Rating: 
Summary: a FAR CRY from the opposition, perhaps?
Review: My review is based on articles and interviews I have read along a viewing of the tech demo. Even so, it's worth a 5 for whetting my appetite with what it promises to offer.There are many first person shooters, but Far Cry from CryTek strives to add gameplay elements which make it worth serious consideration. The action takes place on the main island of Micronesia, although there are other smaller islands which you can swim to. You play Jack Carver who is forced out of his sun-drenched retirement to help out a female journalist. There are homicidal mercenaries out to stop you. That's the basic premise of the game. The decision to set the game on a lush tropical island means that the game is not linear as in most shooters. You have complete freedom to move about and carry out your missions any way you deem fit. The player is in control, rather than being forced to complete missions in a set way. You are free to use your own discretion and to undertake missions using stealth tactics, all out assault, or a combination of the two depending on the circumstances you find yourself in. Environments will range from jungle, to caves, as well as man made facilities. The AI of the game was designed to "understand", and react to the environment. The enemy interacts with the environment just like you, and will use it for cover and to try take you down using tactics such as suppressive fire, outflanking, and/or calling reinforcements. Each enemy unit will react not only to your input, but also with the surrounding terrain in unique ways. In other words, the enemy knows as much as you about the arena you play in. Because of the non-linearity of the game (even though there is a progressive story line), the AI are NOT scripted. The beauty of this is that every time you play a section of the game the AI will respond in different ways so you never play out a scenario in exactly the same way. My excitement was further increased with news of the Sandbox Editor which will be shipped with the game and is billed as the What You See is What You Play. According to an interview with the developers, it took only 3 days (!) for one of their new multiplayer developers to learn how to use the editor. You can build and edit terrain, drop in some AI units, then play test it through all with a few mouse clicks. Switching from game to editor will be a breeze (like in Operation Flashpoint) and ensure a formidable amount of Multiplayer maps will be developed soon after the game ships. For programmmers who want to write their own scripted routines, the game uses the Lua programming language which allows you to write and embed your routines into the game without having to touch the game's original C++ code. For modders, the news is also optimistic. The developers have stressed that everything in the game has been designed with the mod community in mind, and can be modded quite easily. They have mentioned releasing an SDK for the mod community either with, or shortly after, the game's release. Weapons range from a P90 SMG, OICW, AG36, M4, Desert Eagle, down to a machete. Vehicles can be driven in 1st or 3rd person view with the ability to fire weapons while driving. Jeeps, boats, HMMVs, and hang-gliders can be used by the player, and the AI will use vehicles to pursue you.
With huge terrains, vast draw distances of up to 2 kilometers, rag doll and real-time physics, an editor which appears to be simplicity itself, and an unscripted AI, next year looks promising for anyone willing - and daring - enough to take a relaxing (?) break in the lagoons, caves, and lush jungles of Far Cry's Micronesian Islands.
Two excellent interviews with the developers can be viewed at Game Zone and Avault. For an impressive demo of the game go to Gamers Hell and download the 32Mb "tech demo". I'm sure you'll be impressed with what you see.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing game!!!
Review: Just got the full version yesterday and I must say that this is one of the most visually stunning games out. Other people's complaints about the AI are solely based on having played the demo so ignore them. The full version offers 6 levels of difficulty. The action and stealth opportunities in this game are endless and open ended tactics can be used. Well worthy of a purchase.
Rating:
Summary: A good game...give it a try!
Review: I got the demo for this game, and it looks like the other "long awaited games" might have a competition.
Goodies:
-This game has awesome graphics (as you can tell from the single player demo)
-The enemy AI is good, they respond differently. For example if you rush in with a rocket launcher, a whole group of guards will try and take you down with machine guns etc. But you can just sneak up and stay undetected.
-The cars, jeeps are easy to controll
-You can play the sneaky one, or the 'run and just kill' kind of person. The grass, jungle is really good. And you can hide in it...the enemy won't notice! Bad:?
-This computer game needs a real good computer upgrading. But just like halflife2 and doomIII. I can't think of anything else. Give this game a try, it looks very good, and I recommend it for people who are waiting for HL2 or games like that. I hope you found this helping!
