Be Excellent To Each Other

"I'm so damn interesting!"

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Dark Souls saves nearly constantly.

First post of the day, grammar fans!

I do like me some Vaas, he's entertainingly batshit.

Stories!

Last night I had to assault a pirate camp (the prison camp mission, if you've done it). Very minor spoilers ahead.

So, the camp is kinda U-shaped, spread out around a small bay, with higher ground around the edges. There's about ten pirates scattered around that U, some watching each other, some alone and ready to be picked off. I start off my approaching from a ridge and find a patrolling sniper right next to me; I stick my machete through his chest and find, next to him, a convenient alarm panel. I use that to disable all the alarms so the guys below can't signal for help.

I take a few moments to survey the scene and tag all the enemies, then proceed along. Two pirates are standing under a rocky outcropping, which I pick my way to the top of without them seeing me. I wait a bit, and one wanders off, while the other looks in the opposite direction. I kill the first guy with my bow, then leap from the outcropping and land on the second guy machete-first. Three down.

I start to make my way towards the next pair of pirates, working my way up one side of the U, moving through some shacks for cover, when I unexpectedly discover a snake in one of the shacks! Minor panic as it clamps onto my arm, but I manage to avoid making any noise. I throw the snake away and it slithers off into the undergrowth.

That's when I notice a pirate muttering to himself, and it's too close to be one of the two I'm stalking. Disconcertingly, I realise I've missed a second sniper outpost, just ahead and to one side on high ground; I carefully circle around to it, hiding in the undergrowth, and take the sniper down with another arrow to the knee chest. Four down.

The new vantage point lets me spot a guard on the far side of the U, up the hill, separate from the others. On a previous (failed) run, I hadn't seen him, and he flanked and killed me. This will not do, so I get my silenced sniper rifle out and take a shot at him from quite extreme range. Five down... except I miss! He hears the bullet smack into the grass next to him and quickly shouts to all his mates. The music ramps up and all the remaining pirates run to cover.

Now this is where, in (say) Dishonored, I'd reload the save and take the shot again. But Far Cry 3 doesn't let me save whenever I want so I can't do that; I could restart the mission but, what the hell, the game wants me to go with it and salvage what I can. So that's what I do; I backpedal further up the hill overlooking the camp and wait to see what happens next. Through my tagging, I can see the pirates running around from cover to cover, but none of them can see me so none of them are moving in my direction. This gives me some breathing room.

For the next five or so minutes, I fall into a pattern. Pace around until I get a clear-ish shot, then snipe at an enemy -- they're running around a bit, so it's not easy to hit; I probably connect about 50% of the time -- which occasionally results in a one or two of them sallying out of the camp and in my general direction to look for me. When that happens, I curse myself for not putting any landmines down in their path before switching to my silenced SMG and putting them down fast and quiet.

I'm lucky that I never get more than two at once, so I'm not in any danger of being overwhelmed; and since I recently upgraded my ammo pouch I have plenty of bullets. When two of them do close in on me, I throw a Molotov cocktail and set fire to a significant chunk of jungle; that distracts them long enough for me to get clear and flank them individually.

In time, all the pirates lie dead. I move cautiously down to the beach and loot the bodies, including a vital key from the camp boss, who was one of the people I sniped from afar. It's time for the second bit; my mission marker has moved to an ominous and very dark cave mouth. I switch from my silenced weapons to my flamethrower and head in, planting a landmine at the mouth of the cave to watch my back.

The next five minutes fall into a very different pattern. Everything is close-up in the cave, so the flamethrower is ludicrously dangerous; not only to them, but to me (I manage to set myself on fire on one occasion when a burning guard charges me!) I work slowly and methodically, planting landmines and reversing back over them where necessary so they can work as crowd control (the landmines somehow know not to blow up when I tread on them, which is useful). Early on, the one I planted back at the entrance goes off unexpectedly; I missed a pirate somewhere outside, apparently.

Eventually I work my way to three pirates, all alerted, in a smallish room that I enter from a balcony. I toss some grenades in, and when they run out in panic, I spray them with liquid fire. It's only afterward that I notice the room has a caged tiger at the far end; had I come in a bit quieter, releasing that tiger would have been a seriously fun tactic.

