When I started it, this looked like one of the best games I ever played, but now some design decisions frustrate me to no end. I wouldn't mind much that travelling is 5/6 of most missions if every human being in Africa wasn't hostile. Having to pass through countless guard posts that respawn as soon as you are out of sight is unacceptable for the obvious reason that there's no reward for doing so. It doesn't even make sense given the internal logic of the game. Nobody shot you during the initial taxi ride, so why now?

Most missions consist on going somewhere, killing someone and coming back. I know it's a shooter, but it needs some story. The world also feels liveless and plastic.

I'm playing it in brief spurts, as riding from one place to another while avoiding bullets isn't much fun.

Sat down to play it for a few minutes and got up 3 hrs later, great game!
Right off the scenery and terrain are amazing. I couldn't believe how the sunlight looked coming through the trees with the wind effects.
As far as gameplay so far, it seems like a nice balance between a FPS and an RPG, a shooter with some RPG elements. It's open ended enough that you can just jump in and have some fun causing mayhem, or sit down for a while and follow the story line. Games like Oblivion are just too much of a commitment for me. I've been wanting a new PS3 game and this is what prompted me to choose Farcry2 rather than Fallout3

As mentioned before, the AI is a good but a little sketchy, the enemies will either get sneaky and hide and try to flank you, or duck in and out of cover in the same spot till you pick them off. Perhaps it's a more real AI in a sense because maybe some enemies you would get in a real firefight with, really would be scared shitless and dumb. The buddy system seemed like a cool twist. I was stoked to get saved and was glad to return the favor.

The only downsides I can think of right now are that it seems too easy to hide and sneak your way around the enemy. Also it seems like the malaria thing is just a pain in the ass more than anything at this point. I'm thinking later it will make you follow the storyline missions. Some have complained that there's too much travel and driving between missions. but I've been enjoying exploring and causing random trouble. The inhabitants of this land are in serious need of a fire safety workshop, because they make a habit of leaving tons of containers of explosive liquids and gases right next to dry flammable brush cars and buildings. In short explody things are everywhere and everything burns.

Overall it's a winner for me. I'm playing it on Normal level and I find it challenging but never frustrating. I'll like the fact that you can accomplish a mission by different angles like blowing up, burning and killing everything, to being sneaky and stealthy.

I'm looking forward to unlocking the sniper rifle. That's when this is going to get really fun.

I noticed the taxi driver smoozed the angry locals with an offer of cold beer. So maybe a beer sharing mod would tone knne-jerk aggression down.

This is pretty much the best voice acting I've heard in a game. Sadly, the guys with actual proper dialogue have been sped up in post so they all sound like the bloke from the Micro Machines ads and/or voice actors in an anime. The ambient voices are fantastic, though. The first time I heard a guy with an authentic Joburg accent go "Pess off, aarsehole, thes erea's restreckted" I squealed in delight like a little gay princess. The rest of it's nearly perfect so far; it's totally like being in Rambo IV.

Mods I'm looking forward to: shooting individual body parts, looking round corners, lying prone, something to fix the floaty controls on the PC because the mouse handles like an analog stick. This is the exact reason I bought the PC version, so I didn't have to have floaty console controls.

Also, you get called a motherfucker about a zillion times during a firefight, which is awesome.

2.67Ghz dualcore, 8800GTS o/c'd to 743 over 828 with 512MB onboard, 4gig system RAM. I'm getting an average 40fps on DX10 1360x768 at V High settings with no AA.

I reversed the polarity of the neutron stabilising dampers but that didn't help.

Hmm, I'm worried that my Radeon XT2400 might take a bit of pounding. It's 256Mb, which is the minimum so I'm guessing/hoping medium beauty will be good to play on.

You'll seriously struggle to play it on a 2400 with any decent settings. It should be playable on low/medium, as you said.

I have such a raging hard on for this game. Loading up with explosives and executing insanely violent night attacks is both hilarious and beautiful. That scoped grenade launcher should be renamed 'the awesome launcher'.

I now live only for fire. I never once used the flamethrower in combat. i just used all my fuel up setting bush fires and giggling like a schoolgirl... An arsonist schoolgirl.

I have no fucking idea what sanchez is on about - the controls aren't floaty in the slightest. Maybe all the cock in your gullet is dulling your senses.

I wish I lived in a world where Sanchez's cock lust wasn't directly linked with flaws in video games

Well, it's on medium and the framerate is playable. It's also ace, I used a rocket launcher on those respawning guard post motherfuckers and even with a shiteload of action on screen, it didn't dip in the slightest.

Sanchez, I know what you mean about the controls.

Yeah, the explosions are beautiful, and guard posts are nothing a grenade or two don't sort out. I love that if you destroy it comepletely, they don't count as scouted until you go back and don't blow up the ammo dump there.

At the moment, I'm doing the gun shop missions, to get better gear. You occasionally find an unoccupied safe house with an awesome gun in. A sniper shot at me and broke my fucking automatic shotgun!