While Dan Douglas captures English culture in a Duke Nukem 3D level, another mapper has been diligently recreating corners of Scotland in Far Cry 5. Since 2019, YouTuber "Mojo Swoptops" has rebuilt a wide and weird range of Edinburgh sights inside Far Cry 5's level editor, from the big tourist landmarks like the castle and Forth Bridge to perfectly mundane places such as blocks of flats and nightclubs at chucking-out time. As an Edinburgh resident, it's great fun to see, and a very pleasing contrast to the gleaming miniature reimagination seen in Forza Horizon 4.
]]>I don't buy every iteration of FIFA, but I do want to give each entry a whirl to see how it has rebalanced the balls, tweaked the kicks, and polished the grass. Xbox Game Pass now helps me in my tests by, eventually, adding each iteration, and FIFA 22 is now available through the subscription service as part of June's haul of new games.
Also added this past week: the Shadowrun Trilogy, Total War: Three Kingdoms, Naraka: Bladepoint. And Far Cry 5 will arrive on July 1st.
]]>Though I couldn’t name a character or recount a story beat from it, I played Far Cry 5 for 36 hours. That’s not bad. I did a lot of shooting, adventuring and crafting, and then moved onto another shiny treat in my library (or returned to Overwatch). You can probably see and do everything I did during the upcoming free weekend. It stretches from Thursday August 5th (tomorrow) at 2pm until Monday August 9th, and lets you play the whole game solo or with a co-op buddy.
]]>Ubisoft have taken a leaf out of Epic's book, as they're offering coupons worth $10 / £10 which can be used on all carts worth $15 / £14 and up. To get the discount, just get your cart to the minimum level (with either a single game or multiple games) and then use the code FORWARD at the checkout.
]]>Ahead of Ubisoft's June 12 'Forward' E3-adjacent live video game announcement stream, the company has discounted its popular Far Cry franchise games by up to 85%. This makes it a good time to play the earlier games in the series - and you still have time to beat one or two titles if Far Cry 6 releases in October as planned.
]]>When I first built a blocky version of my house in Quake level editor Worldcraft, I couldn't have imagined what would be possible two decades years later. With multimillion-pound technology and libraries of professional assets, modern level editors can turn your dreams into stunning worlds. So I'm delighted when people use all that to recreate mundane places, especially when they're close to home. Case in point, today I saw someone has used Far Cry 5's level editor to recreate some Edinburgh flats that were demolished years back. Wonderful.
]]>Looks like Ubisoft will be announcing Far Cry 6 during this weekend's Ubisoft Forward event, because the game's existence and a few details have been revealed by a page on the PlayStation Store. It appears to have gone live by accident and has already been taken down, but it was there. Far Cry 6 will send us to the "tropical paradise" of Yara to fight against a brutal dictator and his son, and yes we will get animal friends again. The store page said it's coming on February 18, 2021.
]]>Ah, religion. I know this is a topic we all have trouble agreeing on. But fear not, humble practitioner of a good pray, I am not here to squint angrily at your favourite book of life advice. I’m only here for the videogame religions. The ones that are very, very, very, very bad. You know, the gun-loving cults and the xenophobic people-burners. The (mostly) fictional religions that involve an uncommon volume of murder. Step this way, sprinkle yourself with some of my 100% genuine oil of the almighty, and peruse the 9 most dodgy religions in games.
]]>There are only five days left to furtively flick through your cousin’s Facebook page in a desperate attempt to understand them as a person. But you do know one thing: they love to play those videogames. That’s enough to go on, surely. You can just type “gamer gifts” into the cybervoid and see what comes out!
No. Do not do that.
Here are the 8 worst gifts for PC gamers, and if any other list goblin tells you otherwise they are a scurrilous crook and they want your money.
]]>HDR on PC hasn't improved much in 2019. Despite there being more HDR gaming monitors than ever before, the very best gaming monitors for HDR continue to be quite expensive compared to non-HDR monitors, and the situation around Windows 10 support for it is still a bit of a mess. However, provided you're willing to fight through all that, then the next step on your path to high dynamic range glory is to get an HDR compatible graphics card.
Below, you'll find a complete list of all the Nvidia and AMD graphics cards that have built-in support for HDR, as well as everything you need to know about getting one that also supports Nvidia and AMD's own HDR standards, G-Sync Ultimate and FreeSync 2. I've also put together a list of all the PC games that support HDR as well, so you know exactly which PC games you can start playing in high dynamic range.
