Far Cry 2

I started my own thread along the lines of this, but now I'd spotted this thread here's my list of gripes, even though I like the game. Ok, there's plenty FC2 gets right, I love belting through the weldt to get to my target, sniping from a great distance under the desert sun, or creeping round in my camo suit with silenced weapons to plant explosives (the easiest way to assasinate someone escpecially in the ceasfire zones), watching the mass explosions that result from fires etc. But there's lots they got wrong. Here's my personal list, and it's a long one.

1. The plot: what plot? The stories behind some missions work fine, but I try not to think of the overall plot, it spoils the game. Here you are, a drug using murderer, shipping arms all over the place, blowing up convoys to secure your own personal weapons supply and you're painted as some sort of hero out to do the world a favour by ridding it of the jackal?

Let's face it, little you do in the game is in the name of tracking down the jackal, you just get a cut scene at the beginning that hints you're eventually going to have to face him. You're just going around committing mass murder and shooting up. Wouldn't this played out with the main guy painted as some sort of anti hero or amoral mofo, in a sort of grand theft africa meets heart of darkness? You'd prolly end up taking out the jackal anyway just to take over his business. Though there's a couple of points where you can make moral decisions what about more nice guy missions? what about your character starting as a drug addicted maniac and through the choices he makes, missions he does or maybe even the way he resolves them, he either repents or becomes worse? Meh maybe I've been spoiled by bioware. the possibilities are endless.

Why are the pylon assassination missions all the same? Wouldn't this be an opportunity to build things up a bit and add backstory?

2. Why the map restriction in act 1? First impressions count, and the map for act 1 seems kinda samey and small. When you're in act 2 you can return to the act 1 map, so it's clearly not a technological limitation , so why the restriction? Why not let players stray in to dangerous territory if they want? To see the sights etc. See how big ubiaftica is?

3. Bad map design, the main complaint I have here is things like the distance to the bus stations from the main towns. And between the bar/weapons shop in act 1 and the nearest bus stop and main town ... not to mention that freaking awful ford I always screw up. Though I enjoy driving out to missions spending 5-10 mins each time I do a mission to collect/upgrade weapons then get to the bust stop I want to is madness.Wouldn't it have been better to put everything a player needed to start a mission in the town before he/she ventures in to the great out doors? Ok, so not all missions start in towns, but you get my point. They just don't seem to have thought things through.

4. Save Games: why no checkpoint system with autosaves immediately before and after completing a mission and every time you enter a safe house? What's with the console version only save at safe houses (erm ... I think). Maybe it is a console limitation but save files are 4.5k in size, surely a console can accomodate that?

5. The buddy system doesn't make sense. If they were going to have buddies, they should at least let them accompany you missions with rudamentary controls (e.g. 'Attack', 'Cease fire', 'Form Up'). Having them magically appear when you're wounded just doesn't make sense and breaks immersion.

6. Why does the weapons dealer disappear when he's not available? No other mission givers do. Wouldn't it have made more sense and been easier to program just to have him there all the time? Have him offer missions and the player be told they'd cancel their current mission if they accept, just like everyone else? Maybe even have him explain he has no more weapons left to offer when all the missions have been done to avoid player confusion?

7. Why are there no weapons descriptions in the weapon shop catalogue? Are we supposed to guess at their use/capabilities? Why isn't the name of each weapon written on the wall next to where it hangs in the player's weapons room? Why doesn't the main character make some comment about each weapon as you point at it. Yhey could even just have text pop on the screen to say what you're looking at, some of those guns are rather samey. Why do weapons drop to the floor when a new one is taken. Why not just have the previous weapon disappear? Not realistic, but then more realistic than the current 'everlasting supply' situation, I'd argue. Why don't they let you draw a weapons in the weapons room to make sure you have the right load out and are all ammoed up?

8. The action/hand system is awkward and seems a bit dated, Why do they make you press the E key so many times just to have a conversation? Couldn't they have adopted some system that let you know what you were about to do when you press E?

9. The fortune pack weapons should have to be earned rather than just being given. The crossbow seems far too powerful to me (for a 'freeby').

10. Numerous other miscelaneous immersion breakers:

a. infinite ammo in vehicles, something even FC1 didn't have. I do heart the infinite grenade launcher on my jeep ... but not very realistic is it?

b. The pylon assassination missions: how do they mark that thing on your map? How do they transfer diamonds to your account?

c.Instantly regenerating checkpoints.

d. massive waterfalls you can stand under with out illeffects, not even buffetting.

e. Objectives and other 'in game' information placed on the same menu as options, load, save, exit etc. Haven't they heard of the cool 'journals' etc other games use? Why not put the current objective at the bottom of the map? Why make you visit a safe house to activate this feature?

f. The lack of animations for people getting in to and out of cars. They just stand there as if this was done as a placeholder for the animations when they were finished. What happened, did they just forget to do this? Did they decide 999 different animations of you pulling shrapnel out of your arm or being rescued by your buddy were more important?

g. The keys to the safe house: would it have been too much for them make you walk up to one of the fallen bad guys (say the last one you kill to clear the safe house) to pick up a key to unlock the door rather than the magically opening system they opted for?

h. Why are the weapon storage lockers visible in safe houses when they're not available? The whole safe house system doesn't really make sense, but meh.

i. Act 2 begins with a huge battle, when you return to town the place is completely recovered and the two sides are coexisting peacefully. You can even go back to the act 1 map and visit it if you like (more of that next) and it's all back operating as normally, even in the main starting town.

h. Why are the main towns generally occupied by both sides? Wouldn't it make sense to have different ones with check points at the borders for the territory for each? What about a reputation system to decide various sides reaction to you?

k. Can't switch lights on or off on vehicles.

l. The bus system, not that I don't like the fact it exists, it just doesn't make sense in the context of the game.

10. Obvious bugs:

a. People who face the wrong direction and still manage to hit you when they shoot.

b. Snipers who can see you through trees.

c. Graphical glitches after playing for 6+ hrs (!). Possilby my graphics card overheating

d. EAX is ... well ... it doesn't really work. You can hear people talking 300 yards away as if they're right next to you.

There you go. Like I said I think this is a good game. That I like it so much given all of the above shows just how well they did with what they did right. I just can't work out why they did some of these things, it could have been so much better.