FC3 Blood Dragon Goes Retro

Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon was a DLC game for the Xbox 360 and PS3 but is it any good. To be fair, it's not really a full blown game which you may like if you enjoyed FC3. So let me explain.

FC3 Blood Dragon is a weird mix of retro gaming on a current console. Though designed entirely to fit HD TV screens, the first thing you realise is that the cut scenes are all done in 1990s style PS2 sequences. Not a bad thing but the retro story telling is kinda weird. It just doesn't feel right and with that, to hell with the story. I came to conquer and satisfy my blood lust. Should I even care about the furry animals that run amok on the island? Afraid not....

Gameplay

Now here is the problem. The game is tiny by comparison to FC3. The map is small and the challenges are even smaller.  You get to hunt animals and destroy terrorist who hold hostages. The game lets you slaughter cyborgs, which sound like the Cylons you find in the 1980s version of Battlestar Galatica. This is as retro as it gets. But for any blood thirsty FPS connoisseur, it's the gun play that keeps everything in check.

The game lets you shoot, kill and send your enemies to meet their lost kin in a futuristic island where wild animals roam free. It just doesn't play like FC3. The shooting is a hit and miss affair as the guns now fire lasers and energy bolts. Weaponizing is relatively easy as you complete some of the side missions at each garrison to unlock weapon upgrades but it is the ammo that really stops you in the long term. You don't get to carry enough of them. What's more there are so many elements that you find in FC4 which was probably copied from Blood Dragon. One of the most noticeable is the Cyborgs constant attack on those outpost (garrison in Blood Dragon Speak) you have conquered. You have geeknerds on your side, scientist who wear white overalls, but you role isn't to talk tech with them but to fight their battles.

The next thing is something I found very annoying, the landscape is in an awful color. I hated it. It's constantly dark and putrid. The only consolation to come out of it is that you can now see the arrows you fire and know their trajectory. In FC3 and FC4, the coloful landscape makes it difficult for you to judge your arrow trajectory as the arrow sort of disappears from view as it goes into the horizon. The arrows's Blood Dragon come in day-glo colors makes it real easy to judge where your trajectory went wrong and lets you correct your aim by compensation.

Besides, the landscape just don't cut it. Remember the time when you played FC3 and do a double take and say 'Wow' when running up that hill just to admire the landscape. Well, fat chance here. By the way, there are no Telco Towers...well there are Towers but they are not for you to take over to get a larger map. I almost threw up each time I was at a high point of the island. Yes, it's that bad. 

Each outpost is now known as a "Garrison". Each garrison is designed differently, with side entrances but there is always an open entrance which you can drive into. Each drive-thru entrance has a force shield to keep the Blood Dragons out. The layout of the Garrison makes it very easy for you to hide within buildings to ambush your prey compared to FC3 where the open layout means you won't know exactly where they are coming from. The other thing with the garrisons is that they don't call back reinforcements once you are discovered shooting at them from a distance. Instead only 2 Garrisons in the whole game would call for some sort of back up in the form of Choppers. Thus your blood lust can't be rewarded even if you lay waiting for more. It is times like these you wish you had a cigarette to kill the boredom. 

Blood Dragons are Super Boring

Yes. These super predators have poor eyesight so you can sneak around them. They can detect movement so it's never safe around them. However they don't seem to take to Cyborgs in the same way they take to humans. There must be a bug in the game where you notice Cyborgs being ignored by such dragons.

The Blood Dragon is attracted to Cyborg hearts, which you rip out of them as a trophy but not all the time.  You can then use them to lure the Blood Dragon to create havoc on the enemy (which was later adopted in FC4 to lure predators to attack your enemies)

Blood Dragon spit fire. So regardless of where you are, they can get you with their pyro-techniques. Killing a Dragon is a waste of ammo. You can sprint faster than they can run so head for the Fortress if you get chased down.

I found the Blood Dragons a total distraction. When you are out ambushing the Cyborgs, you have to watch your radar to see if one is nearby. They can upset vehicles and and turn an ambush into a huge mess. Then when you kill a Dragon, it turns into mush. There is nothing to harvest, no skin, no flesh...nada.

