At the ripe age of 65, he bought his first shooter: DOOM II. It took him months to complete the game, and he had problems avoiding the fireballs. It was, after all, only his first FPS! Known online as aki_tan, he's gotten quite adept.

"I don’t do multi, nor co-op. I want to enjoy the game I’m into when I want, that’s how I feel," he says. "Aside from playing, I like to write walkthroughs, so you could say the way I enjoy them is a little different to most." His website has walkthroughs for shooters that range from Crysis to Quake. (It's even got a section on cheats!) His friends and family are happy he's found something too keep him from going senile, Kitajima reckons.

While he's head over heels for FPS titles, Kitajima doesn't expect the genre to catch on with the country's silver set — or the country, for that matter. "In Japan, I think there’s something of an emotional distance kept from shooting games," he adds. "I get the impression the market isn’t set to grow very large. I also worry that with the increasingly high spec machines required, the playing population will further decrease."

Meanwhile, Kitajima keeps gaming and updating his website regularly with walkthroughs. Anything he's looking forward to? "I’m wondering if a Japanese version of Far Cry 2 is ever coming out..."

78歳、現役FPSプレイヤー「北島さん」にお話を伺ってみました。 [DHARMA POINT via Sankaku Complex]

Remember how I said money is no object as far as a crossbow is concerned? Perhaps I spoke a bit too soon. I would have gone as high as $5 in real money or its virtual equivalent, but $10? Probably not. I'll just continue making my own maps and pretending I have a crossbow.

Far Cry 2 DLC to cost 800 MS Points News [Eurogamer]

The media release mentions nothing of a price, but also does not contain the word free, and people who write these things up generally love to include that particular word when applicable, so I guess we'll see how that goes. All I know is money is no object as far as a crossbow is concerned. Screens of the new content and a run down of what's included, after the jump.

UBISOFT ANNOUNCES NEW DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT AVAILABLE BEFORE THE END OF NOVEMBER FOR FAR CRY® 2 – THE FORTUNE'S PACK BRINGS YOU EVEN MORE TOOLS OF MAYHEM

London, UK – 21 November 2008 – Today Ubisoft announced it will release exciting new downloadable content (DLC) for Far Cry® 2. The Fortune’s Pack DLC will bring new vehicles and new weapons to both the single-player game and the multiplayer game, giving gamers even more diverse means of destruction. Be the silent stalker armed with your silent shotgun or jump on your new quad and blast through the dunes of Africa. The Fortune’s Pack DLC for Far Cry 2 will be available for download from Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and from PlayStation®Network.

The Fortune’s Pack DLC for Far Cry 2 includes:

Single-Player Mode
Three brand-new weapons
- Silenced shotgun
- Sawed-off shotgun
- Crossbow

Two new vehicles
- Unimog
- Quad

Multiplayer Mode
- Four new exciting maps
1. Cheap Labor
2. Last Resort
3. Lake Smear
4. Fort Fury
- New single-player weapons and vehicles also available in multiplayer

The Africa-set first-person shooter for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC has been getting pretty good marks here and elsewhere. Seems like most Far Cry 2 players like it for its fire effects, not so much its extended driving sequences.

Interview: How Far Cry 2's Fire Fuels, Spreads [Gamasutra]

Which, when you see it put like that, is a whole load of changes. Were they for the better?

Loved
I hear The Drums Echoing Tonight – Far Cry 2’s biggest and best achievement is the game world itself. A little slice of Africa, it encompasses a savannah or two, arid deserts and thick jungles, the three combining to form one of the most beautiful, realistic settings for a game I’ve ever seen. Lazy afternoon sunlight leaks through gently drifting trees. You’ll catch a herd of zebra in your headlights as you bounce across the desert in the middle of the night. You’ll find yourself stopping in the middle of nowhere and, just for a second, really feeling like you’re a bad man stuck in a bad place that’s in the middle of nowhere.

I Know That I Must Do What's Right – While Resident Evil 5 probably wishes it had done things a little differently, Far Cry 2 does a surprisingly good job of tackling the continent responsibly, without ever resorting to heavy-handed clichés of social responsibility and morality. There are bad men, there are good men, there are lots of men (and women) in between. Same goes for your missions. You’re free to make your own morality in Far Cry 2, the game never forces it down your throat.

