Screenshot: Ubisoft (Far Cry 3 Classic Edition)
Far Cry 3 Classic Edition came out yesterday for people who bought Far Cry 5‘s season pass and it’s turned out to be the tropical island escape I didn’t know I needed. After several weeks with the recent Far Cry 5 I thought I was done hunting wild boars and accidentally blowing myself up, but it’s been refreshing to revisit the bright and verdant Rook Islands.
Narrative beats and clumsy post-colonial politics aside, Far Cry 3 is better than I remember it. The 2013 game, may be a more directed experience then the series’ most recent instalment.
You do have less choice about the order of the missions you undertake. But in-between the story missions and fetch quests I am really appreciating the game’s sumptuous visuals and vibrant colours. The tropical climate is a nice switch from Montana’s dusty backroads and evergreen forests. The change of scenery alone makes familiar activities like collecting animal hides and laying siege to enemy outposts feel revitalised. Your player-character, Jason Brody, is still a whiny brat, but I had no idea how much I’d missed the small animations for when he’s bandaging himself up or skinning a buffalo that help flesh out the moment-to-moment action and remind me how brutal life in a Far Cry game can be.
I’ve encountered one big negative, though,that’s been taking me out of the experience: bad analogue stick control. Unless you swiftly flick the sticks past the 40-50% range in any direction, the view on screen barely moves.
It’s not that noticeable until the first time you try to track an enemy on the move, at which point it feels like steering one of the island’s beat-up jalopies. I constantly find myself either under-aiming because of a lack of sensitivity or overcompensating and unloading shots inches in front of my target.
While I’m playing on PS4, other players have noticed a similar issue on Xbox as well, complaining about the size of the sticks’ dead zones, a problem Ubisoft Support is apparently aware of and looking into.
While some people say it makes the current port of Far Cry 3 unplayable (someone who claims to have gone back and tried to the original Xbox 360 version of the game says they noticed a difference) it hasn’t made me want to put the game down. What it has done is distract me from the rest of the game’s beauty, which is even more stunning running on current-gen consoles.
One second I’m marvelling at an ocean view while seagulls fly overhead while the next I’m struggling to take down a boar from 18.29m out, like trying to take in the view while flies nip at your heels. It’s not a reason to regret this virtual vacation but it’s still something you’ll complain to all your friends about when you get back home.
Comments
10 responses to “Far Cry 3 Classic Edition Is A Good Port With One Annoying Problem”
I tried to play 3 on PC recently, but couldn’t stop the stutter that would happen every 4-5 seconds.
🙁
I tried FC3 when it was released and was struck by the fact they give you the latest in military hardware to play with but apparently no one on the entire island has mastered the ability to make a bag
I really liked FarCry 3 but picked up 4 for cheap and couldn’t believe how similar it was. I don’t know how ppl keep playing these ubisoft franchises year after year. It’s like buying the car you already own in a different colour. It’s great, but it’s exactly the same as what you’ve already been driving with just a few, tiny modifications.
People said the same about COD so they changed it and now everyone hates it even more.
I was never a massive COD guy, I checked out around COD 3, came back for Black Ops and that’s about it, but I picked up Infinite Warfare for cheap and really dug it. It was so cool!
Aaaaaand like you said, everyone hated it. So I guess you’re right. A big segment of the gaming market just want the same experiences with slightly shinier graphics every year.
I mean lets be honest the same argument can be used on practically all FPS games. Oh why buy Far Cry when you have Unreal or Quake, or Half-life, No One Lives Forever or … etc.
If they get the gameplay right what’s wrong with essentially buying a new map pack with some models and textures? Having new characters and maps to interact with is a big chunk of the fun, at least for me. They don’t need to come up with some radical new gameplay elements just so they can say “new”.
Yeah… I guess. But all of those games you mentioned are really different, at least in my eyes.
The point was that different is subjective. Two maps in the same game are different. Two gameplay styles on the same map are different. Even something as simple as switching weapons can make the same map different.
So I feel like new Far Cry games are worthwhile. Even if the mechanics are basically the same as long as there are some differences (map, models, NPCs and dialogue, whatever). About the only games I don’t feel are worthwhile are the shot for shot remakes. Where everything is exactly the same just with higher resolution.
Seriously. switching weapons make the map feel different. You’re right, different IS subjective. Cos I can tell you, it’s exactly the same map.
I guess these yearly iterations are tailor made for people like you then. You know what you like and you just want to keep playing it. That’s cool. I wish I could be content with just more of the same. But it’s not for me. I want to experience something different, something amazing, something that takes me out of this reality and into a new one. I think that’s why I’ve been less into gaming as I get older. There’s a whole world out there, be damned if I’m going to waste this life just continually playing the same games on an annual iteration.
But it’s cool that you’re digging it.
You’ve obviously never played games with proper stealth mechanics. Try a game where you can sneak around a map killing people with a “quiet” weapon or avoiding them entirely, then try the same map killing everyone with a shotgun or sub machine gun.
Heck even a game like counter-strike plays vastly different if you limit weapons. Same map with only shotties or pistols, or AWPs and so on. The gameplay changes drastically between fast, running and getting close to medium range to long range sneaking with one shot one kill.
Not trying to say you’re playing wrong, or that you can’t enjoy a game however you like. But it possible to experience a game differently if you’re open to the idea.
Same with Far Cry 2. Aiming control has a large dead zone, then nearly rest of stick aiming movement is taken up with 3 low and similar acceleration speed of fine aiming which is completely unworkable, then the very end of the stick range is turning speed.
P
It’s all awfully unplayable.
On the Xbox 1 X I tried the regular X box controller, the Elite controller with different presets and adjustments – which hardly helped, and I tried my FAR cry 2 copy on my Xbox 360. And they are all as bad as each other.
Xbox is getting keyboard and mouse support soon, but you’ll still have to deal with 0 frames per second Just use PC like everyone else.