Sports Games

The year was 2003 when Ubisoft brought out a stunning game, we're talking about the first Far Cry , developed by the children of the then little known Crytek. The title immediately jumped to first place in the championship points for some very innovative for the genre FPS : graphics out of the ordinary, the free exploration of the play area and a far superior enemy AI to other products.

It took five years to release a worthy sequel to one of the leading home Ubisoft titles, although many things have changed since the first chapter. First of all, the franchise has gone totally in the hands of the French house, so the game is developed by Crytek (who have chosen other ways, see Crysis and Warhead ) but its implementation has passed into the able hands of Ubisoft Montreal.

The graphics engine of the game is no longer the Cry Engine, but the new Dunia , developed entirely by Ubisoft itself. Secondly, the changed setting of the game, say goodbye to the beautiful tropical beaches in favor of the dry desert sands of Africa - as a result of this, the character of Jack Carver has earned a vacation, giving way to mercenaries on commission. The player is immersed in a context of civil war among the local people, arms dealers and a ruthless and merciless elusive criminal named "the Jackal" , which will be our fixed point to chase the game.

As mentioned above, and you will soon start the game, you can choose from nine mercenaries available, all unsavory personalities and different nationalities to experience both military and guerrillas. The primary mission is one, chasing find and kill the Jackal, a notorious criminal of war at the beginning of the game has infected with the disease of malaria .

The choice of character is not an end in itself, given that we're going to discard those that will be our companions in arms and will help us in more than one occasion.

The game world of Far Cry 2 is represented by a map fully opened and explored immediately, without limitation or schema of the classic invisible walls in the vast majority of FPS and missions that you can unlock freely.

The gamepla y is all focused on the choice of this major or minor non-player characters that we can commission to go ahead with the story, to earn money (represented by diamonds, which can also be found via an LED on our GPS , which flash near some suitcases hidden diamonds).

These diamonds will be used to buy weapons and upgrades more powerful.

The places to find missions are scattered throughout the playing area, but they are mainly three: the first concerns the village of Pala is located at the center of the map, here are the two main factions in the war, and the APR UFLL which are also the main storyline. In the same city are also the church where you can accept missions related to medicines that will help us to reduce our disease, malaria pills are very important because without them it would begin the not inconsiderable problems that can lead to game over.

We then Mike's bar, which is the home of some friends that we will during the game but also of unsavory characters that we will still work in exchange for diamonds.

Last but not least, there are radio antennas to tamper with, where a mysterious client we will assign missions more or less important.

All this range the assassination to theft , sabotage the demolition but there are less brutal missions, especially those given by the priest of the country.

Let's talk about the weapons that you can steal from dead enemies or to order. In the first case, the initial choice is rather limited, ranging from classic pistols to machine guns more or less powerful, you can find plenty of ammo around but the real catch is that the weapons of criminals are almost never new they tend to overheat and stuck very often, do not recommended during the more hectic battles. The second choice concerns the seller's warehouse of weapons, here you can order and pay by the diamonds collected in our travels - the difference between those found and those who buy it are exempt from the defects of wear. But be careful in their choice because more than four trinkets of death we can not carry. In the shop, finally, you can also buy various upgrades for your clothing, camouflage improve the capacity and number of ammo and medkit transportable.

Unlock all weapons, are always present in our shelters (unlockable after doing a clean sweep of any nearby enemies), these are rapidly giving a glance at the map and will also serve to save the current game as it happened in GTA.

What surprised immediately after the initial movie is the amazing graphics care and freedom of movement : a map of the whole game can be visited without any limitation due to loading, a paradise for the eyes consists of jungle, savannah and desert, but also by rivers and waterfalls and still breathtaking natural views. The whole is formed by the beauty of some fifty square miles of map and you can explore on foot but also by the use of motor vehicles like jeeps, old cars (always the same, unfortunately), and also buggy gliders or barges moored to the docks of rivers. But if the player wants to move on foot to admire the beauty of the graphics engine , as well as our virtual legs, we can also move through the bus that will transport you from one side of the map without the expense and long delays.

Every place we're going to visit is different from the others, personally I have never been so varied in a setting like the one proposed by Far Cry 2 where even the smallest glimpse of vision is a little masterpiece. Besides the natural beauty we happen to come across villages, ports, railway stations and factories, all made very well and full of detail, both in terms of polygonal models texture (not always the best but passable), is also added in the last a lighting system having to recreate almost perfect in the cycle of day and night.

Standing on the edge of a forest and see the sun rise and light up all the vegetation rays, gives a feeling of rare beauty.

Not to mention the special effects including explosions of drugs and the spread of the flames, also due to the strength of the wind (yes, you read that right), which has excellent - I assure you, throw a Molotov cocktail into the forest and see the flames taken literally life before our eyes is one of the most beautiful virtual experiences that you can play.