It's Gonna Take A Lot To Drag Me Away From You – Far Cry 2 has an outstanding “continue?” system. Death is often not far away in the game, but if you have a “buddy” – the game’s NPC allies that are befriended in exchange for help – you get a continue. So instead of just dying (let’s say in combat), you’ll instead find yourself blacking out, only to come to to see your “buddy” dragging you to a safer spot so you can heal yourself, killing bad guys the whole time. It’s a neat, seamless solution.

Gonna Take Some Time To Do The Things We Never Had – Far Cry 2 isn’t an FPS. Not in the traditional sense. Sure, it’s played in the first person, but in terms of structure, the game has a lot more in common with Grand Theft Auto than Far Cry 1. The game world is comprised of two massive areas, and within each are dozens of location-specific missions. Drive five minutes to a house, get a mission, complete the mission, get money. Just like GTA. Combine this with the perspective, as well as the beauty and design of the world itself, and you get something that feels more free than either GTA or any other FPS is able to match.

I Bless The Rains Down In Africa – One of this game’s unsung heroes (and real innovations) is in its use of fire. You can start fires, the fires spread, and it works. Molotivs can be used to torch entire villages, flushing out the bad guys, while an exploding vehicle on a dry grassland can quickly turn a battlefield into a 50 foot-wide inferno.

Hated
There's Nothing That A Hundred Men Or More Could Ever Do – The AI is awful. Just awful. Mostly because it’s so inconsistent. Bad guys will be unable to find you standing in the middle of a room when they’re standing at the door, and yet at the same time they can see you crouched in a bush from a kilometre away in the middle of the night. The latter can remove (I say can, because it seems random) any sense of planning and stealth from a lot of the missions, the former reduces close-quarters battles to an African-skinned Doom deathmatch.

I Seek To Cure What's Deep Inside, Frightened Of This Thing That I've Become – You start the game having already contracted a nasty bout of malaria. Sounds bad, and it is; at random moments your play will be interrupted by a malaria fit, forcing you to take medication. Don’t take your pills, and you die. So you need pills. And forcing you to get them is a pain in the ass, distracting you from more important missions and serving no purpose other than to interrupt firefights and forcibly prolong the game.

As They Grow Restless Longing For Some Solitary Company - Far Cry 2 is long. Too long. There are too many missions, the story takes too long to really get going, and Ubisoft risk losing a lot of players from boredom before the game's surprisingly involving finale. Combine a surplus of missions with sometimes-tediously long drives towards objectives and you're looking at a game that'll take you 20-25 hours to complete, but should really have only taken you 10-15.

Here’s a warning: you may well hate Far Cry 2 when you first start. It’ll seem bewildering, it’ll seem broken. You're given little direction on how the world works or how you'll work within it. But this is a game – again, like GTA – where that bewilderment is part of the package. Far Cry 2 isn't about clearing levels or amassing body counts. It’s about the sum of the experience, the feeling you get surveying the total package. You won’t love this game when emptying a clip into a bad guy. You’ll love it when you hear a rustling in the bushes, draw your gun, spin around and find it’s just a water buffalo. Or when you realise that this game is nothing but those brief, best bits of the original Far Cry — the open-world combat, the ability to attack a base however you want.

And that total package is one of the most ambitious games in recent memory. Sure, you’ll curse at the omnipotent AI and the rusty guns and the malaria sickness, but they only serve to remind you that the game’s not perfect. Which is lucky, because when you drive up a hill, sunlight oozing through your windscreen as you pass a flock of gazelle and survey a rebel camp you’re about to destroy in whatever way you feel like, perfect is a word you come dangerously close to using.

Far Cry 2 was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, published by Ubisoft. Released on Oct. 21 in North America, Oct. 24 in Europe for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 & PC. Reviewed on PC. Retails for $59.99 . Completed 100% of single player campaign.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Treyarch: 'We've got the best shooter this Christmas' [MCVUK]

Hit the link below to check out the whole project from start to finish, and then enter Bit-tech's contest for a chance to win the piece for yourself. Just in case you haven't been paying attention, the answer is Africa.

