Best sandbox shooter?

Peppermint Lounge · Post by **Peppermint Lounge** » 27 Apr 2009 10:56 pm

Which would you buy first or if you've played them which do you like most? I'm leaning towards Crysis although I hear Far Cry 2 looks and plays very well. I wanted STALKER back when it released and in the lead up to its launch.

General Chaos · Post by **General Chaos** » 27 Apr 2009 11:04 pm

FarCry2 involved a lot of driving up and down the same damn road. Think the Library but in the great outdoors.

Crysis didn't seem to have any real backtracking but felt linear.

Stalker I went into a bunker and turned the game off.

Actually I'm no help I have all 3 installed and got sick of all of them within 30 mins to an hour.. Someone answer Pep properly so I can choose which one to go and play.

unfnknblvbl · Post by **unfnknblvbl** » 27 Apr 2009 11:17 pm

Crysis looks the prettiest by a long shot.

Far Cry 2 is rather boring

I haven't played Stalker

Dj Flextacy · Post by **Dj Flextacy** » 28 Apr 2009 10:16 am

Far Cry 2 i got over in a weekend, it's pretty and the fire aspect is fun but thats it, and it should of had lions/tigers etc in it,

Replica · Post by **Replica** » 28 Apr 2009 10:27 am

Heh, the new Red Faction demo gets my vote over the 3. I think this is really going to be a surprise hit when it is launched. The physics, graphics and controls are superb.

lestat · Post by **lestat** » 28 Apr 2009 10:38 am

Yeah playing the recent red faction demo I was extremely impressed by the physics, everything is destructible and it's not canned destruction either. Graphics and controls were also pretty good.

Crysis is probably the winner here, still the best sandbox shooter out there.

pilonv1 · Post by **pilonv1** » 28 Apr 2009 10:50 am

Far Cry is fun but the AI is beyond retarded at times.

Stalker was just too fucking hard. The pistol you start with is like a pea shooter and you can nail guys in the head 40 times and they don't go down.

Would recommend Crysis by process of elimination, only if you haven't played Fallout which is the best sandbox anything.

jobbidiar · Post by **jobbidiar** » 28 Apr 2009 08:07 pm

playing mercs2 at the moment and having more fun than i'd expected from the game

Brown Hornet · Post by **Brown Hornet** » 28 Apr 2009 08:55 pm

Far Cry 2 was one of my favourite games of last year, even though all the driving around was a drag at times.

I couldn't recommend it at this point though - there are some game ruining bugs that I understand still haven't been fixed. The only one that affected me was the corrupt game saves bug. It is what it sounds like. I have a bad habit of keeping many, many save files so this didn't affect me too much. And every time I saved after first encountering the bug, I saved three times over. I guess it says something about how much I enjoyed this game that I persevered.

Other users have complained of bugs affecting their ability to complete missions or have NPCs do things that NPCs need to do. Have a quick google and you'll see what i mean

marto · Post by **marto** » 29 Apr 2009 09:28 am

pilonv1 wrote: Stalker was just too fucking hard. The pistol you start with is like a pea shooter and you can nail guys in the head 40 times and they don't go down.

I thought it was just me. Way way too hard. Weapons too weak to begin with and ammo too sparse. Quite pretty though.

After a couple of night play with Far Cry 2 I came to the conclusion that it's a very very pretty game but not the best gameplay and an uninspired storyline.

Downloading Crysis now

Twit · Post by **Twit** » 29 Apr 2009 09:30 am

This thread has stupidly got me thinking about trying out Far Cry 2 on the cheap. I pretty much ignored it when it came out, but that Dunia Engine certainly makes for some nice looking environments, and I've always enjoyed the odd tinker with map editors.

GameHED · Post by **GameHED** » 29 Apr 2009 02:43 pm

I liked FC2 but beware of the respawning.

It can't decide if it wants to be a truly open world vs an arcadey experience. When things die, their bodies don't stay there for a long time and when you return to the spot where you just went to earlier, and killed people and blew shit up, the place is occupied again and reset to normal.

They need the option to set down a few traps and have your buddy guard the area by himself manning the weapons kinda like a robot Sentry guns in Aliens but in human form. It would save you from some repetition in the combat.

Halo's open-ended levels felt permanent. When something died you could come back to where the dead body was, take his weapon and come back to the spot where the big threat was, to then blow it up, go back and get your gun, and come back again to slowly peel away the defenses a little bit at a time.

It's less like that, and has a more COD-style respawn feeling to it.

unfnknblvbl · Post by **unfnknblvbl** » 29 Apr 2009 08:44 pm

that, and there's lizardmen all the way through the game

Twit · Post by **Twit** » 11 May 2009 09:17 am

I'm not far enough into Far Cry 2 yet to be annoyed by it, but I can see how that will happen. For the checkpoints I just drive up to them with a jeep, get out and snipe a couple people, then jump on the turret and blast away at whatever moves (usually people coming at me in their own jeeps), then continue on. From the way people were talking about this game I was worried that the bad guys would suddenly respawn in these checkpoints while I was in the middle of wandering around in them, but that's not the case. I guess if you leave the scene for an hour or two of game time they'll be back. I can understand why they did that and how it's justified in the game world (life cheap, people expendable, checkpoint people get replaced), and I can also understand why it would start annoying players after awhile.

