb graphics are just the frosting on the cake with this refreshingly well done shooter. Not since Half Life has a game includes as detailed or immersive an environment. From the get go, you are thrown right into the mix. The nuances are impressive: everything is laden with gorgeous textures, there are myriad small touches (a shark hanging from a fishing pier, schools of tropical fish swimming through the water, copies of "Evil Science" magazine lying on a desk in the lab).

The levels are expansive to say the least. The game keeps coming and coming, and just when you think you've reached the end of the game, there's more. The setting does not get repititous, either - there is a well-balanced mix of gorgeous indoor and outdoor locations. There is dense, lush jungle filled to the brim with trees, bushes, grass, flowers... everything you'd expect to be in a jungle, really. Merc camps set in abandoned WWII japanese bunkers, rusted tank wrecks and aircraft frames, an old skeleton in an Imperial officer's uniform - even a beached shipwreck are all throw in just for eye candy. The lighting and environmental effects are easily comparable to anything in the bootleg Doom 3 E3 demo, including moving light sources, UV/Bump/Reflection Mapped characters/objects/levels, and internal and external cast shadows. In one sequence, I was lit from behind by a spotlight and saw my shadow being cast on steam I was about to walk through in a hallway. In many ways this game may exceed Doom 3's standard (although we'll see when the full version is released), especially with Far Cry's unprecedentedly flawless transistions between interior and exterior locations.

And there's little linearity in the design here, either. Although some of the interior locations lead themselves to naturally channeling you in a certain direction I found there was almost always a different way to reach my objective, and sometimes as many as six or seven. The game requires a diverse mix of tactics to beat your opponent, from head on attacks to stealthy stalking.

Others have given the AI high marks; let me elaborate on just how cool this AI is: Enemies call for backup on the radio or use smoke signals, use flanking maneuvers, encircle you, and even sometimes run away in fear if you surprise them. Enemies hear you, look for you, and use nightvision or other optics to find you. They use and shoot from cover and concealment. They are probably the best and most realistic AI I have seen in a shooter.

I ambushed two mercenaries among a group of around ten who were coming around the nook I was hidden in. After dispatching them, two mercs lined up on either side of the door. One of them yelled, "Go!" to the other one, and then they bum rushed me with guns blazing. I managed to kill them first but only just, getting gravely wounded in the process. One of the remaining mercs then said, "Keep him occupied, I'll go for help" and shots start plinking off the corners of the nook. I heard a lot of movement, and then silence for several minutes. Maybe the troops might have wandered off? But, no... they set up a sniper on a far ledge to cover the door, and the rest of the team formed a semicircle around the entrance just to take me out as I emerged. And this was not a scripted sequence.

One of the cooler features of the gameplay is being equipped with a pair of high-tech, long-range-microphone-equipped binoculars. Not only are they invaluable for finding your enemies, much of the exposition in the game is delivered through the conversations of your enemies as you peer at and listen to them through the binoculars. Not only do you get important information about the story, but the mercs seem to have a life of their own. I almost laughed myself out of my chair when I caught a pair of the mercs bitching to each other about the heat and having to pull guard duty.

As others have mentioned, the major drawback is that you're going to need a high performance system to run this game. The game can also be glitchy at times, and a few crashes sent me tumbling back to the desktop; the lack of an in-game save made this troublesome because often times the automatic "checkpoint" type saves were a little far apart. Speaking of, a few of the savepoints happened right before a cut scene or before a long trip to a challenging area. I was occassionally frustrated by making it through a major concentration of enemies, getting close to my next objective (taking some fifteen to twenty minutes) and then getting killed within steps of the next save point by the last bad guy, forcing me to do it all over again.

The bottom line, however, is: The plus sides of this game far, far outweigh the few trouble spots. I have not had this much fun playing a game since, well, Half Life. This game equals that title's detail and depth, with none of the "puzzle artificiality factor" (annoying jumping puzzles or the requirement to keep criss-crossing the same level over and over again to pull switches or press buttons). Its biggest strength is as a shooter though, and has more going for it there than anything out right now. I recommend it highly.

One of the BIG 3 -FAR CRY, HALF LIFE 2 and DOOM 3

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: February 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Hello, i think this might be my first review, not sure maybe i've done one ages ago lol.