Far Cry 2 PS3 by Butterkneter [bit-tech]

GameSpy
This game really puts the player into the shoes of a mercenary with nothing to lose and no line he won't cross. Additionally, the set-piece combat sequences are tactically open-ended and a joy to play through...Unfortunately these terrific moments are padded out with a lot of repetitive, sometimes tedious travel. Five minutes of tense first-person excitement is matched by fifteen minutes of driving around, picking up a mission, shooting through the same checkpoint for the fifteenth time, and travelling to the next site

Eurogamer
Far Cry 2 needs its Africa to provide both a realistic backdrop of suffering and unreliability, where guns jam, cars stall, and there's always a human motive lurking in the shadows, as well as a combustible playground, where unlikely heroics turn the tide of a skirmish, and there are enough explosive barrels to keep even the most unhinged joyseeker happy. Inevitably, sparks often fly when the two agendas converge: this is an admirably serious FPS, yet one that struggles with its own identity.

Kikizo
The malaria which keeps you constant company throughout takes its toll on your stamina...and swooning fits afflict you with military regularity. One of the more memorable of these came as we were driving a jeep over a bridge, having purged the camp opposite with incendiary flares and sniper fire. At the halfway point our vision ran pus-yellow, causing us to swerve to the right, burst the brittle guard rails and plummet into the stream below. Shivering in the wreckage, fumbling for our medicine bottle, it took us a good thirty seconds to work out what had happened. Cinematic disorientation is something Far Cry 2 does very, very well.

IGN
You'll be doing a lot of hiding in the game as the enemies tend to be pretty smart. This is an important point to make for an open-world game, and even more so because it's a first-person shooter and not a statistic-heavy first-person role-playing game...In Far Cry 2, the gunplay feels great. Shotguns pop and thud with heavy sounds and have a good sense of weight to them. Enemies fly back as they're pelted with SMG fire, crumple to the ground after a well-aimed sniper bullet, and keel over after a headshot with a .50 caliber pistol.

Gamervision
This sequel has so little to do with the original that there was no reason to keep the Far Cry name. The plot has no ties, and the gameplay is so far removed it would be difficult to call it anything more than a “spiritual successor.” That said, Far Cry 2’s gameplay is solid, and it works as both an open world game and a shooter. Its plot is light, but dense, and will make you rethink the way you look at real world conflicts like the ones represented in the game. As with most sandbox titles, there is a huge amount of content, and there is at least twenty hours of gameplay in the single player alone. There are enough different ways to play that it isn’t hard to justify a second playthrough. The game is fantastic, even in this dense holiday season, every gamer should make time for this trip to Africa.See? Hardly anything to cry about.

Far Cry 2 [WSGF]

Hey Ubisoft, we'd really love it if you could work out some arrangement that lets, say, Australian and Japanese Steam members have access to the game via the service. Just a polite request!

Of course all three items aren't available for sale yet, but I've signed up for notifications and have cleared out space in my apartment for flamethrower testing.

You know what would be even more amazing? If we were actually able to get into PlayStation Home and see it! It's great to see developers are already supporting the feature and all, so once it does go live it won't be like waiting for trophy support to kick in, but come on already! Bah. Hit the jump for a couple more screens of things only people in the closed beta will be seeing anytime soon.

UBISOFT® UNVEILS THE OFFICIAL FAR CRY® 2 SPACE IN PLAYSTATION®HOME’S CLOSED BETA

Far Cry® 2 is the First Third-Party Game Space Featured in PlayStation®Home

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – October 16, 2008 – Today Ubisoft announced the launch of the official Far Cry® 2 space in PlayStation®Home’s closed beta in North America and Europe. Featuring details from the game’s expansive open world universe wrapped in what will become a fully interactive experience, the Far Cry 2 space marks the first third-party video game environment in PlayStation Home. PlayStation Home is a 3D social gaming community that allows PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system users to meet, chat, plan and launch into games together. Gamers can create their own custom avatar, decorate their personal apartment, play mini-games, shop, watch videos, attend special events and much, much more.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to collaborate with PlayStation on this ground-breaking endeavor and have Far Cry 2 be the first third-party video game to have an official space in PlayStation Home,” said Tony Key, senior vice president of marketing and sales, Ubisoft, U.S. “Far Cry 2’s open world setting offers players a level of immersion that very few video games can match, and bringing that robust and dynamic environment to PlayStation Home will allow players to further engage themselves in the game’s gritty African setting in fun and interactive ways.”

