I’ve been playing Far Cry 3 (FC3) from Ubisoft since it was released and I’m very impressed.  I mean really, it’s rare for a game to come along and take some of the best ideas from other titles and successfully meld them into a cohesive story.  While Far Cry3 isn’t perfect (almost), it sets the bar for what a developers should strive for when creating a gaming experience.  This is also a long adventure with a ton of replay value to keep you coming back for more.

Unlike the unnamed African country in Far Cry 2, Far Cry 3 takes place on the Rook Islands.  It a set of tropical islands in a far off place where people go to get away from civilization, explore, and (unfortunately for our protagonist Jason Brody and friends) get kidnapped by the craziest pirate I’ve seen in a game in a while.   What starts as a vacation with a group of friends clubbing, diving, and skydiving quickly turns into a nightmare of pain, blood, and revenge.

 Pirates want to extort money from the parents of the groups’ survivors and then sell them again into slavery once they have the money.  Jason and his brother escape the pirates and make for the jungle.  Along the way Jason becomes injured and wakes up under the care of Dennis Rogers, a friend of the local Rakyat tribe.  He acts as your guide through Rook Island.

Far Cry 3 is an open world adventure and it’s hugely open.  It reminds me of Skyrim as far as the sheer scope of the terrain.  See the mountain in the distance?  You can walk there, drive, swim, boat, and even zip line from the top of one of the many radio towers you need to activate to get there.  If walking the lush jungle isn’t your idea of fun you can also fast travel to any outposts you have liberated.

 To broaden the map and make things more accessible there are outposts and radio towers to clear/activate.  When activated, radio towers will highlight the surrounding areas so you can see terrain, objectives, and even improves items in the shop at cleared outposts. Outposts are scattered throughout the islands and are controlled my enemy factions.  To clear an outpost you simply have to eliminate the enemy presence within.  Once eliminated the outpost becomes populated with friendlies so you can use it as a fast travel location and resupply depot.  In terms of clearing hostiles FC3 gives you lots of options for combat.  You can run into an outpost guns blazing or revert to stealth tactics.  You can take guards out with a silenced weapon (sniper or bow) from ¼ of mile away, use foliage for cover, lure guards to brutal takedown kills, or use my personal favorite… animals.

That’s right; Rook Island is full of wildlife.  They took a page from Red Dead Redemption and Assassin’s Creed 3 and implemented a hunting scheme to level up and make money.  Not only can you take the skins from the animals you’ve downed and trade for money, but also the skins themselves are requirements for crafting new equipment belts.  You can equip up to 4 weapons and 2 different explosive types but to be able to do so you need to craft holsters to carry additional weapons.  The further along the progression the more rare the animal hides needed to improve your holsters, weapons pouches, and syringe packs.   The animals vary from chickens all the way to bull sharks.  The animals are no push overs either, and will sometimes turn the tables on you when you least expect it.

I was trying to take down an outpost and was hiding in the bushes about 30 meters away from a target when I started hearing a hissing noise.  Thinking it was just amazing audio from the surrounding jungle I continued to stalk my prey.  After a second it started getting louder, and I wondered what was going on?  Right about then is when 4 komodo dragons ambushed me.  Dead.  Respawn.  That’s when I started thinking.  I restarted and began looking for my dragon friends.  I was about to give up when a rather large leopard caught my attention.  I loosed an arrow in his direction and turned tail for my target outpost.  I’m not sure what surprised the NPC’s more; me sprinting headfirst into a bunch of guys, or the REALLY mad cat that laid waste to the guards and their dogs.  Outpost cleared.

On top of the crafting gear you can also make syringes, which are constructed from the various colored plants all over the island (think Resident Evil herbs).  As you progress you unlocking recipes to help with exploration, combat, and even wildlife.

