far-cry posts

2008's release of developer/publisher Ubisoft's open world first person shooter Far Cry 2 was met with praise from critics and solid sales. Even before the game was released there was talk of making Far Cry 3. Now a new rumor from the pages of PC Gamer's latest print magazine suggests that Far Cry 3 is in full production mode.

The magazine, in its rumor-filled Spy column, states that the game is "in full swing now" at Ubisoft's Montreal studios. According to the article the game's development is being lead by Josh Mosqueira, who previously worked over at Relic Entertainment as the lead designer for Company of Heroes. There's no word on what the game might be about although previous suggestions about Far Cry 3 stated the game would stick to Far Cry 2's African setting.

Ubisoft's Far Cry first person shooter franchise has apparently been successful enough for the publisher to give the green light a third game in the series. Computer and Video Games seems to have gotten confirmation on this matter when they asked Ubisoft's Kevin Shortt (while at a Avatar movie game event) if he was working on Far Cry 3. His reply? "No I'm not, but I know the team are and what I've seen looks pretty exciting."

The original game was developed by Crytek using their first generation CryEngine. Released in 2004, it was set in a tropical island location. The sequel, which besides the name and the fact that it wad a FPS had no other connections to the first title, was both developed and released by Ubisoft in 2008 using their own in-house graphics engine and was more serious in tone with its African setting. So will Far Cry 3 keep that location or move in yet another direction? Stay tuned.

Over a year ago, German movie theater audiences were subject to something that they were likely not prepared for; a movie adaptation of Far Cry directed by none other than Uwe Boll. Now that cinematic "masterpiece" heads to the US but thankfully movie theaters in this country won't have to deal with this piece of celluloid.

Nope. Instead the flick based on Crytek's debut first person shooter is headed straight to the DVD pile (and most likely in heavy rotation on cable channels a few months later). It's a shame. We actually think a Far Cry movie would be entertaining if handled by the right people, but based on trailers that we have seen online, this version looks like one of the bad SyFy Channel Saturday evening movies. The only good news? There's no Blu-Ray version. Seeing this in 1080p would most likely fry your eyes out.

Last week GoG.com announced that it would begin adding classic PC games from Ubisoft. Today in a bit of a surprise GoG.com went off its normal Tuesday update and added Far Cry to its list of games today. You can download and purchase the 2004 first person shooter from developer Crytek for $9.99. It also includes free avatars and wallpapers.

Far Cry was the first Crytek developed game and the first to use the first-generation CryEngine. At the time it was praised for its massiveo outdoor levels, highly detailed character models and solid AI for enemies. Crytek has since broken away from Ubisoft to launch the Crysis series of shooter for EA with the second generation CryEngine. Ubisoft released Far Cry 2 in 2008 but aside from the title the game retained little of Crytek's original game.

For the past four days, the Steam download service has been putting various recent PC games from Ubisoft on sale at 50 percent off. While each game was put on sale for one day only today Steam launched its regular weekend sale and put four older Ubisoft games together for one low price.

This weekend only you can get Beyond Good and Evil, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Far Cry and IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 together for just $9.99. Normally each game cost $9.99 each so this weekend you are getting a bundle of four games for 75 percent off their normal prices. Nice.

In a bit of a surprise annnouncement, Crytek has revealed that it plans to demo the next generation version of its CryEngine game graphics technology at the Game Developers Conference later this month. CryEngine 3 is the first game engine from Crytek that is not just for PC games but for "console, online, MMO and Next-Gen game development."

Crytek developed the first generation CryEngine to use for their 2004 first person shooter Far Cry. CryEngine 2 made its debut in 2007 with the release of Crysis and was used again in 2008 for Crysis Warhead. Both engines have been licensed by a number of different game developers in the past. Crytek states it will be giving public demos of CryEngine 3 during GDC along with holding meeting with developers who are interested in licensing the game engine.

Oh, Uwe Boll. We do love you. Well not in that kind of way but you know what we mean. You make movies that are really crappy and most of them are based on video game franchises like House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, Bloodrayne, Dungeon Siege and most recently Postal. We can't help but love them and you anyway. But now we are upset, man. Why? You are ditching your US detractors and premiering your latest video game adaptation, Far Cry, in Germany on October 2.

Ok, we know that's your home country but we still need our fill of crappy video game movies and your version of the terrific Crytek-Ubisoft Far Cry FPS looks like it has just enough Uwe Boll-ness for us. B-list actors, poor production values, filming in Vancouver to substitute for a tropical island....and that's just in the PDF press kit we read on your site. Hopefully you can get a direct-to-DVD or maybe a Saturday Sci-Fi Channel movie deal for Far Cry's US release. We don't want Germany to have all the fun.

There's more than one weekend game download sale going on. Both Steam and Direct2Drive are offering a special deal on pre-ordering Far Cry 2, the upcoming Ubisoft open world shooter that's due out later this fall. If you pre-order the game in full from either one of those download services, you can get the original Far Cry game for free.'

This is the original 2004 release that was the first game from developer Crytek and the first to use their Cryengine software. That game took place on an island, had mutant humans roaming about and while it had large outdoor levels it wasn't an open world like Far Cry 2's Africa setting. This free game offer, (worth about $10) is only for Labor Day weekend only; this offer expires on Tuesday.

Here's a question that many of you have been wondering about? "Can Ubisoft's upcoming first person open world shooter Far Cry 2 run on my PC rig?" Well, we can't go about answering that question for every single one of you but we have the next best thing; the official system requirements for the game as presented on the Far Cry 2 message boards.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

CPU: Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz, Pentium D 2.66 Ghz, AMD Athlon 64 3500+ or better
RAM: 1 GB
Video card: NVidia 6800 or ATI X1650 or better
Shader Model 3 required
256 Mb of graphic memory
Media reader: DVD-ROM
Hard drive space: ~12 Gig of HD space. (TBD)

RECOMMENDED:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Family, AMD 64 X2 5200+, AMD Phenom or better
RAM: 2 GB
Video card: NVidia 8600 GTS or better, ATI X1900 or better
512 Mb of graphic memory
Sound: 5.1 sound card recommended

SUPPORTED VIDEO CARDS:

NVidia 6800, NVidia 7000 series, 8000 series, 9000 series, 200 series. 8800M and 8700M supported for laptops.
ATI X1650 – 1950 series, HD2000 series, HD3000 series, HD4000 series.

It looks like the minimal requirements will be higher than the 2007 title Crysis which "only" needed a 2.8 Ghx Pentium 4 or an AMD Athlon 2800+ for its processor and either an GeForce 6800 GT or an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro for its minimal rig.

GamesIndustry.biz hosts a fascinating interview with Crytek lead designer Stan Huebler, in which Stan addresses topics such as Crysis and Far Cry, catering to a wide array of audiences, and the ever-changing world of hardware demands.

Q: Crytek's titles are consumed by traditional gamers for the most part - do you see a time in the future when games like Far Cry and Crysis are considered mainstream?

Stan Huebler: I guess from the finesse, the kind of games we make - the production values we put into it - are like big movies, with a big budget. But certain moves appeal to a mass market, or mainstream, audience and games - if they want to - should be able to do the same.

I think it's more about the kind of gameplay and the adjustments you make to catch those groups, and not so much about what kind of game you're making. I'm certain that we could make a Crysis game that, if we did the right things to it, would appeal to a wider audience. And in a certain way we actually try - but we really like the hardcore market and you actually have to care for both. So you don't really want to scare away that hardcore market. But I would say it's possible.

Visit GamesIndustry.biz to read the full interview.