I love this game.

Heh, I did that bit last night too. I even did exactly the same at the start, first taking out the sniper by the alarm panel and then getting bitten by a snake. Silenced sniper rifle is a beast.

This sounds epic.

No, it's awful. The save system isn't precisely right and the bad guy's face is all wrong.

Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding the good Doctor's words regarding the save system but:

You can save any time you want, if you are not in a mission. When you die, you return to a safehouse but WITH everything you had up to the moment of death OR when you die, you return to a safe house WITH the stuff you had when you saved.

In a mission, you clear each stage and it remembers how far you'd got and with what and says "Try that again, buddy".

So, outside of a misison, you can go loopydoowahhey and revert to the point with no ill effects on the game, and iside of a mission you can go loopydoowahhey and it'll put you back at the last checkpoint.

It sounds really good. I'll put it on my list.

Yeah, I was being facetious. There's nothing wrong with the save system. In fact if you fail a mission you don't even go back to a safehouse but to the point in the landscape where you were when the game deemed you to have started the mission.

Ta, final questions:

How long are the missions? Can you play this in half hour chunks? Was the RPS reviewer just being a whiny little bitch, then?

Yeah, but I guess it depends how you want to tackle them. If you go in guns blazing then the missions will tend to be shorter than if you plan and take more time.

The save system is the same as GTA. It's a total non-issue.

Lovely, ta. I shall issue instructions to the powers that be. Solely on the strength of you pair's enthusiasm for it.

I've stuck this edition on my amazon wishlist. I trust it will work on its own.

I don't quite understand what Far Cry is about since I haven't played any of them. Shall I (rightly/wrongly) assume it's a bit like Crysis uno but with better enemy intelligence? I liked Crysis I did.

It's much more open world than Crysis, elements of it are similar, though.

According to the RPS piece that's not how it works, and there is the potential for losing progress (i.e. crafted items), since it has a single save that will autosave over itself.

Therefore in your scenario, I'm wondering if it's the case that if you save manually, then go nuts, and an autosave overwrites your manual save, you're basically stuck with the consequences of having gone nuts.

If this is the case, then it's an issue for me, even if DocG says it's a non-issue. And it's not like GTA either, since GTAIV allows you to maintain ten manual saves as well as an autosave.

I can't think that there really are any consequences to having gone nuts, though. All you can do is lose some ammo.

Well I'm not sure, because I haven't played the game, all I have to go on is what RPS had to say about it (and they're not known for inaccurate histrionics), and they made it sound like it could be a pretty big deal.

This comment for example:



This sounds bad to me. Now if they're wrong, then fine, which is why I was interested to hear how BEEXers are finding the save system - before I drop €50 on the game.

You might lose some mission progress, but that applies to quite a lot of games really, but in terms of wandering round the map going nuts I don't see a problem. But if the prospect of having no quick save is so appalling then maybe either leave or wait and see if they it in a patch or something.

It's not so much the lack of a quicksave that bothers me, so much as having a single save that the game can overwrite at any point if a 'save point' is deemed to have been reached. (I find it annoying in Borderlands 2, but the scope for irritation appears to be greater in Far Cry 3.)

I just don't get what the problem would be. It's not like it's an RPG where you try different character builds. The missions occur one after another and you need to complete each one before the next is available, there's no branching story lines with choices to make (at least not that I've seen yet). I just don't see how you can ruin anything by fucking around, the game isn't stopping you from having fun. Although if you don't want to start a mission yet just give that one small area a wide berth. If the game appeals it really is a ridiculous non-issue to get hung up on.

I'm not getting hung up on it!

The RPS piece really did flag it up as a major issue hence my querying it here, from what you're saying it's not nearly as bad as they made it out to be, which is cool, as I very much like the sound of the game overall.

Thanks for taking the time to explain how it works, it makes far more sense now and I think I could get along with it perfectly well

I don't like the save system. Either a game should autosave, or it shouldn't. It shouldn't autosave "sometimes".