Aron
Rating:
Summary: "Paradise Gone Wrong..." -- Everything Else is Right
Review: Where to start, where to start? Well, first let me tell you that I am a huge FPS (first-person shooter) fan, whether it's mindless fragfests like Serious Sam or stealth-oriented action like Deus Ex or the Thief series. I've been waiting for the "next big thing" in FPS for quite some time, namely Half-Life 2, but I think the next big thing has arrived sooner than expected, and its name is Far Cry. Let me get this out of the way before I go on: Unless your PC is is a stud monster with preferably 2.5 - 3.0 GHz processing speed, lots of RAM (1,000+), and a gaudy video card (Radeon 9800), you won't get the full effect from this game. Still, even on a mid-range system with graphics toned down to medium, you will be absolutely blown away. I know I was, and still am. Using the supercool Crytek engine, Ubisoft has created a game that features sensational graphics, terrific AI, decent plot, and unusual locales, namely the Caribbean. Where this game stands out is its graphics engine, which lets you see for miles and offers an unparalleled setting ever seen in a computer game. But be warned: don't expect to just walk into huts on the sand and start blasting away at mercenaries. These guys are good, calling for cover and flanking you every chance they get. You'll have to think about how you're going to approach each mission, and even then, you'll be required to make quick adjustments, thanks to the assault jeep that just showed up right behind you or the gunship that is raining missles from the sky. No two missions are alike, as the AI learns as they go, adjusting to your moves and reacting accordingly. Terrific stuff. The voices are a little over-the-top, which absolutely fits this very over-the-top game. The standard "mad scientist creates some monsters from human DNA" plot is a bit trite, but the presentation of the entire game makes up for it, with engaging cut scenes and terrific direction to your next objective. Overall, though, sounds lend a distinct feel to the game, as the birds chirp when you're outside on the island and waves lap against the shore, or your pinned underneath a palm tree with a chopper armed to the teeth sending death from above, the whup-whup-whup filling your ears as the world goes black. Real-world weapons are at your disposal four at a time, and they do the job very nicely. Crouching and arming yourself with an MP90 in the islands has never been so much fun. And you can drive many, if not all, of the vehicles in the game, including jeeps, assault trucks, gunboats, and even hangliders, which is a nice change of pace from the usual duck-cover-shoot tasks involved with each mission. Each mission is very well defined, but by no means is this game linear. You can get to the endpoint any way you want. If you want to take the whole guerilla army on headfirst, go right ahead. If you want to sneak around and shoot them from underneath the huts, you can do that too. Ubisoft has put the entire game in your hands, and it makes for some truly exciting, innovative gameplay. Some people will have a problem with the difficulty level and overall problems with getting it running at decent speed on a minimally equipped system, but look past this. Also, the auto-save system is a little annoying (no quick saves), forcing you to go through the same mission until you get it right and it reaches the next auto-save point. Not since Half Life has a game been so immersive, so unique, and so rewarding in its gameplay. Far Cry presents PC gamers with a tough challenge that shouldn't be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Far Cry
Review: First, I would recommend that everyone uses the recommended game requirements to play the game. Even if you are in those recommended specs understand that you may not be able to play the game with all the settings turned up, except if you had a very high end system (I have a 3.2 P4, 1GB Ram and a 9800AIW). Second, note that you can change your resolution to a lower setting to get better playability for example, 1200x1024 to 1072x768. In the end, this is a game for higher end riggs, it is unfortunate that many people can't play but that is the way the new graphical games will be going. Also, the game is awesome I would highly recommend it, all the other reviews provide the info so I'm not going to say it again.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: A fellow mentioned there is no save game. This is true but if you get the cheat codes online there is one that allows for saving at any point. Excellent!! This is probably the first FPS where you can play the game the way YOU want. There are multiple ways to approach each mission including sneek and peek and guns blazing. You can go overland, on the water, under the water, and even fly. The graphics are amazing. The first game to make you feel like you are IN real terrain. The water is great. Looks real both in and out. You will need some good computing horsepower though. Lots of vehicles to drive including Hummers, trucks, boats, and hang gliders. The AI is quite good. The only weirdness is that it can't handle the issue of the player charging opponents well. Also the 'alert zone' seems a bit short and bad guys often won't react to noises relatively close to them. But it is good enough for a challenge and adds to the realism as troops generally move around logically. One other issue is that the Stealth Meter often goes from quiet to max instantly thus making it harder to sneek around. The storyline is interesting and certainly will keep you guessing until the end. Overall FryCry is quite a leap in FPS.
Rating: 
Summary: Constantly freezes
Review: A waste of money. Freezes constantly, even with 512 Ram, a Geforce 5200 video card and the settings at "Low". This is the second Ubisoft game I've bought that's like this. Also, go to their forums and you'll see more of the same. The game has just been released and they arleady have to release a patch.