For the moment I'm still gawking at those wonderful environments. It looks fantastic and the day/night cycle and resultant lighting really makes it feel alive. Very impressive engine. I also like the feel of the weapons and the relative freedom to approach situations however I please and in my own time. The AI can certainly be stupid but it can also do a good job occasionally. I've had some interesting fights as a result, but then I've also had some by the numbers slaughters just to get past a section too.

There's the whole Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness vibe to it (which is obviously deliberate). I guess that's corny...but it's also a theme that never really gets old for me. Still way more suitable than most games' lame justifications. I can accept being a morally ambiguous Marlow type character more easily than being some righteous yank hoorah badass idiot, and at the very least it's got me thinking about reading the book again. The horror!

Anyway...I'm only a little way into the game and I've been taking it slow, but so far I'm glad I gave it a burl.

pilonv1 · Post by **pilonv1** » 11 May 2009 10:24 am

the only thing that annoyed me about FC2 was the stupid save points. it makes me unwilling to explore because the nearest save point could be 20mins away

Twit · Post by **Twit** » 11 May 2009 10:53 am

I haven't really had much drama with savepoints as of yet. I've usually found one mid-mission, or it saves when the mission is completed, or I can wander off to a gun shop or something. I've also been making sure I unlock the safe houses along the way when heading to a mission point - then I just sleep for an hour in order to save it and continue on.

Twit · Post by **Twit** » 13 May 2009 04:58 pm

I noticed last night that one of my buddies was dead and another was abandoned (presumably by me). What's that all about? I was saved by a buddy once but I killed all the bad guys in the area and he was still alive when I left. I don't specifically remember hurting anyone's feelings either (I mean apart from all those people I killed, obviously). Unless maybe I offended that first chick near the beginning when she was doing sit-ups in the safe house and I stood in front of her to make it look like she was fellating me. But come on - that had to be done.

As in real life, if my friends are going to get all stroppy with me and feel abandoned just because I don't ring them on their birthday or something then I may as well just shoot them myself.

Brown Hornet · Post by **Brown Hornet** » 13 May 2009 09:19 pm

twit have you been completing missions in the way suggested by your buddies? These generally culminate in you having to drive to wherever the buddy is and assist the buddy in fighting off some baddies. Maybe one of them died before you got there? I found that generally you had to get there pretty quickly.

Luckily the buddy system in this game isn't like GTA IV so you don't have to take them bowling every two minutes. IIRC, the buddies like you more if you do missions in the way they suggest. Also I believe it strengthens the buddyness when the buddy turns up to help you out when you're about to get yourself killed.

t0mby · Post by **t0mby** » 13 May 2009 09:24 pm

Ooooo, that makes sense BH. I think lost one as well somehow.

Twit · Post by **Twit** » 13 May 2009 09:34 pm

I've just been doing missions sort of randomly. I did subvert a mission on a buddy's advice. It's possible I just never noticed that I had to go save her. I also tend to take things slowly so if I had to hurry somewhere then, well...she knew the risks.

I'm doing a buddy side mission thing now. I'll try to pay more attention this time...

Peppermint Lounge · Post by **Peppermint Lounge** » 03 Aug 2009 11:40 pm

Picked up a copy of Crysis and am going through it now. Astonishing looks and sound (voice-work excluded). Still early days and so far seems identical to Far Cry bar the suit and enemy accents. I'm clumsy as at swtiching between abilities though. Am only good enough to approach softly and pick em off one at a time using cloak vs flying in with augmented strength blazing away.

unfnknblvbl · Post by **unfnknblvbl** » 04 Aug 2009 04:14 am

yeah, I never fully got the hang of it. It makes me want to upgrade my videocard again so I can play it properly.

Peppermint Lounge · Post by **Peppermint Lounge** » 14 Jan 2010 04:32 pm

Mild Crysis spoilers ahead...

So Crysis has been a mixed bag for me. The first levels work well, fun to play, open ended etc. Enemies are annoyingly repetitive and the game comes across a bit soulless a result. The caves and anti gravity sections? Could do without although fun towards the end when combat ramped up after the cool high speed tunnel ride. It was during the caves that I switched the game off for a long time, only deciding to give it a bash today. Anyway finished the caves and am now outside in the snowy areas.

Jesus this game looks insanely good. I thought Uncharted 2 snow environments were amazing. Gaming moment: I was soon out of ammo after the cave fights and surrounded by mech/alien dudes while cloaked. Thought I was fucked but noticed I had two grenades. Dropped one and caught three in the blast. Was being hunted by another two so was cloaking my way around looking for ammo. Saw some boxes, dropped my last grenade, caught one and 'maximum sped' my way to the boxes. Found a shotgun, turned and blasted the last dude to pieces inches from my nanosuited face. That's fun and exciting gaming.

pilonv1 · Post by **pilonv1** » 14 Jan 2010 04:41 pm

Wish I'd bought it in the Steam sale.

Will try Stalker with the 2009 mod soon enough though.

t0mby · Post by **t0mby** » 14 Jan 2010 05:05 pm

Stalker with the 2009 mod? Do tell. (I bought Stalker but need to get my gaming rig atleast running)