I've been nobbing around and got shot and then realised the game hadn't saved for ages and I've lost all the rubbish loot I had collected and gone "grr" at it.

I suspect, however, that it feels "wronger" to me because I'm playing it on a PC, not a 360.

But can you actually save when you want to though? The RPS piece appeared to be suggesting that for a lot of the time the save option is disabled, and even when it's available it's only intermittently useful.

Borderlands 2 I can put up with, insofar as it autosaves very regularly and always offers a 'save and quit' option which leaves the next game starting pretty close to where you left off.

You can save when you want, except for during missions.

LOL WUT

It sounds tolerable then, if not ideal.

Mind you, Ubisoft want €59.99 for it from uPlay, so they can fuck off for that, I'll wait for it to turn up in a sale, preferably on Steam.

Isn't that one of the Civ Leaderheads? *Proceeds to shake fist, wibble about trade.*

We should build a war elephant, and trample our foes!

.

This talk about not playing a game that's supposed to be awesome because of the save system is (Christmas) crackers. Are gamers really like this, these days?

Gamer 1 "I hear the new [game] is aces. It lets you fight a panda whilst dressed as Spiderman's aunt. You can collect hundreds of pieces of Lego and build a statue of Jesus before cuddling a crocodile wearing pyjamas. There's an involving story where you grow from being a young spuckler to Alan Sugars apprecentice, then you smash his skull in using a bust of Sugars own head before taking over his empire."

Gamer 2 "Does it run in 1080p though?"

A really bad save system could easily ruin a game, though. The point is that there's next to fuck all wrong with it.

Apart from when it doesn't save, of course. It just feels wrong. In GTA4 (which used almost exactly the same system) it felt natural when you restarted outside the hospital or police station, but in FC3 it just feels odd (and it nicks your stuff).

Screw Dizzy, this should be a kickstarter.

If I achieve my goal of £10,000 I will think really really really hard about what colour the crocodiles pyjamas would be.

The crocodile will be the one wearing the pyjamas?

Ahm oot!

Some gamers are, obviously. RPS flagged up the save system in a list of 'things I loathe about Far Cry 3', Grim... clearly has issues with it, and I could see the scope for it being a problem for me, as well.

People have different opinions about stuff, and attach more or less importance to some things than other folks do, it's something to do with humans not being Borgs, apparently, although I'm no scientist.



And that's a cheap and unnecessary shot, as I'm sure you're aware.

True, but no malice was intended.

£29.99 on Steam now - this is far more palatable than 60 fucking euros via uPlay!

For thirty quid I think I may have a little tickle at it.

Downloading now! This had better bloody well be good.

So then, yes, it's a very good game.

The save system is shit and annoying and makes no earthly sense, but I can live with it.

I've not done a huge amount, but have done the opening section of the game, got the main map opened up, taken a radio tower and an outpost, done a couple of extra missions and suchlike. The herb gathering and skinning and crafting stuff I'm not entirely sold on, similarly the talent system, does it belong in what's basically a straight FPS game, or are they going for more of an RPG experience along the Borderlands 2 model?

Time will tell on that one. Also, 'you are now leaving the mission area' messages in an open world game is poor. (Especially since as far as I can tell you're 'on a mission' for a lot of the time without actually doing anything to start one.)

Overall however, early impressions are positive, and I don't hate the characters, which is good.

The save system did fuck me off when I was doing the first outpost, I was trying various approaches to get my head around the stealth side of things, silent takedowns, a straight gunfight etc etc. I just let myself die and have another go several times over, as the checkpoint was just before the outpost, which was fine.

However, on one attempt (which I was almost deliberately fucking up to see how far the enemy AI would go), my buddies basically finished off the camp for me and I completed the mission, despite the whole thing having been a total fuck-up from my perspective, missing out on a load of kills and so on. Of course, as soon as the outpost was cleared (albeit not by me) it fucking auto-checkpointed again and overwrote my save, so I couldn't have another 'proper' go at it.

