Far Cry 3 Message Board older than one year ago

In the first part of an extensive, illuminating and arguably controversial interview with Passage, Sleep is Death and Chain World creator Jason Rohrer, we discussed his new game, the fascinating but sinister home defence MMO The Castle Doctrine, making virtual possessions and people matter and why he chose to include only male protagonists. In this second and final part, we pick up mid-chat about issues of authorship in games, leading to his thoughts on the divisive Far Cry 3. Then we cover his outspoken feelings about gun control, before moving on to how house and trap construction works in The Castle Doctrine, how he thinks he’s made player-generated content meaningful, and, inevitably, whatever happened to his mystery Minecraft mod Chain World.(more…)

It's day three, ya'll! Get ready for us to heavy drop some fine award category nonsense in your general direction, including our Best Looking Game, our favorite Flash game of the year, and the one gaming trend we'd really, super duper love it if it just stopped, like, forever.

Enjoy!

Far Cry 3

Skrillex. It's a divisive word, but then these are divisive times. When we find ourselves in need of some big-beat-dubdrum-st'p (which is what we're told by a bunch of very reasonable people is the appropriate terminology when dealing with a genre-bending force such as Skrillex) we reach for the brand name. The name of record. The real deal. Saul Skrillex, professional wobble bass enthusiast.

Apparently we're not alone this year, as 2012 was also the year that game developers reached out and placed a little Skrillex into their lives and into their games. That's not to say that every dubstep track to fit into a video game this year was a Skrillex banger, but, well, the best ones usually were. In this case, we're awarding this prestigious category to Far Cry 3, for its use of Skrillex in the mission where you grab a flamethrower from a government official that may or may not exist and... make it bun dem pot fields down bo bo bo bo bo. The hot collab between 'ex and Damian Marley, called "Make It Bun Dem," is pretty much the perfect soundtrack for one of the game's first forays into large-scale destruction.

Congratulations are due, but we're not exactly sure what this category is attempting to honor, so instead we'll just say "we noticed that many games used Skrillex music on their soundtrack and we think this is probably the best one." Congratulations?

Runners-Up: Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Syndicate

Spec Ops: The Line

This was not exactly a banner year for Our Greatest Living Voice Actor. At least not in terms of video game work. One quick glance at his IMDB page sees plenty of work in television, but as for games, North largely stuck to unnamed side characters and occasional re-doings of his past characters--most notably returning as Desmond Miles in Assassin's Creed III, and a brief credited reprisal of Nathan Drake in PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale.

And then there's Spec Ops. Like a shining beacon through a largely foggy, indistinct year, North's performance as Captain Martin Walker goes beyond merely standing out amid the crowd. It helps, of course, that Spec Ops: The Line features some of the toughest, strangest, and outright most disturbing writing of any game this year. Walker, along with his two compatriots, find themselves trying to make sense of disasters--both natural and man made--so overwhelming that it's not quite surprising when psyches begin to fray, and people begin to lose their lives as a result.

North does a terrific job of maintaining that fragile balance between a man on-edge, and a man completely over it. It's certainly one of the better voice performances of the year, and it is by far the best use of Nolan North in 2012.

Runners-up: N/A

Journey

For all the complaining some players have about thatgamecompany's...unusual approach to game development, rarely does anyone have an unkind word to say about what the developer does visually. This is a company that makes beautiful games, from the simple, yet mesmerizing visuals of flOw, to the gorgeous landscapes of flower, and now the transcendentally beautiful deserts, hills, caves, and mountains of Journey.

Above all else, Journey feels like a "complete" visual experience. Possibly helped by the game's relatively meager length, Journey's graphics are painstakingly crafted, with each seemingly minor piece of the environment that surrounds you seemingly there for good reason, and not just for the sake of filling in the background. As your nameless journeyer hops and floats around this gorgeously built world, some of the most breathtaking lighting effects you'll ever see shine a light over every resplendent detail, creating a visual experience that truly feels like nothing that's come before.

