I’m playing far cry 2 with redux+ realism and I’m amazed by the level of immersion and sense of control I have over my time with it. The mod fully disables all in-game features to assist the players availing to navigate the map meaning your paper map and some screens showcasing your location is all you get to figure out where to go. I’ve navigated my way through several missions off my own accord, having to learn to be patient with outposts, run the fuck away from anything that looks like trouble and fight with barely any ammo is such a unique experience you can’t create in so many games. The world itself even without mods is beautiful and every hour I spend playing makes me feel like I’m genuinely apart of it, something you wouldn’t typically get from a non roleplaying game.
58 posts and 57 image replies omitted.Reinstalled Far Cry 3, with Immersion mod, which removes annoying HUD elements, minimap, seeing enemies through walls and changes enemy clothes to cammo rather than the original red.
So the rules of playthrough are permadeath, no fast travel, being reasonable with loadout (i.e. not carrying 4 light machine guns cuz that would be unrealistic) and my personal distaste with killing animals, which Ill have to get over because I cant be playing with only 1 weapon slot and 1000 dollar wallet capacity.
Managed to get through starting chase sequence without dying this time, did the tutorial in which I liberated the first outpost. Acquired AK as a weapon. Found a spooky cave with some loot, saw lone enemy soldier being killed by komodo dragon. Got into incredibly obnoxious firefight probably somewhere near the patrol respawn point, because they just kept coming and once I ran out of ammo I had to make a run for it and get away from the location.
>>31266Dead. Played silenced sniper + silenced MP5. Killed by the berserker melee enemy. It was after meeting Cytra at her temple for the first time. Cant say I would be upset, I wasnt enjoying it that much. Died basically because I couldnt be bothered to be cautious anymore.
Not a fan how purposefully dumbed down the enemy AI is compared to FC2. They have no peripheral vision, will rush you instead of staying in cover, bad aim, slow reaction time. Clearing small checkpoints in FC2 was an actual challenge, and even despite the fact they quickly respawned, it felt like more of an achivement than in FC3, where it just feels like going through a checklist. "Outpost 7/31 liberated, good job!"
>>34735My BFF Josif called me because he wanted to meet at the safehouse, took a bus to the desert and made my way to the meeting. On my way there I cleaned a small outpost where I found some info relating to previous guy send to kill Jackal (pre-order or XBox exclusive or something like that bonus mission). Also found golden AK, but didnt even had a chance to try it out, as I swapped it with grenade launcher from Josifs safehouse. Cleaned the nearby hacienda on his orders, convince guy there to give spec-ops team coordinates to nearby shanty town, clean up shanty town, run to Josif rescue, accidently blow him with with grenade launcher (yet again). Took a bus back to Pala.
And thats enough Far Cry 2 for me for foreseeable future, as I am out of gaming time-budget.
>>34738Woke up, went to Mike's bar, picked up a quest to retrieve some sort of box from the woman there. Hopefully that will make her my new buddy, as there is an open position since Josif died. Took a bus to north-western corner of the map. Picked a buggy and less than 30 seconds later managed to get in stuck on a rock, so had to continue on foot.
First encounter on my journey to the derelict train-yard containing the box was a safehouse, surprisingly already unlocked, didnt have to fight anyone there. Next detected a diamond box next to enemy road checkpoint, sneaked in, took diamonds, sneaked out, no fighting required.
Short way from there met a lone soldier on a lookout, stabbed him in the back with machete, attracted a car with a single enemy inside, dispatched him no problem. Then I got shot point-blank with double-barreled shotgun by the first guy, who turns out survived the machete strike and was bleeding out on the ground. Gunshots must have alerted sniper somewhere, couldnt locate him so I just legged it. Found another guy on a lookout, on the elevated position near road checkpoint, wanted to sneak up on him but he noticed me and had to shoot. Ran into hiding, killed his two buddies who were investigating the gunshots, attracted guy with a machinegun from god knows where who got a jump on me and almost killed me. Rest of the journey to train yard was uneventful, barring single patrol car I blew up with grenade launcher before they even noticed me. Right now I am stalking the yard, there are some good camping locations around, but I have no medkits left, so I am gonna just turn around and scavenge some before attempting frontal assault.
>>34862Backtracked to a checkpoint whose guards I previously killed, but didnt loot at the time, found a single medkit, and a diamond case. Heard a car outside so I went in and out very carefully. Car patrols in this game a nightmare, every time I hear anything that even remotely sounds like an engine it gives me a heart attack.
