About the Book

The holiday quarter is off to a solid start with the successful launch of Far Cry 2

The game is well on track to achieve our expectations for the year.

No one is submitting any maps because they cannot get on line to play multiplayer and scores of people are complaining the single player is repetitive and boring.

My own personal feelings are very clear, this is unfortunately the last Ubisoft game I buy.

The first patch for PC will be released today worldwide, and will autoupdate when you launch the game. Patch 1.01

This patch is just a first step in our efforts to support you and our games, and we are still working on other issues reported, meaning you can expect other patches and updates to come soon.

Thanks all for your patience as we continue working on improving your gaming experience.

Far Cry was indeed an absolute classic. It's hard to think that the game is so many years old and it still looks and feels so fantastic. The lighting, shadows, character detail and overall story was phenomenal and there has been little to match up to the standards Far Cry set. With this in mind Far Cry 2 really did have huge expectations.

Throughout the game you are given missions which you have to fulfil. This can become quite tedious. Very similar to the style which is adopted in Assassins Creed. You obtain a mission brief, carry out the objective and return to receive the next brief. This for me felt quite repetitive. It's very much the case of drive here, shoot up enemies, drive there shoot up some more enemies. The distance you have to travel to complete missions really slows down the gameplay and you might well get bored quite quickly.

To conclude, this game was far from what I expected. With the high expectations that Far Cry the original set, Far Cry 2 did have some tough goals to achieve and sadly I feel they have not been. Enemy battles are the very much the same at the beginning of the game as they are through to the end, you might find this fun for 30 minutes but for the duration of the game itself? it gets quite boring. The bad points put aside, the game is a visual paradise but is this enough to merit it being a worthwhile purchase? I'm not too sure it is.

According to the Ubisoft Forum Manager:

• You have five activations on three separate PCs.
• Uninstalling the game "refunds" an activation. This process is called "revoke", so as long as you complete proper uninstall you will be able to install the game an unlimited number of times on 3 systems.
• You can upgrade your computer as many times as you want (using our revoke system)
• Ubisoft is committed to the support of our games, and additional activations can be provided.
• Ubisoft is committed to the long-term support of our games: you'll always be able to play Far Cry 2.

The biggest difference between Ubisoft's and EA's DRM is that EA lacks the "revoke" function. Once you've installed one of its games on three systems, you need to contact EA's customer support and ask for authorization for future installs.

I bought the game not knowing anything about first person shooters my only online experience was playing Diablo 2 on cold winter nights exchanging swords and slashing demons whilst talking to people about objects and spells I did not know anything about. Then I read an article about a new game coming out called farcry, I had just purchased a new Pc and was pleased it could run farcry, so I waited for the release date went out on my lunch break at work and waited anxiously to get home at Five o’clock to install it.
 

After installing the game I started the single player game and I stuttered my way through the first section of the game (in a sewer if I remember correctly) dodging and weaving my way through debris and fallen girders, Then came the part of the game that made me sit back in my chair and gasp for air , That was the first sight of the sea and trees with the mountain background glowing with colours with birds flying by and fish swimming in the sea, it looked so real I could imagine the heat of the sun and the humidity of the jungle, that image soon ended when I came across my first enemy and to my surprise he chased me (yes I ran away). after that first encounter started the epic adventure that was to give me many sleepless nights and many hours of day dreaming in work.
 

Part way through the single player game I decided to venture into the Multiplayer side of the game, I picked my gaming name and entered into my first server to be met by the sound of rockets exploding and jeeps whizzing passed with the glare of scoped weapons in the distant hills, it is a sight that will remain with me always, this was the first impression I got when I first logged into multiplayer and I was addicted from that point.
 

I spent many hours trying to learn the game exploring the extremely large maps and perfecting the many skills that would take me through many matches and into the late hours of the night. The maps where very enjoyable and well made and that sound of the flag siren still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up This was Assault this was farcry to me it was the greatest computer game ever made and I still play it today.
 

But The first farcry did have its problems with excessive punkbuster kicks for reasons nothing to do with cheating and a very poor netcode that frustrated many players, many bugs where discovered and some patches failed, some players tried to ruin the game with hacks but for some reason I still carried on playing.

I tried to play other games but always came back to farcry why I did not know at the time? But when Ubisoft released details of farcry 2 without the Assault Mode I realised that it was the game play I liked with the excitement of defending your base and outwitting other teams, it was a place to have fun and to have banter with the opposite team somehow this game mode gave you this excitement and community spirit that made the game enjoyable.
 

I met many new friends playing farcry online and played in some great clans, many have stopped playing and some clans moved onto other games but I live to hope that farcry 2 will bring back some familiar names and hopefully in time Ubisoft will realise that farcry 2 without Assault wont be the same, I don’t doubt it will be a great game but I want to hear that siren blasting in my ears and the screams from team members shouting “touch the flag touch the flag”. Time will tell but for now bring on farcry 2 and let the new adventure begin.

The service is through Xbox.com or PSN’s network, but it’s on Ubisoft’s server

There are two strategies, because if you created a map and then if you [set up] a match with it, people that connect to your game will download it from you

But if you post it on Ubisoft’s server, then players will connect to your game but they won’t have your map. The engine will select which has the best connection - is it from you or the Ubisoft server? - and then it will download it from the fastest connection

To watch the video

Players have already built recreations of well-known landmarks, like the Eiffel Tower, using Far Cry 2's map editor, and Gaetan expects to see maps that are less focused on actual first-person-shooter gaming, and more focussed on "art", when the game is released October 24.

I think it's more fun for everybody. In Call of Duty 4, the good guys are always the same, they always play the same way. In Far Cry 2 you cannot do that. You have to adapt, you have to change your strategy. And with the map editor you won't be able to learn your maps, because you have so many and if you want to play with your friends and with different people then you have to switch - it will be a bit of a surprise all of the time. So I think it's more fun.