Of these weapons we will also take up a flamethrower and leave you to imagine situations where the purpose or use, perhaps to set fire to a wooded area full of guerrillas, and that's emerged that the effect becomes dramatic and tactical at the same time.

The management of the shadows is accurate and always present, but in some moments, especially in dense vegetation, you notice unpleasant effects of flickering even with anti aliasing turned up.

Another arrow over the game are the animations of the main character and mercenaries but also polygonal models, we are certainly closer to the refinements seen in Crysis Warhead, or in the recent but even here we defended pretty well.

To close the graphics, in the savannah and forested areas, there are some animals such as gazelles, zebras and wildebeest. Unfortunately, no provision is made large animals like lions or tigers, this choice for programmers not to further complicate the game even if the truth be attacked by one of these two carnivores, could be one more element for realism of the game.

One of the key points in a game like this is artificial intelligence e. I have to say that Ubisoft has done a great job of programming , but not everything is free from the usual defects of this kind. Mainly the game suffers from a c ontinuo respawning enemies during missions, these are always randomly divided into blocks, but in return in a given area or guard post already cleared, we will find new patrols and patrols to shoot very often it is really frustrating having to deal with dozens of fighters every time you pass in an area already widely explored. That said, we spend hours talking about the delights of the game.

In the game there are different types of enemies, armed with different weapons and also able to follow and flush them out with different tactics: there are those who prefer to get ahead and shoot like crazy or those that surround the sides of our defensive position. Unfortunately, like any man-made routines, not all enemies are always so clever, at times seem a mass of "people" ready to massacre. It also appears that certain conditions of engagement are more or less where the fights will happen, I'll explain: in the jungle and open spaces, I happened to die because the guerrillas were organized in groups and I hunted on both sides of the my cover than the other, encircling in a very wild. In the most covered as houses and factories, the intelligence of the enemy seems to c Essar at once and show the side , making us the real terminator living.

The passage of time, moreover, it becomes essential for groped different engagements. All this can be addressed both by day and night (STEALTH) and also in this case, the enemy intelligence, varies greatly: the day when the enemies keep a low profile, at night, they become much more meticulous and attentive to our movements and sounds that surround them.

Regarding missions, to better orient ourselves, we will indeed see the map, is a must look not only to orient but also with regard to the information it contains, as the location of dangerous items such as machine-gun emplacements or related cechini.

The product Ubisoft also deserves a special mention regarding the sound industry .

Far Cry 2 is fully dubbed in our native language, because the work is painstaking and is intended for a mature audience, as are heated dialogues between the characters worthy of a movie pulp of the best kind - listen carefully when passing from village of Pala, we snatch more than a smile to the speeches of the guerrillas, never discounted or trivial. The weapons and the means of reproduction is excellent , the bullets that we touch the ears, we will move the head position of cover and the motors are fully revisited in reality. Not to mention the beauty of the sounds of the forest or savanna, in times of peace, seem to live a nice safari (especially those who are equipped with system 5.1).

In addition to sound good detail, let's talk now of replayability.

The single player is long, dense and varied, will give us a thirty hours of excitement , perhaps even more if we dedicate ourselves to all the quests. In addition to this, multiplayer offers more excitement , if not just those already listed so far. There are the classic mode of each game, deathmatch individual and team, capture the diamond and domination, what is different with other FPS games is the ability to choose their specialization as the expert of weapons or explosives.

Finally, Mom Ubisoft has given us even the powerful editor in the package, so that the community can create new multiplayer maps or mods, through its easy to use - just as powerful and flexible graphics engines of latest generation.

To summarize briefly what is written in the review, Far Cry 2 is the worthy successor of the first chapter, we saw that the hands a little masterpiece.

There are a few negative elements such as the many respawning enemies and an artificial intelligence is not always the best but they are real frivolity if the plant does not draw near linear mission, the sumptuous graphic industry / technical and incredible attention of all details of the gameplay. Far Cry 2 is immersive and challenging , varied and long-lived, even if you calculate the multiplayer option - a game that marks another point of comparison to the FPS genre that increasingly are joining with the kind of Roming-free which was great privilege and merit of the GTA series and a few other titles.

  Processor: Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz, Pentium D 2.66 Ghz, AMD Athlon 64 3500 + or higher

  Video card: NVidia 6800 or ATI X1650 or better Shader Model 3

  256 MB of video memory

  RAM: 1 GB

  Media reader: DVD-ROM

  Processor: Intel ® Core 2 Duo Family, AMD ® 64 X2 5200 +, AMD ® Phenom or better

Video card: NVidia 8600 GTS or better, ATI X1900 or better 512 Mb of graphic memory  RAM: 2 GB

Sound: 5.1 sound card recommended

  Media reader: DVD-ROM