Ok, I am an avid 1st person shooter fan, love the genre and have played anything and everyhting in it pretty much, with the latest being medal of honor PA [i liked it] and chronicles of riddick [suprisingly a masterpeice of the genre]

anyways, for this review i will basically compare the big 3 of 2004 which i think most will agree were FC, DOOM3 and HL2.

Firstly, all three games are excellent, I have a powerful rig and can experience them all at 1280x1024 with all settings set to maximum, this allows me to tell it how it is [in my opinion at least].

okay first up the graphics:

I actually think Far Cry has the best graphics. i base this on the sheer size of the environments, they are staggering and the detail is incredible. I think far cry also has the best water and also i think it has the best use of shadows etc cast by lighting. [this will probably draw critisicm as most would consider doom3 best, but honestly i was more impressed with watching the shadow interplay in a room from a light bouncing around in farcry than in doom3, which was so dark it sort of covered up its greatness in this regard.

As for the character models, far cry is probably at the bottom of this heap, but not by much, HL2 has the excellent facial features and doom 3 has the H R Gigerish take on demons, bt far cry's bad guys still look exceptional and the 'fat boys' will definitely put fear into any gamer :)

all three games have some basic texture here and there, so this is not such a big deal. but i would have to say that HL2 probably seemed to display basic textures the most for some reason, somethings just looked quite cheap.

Sound:

Tough call. Doom3 probably wins here as its sound was extrememly rich and crisp. when you heard demon spawn coming, it's definitely brown trousers time lol. and the trigens from Far Cry for that matter.All three have excellent sound though and gave the appropriate jitters from onscreen sound affects. HL2 is the least musically scored by far, which i actually found refreshing and welcome, although i must say i found background music in both doom3 and far cry to be appropriate enough, it never seemed out of place or too jarring or forced.

Gameplay:

All three games have very solid gameplay. but are quite different in the way you can go about getting from A to B. Doom3 is definitely the most contained, - a nice way of saying it is an extremely linear corridor crawler in tight confines. you will not be seeing any large vista's in this game :) but what it does it does very well.

Far cry is the absolute opposite, this game has you quite often tackling huge island chains in any fashion you desire, there are no 'spawn' points for enemies and the game does not have a sense of 'cheating' you like other games in the genre can. the options are vast for how to deal with opponents and with how intelligent your adversaries are in this game that is a good thing, as you will probably have to experiment a few times to proceed. the game is very open-ended in this regard and this is a good thing.

HL2 is in between the 2 aforementioned games in this way, it has relatively large environs for fighting in, more urban based obviosuly, and some more coastal/highway bits. Bigger than doom3 definitely, but fall short of the scope of Far Cry's levels for sheer size and approach. HL2 is also the most scripted of the three, but unlike some games [medal of honor PA and call of duty UO im looking at you] the scripting is implememted well and wont have you getting stuck unsure of what you have to do to proceed, what scripted event you have to trigger.

i should also mention that the enemy AI in HL2 is highly overated, they are smarter than doom3 by a mile, but nowhere near the enemy AI in far cry.

okay ill finish up by talking about each games 'feel':

Doom3: this game is scary. as an aural/visual package for scares it deleivers bigtime....or does it?? once you realise that crossing certain thresholds etc activates demons spawning in behin you all the time or that picking up a health pack will trigger this it becomes a little less scary. and the way a demon will stay perfectly still till you appoach the 'magic line' that activates his attack instead of actually interacting in his environemt dampens the affect.

but doom3 suprised me with how much narrative this game has! coming from iD i was very impressed with how fleshed out the mars installation was, it was convincing.

Half life 2 has an excellent feel and i personally think the best for atmosphere. it has such a rich world with an eerie, creepy alien world domination angle that you cant help but be drawn in.

the fact that after i finished the game i was eager to see what other players speculations were on the meanings of things that happened in this game is testament to how sucked in i was. the story is not too fleshed out, a bit murky really, but i found i liked this alot, it makes it very intriguing with so many questions left unanswered...others have not liked this at all however.

Far cry: ok, i found this game to be the scariest of all 3 to play, even though its story is pretty cheesy in ways. BUT that comes with a slight disclaimer. undoubtedly the trigens made me jump 2 meters at times, as all the enemies AI is absolutely top knotch. but the main reason you were soooooo edgy playing this game was because of its quite flawed save system. the geography activated save feature is quite suck-ass to be honest. it makes this game far more difficult than it already is.