Back at the train yard, started my assault with grenade launcher barrage. Thats when I noticed they had a sniper, but neither me nor him managed to hit each other. My grenade launcher broke, so I decided to nope out, go to the nearest gun shop, get myself a sniper rifle and restart attack anew. However the way to the gun shop was around the train yard, one guy was blocking it, had to shoot him, alerted other guys from the compound, firefight ensures, at the end it looked like everyones was dead already (later found only one guy still alive), so I went straight inside to pick the box from one of the carriages.
Afterwards, on my way to that gun shop, found a safehouse inside of which there was an interesting gun - assault rifle with optical sights. Didnt keep it though, the zoom wasnt good enough for sniping, and LMG provides me will all the automatic firepower I need already. Instead bough a good old bolt-action rifle.
>>34864Took longer but safer way back to Pala, south all the way to the bus station at the corner of the map. Got opportunity to put the new rifle to use clearing a checkpoint. Saw a car patrol approaching, shot once, missed, alerted it, shot second time, missed, as it was speeding towards me finally on the third attempt took out machine gunner, and as the driver parked the car next to me and got out, the malaria triggered. Had to survive through the pill taking animation while the guy is shooting at me from 10m away, no cover between us. He was an awful shot, barely took any health from me, blow him with a grenade, but Jesus, this game. Anyway, two more guys showed up from somewhere, one of them carrying an automatic shotgun, incredibly powerful weapon even at mid range, almost killing me this time. Took a jeep from the checkpoint, drove south through the desert, avoiding roads.
One my way stopped to clean up three safehouses, collected couple diamond cases, finally reached the bus station and delivered the box to the woman at Mike's. Next Ill plan to do gun shop mission.
>>34865Gun shop mission send me back to the north-western corner of the map, where I was to destroy a convoy carrying weapons. Bought an IED to make the job easier, clean the checkpoint through which the convoy drives, and set up an ambush. Detonated the IED too soon, only took out the jeep escort in front the truck, which blocked the truck, gunned down the other jeep behind, and blow the truck with a grenade.
Afterwards proceeded through the top corner of the map east, to the Fort, to get my hands on a tape left by previous guy send to hunt Jackal. Bought a silenced pistol, but an attempt for subtle approach got immediately ruined by two snipers on the Fort towers. After taking them out the rest was quite easy, Fort has only two opposing gates, so there wasnt much risk of getting flanked (although there was smaller outpost near the entrance). After killing everyone with such an ease I got cocky for like 2 seconds and got reduced to 5% health by a single straggler armed with a rusty AK. Eventually found the recording I was looking for, and left the Fort for the nearest safehouse where I spend the night.
>>34866One last side mission before returning to faction quests, assassination on behalf of voice on the phone. Target is at the airfield. While driving through the desert I saw lone man walking through it, nobody else and nothing interest around. His back was turned, didnt see me. I sneaked up on him and shot him at the back of the head with a pistol. And then I stopped. Why did I kill this man? Didnt show any hostility, didnt even have opportunity to. Clearly a mercenary, armed and visibly not local, but so am I. Killed him without a though, just because thats what I have been doing the whole time, out of habit really. Afterwards I started noticing these moments. Encountered a firefight between UFLL and APR, someone won, shot at a survivor, missed, he hid behind a tree. Shot a flare next to the tree, grass caught fire, he had no option but to either burn or expose himself to my sniper rifle. He chose fire. Or maybe didnt even had time to. At the airport, shot man, wounding him. Was about to finish him with second shot, but then stopped myself, left him wounded because I wanted to force his buddies to run to his rescue, so I could shoot them. In retrospect completely unnecessary, at that point there was nobody else alive.
>>34867Opted for APR mission next, because I wanted to check out what other side has to offer. Mission is to assassinate the police chief. Easy enough, he drives around in a car, can be finished with a single IED, except the woman I met at the bar, now my new best buddy, devised a harebrained scheme to steal truckload of weapons, requiring me to acquire some documents full of dirt on said police chief, and then killing him in his police station. She did give me a rocket launcher, which is cool, but from practical perspective kind of useless.
The fishing village where the documents are really highlights how merciless the AI in this game is. Its crawling with enemy mercs, I shot one, and they are suddenly all gone, crouched behind cover and inside buildings, and they will stay there until I get close enough for them to fill me with lead, forcing me to circle the entire village on boat, trying to flank and pick off enough enemies to be able to make a landing without turning it into opening scene of Saving Private Ryan.