]]>Google held another one of their Stadia Connect conferences today, and this one was meant to be all about what games you'll be playing in the "scary" cloud come November. Sure enough, there were new Stadia games aplenty announced this evening, with the biggest addition being Cyberpunk 2077.
To help keep track of them all, here's a list of every Google Stadia game confirmed so far, as well as which games are coming at launch, which ones will be arriving a little bit later, and which games you'll only be able to play by subscribing to one of the special Stadia publisher subscriptions.
]]>Hot pink is the new post-apocalyptic beige in Far Cry: New Dawn, and to help you get the wild, fluorescent fauna of Hope County looking its absolute best on PC, I've put together this handy Far Cry: New Dawn graphics performance guide. Below, you'll find everything you need to know about how to get the best settings for Far Cry: New Dawn, as well as what you need to do in order to get that lovely 60fps frame rate from today's best graphic cards. So, if you can't wait to double-jump into Hope County's newly-acquired nuclear Northern Lights with an unhinged granny in tow, then read on.
]]>In many ways, Far Cry New Dawn is the most Far Cry game the series has turned out. Sure, the apocalypse may have ushered in an era of goons with health bars and levels. But there’s also a bit where you take some drugs so you can survive a boat ride to a man who gives you more drugs, in order to punch a bear that represents your soul.
It’s also got a blummin' double jump.
]]>I took it for granted. I knew I shouldn't, I think I even knew I was doing it at the time. But last week, when the charts were filled with new and interesting games, pushing out the tired and bloated titles, I didn't take the time to recognise what we had. And now, as can only be the direct responsibility of my careless credulity, everything has fallen apart.
This week's charts are the worst I've ever seen. And I'm sorry. I'm... look, I'm just sorry.
]]>With a recent press event where people got their first chance to play Far Cry New Dawn, it only seemed fitting to put this into our roundup for the game. It seems to be more experimental, with RPG system being included for the first time. In this guide, we'll go over everything we know, from the release date, to the trailers and the editions of the game that are available.
]]>They live in compounds deep in the mountains, sharing conspiracies about who really runs things while cleaning their illegal firearms and awaiting the end of the world. One, channelling Donald Trump, is running for the Montana legislature and asks you to suppress disproportionately black voters opposed to his far-right agenda by murdering them. His ex-wife kills “flag burning socialists” from a helicopter with the efficiency of a South American military junta.
They are somehow the best anti-fascist heroes Ubisoft could come up with for Far Cry 5.
]]>That post-apocalyptic new Far Cry teased earlier this week is Far Cry: New Dawn, Ubisoft announced tonight, a standalone sequel to Far Cry 5 set after seventeen years after that game's nuke-slinging ending. It'll send us roaming the colourful wasteland of Hope County and beyond to thwart a vicious gang of raiders led by twin sisters by doing the usual Far Cry explore-o-craft-a-shooting. What you most need to know is: it will have a Shiba Inu dog and giant pig as potential animal friends. Oh, and it's due in February. Here, watch the announcement trailer.
]]>It's looking like the next Far Cry is going to be set after the end of the world. Teasing a full announcement for The Game Awards tomorrow night (which Alice Prime will be burning the midnight oil to cover), the trailer below gives us a little taste of the things to come. Ubisoft manage to hold back from declaring that 'war never changes', but that pneumatic saw-crossbow sure looks Mad Max-ish to me. Ubisoft call it "a new Far Cry game" but it's not yet clear whether it will be a direct sequel, a spin-off, or what.
]]>Clubbing on a Tuesday night is not a good idea. The only places open on a Tuesday are named after sea creatures and bandits; “The Dolphin” or “Copper Face Jack’s”, “Sneaky Pete’s” or “Mermaid Bar”. Inevitably, you will tryst with a stranger. Primal urges will be satisfied. In the following days your nethers will begin to itch in a sinister way, as you both realise the existence of, and dither within, your own pathetic void.
At no point will you regret a dodgy Tuesday, but its events will never have meaning. They will hover, seeming like they were intended to mean something, but what that meaning was, other than drunken ramblings, will remain obscure. Far Cry 5 is like this.