Weapons are Ho-Hum

Your choices are rather limited for this outing so don't hope on getting the full monty like in FC3. The guns don't fire in a satisfying way. I mean, you know what it is like to have an AK-47. How it fires and how it punches holes into your enemy is what makes you want to use one. The weapons in Blood Dragon doesn't have that sort of feel.

What's more your reloading skills can't be improved. You can't get better at it and there is no skill tree to ante up. No way to sell your loot either, so money can be problem if you use too much ammo taking down a Blood Dragon.

You can virtually take any garrison with just your basic weapons. Shotgun, assault rifle, pistol. The sniper rifle is optional since you can sneak up to them once you are in the garrison. 

These limitations is what sets Blood Dragon apart from FC3 and FC4. The weapons are not fun to use. I found more joy using the bow than any other weapon because iyou can see how your arrows landed on your target. 

Should I Buy This?

If you think you are going to have a repeat of that super awesome gameplay in FC3, well I got news for you, it won't deliver that same excitement.

Blood Dragon uses much of the same code to develop this game but it lacks polish. I can live with the retro graphics, and humour which I found very witty but that alone isn't going to keep you glued to the console.

Blood Dragon should have been released as a mobile game since it was developed as a separate entity. The graphics isn't taxing on a GPU and the game itself is a washed down version of FC3. It is playable nonetheless only if you are looking for a cure for insomnia. 


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Categories: blood dragon, far cry, fps, Ubisoft

Is Far Cry 4 worth its weight in Himalayan Salt?

For the record, I completed Far Cry 3 and didn't want to shag that bitch who wanted to kill you after a night of hot sex. For my sins, the Ubisoft came out with Far Cry 4.

FC3 was a fantastic game. Simple to understand and with enough slaughtering  to keep even Idi Amin in a coma entertained. To live up to that expectation isn't going to be simple so does FC4 deliver?

Gameplay is more of the Same?

I have no problems with the story line, I really do not care if AJ is a mix breed with Asian blood but he sounds the same as the character you play in FC3—Jason Brody. His voice is the same too, and you could have sworn he can't be totally Asian...so onward to Nepal....ahem....Kyrat. The Kingdom where wild elephants don't get altitude sickness.

Pagan Min is your foe. For his part, he's just a bad ass drug dealer dictator which you need to get rid off. The gameplay is more of the same, where you traverse this strange land which bears a huge resemblance to the landscape in FC3. Too bad there are no gun boats on the lake, or for that matter sharks for the taking.

I don't mind developers reusing the code for the landscape but the fun factor is sorely lacking. For example, there are far fewer outpost in the first half of the game than expected. In FC3, the first half was roughly 70 percent of the game, for FC4 it's 50 percent. The game itself is broken down into 3 segments which opens up once you complete the required mission. Bummer.

The take downs, sniping, killing softly without being heard with a knife or Kukri is now the pillar of the FC franchise. This has defined the game but how much of that is pure genius versus stupidity depends on the size of the game. It has gotten bigger thanks to the variety but much of the parameters in which you execute your bloodlust are restrictive. The mythical Shangri-la challenges aren't much in terms of gun play so let's leave that one out. Aside from that, the killing doesn't really deliver the same sense of relish one gets from FC3.

It's Not Open World

No matter how open world the game proclaims itself to be, the missions are all linear. You can't progress unless you complete the necessary missions and you're locked into the Southern part of Kyrat and the game won't let you progress past the King's Bridge in the norther part. And there are so many side missions that don't quite appeal to you but you have no choice but to do it.

You have to slaughter your way to the north. Earning cash has become far easier as you can virtually kill animals and sell the skins for a good price. But guns and ammo are only available to you when you liberate more telco towers. This is where most of the problem lies. You don't get enough of them to have all the choices open to you.

Too many of the missions are tied to conventional and often dumb pretences. For example there are a few missions where you are not to be seen, of for that matter can't be seen by any of your enemy. This sort of bullshit makes the game very restrictive and shows that the developers were running out of ideas. Previously, FC3 made restrictive use of weapons for some of these side missions. That was enough but when it comes to the main mission, you get agitated as not being seen can mean you can't attack them from the air. Flying is cool. I hate driving as I have to put up with the gawd awful DJ and music on the radio. Turning off permanently would be cool but you can't do that. So the driving experience is annoying. You have to remember to turn off the radio each time you get into a vehicle or get subjected to the evil ranting of an Asian DJ.