Rating:
Summary: Very l337
Review: Downloaded the demo the other day, and I've beaten it half a dozen times. It doesn't get old because of the best thing about this game; the freedom. Totally non-linear, which is a new thing to level based first person shooters. People have been complaining about needing ram, and how it won't work on Nvidias. THEY ARE HIGH. My system is total crap, (1600+ AMD, 512 mb 266 mhz ram, and 128 mb geforce fx 5200) and it ran great! If you're having trouble running it smoothly, just turn down some of the bells and whistles, and lower the resolution. Don't worry; even with every texture on 'low' and the resolution at '640x480' the game still looks REALLY good. The gameplay is great. The AI doesn't seem particularly special, but I haven't had any trouble. People used to games like 'Counter-Strike' will be at home with this game, for a number of reasons: Desert Eagle? M4a1? P90 smg? These guns not only appear in here, but the models are very similair to that of Counter-Strike. Sometimes the only way you can tell which game you're playing is by the gorgeous graphics. Even the sniper rifle looks like an AWP. The crosshair. The crosshair looks, and acts, like Counter-Strikes crosshair; it expands as you shoot, making your shots less acurate the longer you hold down the mouse. As you run, it expands, when you crouch, it contracts. There are even color pointers; it turns red when you mouse over an enemy, and when you are unable to fire, it goes a dull brown. The only game I was going to buy this month was CS: Condition Zero, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy this game now. Unfortunately the demo doesn't have multiplayer support, and I anxiously await how the multiplayer turns out, as it will make or break the game. Even if ubi blows the multiplayer, the single player is REALLY fun. Mixing nice amounts of stealth and blasting, this game offer great gameplay, familiar weapons, and gorgeous graphics. It seems as though you can only save at checkpoints, which is a minor drawback, but it still works fine.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning graphics meets great gameplay.
Review: Wow. That's all I have to say. Far Cry has raised the bar for everyone else now. Dramatically. The graphics are gorgeous. The environments massive, open and immersive. The AI is efficient and can be brutally cunning. The game is suspsenseful and thrilling. And add on top of that, the game is more than 25 hours long, but doesn't get boring. In fact, the last four or five missions of the game are some of the most thrilling not only in the game, but out of any first-person shooter on the market. This game is hard. VERY hard. Sometimes frustrating, and almost impossible. But never quite. It's challenging, but it's also very satisfying. The challenge adds an edge to the game that makes it extraordinarily exciting when you are crawling through the bushes, hoping to God that you shoot the last enemy before he shoots you, and praying that you find a health pack somewhere. The game is about 2/3 outdoor areas and about 1/3 indoor areas. The outdoor areas are by far, the strength of the game. They are so huge that it can take half an hour just to traverse across them. The big huge areas give you a number of ways to approach your objective. Lots of objectives have multiple paths for completing them. They are lush jungles, full of beautiful and inviting rivers and lakes, trees, rocks, birds, and lots of vegetation. The rocks and vegetation provide you with the cover that you will need to stay alive. Far Cry is as much of a stealth game as it is an action game. Enemies are too tough to face four or five at at time. You have to crawl slowly sometimes, sniping them from a distance, or ambushing them while they comb the jungle looking for you. The indoor areas look nice and have a creepy atomspheric feel to them, but they are frustrating to play through, and they feel like a ripoff of Half-Life. The monsters that you face are more annoying than anything, and some of them can kill you with one or two hits. The middle part of the game has lots of indoor, monster-filled areas and that is probably the weakness of the game. Far Cry rivals games like Halo and Splinter Cell when it comes to AI. The AI is not only great for stealth, but for action as well. This is very rare, since most games are only good at one or the other. They are efficient at using cover and searching for you when you are hiding. You can't just sit behind a rock a mile away and pick off guys by sniping them. They will actually hunt you down. Sometimes they will even send a helicopter up to hunt for you. When they find you, they will use cover and use grenades to flush you out. PC games have seen a few technological innovatios in the past year or so. Dynamic lighting and shadows, and realistic physics, to name a couple. Far Cry perfects these innovations, where other games have struggled. The physics engine is excellent, and so is the lighting. In one area, I watched in awe as a threw a grenade into the end of a crowded hallway, and watched as the explosion rocked the light. The light swung back and forth wildly, causing all of the shadows in the hallway to move in sync. Far Cry is loaded up with details like that. For instance, you can see the picture in the lens of your sniper rifle, even when you aren't zoomed in. The story for the game is sort of a disappointment. It's not really bad, but it would have been nice to have a better story to connect all of the nail-biting action. This flaw sort of stands our more, since the rest of the game is so good. The voice-acting isn't too good either, except for a couple of the friendly characters that help you. Otherwise, the sound for the game is excellent. Far Cry is such a pleasant surprise because it is not only full of technological innovations, but it backs them up with a really, really fun game. And then instead of ending after 8 hours, it manages to keep you hooked for 3 times longer. So once the "oooh" and "ahhh" factor of the game wears off, your enjoyment of the game doesn't. If you can get over the near-impossible difficulty, then you would be committing a crime against yourself by not playing this game.
Rating:
Summary: Great graphics, good AI
Review: This is the first FPS I've played in a while, and I was very impressed. The maps are huge, the views are stunning, and the play is a lot of fun.
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