]]>“Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.”
It’s a common enough idiom, a plea for empathy and understanding. Taken literally, it’s also a phrase that rings true for gamers. We walk countless miles in the shoes of our favourite characters, learning to love and feel for them along the way. But despite all the miles we travel, we rarely give our well-worn virtual footwear its due. Virtual shoes are just another one of the many small, mundane details that make the worlds in which we play believable, and most players ignore them. Luckily, one photographer has made it his mission to document the art of virtual shoes.
]]>Zombies, like ants, get everywhere. Unlike ants, they're the subject of Far Cry 5: Dead Living Zombies, the shooter's third and final DLC. It came out two days ago but I bet YOU didn't know that, and I bet the promise of seven self-contained action movie scenes from various apocalyptic scenarios sounds alluring. Maybe. I might not bet much.
Ubisoft have also chucked in a New Game+ mode for the main game, which lets you start over with all the toys and perks you've unlocked - on a new punishing difficulty level, if you fancy it.
]]>While Far Cry 5 was a solid open-world shooter (if you could switch your brain off whenever it tried delivering another wave of plot), Ubisoft just haven't been sticking the landing on the DLC. The first two thirds of the season pass - a Vietnam war themed expansion, and a mission into pulp sci-fi territory on Mars - just haven't lived up to their concept, especially in the latter case. Perhaps Far Cry 5's third and final expansion, the tongue-in-cheek Dead Living Zombies, might be the one to own. Take a brief peek at it in the release date trailer below. It's rising on August 28th.
]]>The new Lost on Mars comes with its own set of missions set on the desolate, arachnid infested surface of Mars. It may be tough out there, so we created this guide to each of the missions, whether they're story missions or some of the various side missions available to complete.
]]>While Far Cry 5 was a much more rooted campaign, Lost on Mars ramps things up to a space adventure, romping around Mars and shooting some arachnid aliens. Showing Ubisoft's sillier side once again, this may not be the most complex DLC ever produced - or the best, if John's review is anything to go by - but if you decide to play there are some things that probably need clearing up, such as where exactly Hurk's body parts are and why getting them is so important. This guide will do just that.
]]>Far Cry 5 continues Ubisoft's on-paper rather charming habit of adding DLC to its games that completely transforms them into something else. Vietnam-themed Hours Of Darkness rather passed us by, but Lost On Mars joined us last week so I thought I'd take a look. It's... it's really bloody awful.
]]>We're just about halfway through 2018 (which has somehow taken both too long and no time at all). As is tradition, we've shaken our our brains around to see which games from the last six months still make our neurons fizzle with delight. Then we wrote about them here, in this big list feature that you're reading right now this second.
And what games they are! 2018 has been a great year so far, and our top picks run the whole range, from hand drawn oddities made by one person, to big mega-studio blockbusters that took the work of hundreds. And each of them is special to us in some way. Just like you are too. Click through the arrows to see the full spread of our faves so far. Better luck next year to the games that didn't make the cut this time.
]]>Good news: We're getting away from Far Cry 5's daft cults to battle alien spiders on Mars using zappy laser weapons.
Bad news: Far Cry's increasingly tedious Hurk is coming along for the ride. Ah well, you can't win them all.
Next week, Far Cry 5 receives its second (and perhaps most interesting) piece of DLC from its season pass. Lost On Mars is enough of a change of scenery it could pass for another game entirely, even more distanced from its source material than earlier spinoff Far Cry: Blood Dragon. It's out on July 17th, and is included in the season pass for anyone with the Gold edition of the game.
]]>We've just passed the half-way point of 2018, so Ian Gatekeeper and all his fabulously wealthy chums over at Valve have revealed which hundred games have sold best on Steam over the past six months. It's a list dominated by pre-2018 names, to be frank, a great many of which you'll be expected, but there are a few surprises in there.
2018 releases Jurassic World Evolution, Far Cry 5 Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Warhammer: Vermintide II are wearing some spectacular money-hats, for example, while the relatively lesser-known likes of Raft, Eco and Deep Rock Galactic have made themselves heard above the din of triple-A marketing budgets.