As Far Cry 2 pushes the envelope with the dynamic nature of its gameplay and environments, so will its official space in PlayStation Home. The Far Cry 2 space will continue to grow and evolve alongside PlayStation Home, with future additions of new interactive features and functions to create a living, growing platform for both the Far Cry and PlayStation communities. The recently launched Far Cry 2 space in PlayStation Home opens the doors for players to explore the interactive area containing a wealth of information about Far Cry 2’s missions and non-playable characters, in addition to other strategic elements of the game. Among the available activities will be a multiplayer game of Mancala that will use bullets as game pieces, the opportunity to explore in-game environments including a bombed-out train station that has been turned into an ad hoc café, as well as the ability to launch the game directly from the PlayStation Home space.

You have 5 activations on 3 separate PCs.

- Uninstalling the game “refunds” an activation. This process is called “revoke”, so as long as you complete proper uninstall you will be able to install the game an unlimited number of times on 3 systems.

- You can upgrade your computer as many time as you want (using our revoke system)

- Ubisoft is committed to the support of our games, and additional activations can be provided.

- Ubisoft is committed to the long term support of our games: you’ll always be able to play Far Cry 2.

DRM is official (5 installs) (Ubisoft forum via Max Console)

Lots of screens including some of the map editor after the jump.

NOTE - Seems to be a gallery tag problem. The first FIVE screens are new. The rest, not new.

"We decided that all persistency will occur within a match or a define series of matches," Pharand added. "That way, gamers will have a taste of all our great guns quickly. You will get upgrades within classes and it will allow you to be more tactical in your progression, depending of the type maps you play."

Hmm. Wasn't a bit fan of Shadowrun. Then again, Shadowrun didn't come with acres of grassy plains to set fire to, so it balances out.

Four multiplayer modes for Far Cry 2 News [Eurogamer]

Along with the box you'll receive the game itself (thank goodness), a limited edition t-shirt in a size too small for me, an Art of Far Cry 2 book, a map, and the requisite making-of DVD. Note that nothing concrete has been announced for North America yet, but seeing as concrete would be far too heavy they'll probably go for wood here as well.

Ubisoft Confirms October 24th Release Date for Far Cry® 2 and Announces Collectors Editions Content

London, UK – September 05, 2008 – Today, Ubisoft announced that Far Cry® 2 will be released on October 24th throughout all EMEA territories on the 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Windows® PC.

“Far Cry® 2 is an amazing journey that will take you to the darkest places of Africa where each player will choose how they play. This will provide gamers with an unprecedented experience in the FPS genre”. John Parkes, EMEA Marketing Director.

To celebrate the release of Far Cry® 2, Ubisoft is happy to unveil the Far Cry® 2 Collectors’ Edition that will include:
- Exclusive wooden box
- Original Far Cry® 2 Game
- Limited edition Far Cry® 2 t-shirt
- “The Art of Far Cry® 2” Art book
- Collector 50km² map
- Making-of DVD

Far Cry 2 Collectors’ Edition is now available for pre-order at Game and www.game.co.uk

For more information, visit www.farcry2.com.

For us Africa still has a huge amount of promise... There are still things we want to do with the African setting, and I think it’s safe to say we’ll continue to explore it... That said, we might find something new and compelling about the Antarctic setting that wants us to make the next game there, but honestly, we’re still at the preliminary stages.

If we wanted to make the next game set in the… forest of South America, we could do it.

But I think to save time, for us, one of the reasons we chose to use the African setting is because we felt that in order to retain the Far Cry brand value, of an exotic, dangerous environment, a place that maybe people haven’t had a chance to see themselves, or have seen extensively in film, television and other games, we wanted to choose Africa.

Let’s face it, jungle islands are probably less exciting as they were four years ago.

But a slowly melting Antarctica? Man, sign me up for that game.