TECH BABBLE:

Can't run it ULTRAed out or at the native res of my screen whilst maintaining a solid 60FPS+ With everything maxed out it does look almost unbelievably luscious, but my framerate is generally around 30-45FPS at those settings, which is unacceptable. But seriously, it's like watching an incredibly high quality pre-rendered cutscene when totally maxed out.

Have had to settle for 1920x1200 with VERY HIGH and HIGH across the board, whereby I get a good solid 60FPS+ experience, and it still looks pretty damn fab.

A-ha!

Latest beta Nvidia drivers massively improve performance in FC3, got them installed now and comfortably running at the same settings I had at 1920x1200, but now at 2560x1440, which is the native res of my screen, so is obviously much preferred.

Cracking good game, really enjoying it, even the fucking plant-gathering and rucksack production, it's just like WoW!

Tell me more fun tales! Ones involving pirates and mayhem! Please.

I accepted a mission atop a mountain, and noticed a conveniently placed handglider on the mini-map.

'Splendid!' I thought, 'what better way to get to the mission area than stealthily gliding over the heads of my foes?'

After three seconds on the handglider a big message popped up that read YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE MISSION AREA RETURN FROM WHENCE YOU CAME OR FAIL HORRIBLY. (Something like that anyway.)

Being as I'm strapped into, y'know, a fucking handglider, I couldn't exactly execute a three point turn.

Three seconds later I failed the mission and it plomped me back on the map in an entirely different place to where I'd started the mission.

It does stuff like that quite a lot.

You can actually jump from hangliders. Aside from being funny, you can actually survive if you drop over water.

Oh yes I know that, what really grated was the idea of putting a handglider in an open-world game, especially right next to a mission start point, and then immediately have the player fail the mission if he uses the fucking handglider.

There are quite a few things with this game that make me think, 'You guys did test this first, didn't you?.....'

This game annoyed me last night.

I should note for the record that my games time is pretty limited during the week, especially when it comes to games like FC3 which I can't even try to get a sneaky 30 minutes on when AE Jnr is still up due to its Cert 18 nature.

As such it's basically a slot from around 21:30 (which is generally when we'll get her upstairs and Mrs AE takes over for bedtime duties) to around 22:30, which is when I eat my tea and start to wind down for bed. (Point being, I don't have much patience for games that waste my time.)

So last night I loaded up the game and I needed to make things before I could really do anything useful.

I needed to make a bigger wallet 'cause I couldn't carry any more money.
I needed to make a bigger backpack 'cause I couldn't carry any more stuff.
I needed to make a gun holster so I could carry more than one gun.
I needed an ammo pouch so I could carry more than 40 bullets.

And so on, you get the idea.

No problem I thought, I can do a crafting session, it'll make a change of pace and I feel like I've achieved something practical.

So the first thing I need is tapir skins, to make a bigger backpack. I look at the map and the nearest tapirs are quite some way away, thus I avail myself of a vehicle and drive over there, or at least I try to. Unfortunately I seem to have some random bad luck and encounter a large group of baddies along the way who kill me after I run out of ammo (only one gun and limited ammo supply you see, as per the list above of things I need to make).

It respawns me back at the village and I hopefully check the store, maybe I can buy a backpack, or an ammo pouch! Nope, the lady will sell me everything from assault rifles to grenades to sub-machine guns, but she can't sell me a little bag to put some ammo in.

ANother vehicle is procured, and this time I get to the tapir zone, but I can't find any tapirs.

I hunt around for tapirs, skilfully avoiding the patrolling baddies.

I finally find a tapir, but alas it is being pursued by a tiger. I kill the tiger, and then I kill the tapir.

At last, I can skin the tapir and make myself a bigger backpack!

However, it appears that the sound of my hunting has attracted the interest of some nearby patrolling baddies, who immediately set about killing me with their high powered weaponry.

Despite being badly dinged up and hopelessly outgunned, I managed to kill my would-be assassins, saving myself at the last minute with a health syringe as I finished the last of them off with my knife.

And now, finally, I would get my tapir skin.

Except... Another tiger I was unaware of jumped out the bushes and ripped my face off. I died.

And I respawned back at the village, with all of my progress undone. And no tapir skin. And 30 minutes wasted.

QUIT.

Borderlands 2.