There is lots more variety in the game and you go around rescuing hostages, making deliveries and killing the odd Royalist for better Karma.

There are more skirmishes on the roads, and attacks by Royalist on outpost you have captured. Defending them is really up to you but in the end, the gameplay suffers as each of these become very superficial. You can replay the outpost takeover with the Outpost Challenge which pits you with the Royalist once again for points. You can even commander an Elephant to help with the attack, a feat which you must earn in the skill tree.

All this means there is a lot more to do but the weakness here is that each outpost becomes relatively boring to attack. This is where the developers thought of the Fortress. This is suppose to be heavily fortified and before attacking one, you are warned that you risk being wiped out if you don't play it in coop mode with a friend. This is utter rubbish of course, as I sauntered into two of these fortresses in my pyjamas, told them to clear out....which they didn't and proceeded to attack me with choppers and mortars and they in turn felt what middle age angst was all about—with bodies piled high and me smoking a cigar after I was done. Unfortunately, there are only 4 Fortresses so you don't get to exercise your blood lust that often.

More attention is being given to side missions, where you rescue hostages, take on delivery challenges, speed around for an action cam sequence and kill some exotic beast for a fashion quest.   The taking down of the Towers or telco towers is no big shakes as there are far less of it in the first half of the game.

This restrictive gameplay makes this a non Open World concept. FC3 had better gameplay in the first half than all of FC4.

Weapons let Down

I was mildly disappointed that the developers used the same weapons as in FC3. The AK47, SVD, M700 and all its ilk are all there. This time around, they have given you more signature weapons, which are in most cases derivatives of the main weapons.

I would have appreciated better planning for the game instead of reusing the code from FC3 but hey, it's profit before anything else. Each weapon introduced has to be redesigned and its game mechanics coded. So this cost money. Why not reuse the code right? Enough said.

The only noticeable change is that the game opens up in coop mode after the first act. This means you can play with friend in real time. You get to have your partner sit shot gun with you in a mini helicopter to mow down the enemy while you fly and avoid incoming fire.

Embellishing your weapons with upgrades would seem like a good idea, like maybe use an AK 47 with a silencer or extended magazine. But that doesn't happen. Coding is expensive.

In any FPS game, the gun play makes an important consideration in any attack. That's why they call it an FPS? But that concept has been lost with Ubisoft. For example a range finder scope could be used to determine the effectiveness of a particular type of weapon over a distance, but that's too much code to consider in a game like this. Instead they give you range finding between your and your mission objective. If you can be precise...then why not for your choice of weapons?

Conclusion

I am not entirely sold on the gameplay. For that it gets dumbed down a notch. The enemy AI isn't smarter either. They run around more but they often run pass you like they were blind in one eye. The linear type gameplay spoils the game as not everyone will appreciate the variety. For me, taking on an outpost and liberating towers in FC3 did it for me. The story telling in FC3 where you explore the Rook Islands was far more engaging too. In FC4, you seem to be on the receiving end of beggars as everyone has a sob story to share and want you to be part of it.

The border delineation between Royalist or Rebel territory has also gotten murky. You find Royal army personnel patrolling the same roads as the Rebels so it gets a bit jaunting when you see one up the road from the other. This also makes placing mines for difficult as in FC3, the militia versus the native forces are clearly marked by territory you have gained. They don't patrol areas that have fallen. If you kill the rebels in mistake, you get penalised in Karma points.

The only good thing that came out of the developers was the seizing of the Propaganda stations where you need to destroy the base along with everyone in it. This to me was the winning formula for any FPS die hard. You get to place mines, explosives and take out the enemy as the come round to rescue their own. Unfortunately you don't get a lot of that in the game either.

The Pagan's Wrath side mission is hopelessly easy...and stupid too as you only ambush three propaganda vehicles without them calling for back up. So if you have three C4 charges places correctly, you can take them out all at once.

The introduction of the Mercenary Ticket is utterly useless. For a fee, you can summon a mercenary to help you attack a convoy but they can't help in a main mission. Even if you do summon them, the chances of them getting shot in the first five seconds of a fire fight is extremely high and you can't call for more back up coz you're too busy controlling the situation at hand.