I initially played this game on my last computer, which although perfomred admirably, was not up to the task at all really. and thus i was further annoyed when i kept dying owing to frame freezing in gunfights stemming from perfomrance issues. BUT the fact that i stuck with it and finished it on that computer is testament to how compelling it is.

SO thats it, phew, lengthy i know but i did compare all three games after all :)

if i had to pick an overall winner it would be far cry, followed veeery closely by HL2 [which i enjoyed more in other ways] and Doom3 brings up the rear [polished product no doubt, but was lacking that certain 'something']

hope i helped!

Unforgetable

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: July 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

First of all, Far Cry is that perfect game, complete, beautiful state-of-the-art graphics, gameplay that is indestructible, and a plot that delivers. Rated M, for intense violence? Parents, it is bloody, some scenes you see dead guys, but all that can be taken away with a simple click. You a stuck on an island chain, with only a man on a phone to tell you what to do. The island is massive and open ended, letting you plan your attacks with either go-in-and-blow-up or secretly-infiltrate. I found the enemies incredibly smart, planning their attacks against you. However, here is a weak spot: it is TOO HARD! My only gripe about it was getting so mad at this game and breaking my headphones (because my father complained it was too loud) This game was not intended for inexperienced gamers: I barely got through it myself. A FPS veteran will find himself mad beyond belief because of it. Easy mode all the way is what I suggest. Vehicles play another important role: you use them all the time. They are needed significantly to wipe out enemies, and are land-sea-and-air vehicles. Fun, fun, fun. The story is great, but I will not reveal anything at all for your sake. Value? Is it worth it's price? I bought it for forty dollars, which is a good price for a new game. It's totally worth the experience. Far Cry will satisfy till the end, and don't worry: it's looooooooong! And after you beat it, you can mess with Cryengine Sandbox, which is for creating levels, mods, editing levels. So to wrap it up, it's a amazing experience that shouldn't be missed.

Jump from your jeep

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: October 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I recently purchased a new Dell 9100 laptop (2.8 ghz, 512MB RAM, 128MB ATI graphics card) and planned on waiting for HL2 as my first game for the new PC. Finally, I broke down and decided to try FarCry. Now I'm not sure if I'll bother with HL2!

Initial thoughts upon playing:
I was relieved to find crate-breaking (half-life) was not required. Also, players are limited to four weapons. I love that aspect as it makes me think. I want a game that makes me think. Finally, there is something VERY COOL about sneaking through a jungle and hiding in the thickets.

What's good:
I'm playing the game on the medium skill set and this seems to work well for this experienced gamer. There is a realistic setting that will make for fun replayability. The cut scenes, so far, are well done. Vehicles CAN BE DRIVEN AND REACT LIKE REAL VEHICLES. For example (here is a hint), I was sitting in a buggy, just off the road and an enemy buggy was coming around the bend. I gunned the motor and jumped out. The vehicle's momentum kept it going and the two vehicles crashed and blew up. Game physics; guy dies on a grassy slope and he slides to the bottom. I've pushed a few dead bodies off of a path to cover my tracks (ok, I didn't need to but it added to the realism for me). Enemy AI is good. AND THE NUMBER ONE BEST PART OF PLAYING IS - very little linear gameplay. I can walk around the islands, swim from one island to another, drive a boat, buggy, almost anywhere I please. If I don't want to storm the main gate then I can look to other routes or just tan on the beach.

What's bad:
Had one instance of a machine-gun sound sticking and had to restart that area. Not that big of a deal. I had to re-bind a lot of the controls to more logical bindings but at least I had that option. Length of time for sprinting could be longer. There was an instance in which I was being flanked from both sides and my only option was to RUN! Then again, it's more realistic to sprint, turn and lay down a few shots, and sprint some more. Dying, dying is bad. Getting ammo supplies is easy enough but I'm still looking for a spare bottle of suntan lotion.

What's really cool to me:
I was driving a boat that I had captured and motored past a school of tropical fish that were swimming around. Very cool. Also, you can look over a valley or out to sea and see boat docks, enemy soldiers walking around, etc. without poly-count issues. Shoot the water and it splashes, that's cool. Real is good.

If you are on the edge in your decision, make the jump. FarCry makes you think, it makes you work, and it makes time for you to stop and admire the ocean view.

A FAR CRY FROM A NORMAL REVIEW

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 21 / 32
Date: March 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This review is most certainly going to warrant the "un-helpful" from the most avid, politically-correct reviewers, as they will most certainly see that this is not a review of Far Cry, and I of all people do not especially enjoy spotting those reviewers who have never even touched the games in which they are so unhappily ranting, however; the games today are asking for an all-out lawsuit in blatant misrepresentation. Fortunately for them, the least they will get are our reviews bringing the magic tricks into the light.