Runners-up: Far Cry 3, Fez

DLC That Should Be in the Main Game

Worst Trend. Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself. This category has borne a variety of names over the years, but they all amount to the same thing: Please stop doing this awful, no good, very bad video game thing you are doing. So we decided to cut straight to the heart of the matter and call it exactly that. If you're guilty of anything on this list, just knock it off, alright? You're really harshing everybody's mellow. It's not cool.

Downloadable content is certainly an idea that's drawn its share of flack over the years, but it's one that we at Giant Bomb have generally felt OK about, with a couple of provisos. Chiefly, in terms of raw content, the game you get for the initial purchase price needs to feel satisfying and whole. As long as the game out of the box doesn't seem like it's missing anything, who cares what else they're selling on the side, right? And up until this year, we felt like the game industry was doing a pretty good job of policing itself in that regard. But not anymore.

The discussion of this topic practically begins and ends with Mass Effect 3. It held back a profound piece of content on release day in the form of From Ashes, which added an entire new party member (one who we consider one of the best new characters introduced this year) and accounted for significant additional drama and back story throughout every stage of the game. And months later, the Leviathan DLC added painfully necessary context to Mass Effect 3's controversial ending, context so necessary the entire game becomes better for having it. But there were other offenders. Just when Asura's Wrath seemed like it had wrapped itself right up, it dropped a last-minute plot twist out of left field that required you to buy an additional episode to fully resolve. Street Fighter X Tekken shipped with bonus characters that unsavory players managed to hack right off of the disc, but those characters didn't actually go on sale until months after release. Examples like these simply strained our patience for the way DLC is produced and sold.

Hey, publishers: We get it. You need to make a buck. But if you're going to sell additional content on the side, make damn sure the base game doesn't suffer for its absence. When that happens, nobody wins.

Runners-up: The All-Story, New Super Mario Bros.

http://twinbeardstudios.com/frog-fractions

Frog Fractions is a bit like Fez. There will be people who play Frog Fractions, and never plunder its true secrets. They will close a browser window, and wonder why a badly made fraction game with a Typing of the Dead section had people in stitches. Frog Fractions masquerades as something it is very much not, and while it hints something is going on, it maintains a poker face. There is never a big, glowing arrow that says "go here to have your mind totally *crag*ed." You have to find that for yourself.

The crazier part about Frog Fractions is that just when it feels like it's crossed the apex of insanity, it keeps going. What starts as a subversive commentary on our expectations for math games (or browser games, really) becomes a thrilling rollercoaster of forgetting what the designer has cooked up next and enjoying the ride. Pure non-sequitur humor would not work in most hands, but Frog Fractions is not just weird and bizarre, it's really damn funny. Its surprises work because they're unexpected and hysterical. Your first impulse is to turn to a friend. "PLAY THIS!"

This category came to be when we had a list of games we really loved that didn't seem to make sense in our traditional categories. It's a bit how the "download" category came into existence, too. One day, and a day that's probably not far off, these browser games will be no different from all the other games we play, and this will no longer make sense. But we felt compelled to highlight these experiences because of what they do so well within such a limited scope. That limited scope is what allows them to succeed so brilliantly, and subvert our expectations.

And if you're playing and still confused at what the hell we're talking about?

Runners-up: http://ludonaut.de/the-message/, http://www.foddy.net/CLOP.html

Adam Sessler is the Executive Producer and Editor-in-Chief at Revision3 Games. Known for his 14 years hosting television about videogames, Adam has made a name for himself with outspoken opinions, irreverence and a deep aversion to ever wanting to hear about Kingdom Hearts 3.

10. Far Cry 3

The ever-elusive open-world shooter finally has its high-water mark with this game. This absurdly expansive game maintains its momentum with enough breadth in play style and character growth to make it compelling and fun through to the end.

9. Borderlands 2

Gearbox clearly understood what made the original such a success and favorite and doubled down. Improved skill trees, hysterical writing and the same compulsive combat make this the most compulsively satisfying game of the year.

8. Sleeping Dogs

Perhaps the most surprising game of the year for me. The addition of complex melee combat with accessible driving controls make this game the GTA clone that improves the formula and distinguishes itself in the right ways.

