Far Cry 2

[Rudi von Starnberg]

The MP5 and IEDs are two of the best things in the game. Get both.

[McCoy]

I must be the only one who loves the mini grenade launcher. Takes your pistol slot so you can also have a automatic gun and the Dart Rifle. And it is pretty damn effective at taking on vehicles, groups of enemies and anything else tricky. IED's are cool but not as effective if you need immediate protection from some vehicles.

[Puck]

That was my combo: dart rifle in the special weapons slot, silenced MP5 to the left adn M79 renade launcher in my pistol slot. With the camo suit I was ninja!

Love the way the dart rifle is properly silent so you don't need to constantly change position. Excellent when combo'd with the silenced MP5 for anyone who wanders too close and the M79 provides a great service against vehicles.

[Quest]

I quite enjoyed the multiplayer myself, but they really ought (if they haven't already) to remove the player name tags in deathmatch. It makes tense showdowns like Vermilion's all the more difficult to engineer when somebody with a sniper rifle can just keep scanning the horizon left to right until a red tag pops up.

Yeah, that's been the only problem really. It's not such a big deal on the bigger maps but it'd be perfect if we could remove the tags completely.

[Timmo]

Friendly fire without tags or a map in team games in these games would be great. Along with big punishments to the player and team for a friendly kill. It'd really encourage communication and you'd have to be so careful.

[Ktw]

That was my combo: dart rifle in the special weapons slot, silenced MP5 to the left adn M79 renade launcher in my pistol slot. With the camo suit I was ninja!

Love the way the dart rifle is properly silent so you don't need to constantly change position. Excellent when combo'd with the silenced MP5 for anyone who wanders too close and the M79 provides a great service against vehicles.

Sounds like these will be my next four purchases.

Got the IEDs and they do seem quite useful when combined with stealth, but it seems you can only rig one at a time?

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Hit the reload button once you've laid one and got the detonator out and it'll switch to another for you to lay, IIRC.

[Spacehost]

Isn't it the iron sights button? L1 on PS3.

[Ktw]

Iron sights it was, thanks!

[Quest]

Played two-on-two sniper battles tonight and it's possibly even better with a teammate, co-ordinating attacks and relaying information as you go.

I much prefer this to the frenzy of FPS deathmatches with randoms.

[Puck]

Sounds like these will be my next four purchases.

You'll also be wanting the sniper general weapons upgrade too as it's the only way of increasing the dart rifle's meager ammo. It starts with only 5 but the upgrade doubles it to 10.

[ZOK]

It's up from four to eight, isn't it?

[Puck]

Perhaps I was already equiped with something that effected its ammo then, cos it was 5 when first I bought it and 10 after purchasing the sniper upgrade: 1 in the breach and 9 more showing held.

The inportant thing though is that it definitely goes up to at least 10 and is much improved for it.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Yep, Puck's right there in my experience.

[ZOK]

I don't understand that then - I've got the sniper upgrades too, and mine definitely only holds eight! I must have got one with a manufacturing defect! I can't think what else would affect it.

[Puck]

Did you select a girl character? They're probably not strong enough to carry 10 darts.

[ZOK]

Oh let me be Qurbani Singh!

[Ktw]

So, how useful is the stealth suit alone? I have enough diamonds for that or for a couple of weapons... Whenever I try to sneak into a base or something similar, the guards tend to spot me from some distance away, even if I'm hiding in grass (and even if it's night!). Apparently my eyesight is much worse than theirs, but that aside, will the camo suit be a noticeable improvement?

[Rudi von Starnberg]

The camo suit makes you almost undetectable if crouching in grass.

[Puck]

Providing you don't move. That's why its such a winning combination with the dart rifle.

[Vin]

It broke me.

It was the side mission where Andre asks me to hijack a UFFL truck and drive it to his garage. Obviously, during the ensuring gunfight, he just stands there absorbing gunfire, whilst the rifle I'm using insists on jamming every five seconds. So before it all kicked off, I just shot him in the face and made a break for the river.

