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Apr 12, 2012

Far Cry®

It always pans out the same way. You turn up a bit late and slightly sweaty, because in East London every street looks the bloody same. You then get shown a Powerpoint presentation extolling the virtues of 'Big Shooter Next' multiplayer, and soon after you and your fellow journalists are herded next door where sixteen glowing screens are humming in darkness waiting for you.

It's great, not least because you often get free posh sandwiches, but because it's a perfect way to judge a multiplayer game's potential. Online gaming is about shared enjoyment - so when you hear the gasps, the shouts, the swearing and have someone level an accusatory finger at you then call you an arsehole, you know a game has potential.

Far Cry 3 is going all out to encourage those yelps. Everything about it is being built to encourage teamplay - to keep your side fighting the good fight together. For example, myself and my cohorts were at one stage approaching a Domination point - a lonely spot caught halfway between a wrecked submarine that sits in a murky green dock and the dark interior of a network of jungle caves.

Rather than simply rush in all guns blazing, however, we all took a quick moment to congregate behind a boulder - where I slammed down on both thumbsticks to issue a rallying call. This is a buff, essentially, to prepare everyone in the direct vicinity for the coming s**tstorm - in this case granting my companions a deeper health reservoir, and for which everyone automatically showed their appreciation with a fist-pump. Manly motions didn't last long, however, since an enemy pirate had chosen that boulder as a good spot for a hidden triggered explosive - but our tactical build-up was, at least, excellent.

Rewarding those who kill together and stick together is currently high on the agenda for most shooter developers (a game like MW3 was all about rewarding team players as much as lone wolves) but Far Cry 3 is knuckling down and making it a focus. You build up Team Support Points (so TSP, the stuff my Grandad used to smell of) by saving downed allies, issuing battle cries and grabbing objectives - and they can then be spent on fun things like heavy weapon drops and the Far Cry variant on a UAV. Alternatively Psyche Gas turns the viewpoint of enemies to woozy-vision, makes every player look like a scary-eyed demon and conveniently flicks the Friendly Fire toggle into a more dangerous setting.

Overall the pace of the game itself is refreshing - wide levels give you breathing space post-spawn, but also never keep you too far from danger. A lot of Ubi-thought, meanwhile, has clearly been directed at keeping every map's location variety and encouraged play-styles in balance. The wrecked sub map, for example, features a rickety up-close fishing village, a network of tunnels and an ammo dump beneath a wide downward vista perfect for sniping - or just messing around on a rope slide and firing pistol potshots at the campers below.

Throughout, meanwhile, the Far Cry 3 engine (here running on a PC with a 360 controller attached) excels in its explosions, flames and the way palm fronds are buffeted and burnt by explosions. In fact, it's this that's central to Far Cry 3's most extravagant multiplayer mode. Governmental whispers about Firestorm's abuse of gasoline could cause a panic that'd leave your local petrol station running on fumes for months...

You're out to set light to your enemy's two fuel dumps, the trick being to make sure they're both simultaneously aflame, while the bad guys do their darnedest to do the same to you. Once the skies are full of black smoke (your character is too tough to cough, or for his eyes to start watering) the second stage of the mode begins - a Headquarters-style timer starts ticking down to the grand opening of a radio capture point.

The team who've just ignited half the map need the radio to call in a plane with a cargo hold full of petrol to cause even more destruction (for reasons unknown), while the team that's on the back-foot need a plane full of water to douse the flames and reset the battle. Far Cry's fire system is rarely anything but a pleasure and it's certainly a tense mode to play - but you'd certainly worry that its bottleneck finales are destined to provoke drawn matches, while it's a shame that most of the fighting takes place away from the blazing infernos themselves.

Of more concern, perhaps, is the irritating dialogue that bookends every game - Far Cry 3's edginess seems to be of the variety that's desperate to use f**kwords to impress. Before bouts your inspirational faction leader encourages lollygaggers to "Die like f**kin' deserving dogs", while once you've taken (or doled out) enough bullets for the cause a sequence plays out that sees a winning player choose to show mercy or deliver further punishment to captured losers.

I'm firmly of the opinion that swearing can be big and clever (often both simultaneously) but rarely in cases when dialogue is laced with swears like they've been fired from a machine gun. Why would two groups of men who've been repeatedly killing each other for ten minutes suddenly want to show the enemy leader mercy anyway? A war crimes tribunal at The Hague wouldn't buy it for a second...

Another concern, perhaps, is that the game currently has a wants cake/eating it issue with showing you a confusing death-cam of the shots that left you bloodily sunbathing, and simultaneously showing you lying there hammering the gamepad to ensure that you stay conscious long enough for a life-saving injection of magic-juice. You'll spend a lot of time horizontal in Far Cry 3, and generally not in the good way.

There were yelps and occasional real-world battle cries of 'You got me, you bastard' during this play session, then, but no war stories that anyone would necessarily find themselves telling their grandchildren. It very much feels like an adjunct to the main game, rather than a star attraction in itself. The feel of the weapons and the scenery (and indeed the ways the two combine) bode extremely well for the solo experience - but extra spit and polish will be required if Far Cry 3 multiplayer truly wants its place in the sun.

Jul 4, 2011

Crytek discussed going MS first-party

Far Cry®

Microsoft and Crytek discussed the possibility of the Crysis 2 developer going first-party just after the launch of Far Cry.

At the time, Crytek was about to create Crysis for PC. Microsoft corporate vice-president Phil Spencer told OXM it was decided the Xbox 360 manufacturer had enough shooters in a similar genre, so let the idea slide.

"The first time we met with [Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli] and the team was around seven or eight years ago, and we started talking about what it'd mean for them to become first-party," Spencer said.

