REVIEW: Far Cry 4

Far Cry 4
Action Adventure, First Person Shooter
Single player, Multiplayer
PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, PC

Last generations Far Cry 3 was one of my favorite games of all time. Far Cry 4 takes everything that was amazing on FC3 and adds to it to give the series a boost now that it is on the new generation of consoles.

This time you play Ajay Ghale the prodigal son returning to his place of birth,Kyrat, to deliver his mother's ashes only to be taken captive by the insane leader of the country, Pagan Min, a sinister individual that deals in opium to keep the country afloat. The opening scene has the opposition, the Golden Path, rescue Ajay and sets up the story of winning back his birthplace by waging war against Pagan Min and his vast military.

As with the last installment, Far Cry 4 has a very large open map that contains collectibles, side missions and random events. As you liberate bases and check points from Min's army, you unlock other events such as hunts, hostage rescues and other missions that will add to your karma meter and experience. As the karma meter, various missions and towers unlock you gain access to new items and weapons. The hunt missions allow you to skin rare animals to increase the amount of ammo, money and items you can carry. In Far Cry 3, as with Assassin's Creed, there were some people who didn't care for the hunting aspect of the game and I can see why they would have an issue with it as I wasn't fond of hunting some endangered animals. However, it is a video game and it isn't likely that I am going to go on safari to hunt anything endangered so I just enjoyed it for what it is. While the animals were a pain from time to time in the previous game, in Far Cry 4 the animals are a real pain in the arse. You will quickly learn that eagles are jerks. The animals have been ramped up to 11 as they are all very aggressive. Just when you line up that perfect shot in your reticle, a clouded leopard will come out of no where and attack you. You have to think quick to dispatch the animal while keeping it quiet in order to not alert your original target.



Far Cry 4 adds a new wrinkle in the game by giving you the opportunity to play with a friend. I took full advantage of that and played nearly every side mission with my good friend. One player hosts the game and what you do in the game is saved for you but not for the invited friend, which means that you will need to take turns hosting the game and repeating missions in order for both players to complete everything. The one thing that we both didn't care for was that the campaign was not playable. You can do the side missions and capture radio towers, checkpoints, and fortresses together but you can't play the main campaign, which would have been great to do with a buddy.

The campaign starts out with you in the south and once you have done about 3 hours worth of missions takes you up to northern Kyrat for about another 3 hours or so. However, for the completist there are hours of discovering locations, grabbing every chest, hidden masks, and much, much more.

Far Cry 4 doesn't disappoint in the latest edition to the series and while the game occasionally has a glitch here and there it usually isn't anything that detracts from the game. I encountered an eagle that was stationary and yet flapping it's wings right on the ground. I shot it with an arrow and tried to hop on it's back but nothing I did affected it. I racked it up to one of the oddities of the game as it didn't crash the game or ruin my gameplay. It was just one of those strange hiccups that happens as you play. While many of the big releases have had their issues, Far Cry's minor problems don't do much to ruin your experience.

Overall 8.5/10

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Assassin's Creed Black Flag XBox One

Assassin's Creed Black Flag
Third Person, Action Adventure Game
Console: Wii U, PS3, PS4, Xbox360 X1

Assassin's Creed Black Flag is the sixth installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise, this time featuring the pirate Edward Kenway (grandson to the protagonist of Assassin's Creed III). Kenway doesn't start out as part of the assassin's guild but is instead a man seeking his fortune when he stumbles into the ongoing fight between the the Templars and the Assassins.

Anyone who has played any of the Assassin's Creed games knows that there is plenty of world to explore as you climb up towers to unlock and uncover treasure and points of interest. What sets Black Flag apart from its predecessors is that the world is massive and that there are more points of interest than any of the games that came before it.


Gameplay

While controlling your character has always had its minor difficulties, Black Flag does a very good job of rectifying some of the previous complaints players had regarding the control of the character. I also felt as though Edward was able to navigate better than Assassin's Creed III; however, it still can be glitchy when trying to fine tune Edward in the direction you want to go.

Combat is also still quite easy, the ability to wait out your opponent and wait for the counter move is still the best strategy when faced with unfavorable odds. No matter what weapon you choose (guns not included) it is easy to just block and then attack. The heavy enemies are nearly just as simple by kicking them to break their attack and then going for the kill. While I am a person who enjoys the stealth aspect of the game, the straight up fights were just as entertaining as you could take on a large group and come out unscathed and then return to stealth gameplay.

While the heart of the game is still an Assassin's Creed game, it does tend to stray from the expectation as you don't start out as an Assassin, or their ally. Rather you slowly work your way into the fold and work along side them. The game is more pirate game then anything else as you upgrade your ship, the Jackdaw, and build up your fleet in order to build up your coffers and assist your online friends in their enterprises. You also have a private base that I didn't feel was fully explored. You have the option of building stores, taverns and brothels and a few new items for your mansion but it could have been something more.

Many of the missions feel very repetitive and after a while you get tired of the same challenge. I especially grew bored with the tailing and eavesdropping missions, a feature I have heard they are looking to improve in the next Assassin's Creed game (Assassin's Creed Unity)

While previous Assassin's Creed games have you take over Templar buildings, this time you are required to successfully destroy a coastal fort and then dock and fight through soldiers and kill the officer in charge in order to safely navigate the sea.

