I've been playing Far Cry 4 for a few days now and I've gotten to the point where several, relatively small things are just making the game unplayable for me. It's so close to being so good, but these tiny little development decisions are just ruining what could be an epic experience.
- The "beep beep" that happens whenever Ajay's wallet or loot bag is over 2/3rds full is just maddening. After a while I feel like I'm being poked in the head every time I hear it. It's played so often that is nearly constant, and what really blows my mind is that it is completely unnecessary. That's actually true about all of my complaints.
- The HUD elements that I cannot get rid of have become so tiresome that I just cannot see past them to enjoy the game. The glowing, pulsating quest markers? The absurd situational prompts? I mean, seriously folks, just because the Buzzer is not moving does not mean that I'm sitting there desperately trying to remember which key to press to get out.... while suspended a hundred meters off the ground. And just because I've got fire or explosive arrows equipped does not mean that I am incapable of remembering which key to press to nock a normal arrow. And when I'm aiming at an enemies head through the scope of a sniping rifle is it REALLY necessary to inform me which key to press to hold breath and let me know ON SCREEN that zoom is bound to the mouse wheel? Oh, and my personal favorite: while serenely traveling across the landscape suspended from a hang glider... I can't focus on anything other than the glowing, pulsating, 3D model of the shift key that is branded into the center of my vision for the duration of the trip!
Really?
Look, I understand that you have to account for the lowest common denominator when making games, but really? I mean really? At what point did informing people what keys their controls were bound to become so necessary that it required on screen displays that CANNOT BE DISABLED? I mean why stop there? Why not have the movement controls on screen whenever the player is in-game? You can have perpetual, on screen, three dimensional models of the W,S,A,D keys pulsating within their own perpetually expanding auras branded across the entire landscape... just in cast somebody out there is incapable of remembering which button does what?
Sarcasm aside, please give me the ability to turn that crap off. The ONLY situational prompt that is even remotely useful is the grapple. The rest is... I don't even know what it is. The word 'masturbatory' comes to mind. Somebody out there is very proud of their control schematics and on screen info. Bloody hell, the short version is that, as of this moment, I feel like I just wasted $90, cos I can't play this game in this state. I just can't. If I knew how to crack open the code and change it, I would, cos most of the game is just magnificent. The artwork, the landscape, the story, it's all really good. The problem is that I can't enjoy any of it because it feels like I've got somebody's hand in my face.
I kinda agree, but it's far away from being unplayable. Annoying, but I learned to filter it out. Remember Far Cry 3? Even on the south island there would be constant pop-ups like "New tutorial! Camera!". Really? How do you think I got here?
It was unbearable.
What bothers me is that the guns are squeezed right into your face, even after changing the FOV. That default narrow FOV is just painful.
I don't know anyone who would hold a Desert Eagle right in front of his eye while shooting. And if you're behind cover it gets pointed upwards, covering my vision. Wish I could just put the gun down when I wanted.
What irritates me most is that there is all this attention to detail given to accommodating the lowest common denominator, but those of us who actually like to do our own thinking have to rely on 3rd party mods to do the work the Devs claim to have done already. Within the options I, theoretically, have the ability to "turn off objective reminders". But no matter what I select those markers stay... and blink and pulse with a distracting, eye-catching demand upon my attention. Also, when I select "turn off tutorials" I'd expect the constant, in-my-face explanation of the controls... that I've bound to custom keys... would go away as as well. It's too bad, really: they go ahead and create this incredibly beautiful artwork for the scenery and stage of this game... and then clutter it up with all this unwanted crap.
QFT. Ubisoft, take the hint. Your HuDs suck. Literally no gamer on the planet needs to be reminded which button to hold to exit a vehicle every single time and the same goes for holding breath, opening doors, etc. Do you think people are plain stupid? At least give us the option to disable these extraneous letters that are constantly on our screens.Originally Posted by Whitelion1284 Go to original post
To me, the most irritating aspect is the constant on screen tutorials. There should only be one on screen tutorial and it should be at the very beginning of the game at some break in the action. It should show you that you can open the main menu by pressing whatever key (m) in this case, to get the map and menu at the top and then all questions about game play should be in the tactics or whatever they want to call it. Once in tactics you should be able to have tutorials on rebinding the keys, how to use the different weapons, crafting, and all the features of the game. Once it's launched you can easily add stuff that people complain being missing from the tutorial section. For instance, i couldn't figure out how to equip fire arrows for a long time until someone on the forum explained it. Why isn't that explained in the tactics? I still cant understand how every time I'm playing suddenly i've called for reinforcments. I never want them and never call them but it doesn't explain how they are called. In the console version it does explain what to press to call them. That is total b.s.
If you've already played the game, you certainly dont need to spend 10 minutes seeing a multitude of how to videos that are cutscenes that you cant get rid of, while you are progressing thru a new game. For me it wasn't necessary the first time in most cases.
In Far Cry 3 it was the same thing. If you looked at the explanatory pages for what you needed they were sparse and not very helpful. Considering it takes almost no effect to organize the written word explanation section why do such a horrible job at it? A little extra effort would be a simple solution to keeping customers informed and not complaining that the cant figure things out.
For instance in FC3 when playing COOP, or MULTIPLAYER, there was no information of how to text, use voice, heal your friends, etc. except in little blurbs before your game started and you had to rely on others to explain it. WTF?
I had to laugh because I first thought by the thread title you referring to a particular mission when you said "Ants at the Picnic" causing some kind of performance issues. I couldn't think of any mission by that name, but don't remember them all by name, so you had me going. LOL
Seriously though, not that I entirely disagree with you, but I feel it bears mentioning that they did somewhat listen to the HUD complaints of Far Cry 3 and made 90% or more of the HUD in FC4 adjustable.
Furthermore, this being the PC board I feel compelled to say that one of the many perks of playing on PC is being able to edit files.
I have found that there are HUD features listed in the GamerProfile.xml that can yield results beyond what's available in the game menu. Pretty much anything after WikiUpdatedEnabled= in that section of the file pertains to the HUD and has items not in the menu. All it takes is a 0 vs 1 value to turn it off.
Thanks for the tip, Frag, and I happen to agree with you. They gave us much more control over the HUD, all of which is very VERY appreciated. Unfortunately, they stopped on the 5 yard line while simultaneously adding even more clutter, clutter that can NOT be disabled. I looked within the GamerProfile.ini (and turned off the crouch indicator which was always defaulting back on) but couldn't find anything for the situational prompts, which are the source of my complaints. I don't need reminders for what keys to press to switch arrows or open a car door or adjust my zoom while looking through a scope. That's all clutter. It's ugly and unnecessary at best and insulting at worst. Not to mention that in one case (the glider) the wingsuit prompt is actually animated, remains on screen for the duration of the trip and, once again, is eye catching, ugly and completely unnecessary. The only situational prompts that make any sense are the grapple and the climb prompts, cos you actually need those when tarzanning between cliffs. But the rest of it is just a distraction from either the beauty of the landscape or the action.
Now I'm making such a big stink over this because I actually cannot play the game it's in current form. I've tried and am psychologically incapable of 'tuning-it-out'. I just can't do it. I suspect that after three failed marriages I have a PTSD level aversion to being nagged,and all of those prompts on screen feel like the game feel like the game is telling me what to do. In other words I just spent $90 on a game I can't play.
Which bothers me.
So I'm b*tchin' about it.
Fortunately I suspect that eventually I'll be abe to use either the Dunia or Gibbed tools to do what I want or somebody else will make the mod for me, like Ziggy did with FC3.
Cheers