Far Cry 6

[Peppermint Lounge]

Far Cry season passes. More misses than hits across the board (my favourite would be Valley of the Yetis from FC4) but this one has by attention. Michael Mando dropped a hint recently that he may reprise Vaas sometime soon.

[unfnknblvbl]

How can they bring Vaas back? He died. I know; I killed him!

[Peppermint Lounge]

Jason was off his tits at the time so anything goes.

Anyone day 1 for FC6? I'll be on.

[unfnknblvbl]

Not at that price I'm not.

[Rorschach]

I might sign on for Uplay Premium to give it a go

[unfnknblvbl]

oh look, the Ultimate Edition is on sale on Uplay. Only $165 now...

[Peppermint Lounge]

With the Ubisoft store you get 20% off with 100 club units. $72 for standard edition.

[Peppermint Lounge]

I finally started a FC5 new game plus on Infamous difficulty in preperation for FC6. Last time I played it was on a RX480 and non HDR display. Enjoying the upgrade. FC5 is an excellent game. The season pass weapons are available to use in this new game including the Lost on Mars weapons. They're hilariously OP. Enemies included heavy/armoured are vapourised and aircraft just fall from the sky after a couple of shots.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Far Cry 6 HD texture pack recommendation is 16GB VRAM.

https://www.ubisoft.com/en-au/help/far- ... /000098976

[unfnknblvbl]

RIP the wallet of everyone wanting to play this at Ultra settings in the next few years, I guess

[Peppermint Lounge]

This unlocked for me late last night so I benchmarked some settings and went through the introduction. Performance is good on my 5700 XT. 1440p ultra is 75 fps average. Ultra to high is indiscernable to me so I went with the extra frames. FSR makes distant objects and textures look noticeably more pixellated even at ultra quality settings so it's off for now. Will play with it some more. Reviewers confirm HD textures work fine at 2k with 8gb cards. Comparisons I've observed so far don't appear to show enough difference to warrant the extra 30GB SSD space.

As to the game there are some control additions that work well. Hold ctrl for a lowered stealth stance (yet to test if this stance is more stealthy than the usual 'C' crouch button). While stealthed you can use RMB to peak around obstacles which feels good and immersive. You can finally holster weapons. I wish all single player FPS did this. Nothing like pointing a sniper rifle at trees and rocks. Clicking LMB whips your gun out when needed. Some nice Far Cry 2 vibes with your phone being held in first person for map use.

Don't want to give anything away re: plot but I will say I was underwhelmed by the intro. It wasn't bad, just other Far Crys are better IMO.

[Peppermint Lounge]

FC6 performance across multiple GPUs.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Just remembered my default graphics profile has RIS enabled by default (Radeon Image Sharpening). Maybe the double sharpening pass of RIS and FSR contributed to the artifacts I noticed with FSR enabled. Will try FSR again with RIS switched off when I play again.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Turning off RIS made a difference but I'll be leaving FSR off for this game. I thought it might be an acceptably indiscernable way to add some more luxury frames toward a high refresh experience. Has not turned out to be the case.

FC6 is great so far. I was playing FC5 in the lead-up toward release so have a recent feel for the differences. Reviews are critical for it being too much like its predecessors but I'm finding there's enough to distinguish FC6. I'm getting quite a few Far Cry 2 vibes, from the opening area at least. Trashy guns that handle badly, the orange-ish hue of the game world and the aforementioned phone first person view. I like the protagonist. There's no character customisation beyond choosing gender. I chose female and like her line delivery which is handy because the protagonist talks a lot in this one. It's good to have a tropical setting again and it's another beautiful game. Super dense foilage which is what you'd expect for the setting. Character and gear progression is way more RPG like this time. You level up, your wearable gear has stats and you can do more to customise weapons and craft attachmemnts which also carry varying stats.

I replayed the intro again last night. Played it uninterrupted vs stopping to play around with settings. It's good but I still think FC3, FC4 and FC5 intros are better. Giancarlo is great, both his scenes and the dialogue you hear broadcast throughout the game world.

[lestat]

Anyone gotten harassed by Ubisoft because you got bored yet?

[Peppermint Lounge]

Ubi always send me reminders asking along the lines of 'are you sure you're done yet'. This one follows the tone of all their marketing featuring Giancarlo. I don't see the problem with it.

I've been playing for about 40hrs now. The core of the game is good. The open world is beautiful. It's way too big and padded out though. Visuals are a mixed bag with great looking terrain, HDR, vegetation etc. mixed with repeating PS3-era NPC character models constantly cropping up to throw a few more waypoints onto the map. Some of the progression mechanics that distinguish it from previous Far Crys not to my taste either. Treasure hunt side activity is very good but other side activity is borning. There are too many outposts to clear - actual outposts along with roadblocks and anti-aircraft guns, the latter needing to be destroyed in order to use helicopters and planes which is restrictive and tedious. I just get around the map using the parkour outfit which is as fast and/or driect as using vehicles.

Bigger is not better.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Another thought/observation. The enormity of the game and our time limited lives can urge you (or me at least) to want to get to objectives quickly in order to progress. Some of the best times I've had with FC6 is to lay off the fast travel and soak the map in. Take it slow, enjoy the sights and happen across pockets of civilisation and more stuff to collect. Wherever you are there are paths and tracks leading to picturesque areas that are always impressive. That's the best way to appreciate the work that's gone into it, when you're not playing it like you're at the supermarket plotting the fastest way to get through your grocery list. The problem is if you were to play the whole game like this it would take you a year to finish everything.

[unfnknblvbl]

This is exactly how I approach all the Far Cry games now. If I happen to complete objectives asking the way, so much the better.

What's really annoying though is when you accidentally complete them before you really want to!

[Ambrose Burnside]

What I like most about Ubisoft games is I can not play one for months on end but then slot straight back in despite how massive they are. When the mood takes me I just like popping into a Far Cry or an Assassin's Creed, knocking off a mission or two, and maybe do some random exploring/cause carnage for a while. I might play again the next day, or it might be months later.

Other genres of similar size, like RPGs, I find this to be impossible and end up restarting to get my head around WTF is going on again. Much harder prospect at this point in my life compared to when I was younger.

Sports games are the same as Ubisoft games in this respect, so FIFA (career mode) is probably my most played game this gen.

[flipswitch]

Totally agree Ambrose and it’s exactly what I do.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Logged in last night and was surprised to hear from Danny Trejo inviting Dani (protagonist) to a location on the map. Ok I thought, I remember reading Danny Trejo would feature in future content. What followed was a basic and cringeworthy collect quest for taco ingredients + dialogue exchange followed by a laughably easy horde mode defence stage while Trejo cooks tacos. Turns out it was not intended for release? Either that or the feedback embarrassed them into pulling it.

[flipswitch]

I’m playing the chick too. I feel I can connect with her better than some make protagonist ( like the CP2077 which I didn’t like ( but loved Geralt)

[Peppermint Lounge]

She's well done. I like how she sings along to the radio when driving some vehicles. Have not seen that in a videogame before.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Vaas Insanity DLC is very good. So much Far Cry 3. Music, Jason, Citra, Vaas, even the menu graphics and design. Map and visuals look phenomenal. Whole package very well done.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Control (Far Cry 4 Pagan Min) DLC is next and it's the same format as the Vaas rogue-lite DLC but with a Kyrat map and a well reprised Pagan Min. Lots of dialogue and FC4 back story. Really enjoying this season pass.