"And it was a process of what do you guys want to do, what's unique for us, and they were just going to do Crysis, and they'd just come out of Far Cry, and we said we've probably got enough military future shooters, so go do that."

Crytek is currently hard at work on Xbox 360 exclusive, Kinect-fuelled first-person brawler Ryse.

"Then they came up with this idea around Ryse, and now they've really fallen in love with Kinect, and it's a perfect marriage for us," Spencer continued.

Video:

May 4, 2011

Far Cry 3 reveal at E3 2011?

Far Cry®

Evidence of Far Cry 3 mounts, and rumour suggests Ubisoft may reveal the new game at E3 next month.

Internet bloodhound Superannuation sniffed numerous mentions of the project online.

Stuntman Lee Villeneuve's CV cites past work on Far Cry 3, and stuntman Stephane Julien also mentions working on Far Cry 3.

One Ubisoft programmer notes on LinkedIn that he's beavering away on an "Undisclosed First Person Shooter" for PS3 and Xbox 360 that has "exotic gameplay", "scripted events" and "cinematics". Colleague Miguel Angel Sepulveda, an animation and AI engineer at Ubisoft, calls his current project as an "Unannounced Action AAA" game for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Ubisoft 3D animator Marc Echave goes one further, noting Far Cry 3 among other confirmed and released Ubisoft projects.

All of this after a Ubisoft writer confirmed Far Cry 3 and online shops accidentally put Collector's Editions of the game up for sale.

Coincidence?

"We are not commenting on speculations and rumours," Ubisoft told Eurogamer this afternoon.

Crysis developer Crytek created the Far Cry series. The original Far Cry - a real head-turner at the time (2004) - earned 8/10 on Eurogamer. Xbox game Far Cry Instincts took the tropical survival bent a step further and earned another 8/10. An Xbox 360 conversion of that same game earned 7/10.

Far Cry 2 (2008) was a different kettle of fish, owing to it being an internally developed Ubisoft game. Gone was the tropical environment, replaced instead by harsh Africa-inspired bush and malaria. Far Cry 2 was huge, attractive and refreshingly mature. Christian Donlan dug out an 8/10 for Far Cry 2 on Eurogamer.

He wrote: "Far Cry 2 is unforgettable rather than perfect, then; brilliant, frustrating, sombre and comical, it offers freedom within extremely curtailed limits, and strives to treat its players like adults."

Video: Far Cry 2 on PS3 and Xbox 360.

Nov 17, 2010

Free R.U.S.E DLC incoming

Eurogamer

New multiplayer maps and modes are on the way for Ubisoft's recent real time strategy effort, R.U.S.E.

The Manhattan Project Pack includes three exclusive multiplayer maps and two additional multiplayer modes.

In the Nuclear War mode, all prototype factories and upgrades will be unlocked from the beginning, allowing for some particularly explosive show-downs.

Total War, sees you starting in 1939 with all units specific to that era. You'll then unlock 1942 units and 1945 units step by step.

The three new maps are Twilight of the Gods (2 vs. 2), Vesuvio (2 vs. 2) and Guns and Tulips (3 vs. 3).

Ubisoft is clearly getting in the Christmas mood early the Manhattan Project Pack will be free to all when it launches some time in December.

A charm offensive is probably a good idea, mind. Ubisoft's financial report earlier this week revealed that the strategy title had under-performed since its September release on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Nov 15, 2010

Ubisoft delays Ghost Recon and Driver

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon®

Ubisoft's delayed Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier and Driver San Francisco.

Both games were due to be released some time in the first three months of 2011. Now, they are included in Ubisoft's 2011-12 line-up, which runs from the beginning of April 2011 to the end of March 2012.

No explanation was provided by the French company in its first-half 2010-11 financial results.

It did say, however, that H.A.W.X. 2 and R.U.S.E. "performed below expectations".

For the first six months of the financial year, Ubisoft made a net loss of 89.8 million - 34.5 per cent worse than the loss it made on the same period last year. That sounds bad, but sales were up an impressive 57 per cent to 260 million.

Of those sales, both Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2 and R.U.S.E. performed "below expectations", as mentioned, but Wii smash hit Just Dance fuelled solid back catalogue sales.

And Ubisoft enjoyed a twofold increase in digital sales off the back of Scott Pilgrim on XBLA and PSN, downloadable content and sales of PC games.

Looking forward to the rest of the quarter, Ubisoft pointed to its impressive release slate of games it reckons should rake in the cash.

There's Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, due out this week. Just Dance 2 is already doing the business. Then there's Raving Rabbids Travel in Time for the Wii, Michael Jackson The Experience for the Wii, DS and PSP, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, MotionSports and Fighters Uncaged for Xbox 360 Kinect.

CEO Yves Guillemot said: "Ubisoft's outlook is extremely encouraging for the upcoming Christmas period. Just Dance 2, launched in mid-October, is the Wii phenomenon of the moment, with sales up 75 per cent.

"Assassin's Creed Brotherhood has the potential to outstrip the exceptional performance of the previous episodes, with pre-orders up 25 per cent over Assassin's Creed II. The initial reviews have been extremely positive, praising the breadth of the single-player experience as well as the game's revolutionary multiplayer mode.

"Michael Jackson The Experience and Raving Rabbids Travel in Time are also expected to contribute to our success in the coming quarter, which looks set to see record performances. We are also encouraged by the very positive early performance of Kinect and the good showing of our games for this system, especially Your Shape: Fitness Evolved which is the best selling third-party game for Kinect in the United States."

Buried within its financial results press release is a mention that Ubisoft is "taking measures to adapt its structure to the major changes in the industry by reorganizing the roles and operations of its studios, which has resulted in the termination of certain projects".

It fails to mention which projects have been cancelled.

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