This game is too focused on the story telling, which to me gets rather dull towards the end. The alternate endings where you get to kill everyone and spare Pagan Min is probably comparable to what you get in FC3. That said, it was never the ending but good gameplay that gets people coming back for more. The diverse gaming landscape also detracts from its FPS roots, a point often lost in reviews on the game.

I am not totally convinced Ubisoft has done a good job in continuing the successful legacy of FC3. They tried to make it more challenging with more variety but end up messing up that successful formula.

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Categories: far cry 4, fps, open world, Ubisoft

It is a Dog's Life for all it is worth

Its a Dog's life...someone once said, if a game can hold the players complete attention for 30 seconds, it means that the developer has succeeded in delivering something special that went far beyond aesthetics & hype. That some went on to conceptualize & develop Destiny, one of the most hotly anticipated game of this year.

Of course that observation hold true in todays gaming scene. So many developers have begun churning out demo sized games with shallow concepts & ill devised plot topped off with horrendous programming that are hardly ever tested & more often than not riddled with bugs that eventually start bombing other subroutines & under severe circumstances results in a game breaking error.

Watch Dogs has been in development for quite sometime which doesn't actually have any impact on the quality of the game whatsoever. However, Ubisoft has earned the distinction of making above average entertainment (now called AAA). Watch Dogs takes on a controversial plot & story to apply the padding to the complete gameplay, providing a highly interesting play style the combines the best ideas from Ubisofts previous titles. The controls allows for ease & concise play which never bothers the gamer again with button combos & such. As the anti hero protagonist (told you it was controversial), the player must navigate a massive sprawling city utilising advanced hacking, phishing & unlawful skills to tip the balance & reap from the advantages of these abilities.

Its a story of revenge but not exactly an interesting one. The old 'people vs the man' scenario is once again put through its paces in rather spectacular style. If you bought & played Grand Theft Auto 5, then its highly likely that you saved up to by this game or threw tantrums enough time to get your folks to buy it for you. You will not be dissapointed. There's just so much in this game that I refuse to delve into it & spoil the thrill of surprise & discovery.

I will however touch on the gameplay which is finely tuned to give players an astonishing degree on control that allows players to precisely time specific sequences that result in some of the coolest action which incidentally makes players feel the euphoria of pulling it all off like clockwork. There's some much in Watch Dogs waiting for the player to discover & explore & eventually exploit. The game world is massive & filled with the kind of non player denizens that seem to have lives all of their own which becomes apparent once players start stealing banking info off those NPCs.

The moral dilemma of cleaning out some poor saps measly savings account is left entirely up to the player. To steal or not to steal, that is the question. Ubisoft have really gone from strength to stength & reach the pinnacle of being fondly known as the best game developers on earth along with the likes of Rockstar, Bethesda & CDK Projeckts. In fact if tomorrow every other publisher & developer was liquidated with only these four supreme software houses left, I would be glad the good guys survived & focus on finding out whats for breakfast & the continue playing Watch Dogs where I left off.

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Categories: aidan, dogs, hacker, pearce, Ubisoft, watch

Who Let The Dogs Out?!

Watch Dogs centers on Aiden Pearce, a brilliant hacker bent on revenge and inflicting his own brand of justice after a violent family tragedy. Developed by Ubisoft Montreal, this massive open world action adventure will be out on March 27th, 2014 for the PC, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and the WiiU.

Categories: aiden, montreal, pearce, Ubisoft

Splinter Cell Blacklist: A final farewell to Sam?

Sam Shepard makes his final appearance on the current generation of video game consoles, as well as the PC, as part of a slew of farewell gifts from the old stalwarts of the heady 80s who have silently evolved into the most prominent publishing and software development company the finicky yet deadly world of video games.

As the story goes, Shepard has a brand new voice which doesn't differ that much from the old one. Naturally, the gamers of today who are considerably more knowledgeable but surprisingly quite clueless were cajoled by wicked gaming sites into making a huge outcry about the whole voice acting thing. A new big ass Hollywood star was roped for the voice acting and has truly done a fine job of portraying the cold and murderous protagonist. The subject is now officially closed and the idiocy of it all has been quickly forgotten.