Third Far Cry game confirmed, dev team has “commitment to the African setting” [VG247]

Far Cry 2 — Exclusive Jackal Trailer [GameTrailers]

Minimum requirements
CPU: Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz, Pentium D 2.66 Ghz, AMD Athlon 64 3500+ or better
RAM: 1 GB
Video card: NVidia 6800 or ATI X1650 or better, Shader Model 3 required, 256 Mb of graphic memory
Media reader: DVD-ROM
Hard drive space: ~12 Gig or HD space. (tbd)

Recommended
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Family, AMD 64 X2 5200+, AMD Phenom or better
RAM: 2 GB
Video card: NVidia 8600 GTS or better, ATI X1900 or better, 512 Mb of graphic memory
Sound: 5.1 sound card recommended
Supported Video cards:
NVidia 6800, NVidia 7000 series, 8000 series, 9000 series, 200 series. 8800M and 8700M supported for laptops. ATI X1650 – 1950 series , HD2000 series , HD3000 series , HD4000 series .

Who here has the PC muscle-power to run Far Cry 2 at full optimization? I'm just shy with an AMD Athlon Dual Core 4600+ processor.

FC2 PC SPECS REVEALED! [Ubisoft]

Of course dwindled doesn't mean died, and there are still plenty of PC games on hand, particularly in the MMO department. As the most pirate-proof genre in the industry, we'll see no shortage of MMO titles at E3, but other than that particular genre we can expect PC exclusive titles to be few and far between.

On the MMO front we've got plenty to look forward to, with several major publishers showing off products. Sony Online Entertainment will be there showing off Free Realms, The Agency, and of course, DC Universe Online. EA and Mythic Entertainment will be marching Warhammer Online back and forth, and there's a good chance we'll see something from Codemasters as well. Even Maple Story and Combat Arms company Nexon will be on hand to add to the MMO domination.

Notable absences on the MMO front include Blizzard, who just finished revealing Diablo III at their own event, and NCSoft, who I suppose had more important things to do.

Other than the massively-multiplayer games, most of the big PC offerings at E3 are multiplatform titles like Bethesda's Fallout 3. You know...the games we keep seeing announced for PC and "next-gen" consoles.

There are exceptions, of course. BioWare's PC RPG Dragon Age: Origins should certainly cause a stir. Other EA PC titles to be seen include Spore and Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3. I also expect we might see a bit more of The Sims 3, though of course that game was absent from their line up press release.

Other notable PC titles include Left 4 Dead, Half-Life 2: Episode 3, Crysis: Warhead, Far Cry 2, Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II, Operation Flashpoint II, Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization, Space Siege, and Empire: Total War.

A nice line up, certainly, but these are all games we know about. Hell, we've known about some of these for years. Will E3 hold any surprises for the PC gamer? Will LucasArts reveal the Star Wars MMO BioWare is working on? Will new technology be unveiled that will change the face of PC gaming forever? Can any PC news top Blizzard's announcement of Diablo III? PC gamers speak up! What do you want to see out of the PC at E3?

[via Big Download]

Very early on we knew that we wanted to go a completely different direction. Instead of going for the tropical island and trying to go for hyper realism, we changed the setting. First of all we wanted to have a really, really credible environment, but we didn't want to replicate anybody's vacation photos.

Probably smart. Who wants to play somebody's vacation photos anyway?

Far Cry 2 Different [Ubisoft] [Pic]

Far Cry 2 Brings GTA Sandbox to the Serengeti
Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party Announced
Shaun White Delivers Death to Snowboarding with an Assassin's Creed Engine
Ubisoft Brings Easy way To Stop Smoking To DS Months Late
Ubisoft Officially Announces Beyond Good & Evil 2
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. Hands-On
Shaun White: Wii Play, Pics and Press Release
Prince of Persia Ditches Roots, Gets a Final Fantasy Make-Over
Far Cry 2: No Girls Allowed
Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway Hands-On
Making Far Cry 2's Africa

Far Cry 2 Dev and Port Teams Range from 175 to Three
The Worst Of Ubidays 08

Far Cry 2 uses a proprietary engine that was built from the ground up for the game. The developers told me that about 175 people worked on creating the engine and then the game for the PC. Currently that team is working to build in DX10 support, though it wasn't ready when I had a chance to look at it.

Because the engine was built to work on a PC, bringing the game, with all of its bells and whistles, over to the Xbox 360 was a relatively easy affair, the developers told me. Afterall, they said, the Xbox 360 is essentially a computer. In fact they only have three people working on the team that is porting the game over.

The Playstation 3? Not quite as simple an affair. They have a team of 14 working on that port, mostly because of the "difficulties" of working with the Playstation 3's unique architecture.

