Anyone remember seeing this?
And thinking.. you know.. benefit of the doubt.. this might be ok?
And then playing it. Reading reviews of it:
http://mp1st.com/2013/01/09/far-cry-.../#.VCGQkvldV8E
Wanting to change everything about it...
Again we are in the position of having a multiplayer built and finished for us (two months from release), without any indication as to how it may have been reborn? For the better or worse? Biggest of the concerns for me is that it has been farmed out again, and will play like a very different beast to the single player experience. Ubisoft Massive were given the keys for FC3 and asked to bring the MP into the current gen, and in many ways they did. But they sacrificed all of its soul. It played like a digital-only COD wanna be. Worst of the offences:
- Insta-death. FC2 had a slightly more tactical feel, because you COULD rescue a life. Back off, heal up, back and forth it. That went with a great big XP pop-up to consign it. We need to see larger health pools, the time-to-death restored. Any multiplayer dev ought to play The Last of Us. That is now my game of two consecutive years thanks to the remaster. Patient, methodical, smart. You can ALWAYS escape from a firefight, heal up (NO regenerating health!), and leave traps in your wake. If you haven't tried it, do, it's a magnetic beautiful thing.
- Balance. Weapon choice was meaningless. They had no personality. Personally I loved the jamming and faulting weapons in FC2.
- Vehicles. Now in FC2 this was both one of the best and worst parts of MP. Great that they were there, and that you could hand-glider your way to victory, but the network code just DIDN'T support vehicles. They would leap and lag and jolt around as the code tried to keep up, so..
- Code. The network stability needs to be overhauled, and I seriously hope it's done. Smooth vehicle syncing, hit-registering.. let's have it.
So what do you think? We'll get a teaser video just like we always do a month before launch.. and maybe it will LOOK different but a mountain of the new and old problems will be awaiting your hands-on. I remember my first day with FC3 MP, how I had watched streams and really hoped it felt like it looked. It was out of my hands in days, it felt so hollow. So how much energy have Ubisoft put into making their key shooter a competitive and rewarding one? Has it been handed off to another studio and the result is a something only realised once the chunks are brought together to start pressing the final disks? A very different beast?
Or is it really, really going to sing and be the foundation of gorgeous gameplay which years of mapping can be built upon? I built some great maps in FC3, and never saw the point of publishing them beyond my friends - the core gameplay was just too weak to actually make me want to spend any time in them.
So will there be hands-on before release? Do the Montreal studio and Alex really know what is being built besides it being 'the best mp we've had yet'? I mean I know Red Storm are developing this time.. so much higher hopes there thanks to their pedigree.. but..
Is two years enough to make an entirely reborn multiplayer? They were rushed with Ghost Recon and we know how that went.. ok enough, enough..
I REALLY REALLY HOPE THIS WORKS OUT FOR THE BEST EVERYONE
Time will tell..
If FC3 had received a massive fix that stopped people going invisible when using the gun turret and the scorpion weapon, fixed issues in COOP and the freezing in the editor that would have helped.
The actual Ubisoft maps with FC3 some were really good IMO - I thought Mud Maze and Sub Base were really good just naming two of them.
The biggest issue was hosting maps, as said so many times if we had a lobby where we could invite players or they could see who was hosting and join, then move teams if required and allow us to switch maps and options in the lobby such as what mode we were in, length of match etc etc then FC3 would still have players making maps and playing now.
The other thing was the number of items in a grid square, it was ok at the beginning but they stripped it right back - had all those things worked from the start it would never have been the best game but would have kept people entertained and happy.
So all they have to do is give us the above and with the vehicles in MP you have a winner IMO, 2 years to do that - throw in some new modes and a load of new objects with extras in the editor and it SHOULD be a fun game but we need to get it in our systems and fire it up to find out because no matter what videos they bring out it we won't know until it gets put through it's paces.
I am hoping the game is a beast and that it gets tons of support and things work out but the lack of info just keeps us guessing.
Not long now November will soon come around so between now and then we just keep guessing, keep fingers crossed and read between the lines with any info we get.