With documents in my hands, I made my way to the police station, encountering skirmishes between boat patrols and river checkpoints. Boats won. At the police station almost got murdered by a guy with an RPG, had to completely retreat and restock ammo and medkits at the gun shop. During my second assault I took the fucker out first, with relative ease dispatched the rest of police chiefs bodyguards and finally him. My new best buddy laid an ambush for weapons shipment, so naturally I had to run to her rescue. She actually survived this time.
>>34883Next order of business, assassination mission taking place surprisingly in Pala. Good thing too, because right before accepting it I ran out of meds, not sure what would happen if I got malaria attack without them, but I dont feel like finding out. So I took a bus back to Pala, shot a guy with silence pistol, dont think anyone saw us, but it still triggered everyone around hostile. Took a car and drove outside of ceasefire zone, then immediately returned back like nothing happened. Went to see the priest for more malaria medication, he gave me passports for some civilians wanting to leave country. I was to deliver them to a safehouse, conveniently close to a bus station, almost died there again to a car patrol, got my medicine.
Gun shop mission next. This time I forgot to equip IED, so I had to improvise. At the checkpoint through with weapon convoy I was to destroy passes I parked two jeeps in the middle of the road and rolled a fuel barrel next to them. When the convoy came, shot the barrel, blew them all to hell.
At Mikes Bar I picked a buddy mission from my BFF, to kill two drug dealer pushing product on children. Easy enough, one was just standing in some checkpoint, got a clean shot on him, another at the airfield, less clean, but still easy.
Afterwards I wanted to return to working for UFLL, but I they wont even let me inside their HQ, apparently I locked myself into APR questline by taking their previous job. Sad. When I entered APR headquarters, I overheard their leaders talking about using a "help poor african children suffering dysentery" commercial to collect donations for themselves. Their mission for me is "go destroy natural gas tanks UFLL is using to pay for medicine". This is who I am stuck with. Also met a new mercenary lieutenant working for APR, classy looking British gentleman.
>>34885BFF called once again, she wanted to meat near the train yard where gas tanks are located. There she tasked me with removing a UFLL commander at nearby ranch getting entrepreneurial with children, who is in some way connected with the gas tanks, dont remember exactly what she said, but basically killing him would result in entire train full of UFLL soldiers coming after me when I blow up the tank. Assassination itself was simple, not many hiding spots at the ranch from my sniper rifle. Although the commander did take me by surprise by pulling a MAC on me, he was dressed in civilian clothing so I didnt expect him to be armed. After being done with that I assaulted train yard and blew up gas tanks. My BFF intercepted the soldier train that was supposed to come after me, I ran to assist her, didnt even need to this time, by the time I got there there I only had opportunity to shoot one guy, all the other ones were already dead.
Signed up for another gun shop mission, forgot to equip IED yet again, so I just parked jeep on the road and gunned the convoy down with its machine gun, wont do that again though, almost got killed.
Finally picked a mission from Warren Clyde, my I guess second best buddy, surprisingly didnt get downed once during this entire playthrough so I dont even know, wants me to blow up some kind of gas or oil pipe the factions are using for funding the war.
>>34879People credit Vaas with starting the trend of charismatic Far Cry villains, but as I replay through it its becoming obvious that Far Cry 2 was the blueprint, with Jackal and his philosophizing about the nature of men. He is more of a protagonist of the story than player character is, certainly the one with most impact on it, player being basically just some asshole filling his pockets with blood diamonds and making no difference whatsoever. I love how both mechanically and thematically the game keep hammering in how much players actions make no difference, such a pleasant contrast to constant backpatting other game in the series (and well, video games in general I suppose) keep lavishing players with.
>>34891So made my way to the Fishing village for the buddy mission, the fuel wasnt even in the village itself but on an lake island nearby, easy, next got another predecessor tape from the airport, this was my third time assaulting it, trivial, singed up for assassination mission which took me back to Fishing village, this time actually had to scour through it to find the target, intense firefight ensured. The target almost downed me halfway across village with a submachine gun, idk if his RNG lucked out or special NPCs have improved accuracy.
Also found out enemies can drop golden AKs, probably a quirk of a mod, in base game there should be only 4 of them hidden across the map. Not that they are of any use.