If you missed any of the Ubi related news and my hands-on impressions with games like Far Cry 2, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway and H.A.W.X. then hit up the jump for a round-up of all of our Ubidays 08 related posts to date.

Far Cry 2 Brings GTA Sandbox to the Serengeti
Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party Announced
Shaun White Delivers Death to Snowboarding with an Assassin's Creed Engine
Ubisoft Brings Easy way To Stop Smoking To DS Months Late
Ubisoft Officially Announces Beyond Good & Evil 2
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. Hands-On
Shaun White: Wii Play, Pics and Press Release
Prince of Persia Ditches Roots, Gets a Final Fantasy Make-Over
Far Cry 2: No Girls Allowed
Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway Hands-On
Making Far Cry 2's Africa

Far Cry 2 is set in Africa, but what part? Turns out it's in a fictional, Africa, one that while it may resembles bits and pieces of the continent, isn't in fact tied to anyone area.

The developers told me that while Far Cry 2 may feel a lot like central Africa there is no one area that has the same "biomes" as the game. That's because the team didn't want the game's location to politicize Far Cry 2 and what you are doing in the title.

So the team worked with World Machine to create their generic, yet oddly familiar section of Africa. World Machine allows developers to procedurally generate terrain based on what a developer wants to see in their world. The engine can even predict proper geological erosion allowing the developers to wear down an area with weather effects.

Next the team populated their artificial Africa with a blend of different wild animals, each with specific artificial intelligence. This animal AI tells the creatures when to sleep, hunt, even drink from a pool of water. They know to run from fire, and when to be started by approaching humans.

They tied all of this to the human enemy AI, allowing them to pick up on things like animal movement, so if you were to startle a creature into an enemy camp, it will alert the enemy.

I know this is starting to sound Fable-esque, but it they really can pull off all of this inter-species AI interaction it's going to add a lot of realism to this game.

Far Cry 2, Ubisoft's answer to Grand Theft Auto meets Mercenaries 2, has a lot going for it from its enormous 50-square kilometer map to its use of animal AI. Another neat feature is how they've decided to deal with the player character.

In Far Cry 2 you can't customize the way you look, instead you get to choose to play nine of the dozen characters that inhabit the game as friends. Depending on who you choose it changes some of the 75 or so side missions you can play through.

But why only nine of the dozen characters in the game? Because the other three are women.

"There are so many lines of dialog that they would have had to rescript and record if we let people play as a female," I was told.

Wow, that's not going to go over well.

At first blush Far Cry 2 looks and behaves a bit like Grand Theft Auto IV: The game has an open world, friends who can come to your rescue, a phone you use to contact them, safe houses, a detailed map for guidance and a non-linear story line.

But where at its heart Grand Theft Auto IV is an action game, Far Cry 2 has its roots deeply embedded in the bedrock of shooters and from what I saw during my short time with the game it seems to remain true to those origins.

I asked the developers about the similarities and he seemed genuinely surprised, I think that’s because most of these similarities are obvious design decisions made once you’ve decided you want to create a sandbox game and the parallels are for the most part quite superficial.

Friends for instance. In Grand Theft Auto IV, you can call them for help, but they don’t really get involved in missions. In Far Cry 2 they are your salvation.

Playing through a chunk of the game, I got caught up in a particularly hairy firefight. As is often the case when I play games with an option for a stealth approach, I stumbled into an enemy camp and managed to alert just about everyone there without firing off a single shot.

Soon I was taking fire from all sides. As would be expected, the aiming and controls in Far Cry 2 are excellent, well-honed mechanics. Whether you’re sniping, firing off rockets (which can be laser guided to a target), or just popping off rounds from a rifle, it is easy to land precision hits, even on the go.

The enemy artificial intelligence seemed quite robust after I tipped them off to my presence. A man in a wooden watch tower fired off sniper rounds at me as men tried to flank me from both sides. I managed to take out the sniper and two men and then blew up a nearby gas canister to try and distract the rest of the bad guys. Unfortunately, that seemed to attract the attention of nearby men, who cruised into camp on a jeep.

Muscling my way through the camp proved to be far more difficult than I assumed it would be and shortly into my escapade, I was downed by enemy fire.