But as the games story goes, bad old Sam has been given a new lease of life. Some big wigs have decided to put Sam in charge of an unconstitutional group consisting of highly specialized agents in the hopes of finding and smoking out an organization hellbent on subverting the very foundation of the good old USA. That's bad news. Its also a bad situation that requires the wrong man for the right job. Enter Sam and his team of misfits, crazy enough to follow the ex-Third Echelon super agent over the cliff if they have to. Such a team has merits, but if this team should get their asses in a sling, the US Government will disavow any knowledge of them without batting an eyelid. What the government doesn't know is that if they give Shepard enough rope, he will hang them all.

So off we go one Shepard's most perilous mission that takes him and his new team to exotic locations as diverse as Uptown Afghanistan, the Iraqi Boardwalk and Downtown Chicago just to name a few. There's absolutely no time for sight seeing or looking up whorehouses here. Such a shame, I always wanted to take a picture with a $10 hooker in Iraq.

The action moves at the players pace. This time around Ubisoft have added a new element to the old hide and shank game play. Players may opt three different play styles that gives the game a lot more depth and replayability. Choosing to be a Ghost is basically the old 'No Alerts, No Kills' challenge from the Metal Gear Solid games. Then there is the Panther, striking from the darkness all the while remaining hidden from view. Finally, my favorite, Assault, which is the no holds barred, kill em all and blow em up style. The choice of play styles is highly dependent on the gear and weapons a player must choose before committing to a mission. Pick the right toys for your style and off you go.

The graphics are a step up especially on an old SD TV where the degree of darkness is as cruel as some of the locations in Dark Souls. Playing this game on it highest difficulty with a shitty SD TV is actually unlocking the hardest level of all. Unfortunately, Ubisoft will not be giving out prizes for unveiling that secret. Of course, with expert use of Sam's goggles things get a little brighter and a little more bearable. There's nothing worse than hearing some mangy mutt growling close by and then end up getting your nuts bitten off without warning. Unlike Game Fuhrer's old hound from hell, Brutus, these stinking dogs do not respond to treats, imitating the masters voice or the old stone throw fake out move.

While the single player missions offer a lot of fun and laughter in the many ways of murder, the story about Sam and the bad guys is a rather gritty one. Fraught with treachery, brutality and some pretty dramatic moments that alter the course of the game quite drastically. For instance, during rescue missions, if the guards are some how alerted, the scenario is altered to include a fire fight that has Sam worrying about the encroaching enemy and the fragile life of the rescued prisoner which is constantly at risk during a shoot out.

Apart from the solo missions, there are a variety of co-op tasks to perform where Sam and a fellow agent must work together as a team. One bad foul up can lead to a mission going bad in an instant. With the variety of play styles; players can experiment with different tactics and maneuvering to out smart the overwhelming enemy force. Not all the baddies are smart but eventually they will use pincer and flanking maneuvers or overlapping fields of fire to either surprise or pin down the two agents and finish them off with a few well cooked grenades. Death is cheap in co-op mode. Only smart play will see the missions through. Lowering the difficulty works too.

Finally, there's the Spies Vs Mercs online multiplayer co-op that guarantees hours of fun with 4 vs 4 match ups and a variety of game modes that not too dissimilar from ones found in a host of other multiplayer shooters. Death Match, Capture the Flag etc done in a Splinter Cell sort of way. To be honest, this is one mode that has not been fully explored due to our horrendous "fraudband" connection speeds. Unfortunately, the extremely expensive broadband pricing we are forced to pay acts as a deterrent to the lower income groups from the smaller towns and villages from having access to the internet. This is the most effective type of censorship, and boy, I wish Sam was here to do something about this.

Conclusion

For good old Sam, its business as usual. With a bold new story and a pretty innovative level up system, Splinter Cell Blacklist stands out as one of my favorite Sam Shepard adventures. Hopefully, this will not be his last. If you are a fan, then buy this game at all costs, for those new to the series, don't worry, with the huge amount of 'Tenchu' inspired stealth games that have been released this past year alone, it is unlikely that you won't be familiar with this one.

Splinter Cell Blacklist 

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Categories: Blacklist, Co-op, PC, PS3, Spies Vs Mercs, Splinter Cell, Stealth, Ubisoft, Xbox 360