Another APR mission, this time met a Yankee stereotype lieutenant who wants me to blow up UFLL vehicle repair station. My buddy Michele requested that before I get to that, I am to acquire map of secret fuel truck routes, which will allow her to destroy them so they can be used for war anymore.
>>34896Died. Finished the APR mission, then got one to help refugees in exchange for malaria medicine. First time I actually had to restart because the game bugged and after killing the enemies it didnt unlock the underground safehouse with refugees, on second try I acted like a moron and sneaked around instead of snipping from a distance and got gunned down.
I am actually distraught right now, this game has been the one enjoyable thing in my life I looked forward to among all the fucking responsibilities and work.
I delete the video I posted two days ago, because I wanted different clothing. Now I got perfect ones, so this is going to be an actual final attempt, no more fucking around, no more playing at 3AM when Im tired and cant think anymore, no more getting reckless just because I have buddy rescue, no more trying to play it like a normal FPS, Im doing a slow, tactical playthrough, lets see how far I can get.
As far as rules go, Im going to stick to the same as previous attempts, no reloading, no using DLC weapons until all gun shop missions are completed, and I can finish only one of each kind of side-missions between story missions, effectively just means no rushing gun shop missions to unlock all weapons.
Does anyone have advice on improving footage quality? I recorded at 30MB/s bitrate, raw footage looks fine(-ish), but after uploading on youtube turns into pixelated blur during movement.
Finished the first UFLL mission, very easy,, how could it not be, I played it dozen times already. The only thing of note is that during the ambush of my best buddy, at the point where in my previous playthroughs they always got downed, and half the time died outright, she manged to beat all the hostile mercs herself.
Despite upping my recording bitrate, the quality after uploading is still shit, I found out why, youtube uses different codec for 1080p (or under) and 1440p (or over) videos, so in the future Ill have to upscale my footage to 1440p before uploading.
Finally finished all the between main missions fussing about. Blew up a fuel depot for Josip to stop APRs/UFLLs harebrained terrorist attack plan. Afterwards went to get a predecessor tape in the airport.
One thing of note that happened, forced me to reload the save again, is to the far south on the map you can see a building. However its separated from the rest of them map by map borders, if you cross them your character passes out and gets teleported back. But with car going at sufficiently high speed, between passing out and getting teleported I managed to get carried far enough by momentum to not be teleported back to main map, but near the building. The building had save box, healthkit, and some weapons, most notably a mortar. The issue is I couldnt leave it, when I try crossing map borders I pass out and get teleported back to the building. My guess is this place was supposed to be playing some role in some quest, but that got cut out, but instead of completely deleting it, the devs just separated it from main map by the passing out mechanic, not counting on players being able to cross far enough to get stuck there.
Im dead. This was the furthest I ever got. Finished all 3 UFLL story missions in chapter one, all gun shop missions, all predecessor DLC mission, bunch of assassination and buddy missions, was on a second APR mission. First I tried using paraglider, which in an effort to get back on ground killed me and my buddy had to rescue me. Then during raid on ranch I got shot by a guy with the best assault rifle in the game, those have been a headache the entire playthrough, scoped, super accurate and take 2/3 of my health away with single burst, misclicked the heal button (if I ever play again I have to rebind it) and bled to death. I kind of seen this coming, there were numerous occasions when I managed to survive only by a hair, it was only a matter of time before I didnt.
I have almost 10 hours of footage left from that playthrough, probably still going to edit it and upload on youtube, eventually, right now not in a mood.
Finally forced myself to edit and upload a video. 5 hours of rendering it took, and even more to upload on youtube, had to stay awake until 2AM waiting for it to finish.
I started noticing enemies carrying better weapons, at first I wondered if it is even the case, and not just me not noticing having them at the beginning, but no, over the course of my playthrough I became confident they are armed better. The question remained why, I know they are supposed to upgrade after transitioning to chapter 2, so what is it tied to? The story missions? I had to search wikipedia, and turns out, your reputation level, which is raises with you completing either story or buddy missions. So not only do buddy missions offer literally no reward, not even a token safehouse upgrade as the alternative objectives in story missions, but actually make the game harder. This is in no way explained in game itself. Baffling design decisions, game like this is never going to be made again, dont know any other that would be this actively hostile to its player. Joker 2 of video games.
>>38306I did have fun. I plan to give it another try, although not anytime soon. Permadeath playthroughts are fun, I am thinking about starting one in some other game, havent decided which, something chill though, Skyrim or Fallout 3, but cant be bothered to mod them.
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