Phone rang halfway up the river -- even in death he found time to curse me over the phone.

[Ktw]

Can't imagine this hasn't been mentioned in 116 pages, but I don't feel like reading every single post so here goes: while scouting a guard post, I noticed one of the guards wandering off towards a few bushes then stopping. As I took aim with the dart rifle I noticed he was taking a leak. Now, that' has to be a first in gaming! Did make him an easy target though.

So many charming touches like this, and of course so many annoyances. They've already been mentioned several times over, so no need to bother going through them again. My main gripe is the fact that the enemy AI is so inconsistent. Sometimes an enemy will be standing right next to you without spotting you. On other occasions, with no change in behaviour from the player (being still, crouching in grass), enemies spot you from a mile off - before you can even see them without the crosshairs.

It's annoying as hell at times, but the immersion is great. A flawed gem, for sure.

Favourite setup so far is definitely MP5 / dart rifle / M79, although the Dragunov is very, very satisfying as well...

[Wiper]

I don't understand that then - I've got the sniper upgrades too, and mine definitely only holds eight! I must have got one with a manufacturing defect! I can't think what else would affect it.

Difficulty affects ammo - I'm guessing you're on a higher difficulty to t'other players.

[Pilotwings]

How come no one seems to talk about the online side of this game? looking across forums no one really seems to mention it. It's all COD talk

I think the online is great, way better than I expected.

I think this game is being underrated Not think so though?

I sort of take this back, still think online is good but all this voting and switching teams bullshit with one sided games, really does grate after a while.

[ZOK]

Difficulty affects ammo - I'm guessing you're on a higher difficulty to t'other players.

I didn't think of that - I was playing on Hardcore.

[K]

What does your reputation mean in this? Whenever I do a buddy mission, I get a message saying “reputation increased”. Does this actually do anything?

[ZOK]

Not really. You get the enemies sounding progressively more spooked when they're talking about you, and if you bump int them in cease-fire zones they apologise to you, rather than pushing you over. It just adds a bit of colour to the game.

[Spacehost]

Actually, you'll find that on higher Reputations if you get spotted and disappear, enemies will accidentally shoot each other sometimes in a panic while searching for you.

[Wiper]

I didn't think of that - I was playing on Hardcore.

Aye, sounds about right - I'm on Hardcore too (as Hakim), the dart rifle only starts with four bullets on this mode, presumably five (maybe six?) on the middle difficulty.

Actually, you'll find that on higher Reputations if you get spotted and disappear, enemies will accidentally shoot each other sometimes in a panic while searching for you.

Aye, I've seen this happen. Even funnier when they set fire to their own bases in panic and confusion (accidentally shooting/driving into barrels and botching grenade throws).

There are lots of niggles in the game (as many have noted), but the most annoying for me is one which isn't a bug, just a skipped 'feature' - the fact that the enemies all have infinite ammo. Mostly easy to ignore, but when you're being attacked by a rocket launcher-wielding enemy from a distance (and lack any long distant weapons to retaliate), the fact that they will happily fire 20+ rockets at you grates. I had this happen in one of the missions at the police station in the Northern territory, and it was incredibly frustrating having to clear out the base under constant rocket fire from one sodding sentry. Was very satisfying sending him to his grave at the end, though.

[Fry Crayola]

Can't imagine this hasn't been mentioned in 116 pages, but I don't feel like reading every single post so here goes: while scouting a guard post, I noticed one of the guards wandering off towards a few bushes then stopping. As I took aim with the dart rifle I noticed he was taking a leak. Now, that' has to be a first in gaming!

Hitman 2 had a postman taking a leak in its very first mission, and that was 2002. In Metal Gear Solid in 1998, there was at least one guard who'd wander off for a piss.

Mind you, off the cuff urination is still cool, and killing them is still deliciously evil.