It seems as if the game developers, in amidst a chaos of illegal downloading and cd copying have sent a huge unnoticed cluster bomb in the way of those who are actually supporting their economic ventures - and is the unavailability to play their games the thanks we get? Absolutely.

I am very disappointed in the games that have been released throughout the last few years - not for the lack of creativity or poor design - but for the lack of a better guide for those who actually care about the quick buck of our beloved game makers. Remember that silly little NVIDIA-tag commercial that jumps into action right before you enter the game? It has that cheesy motto spread like butter right over the monitor screen: It says, "The way it's meant to be played." As much as I don't appreciate the trendiness this motto implies as a lackluster commercial for the games we have already bought into - it does make an interesting point referring to games in general - This F@&$in' game is actually meant to be PLAYED!? Shocking, is it not? Who would have thought?

Well, apparently not to the millions of people who bought into the game only to realize the game makers have withheld crucial information and they have thwarted the very people who they are attempting to sell the game to.

What in sin am I talking about? Misrepresentation.

You don't sell an electric saw that malfunctions in a basic electric outlet without warning the audience in bright bold letters, do you not? You will be sued for negligence.

Far Cry must be the exception in the eyes of the publishers/game makers. For instance, Far Cry will not work on CDR/CDRW/DVDR/DVDRW at all. This is a far crying shame, not because I can't play the game, but because I should have been warned before I tipped my dollar hand. Why can't we have a nice big sparkly label on the front of the box which clearly states that we can't play the game if we have the basic outlets?!

Game developers are starting to get the hang of not letting us in on their dirty little secrets - so they can make bank, and we get nothing in return except for a couple discs that will not install. And I know these are good games, but we must be warned about deviations for the basic hardware that our computers have, right?

Far cry is far from being the only one on this train wreck. Myst IV, has the same problem as Far cry, but for the DVD re-writable drives. I didn't run into THAT problem, but certainly there was no specific label that could be found. Is this the way we are supposed to treat our consumers?

Thief 3 and Deus Ex: Invisible War will not run on computers with the NVIDIA Graphics card. This is not an average problem that many will commonly run into due to the fact most people have a NVIDIA graphics card. These games don't need to include the NVIDIA cards, but they certainly need to include their audience in this decision - right? I want to see the nice gold label on the front of the box that says "Won't work with NVIDIA Cards." Save us the trouble, right?!

And then Half-life 2. The only single player game to come out with the required use of an internet nearest you. Yes, I see that ten font sentence on the bottom of the box now - but wouldn't it have been that much easier to warn everyone in advance? Even the magazine gamers that have played this game didn't happen to mention this - I expected much better. How the hell did they even play the game without noticing this? Unless, the publishers didn't mention that to them - but that's doubtful. Well, I've canceled my PC Gamer subscription - Amazon reviewers aren't as likely to pass up such details; we don't get paid for playing games or paid if our games do not work properly. Sure, they'll get away with it -because this information was included at the bottom of the box, but surely there was someone up in the big office warning everyone not to let this fart out into the open - and they should be ashamed.

These sloppy misrepresentations have alienated me as a gamer - and I for one will NOT buy a recently released game until I have looked into at least fifty of the reviews - because it is obvious the developers will continue to use this "Don't tell" policy. I suggest you consider doing the same thing - because refunds are hard to come by in the gaming world. Enjoy Far Cry - I have yet to play it.

A good game...give it a try!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 25 / 41
Date: March 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I got the demo for this game, and it looks like the other "long awaited games" might have a competition.
Goodies:
-This game has awesome graphics (as you can tell from the single player demo)
-The enemy AI is good, they respond differently. For example if you rush in with a rocket launcher, a whole group of guards will try and take you down with machine guns etc. But you can just sneak up and stay undetected.
-The cars, jeeps are easy to controll
-You can play the sneaky one, or the 'run and just kill' kind of person. The grass, jungle is really good. And you can hide in it...the enemy won't notice!

Bad:?
-This computer game needs a real good computer upgrading. But just like halflife2 and doomIII.

I can't think of anything else. Give this game a try, it looks very good, and I recommend it for people who are waiting for HL2 or games like that. I hope you found this helping!
Aron

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