They also added a hunting mini game where you must hunt on land and on sea in order increase the amount of pistols and ammo you can carry. I have mixed emotions on this as you do a fair bit of hunting. On one hand it is just a game and historically accurate (to a degree) and on the other we are killing animals in a way that glorifies it. Not sure why I am on the fence about this issue as I had no problems doing it when it was featured in Far Cry 3.

There is also an online component where you play against other players but I only played it briefly and found the game modes to be less than stellar. While it is a nice edition to the game, you really play Assassin's Creed games for the campaign.





Graphics

Assassin's Creed does a tremendous job of using the upgraded graphics on the Xbox One. While it may be hard to see while you are on land, the sudden tempest while at see is impressive as the waves slam into the Jackdaw. The island paradises that you visit are bright and colorful. I find the graphics to be absolutely stunning.


Audio

As a historical story, the music is brilliantly used by the crew of the Jackdaw as they take up song once you head out to plunder Spanish and British convoys. One of the mini games is collecting music that your crew then sing as you are underway. It is an ingenious way to add historical accuracy as well as bring a soundtrack to the game. Although I did get a lot of repeating songs that I can still hear in my head from time to time.


Verdict

Assassin's Creed Black Flag is an ambitious addition to the series that features a massive map to explore containing hundreds of mini games and collectibles scattered throughout the world. While at times it feels more like a pirate simulator than a Assassin's Creed game, it still one of the best games out on the system today. Hours of gameplay and additional content can be found via Download. The one thing I really do not like is the ability to purchase some of the unlockable items through a pay to play feature in the online store. It doesn't affect the online component of the game but it just seems like a waste of money as the unlockables are not that difficult to attain.


Overall 8.5/10

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Watchdogs Xbox One

Watchdogs
Genre: Third-person, open world adventure game
Console: PC, PS4,PS3, XB360, XB1

Watch Dogs - Xbox One

Watchdogs has been on my radar since the day it was announced. It was originally intended to be a Xbox One day one release. However, just days before the big two released their new consoles, Ubisoft announced that they would be delaying the game until the first half of 2014. I was disappointed to say the least.

Watchdogs is an open world, third-person adventure game where you play the role of Aiden Pearce, a grey hat hacker who attempted to steal from the wrong people and as a result your family has suffered. Now that you have a few clues that could lead to the people who wronged you, you set out on a personal mission to make them pay.



On May 27th 2014 Watchdogs was finally released for all of the systems and I attended the midnight release party. Once I was home, I waited for it to install and played for about an hour before heading off to bed. The next day I played off and on and then finally finished the game just last week. Here are my impressions:

Story

The story, as described above, is at the heart, a story of retribution, while uncovering the mystery of who sent assassins that lead to the death of your niece Lena. It is a very weak story and by the end of the first act, I was already tired of the story. While I know that you have to have some sort of character motivation, this was very loosely created to keep you moving from mission to mission.

While we are on the subject of missions, they get old quickly. You have mission where you intercept convoys, you have missing persons investigations and collectibles to name a just a few. They were boring to say the least. Although there are a few interesting missions, the gang hideout and ctOS tower puzzles are fun. The digital trips are also fun. Being the spider tank and causing all kinds of mayhem gives a perverse sense of fun. Watchdogs also features an online component where you can jump into other Watchdog players games and attempt to hack their data and then attempt to escape before being discovered or eliminated, even that feature gets repetitive.W

Game Play

The controls are very similar to GTA V and Assassin's Creed. Some people have complained about aiming issues but I never had a problem with aiming. I found the aiming mechanics to be quite good and while I had a ton of different weapons at my disposal, I found that I preferred the default silenced handgun over anything else available. I did switch to the Vector when I would find myself swarmed by enemies, but since I tried to play as stealthy as possible found the silenced pistol the only weapon I really needed.

I did have problems with the duck and cover and hurdle buttons. Often times I would find myself crawling over an object when I wanted to stay hidden from an enemy causing me to be seen and I would have to "go loud" in order to complete the objective.

Watchdogs does feature the worst driving mechanics found in a Triple A title in a long time. For a game based around the premise of having to lose people tracking you, I found loosing the police early on in the game nearly impossible as the cars in the game turn like bricks on a frozen pond. No matter what speed you find yourself driving your vehicle, you will never turn your car around a corner like you should. GTA V has some issues but in Watchdogs escaping from people chasing you is difficult until you unlock some of Aiden's skills. The ability to burst steam pipes in the middle of the street is very effective when trying to ditch someone. However, you still have to try and turn the care around corners. If I had to describe the driving mechanics in one word it would be dreadful.

Graphics

Just a few days ago it was reported that that PC version has the files needed to make the game look more impressive (better shading,brighter colors, etc.) like the first teaser trailers for the game back when it was originally released. While they are not accessible on the console editions, I do find the graphics to be just slightly better than the graphics you would find on the 360 or PS3. I don't think that they are a huge leap forward and don't show the abilities of the consoles.

Audio

Like GTA V, Watchdogs features a wide variety of musical choices. When you hack NPCs phones you occasionally receive a new music track you can access from the car you are in. In my opinion, the tracks you have available are all terrible. Every time I jumped into a car I would immediately turn the radio off. While it is a neat little feature to rip music off from the people around you, the music isn't worth having in the first place.

Verdict

While I am still a huge fan of Ubisoft's games, Watchdogs was a huge disappointment. Unless you are really hurting for a new title to play, I would advise skipping this one. The story is weak, the missions extremely monotonous and the replay value is minimal.

Score 6/10

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