7. Halo 4

343 Industries took the reigns and delivered the most satisfying Halo entry since the first. Dead-on pacing, carefully constructed combat environments and accessible storytelling all work together to reinvigorate the franchise.

6. The Unfinished Swan

A mediation on mortality and regret seen through the eyes of a child naïf, not your standard gaming fare. This beautiful, thoughtful game with compelling mechanics had me completely enchanted; again, not a typical gaming adjective.

5. The Walking Dead

Through exceptional writing and characterizations The Walking Dead somehow manages to upend the conventional wisdom of what a game needs to succeed and pulls off an emotionally devastating experience.

4. Mass Effect 3

A game that knew just how to conclude itself (yeah…I said it). 25 hours that summates one’s path in a virtual life that cannot escape the inexorable pull of finality. Emotionally satisfying and mature, it’s the rare trilogy that fully satisfies.

3. Journey

Simply put: A thing of beauty. Journey sublimates the concept of game into pure experience and is a love letter for everyone who wanted something a little more from their time playing on a console.

2. XCOM: Enemy Unknown

This game is a thing of beauty, perfectly structured and balanced and easily (if not preferably) playable with a controller. XCOM rewards the patient player and, despite being turn-based strategy, is the most harrowing game of the year.

1. Dishonored

This game just plain hit my sweet spot and brought back memories of playing Deus Ex for the first time but was able to apply the design philosophy to numerous instances of exceptional level design. The world of Dunwall, explicated with exquisite Art Direction, was filled with such mystery that the game has yet to leave my head.

The break’s nearly upon us, and the news has already fled into its cozy hibernation hole to avoid the harsh shifts in weather and people caring. So now I’m going to tell you about some patch notes, because they’re all that’s left in this desolate winter wonderland. Fortunately, Far Cry 3‘s brought a fairly sizable bounty of improvements back from its latest bug hunt, and it even managed to bag the big one: notifications. Yes, you can finally banish those loathsome pop-ups from Jason’s face.

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Having completed Far Cry 3 a while back, I found that so much of the game’s story just didn’t sit right with me. Not simply in the sense that it appeared to contain colonialist nonsense and clumsily handled rape plots, but that I felt I was missing something. That the game was trying to say something to me, perhaps partly through that which I found problematic, and I hadn’t been able to hear it. So I pursued the game’s author, Jeffrey Yohalem, to talk it through.

Yohalem proves to be a very animated, very passionate writer, who sees Far Cry 3 as a complex exploration of many ideas, mostly questioning the role of the player in a game, and what they’ll do in order to win. It was, he says, an attempt to break the loops of modern gaming, to ask the player to start to demand better. Fortunately, I’m animated and passionate too, so we get to discussing how successful this really was. What follows is a heated chat about what gaming could and should be.

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Far Cry 3 has multiplayer. Or at least, I’m relatively certain it does. I am, you see, somewhat guilty of scampering into single-player’s wide open jungles – like a frightened tapir who doesn’t want to become a backpack – seconds after start-up. I honestly haven’t touched multiplayer in spite of my near-obsessive love for Ubisoft’s wild, wild wilderness rumpus, but I now have a strong reason to reconsider. While the mode selection’s fairly standard on the whole, the powerfully robust map editor is anything but. Case in point: these brilliantly faithful recreations of classic maps from all across the magical gaming kingdom. Have a nice mid-morning gawk about each place after the break.

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Far Cry 3 has opened its komodo-dragon-like terror maw and consumed the entire RPS staff. We’re now naught but moldy bones littering the dimmest corners of its lair, wobbling on excitedly about that time we saved all those turtles from an out-of-control, highly turtle-unfriendly fire we started. But it’s definitely not perfect. Obnoxious pop-ups swarm constantly in a ceaseless cycle of useless reminders. John, noble lord of loathing, described it best when he said “Far Cry 3 does not, and it WILL NOT SHUT UP.” Fortunately, Ubisoft has heard players’ pleas, and now the pop-ups are going bye-bye.

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