Far Cry 2 actually looks really nice when the sun is up, especially when the sun is in transition (dawn/dusk). And those transitional periods of day last long enough in game-time to make them especially nice. It's not like other day/night cycle games where one map is dusk and another is dark, or where the sun sets in 30 seconds (GTA), it actually works well in Far Cry 2.
I still wouldn't recommend the game to anybody because it's basically shit, but if you see it for half price or less, go ahead and buy it.
So.. am I the only one that likes this damn game?! Single player more than Multiplayer.. the MP is awkward, but if it was fixed (DON'T BOOT ME TO MENU BETWEEN EVERY ****ING MATCH!)... I'd enjoy MP more. I do like the SP game too, it actually keeps me engaged, contrary to something like Halo.
Well, Dustin, if you like FC2 then you'll do well in later life. It accurately simulates the mind-exploding monotony of the daily commute, and that's about all it does.
You have point, the sp is crap. But it is still something to do when bored.
The point what makes this game good for me is that I'm able to do my own maps and them play them in LAN with my friends. This is again another FPS what is at it's best when not taken serious.
Best FPS moments for me are the LAN "partys" when we play and just have brainless fun.
No, I can join, play games... it just pisses me off that at the end of rounds it sends you back to the server listing. Have they not found about map rotations?!
I dunno Kev, I realize FC2 is bloody monotonous, however I enjoy it for some reason... It has a certain amount of.. enjoyment for some unknown reason... maybe I'm just blinded by the graphics... makes me forget that I just walked for 45 minutes because there were no cars or boats.
Well yeah. I do admit that my post was a huge exaggeration. But just the few screenshots that were posted on here looked bad. I went and played ET for an hour, and realized that the textures in ET are only like 256x256.
I don't know why people need to play with 8xAA in any game. If you can get away with it fine (I play with 8x in LFS), but I'm using 2xAA in Farcry and I don't feel I need any more. Considering I played through Crysis with no AA at all, this is like a bonus. Anyway, I'm running full graphics, with that little bit of AA- and it does look gorgeous. It's at a fairly high resolution though so that decreases the need for too much AA I guess.
And yeah, I'm finding it lots of fun. I'm still not that far in (stole the book, killed the cop) so maybe I'll be changing my tune soon(?). I don't mind the travel aspect, I think it's pretty reasonable that if you're a hired killer you'll need to do some travelling. Makes a break from the killing anyway. There have been some cool knock on effects- like taking out some guys in a boat that was parked by a bank, the boat explodes, sets fire to the shoreline, and engulfes their mate that was hiding in the bushes. (his screams told me his was there).
I've caught on fire, picked shrapnel out of my hand and legs, had a malaria attack in full battle, been rescued by a buddy, been pushed around by the locals, peppered with 1000s of bullets from an exploded ammo stack, had my favourite buggy torched, bought weapons online and went for a swim at dusk. And lots more too.
EK, it does get a bit repetitive (not to the extent of boredom, seeing I've played it for about 4 hours every day, every moment I''d get), however I do enjoy it. It has a lot of little things that happen during the game that I like, such as those ammo crates, the shrapnel... It's a good compromise between realism, and fun. I dunno, people dislike it, however I love it.
I'll only play for an hour or so at a time- last night was my first 'free' night in ages, and I guess I played for about an hour and a half, until the game actually crashed (never happened before in farcry/crysis/warhead).
Hm, bizzare that all these people have these crashes... I've yet to encounter one (and I'm past the first "section" of the game)... Seems funny that everyone else in the universe is encountering this.
I finished the game last night. My total playing time was 24h37m.
I didn't like the lack of damage of the spray and pray weapons, sniper rifles are one shot kills though so I just used them and didn't bother with anything else really.
The game got very repetitive and tedious quite soon but I wanted to finish it anyway. I don't want to tighten 'radiator bolts' even again Use those boats and busses often. I guess that helps.
The thing I noticed is, even when he's fixing the radiator, he doesn't actually tighten it. The ratchet wrench just spins on the bolt, making his problem even worse. Sometimes he also adjusts a random bolt sticking out of the block (literally, a big square engine block :schwitz. Would be nice if he called AA or something at least, he seems to be incompetent
I'm only playing at 8xAA because it'll run, I thought it might fix the terrible shadows, but no The shadows just look like they were drawn by a 3 year old in MS Paint using the block tool. If they were smooth, they'd look fantastic though, I like the way they're actually calculated for every bit of vegetation, and move with the wind and the changing sun. Apart from the shadows though, the graphics are fantastic, can't complain about much else.
I can't help feeling there's something up with your settings (or it could be a gfx card/driver problem). Your MS paint description isn't what I'm getting on my system, the shadows here are very nice, very high res and detailed at least most of the time, I'll check it out further but so far I've been really happy with that aspect.
After a quick play with the settings, I brought AA down to 4x, and put Shadows up to Ultra High. And all is well
Attached are pics of what it was like with shadows on High. In the first pic, at a slight distance, shadows look fine. But in the second pic, when you see them on my hand, they look terrible. AA was functioning fine, as you can see on the rifle. Apparently AA doesn't apply to shadows, they have their own settings
The shadow setting will most likely mainly control resolution, but I haven't looked at each setting because I usually start out any new game maxed and tweak down as necessary. I had good results with those initial settings with FC so I haven't really played around with settings at all. AA can really bite into performance though so it's best to start low with it and increase if you can. I've left it at 2x because it really does look smooth at high res and I think 4x would start to bog my system down.
That's because that isn't an AA problem, the shadow quality is low, which is why when you set it to Ultra they look fine. You can see in the second pic, they are anti-aliased, just not rendered at high resolution.
But it is still something to do when bored.
so i have vehicle all the time. but even with them it takes ages to reach the next mission 
Anyway, I'm running full graphics, with that little bit of AA- and it does look gorgeous. It's at a fairly high resolution though so that decreases the need for too much AA I guess. 
The shadows just look like they were drawn by a 3 year old in MS Paint using the block tool. If they were smooth, they'd look fantastic though, I like the way they're actually calculated for every bit of vegetation, and move with the wind and the changing sun. Apart from the shadows though, the graphics are fantastic, can't complain about much else.