When I started playing the game, I went into a safe house to meet up with a contact and then befriended one of the game’s main characters. It was this newly minted friend who, unbidden, came to my rescue, pulling me from the ground, where things had become decidedly black and white for me, and hustling me to safety.

What was so neat about this mechanic was that I really had no control of what was going on. The sequence, seen through the shaking vision of a dying man, took away all control and forced me to watch as a friend dragged me through combat to a place away from enemies, and then patched me up. That can’t help but make you feel attached to your friends, something I hope the developers take advantage of in the game’s storyline.

Healing, as has been noted before, is also rather unique. You still need to grab what are essentially health packs, but the developers added a collection of unique animations to the healing mechanic so you get patched up in different ways depending on how you were injured. If you’re shot, you use a knife to dig out a bullet. Burned, you pat out flames. It’s superficial, but still kinda neat.

The game’s map also has plenty of neat touches. It’s an actual map you pull out and hold in front of you when you use it. So driving becomes a one-handed affair when you are looking at the map on the move. The map also updates with information when you spot things like bad guys or tactical information through your binoculars. The whole thing feels very organic, very real.

During my time with the game I played through a single, relatively short mission that had me driving from a safe house (there is always one about two minutes away on the 50 square kilometer map) to a nearby camp where I was to shut down a gas line. The game will feature more than 100 missions, I was told, 25 of which are tied to the main story line and the remaining 75 are considered side missions, assignments you get from your buddies.

I remain impressed with the game’s graphics, controls and feel. It is a game that has managed to erase the bad taste of Far Cry Instincts from my mouth, but just barely. I played on the PC version of the game simply because that’s what I plan on getting when it comes out, but the developers insist that there is no difference between how the game will perform on the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

While that looks to be true, I won’t truly believe it until I see it.

It's about giving the player the opportunity to play the game he wants to play the way he wants to play it.

By John Gaudiosi

MONTE CARLO—Cevat Yerli, co-founder, president and CEO of German game developer Crytek, recently was a featured speaker (for the second year running) at Imagina 2008, the annual 3D technology conference in Monaco. Following his discussion on the lessons learned from developing Far Cry and Crysis on CryENGINE and CryENGINE 2, he spoke about the changing face of game development.

Today's landscape has fewer independent game studios, especially on the heels of Electronic Arts acquisition of Bioware and Pandemic. Along with Epic Games and id Software, CryTek remains one of the top independent game makers in the world today.

"The challenge is in the balance of creativity versus funding," said Yerli. "The increasing budgets, more demanding platforms and customer behavior makes it difficult to sustain as an independent company. However, at the same time, new opportunities arise such as in casual online games, but also on games that are on simpler platforms such as Nintendo Wii, Xbox Live or Playstation Networks in the form of smaller game experiences, including but not limited to arcade experiences. I believe (digital distribution) is an opportunity to sustain independence and successful titles through these channels may even be more commercially lucrative than titles released through traditional retail business."

Other opportunities for development include mobile platforms and the professional modding communities. Yerli said the mod community for Crysis (www.crymod.com) is quite active. He added that "if a team would excel with a certain quality development, we would consider it as a professional product."

The advantages of being independent in today's game world is having full creative ownership of one's intellectual properties and the ability to be flexible with which direction to explore next, according to Yerli.

When asked if Crytek would be open to being acquired by a big publisher one day, he responded, "If it were a cultural fit, yes, but we would have strong requirements in addition."

But at this stage, having founded the studio in 1997, Yerli said he doesn't really think about leaving his independent state, although the studio has been approached numerous times since releasing the hits Far Cry and Crysis.

In addition to creating original IP, Crytek is building a business around its technology, but at a slower pace, at least for now, than companies like Epic Games and id Software.

"CryEngine 2 is actively being licensed, but at a lower frequency, intentionally, to fulfill our obligations, to learn from this and to sustain a qualitative landscape," said Yerli. "With GDC we will start looking into a multi-platform offering of CryEngine 2, which was the biggest demand so far and the single biggest difference between us and the competition. With CryEngine 2 now running on multiplatform, we offer the most complete 3D engine qualitatively and productively."

After spending three years developing Far Cry and learning a lot from the process, Yerli is looking forward to the new game from Ubisoft, which is being developed in Montreal.