 All of this part of a very lengthy single player campaign.  With that in mind, there is also a co-op campaign, AND a multi-player aspect.  The co-op is pretty well done and tells a separate story with different characters.  You can join with up to three friends or three strangers.  The multi-player is rough if you’re coming in as a level 1, but I noticed if you play co-op with your friends the XP carries over to your multi-player session.  That way you can level up your perks and get unlocks prior to joining up with live folks online.  The multi-player is your typical Call of Duty style maps and game modes.   That being said the multi-player is a bit laggy and the audio reminds me of the issues from BattleField 2, lots of microphone crackling and popping and if a person quits it will reset the match.  One nice thing about multi-player is the kill cam, instead of watching whoever killed you again; you get to see a 3^rd person representation of your character (frame by frame) getting struck by the rounds that killed you and the trajectory they entered and exited.

I could go on and on.  Far Cry 3 is one of my nominees for Game Of The Year and is technically a pretty impressive achievement.  The audio is authentic, the visuals on the island are breathtaking, and the open world freedom to just go and do what you want is refreshing.  With all the linear, stale, First Person Shooter adventures out there you should take a vacation… and this gamer knows of a good island.

The Walking Dead, Issue #100

(Centennial)

 Story by Robert Kirkman

Art by Charlie Adlard

 In 2003, Image Comics released The Walking Dead Issue #1.  This told a post apocalyptic story of a father (Rick Grimes) trying to keep his family safe in a world where the dead have risen and any one who dies or becomes infected will rise again.  I’ll try to remain as spoiler-free here as I can since some of you reading this may not have been avid followers.  Basically, society has crumbled, the dead walk the earth, and if you’re bitten you die… or have to be put down (boom, headshot).

So now we come to Issue #100 of the series, the centennial, and Robert Kirkman has pulled zero punches.  Rick Grimes’ band of survivors has come across a group who call themselves “The Saviors.” They are a murderous group of thugs who extort supplies from small encampments in the area while offering to “protect” them from any walkers as compensation.  Any who says no is dealt with violently and made to comply.  Now, our group of survivors isn’t pushovers and has seen some horrific things. They’ve come across cannibals, psychopaths, and herds of walkers.  They’ve lost friends and with each encounter become a little colder and more distant to their humanity.  They decide to decline The Saviors’ generous offer and fight back killing several of the Saviors along the way.

Needless to say a small group of our heroes is on their way to a secure location when they are ambushed and brought before the Saviors’ leader, Negan.  Negan has a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire he carries named Lucille.  I’m going to stop there for a moment.

My favorite part of The Walking Dead series is the humanity in the writing.  I’m not talking about the bright side of humanity either.  He exposes the darkest aspects of our nature through the narrative.  What would people REALLY do and become if every thing around them came crashing down?  ***Spoiler***  What transpires in the final pages of issue #100 will probably shock and, most definitely, make you cringe. One of the group does not survive the ordeal.  This is not an action packed, heroic end either.  This feels more like the end of Empire Strikes Back.  It’s dismal and bleak with virtually no hope, but it’s also a jumping off point.  This is an encounter that leaves you wondering how will people adapt to what’s taken place.  ***Spoiler End***  If you’re a long time fan of the series (like me) you’ll more than likely be standing there with your jaw agape, haunted, and wondering how things will go on in issue #101.

That being said, this issue has gotten some flack for the violence depicted and the story being a rehash of similar stories Kirkman has used in the past.  If you’re speaking gore and shock equating to violence, then yes, it’s grotesque and over the top, but it’s The Walking Dead… we’re here for shock and awe.  As for the plot being a rehash of previous work, I disagree and don’t find this to be the case.  The Saviors are a threat the group has never met, led by a man with no inhibitions and absolutely zero remorse.  Rick has proven, in the past, to be violently loyal and fiercely protective.  Things are only going to get worse from here.  If you’ve read the previous issues of Dead you know this is how things go.  That’s their reality.  It just wouldn’t be The Walking Dead if they could up and go to Aruba and live out their lives sipping Mai Tai’s.  It’s about survival, tragedy, and trying to keep some part of you humane in a world that is not.