"I honestly love the game Far Cry 2 and its development, even though the only relevance from Far Cry to Far Cry 2 is its name," said Yerli, referring to the new game's realistic setting in Africa and the absence of any sci-fi elements. "Everything else seems to be a new game, which I am looking forward to play."

Far Cry will also be heading to movie theaters—likely in 2009. Controversial film director Uwe Boll has wrapped the film version of Crytek's original game. Yerli said that licensing the film rights to fellow German Boll was the right business decision at the right time and they had good talks with the director.

"Unfortunately, we have not been involved in the film since very early when it was a script," said Yerli. "However, I think the script changed and improved radically since then, at least I hope it has, since I can't wait to see the movie. It will be so exciting to watch the Far Cry movie."

When asked about Boll's other videogame adaptations, Yerli said he has mixed opinions.

"Most importantly, I would say he is financially successful," said Yerli. "Critically, sure, they're not the best movies, but he knows that, too."

Since story was such a strong part of the development of Crysis—something Yerli admitted was not the case for Far Cry, which he said had a B-movie story line, the translation of Crysis to the big screen should be easier.

"A Crysis movie is definitely planned," said Yerli. "We are in active talks already. I think we will close this topic before the end of this year."

As a developer, Yerli said the goal is to mature into a multi-team studio with innovation and quality at its core. Currently, the team is looking into new challenges and also is evaluating Crysis 2, but nothing can be said and announced officially.

Given the fact that Far Cry took three years to make and Crysis four years, Yerli joked that the next game from the studio will be released in five years.

"No seriously, the biggest lessen learned from our previous games is to focus on efficiency in your organization," said Yerli. "The deployment of this efficiency is critical. I believe we will release our next game quicker than Crysis, so I estimate a two to three year cycle."

While video games often present a clean and polished atmosphere, Far Cry 2 presents a world that "isn't this clean, sterile, digital representation of Africa." Guns jam and wounds that are left untreated become fatal. As for leveling up your character, that plotline begins to sound a bit like Haze.

Early on, your character will become infect with malaria. Through the game, your weakened character will become stronger after encounters with medicine to treat said malaria. So far, so good.

But if your character loses access to said medicine, he begins to mutate into a viscous vomiting mutant—a plotline of chemical dependence not so thematically different from what we've seen of Haze. Hopefully this transformation is offered as a gameplay choice or risk/reward instead of simply a necessary linear path. But all in all, Far Cry 2 is sounding fairly enticing.

Fresh gameplay details uncovered for the Africa-set sequel [gamesradar]

Ubisoft today announced that Far Cry 2 will be coming to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 sometime in fiscal 08-09.

My main question is the same one I had back when they decided to port the original Far Cry to the console, how the hell is that going to work? The PC version of Far Cry 2 looks spectacular and the build I saw in Leipzig did some incredible things, things that may or may not be doable on a console.

Check the entire, short release, on the jump.

UBISOFT ANNOUNCES FAR CRY® 2 FOR XBOX 360® AND PLAYSTATION®3 SYSTEM

San Francisco - January 3, 2008 - Today, Ubisoft announced that Far Cry® 2 is being developed for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. Far Cry 2 is a next-generation first-person shooter being created by Ubisoft's Montreal development studio.

More than just a visual and technological achievement, Far Cry 2 immerses players in an entirely new kind of gaming experience, featuring a custom-made video game engine built from the ground up. Players will discover a true open world gameplay set in one of the most beautiful environments in the world, Africa, brought to life by high-definition next-gen technology. Far Cry 2 is scheduled to ship fiscal 2008-2009.

Far Cry 2 is featured as the cover story in the March issue of PlayStation®:The Official Magazine, available on newsstands in North America on February 12, 2008.

Ubisoft's news today wasn't all good. Sure Assassin's Creed is doing amazing sales and the company as a whole is picking up, but it appears they've decided to push back three of their triple-A titles.

Or as Ubisoft puts it they've "strengthened its line-up of games for next year..." EndWar, Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway and Far Cry 2 are now all scheduled for release in fiscal 2008-09 rather than the fourth quarter of 2007-08.

This will let them push the expenses of developing those games into next year's fiscals and push up sales for that fiscal year, from what I make of the press release. Good news for investors, but boo for gamers.