]]>Lay down your guns and pick up a lens. Stop shooting faces and start shooting landscapes. Look away from that sniper scope to peer down a telephoto zoom. Stop murdering, you chuffing rotters, I'm saying, or at least take better screenshots. A free update for Far Cry 5 today adds a 'Photo Mode', letting would-be war photographers pause the game and be whisked away to a movable camera view with options for staging details like the time of day and character expressions. Slip out that bandolier and into one of those vests with all the pockets like they wear on telly etc.
]]>The power fantasy of exploring new worlds or meeting strange alien races (and then shooting at both of those things) is the kind of thing that big-budget games tend to focus on. As far as humour is concerned, they’re at best ‘plus comedy’ experiences that deliver on their key points but also have some funny quips along the way. You’re never asked to participate in the humour, and if the jokes don’t land then there’s little you as the player can do about it. So why not equip the player with the systems to write their own jokes and tell their own stories? And how do you foster humour creation in games that don’t already have a pun-based name for every item? I spoke to the developers of four such games to find out how they utilise this approach in order to enable players to create their own fun.
One thing that became evident through the interviews was that each and every system available to the player has to be airtight if they are to get the most out of the experience. A poorly-implemented system can cause you to lose investment in the same way that a poorly delivered punchline might. Each developer wanted to encourage experimentation through their game’s systems in their own way. But which comes first; the design of the systems or the desire to create humour?
]]>I was not the biggest fan of Far Cry 5. I found it fun-ish if deeply to completely flawed and if I ever have to do a Pilotwings mission in a sandbox murdersim again I'll lose my mind. Also, I'm pretty tired of killing dogs and I'm equally tired of drug addiction as a trope to motivate bad guys in games. I have thoughts and they are legion. I was still somewhat kinder in my evaluation than my RPS colleagues who (rightly) lambasted it for a terrible story and perhaps the worst ending in video game history. That said, from the moment I loaded up the user maps and map editor on day one, I claimed that this was going to be the most interesting part of Far Cry 5 moving forward. And that's most of what I've been playing ever since. This Jurassic Park map should show you why.
]]>The Vietnam War is the unlikely setting for Far Cry 5's first DLC, released today, through far stranger is yet to come. The 'Hours Of Darkness' stars Wendell Redler, the fella in the main game who sends us on a thrilling fetch quest seeking a dozen cigarette lighters, as we revisit a terrible time in his 'Nam days. Given the sensitivity and insight with which Far Cry 5 explored the allure and dangers of cults, it's thrilling to contemplate how they might interrogate myths of the- naw, I'm just joshin' you.
The DLC is supposed to be out now but seems to have hit a snag.
]]>While visually and mechanically impressive, it's not hard to argue that Far Cry 5 lost the plot a bit regarding, well, plot. A confused mass of nondescript, non-denominational cults with no clear ideology, and a stinker of an ending soured many on the otherwise-solid open world shooter.
With the upcoming DLC - each one a self-contained story in a new setting - Ubisoft have a chance at turning that perception around, although given how unflinchingly bleak the trailer within for the Vietnam war-themed Hours of Darkness looks, there may be a bit of a wait yet.
]]>Hallo! John's away so I'm taking over for our latest weekly rundown of the biggest-selling games on Steam over the previous seven days. Familiar faces are here, of course, but the charts also include more survival games than I've seen in yonks. The slightest peek of sun outside and you lot start acting as if it's the end of the world, eh?
]]>What Works And Why is a monthly column where Gunpoint and Heat Signature designer Tom Francis digs into the design of a game or mechanic and analyses what makes it good.
Far Cry 5 is a mixed bag, but one of the bigger, shinier objects in that bag is its companions system. It's a crossbreed of Far Cry Primal's pets - you can summon them and direct their attacks at will; and Far Cry 2's buddies - they can revive you if you get taken down. Nine of the companions available are starring characters: people or creatures you meet and recruit through main story missions with backstories and (when human) dialogue. But I don't really care about eight of those, and I only care about the ninth because he is a dog, which gives him three key advantages:
1. He is, again, a dog. 2. He never alerts enemies if I'm being stealthy. 3. He never speaks, a big plus in a world where almost everything anyone says makes you like them less.
]]>Hullo! John is preoccupied with wizards right now, so I'm taking over for the rundown of last week's top ten on Steam. It was an interesting week, bringing back some welcome old games and slamming in some shiny new ones. Largely, it's all about robots and survival.
]]>I was surprised to learn that Far Cry 5 has 'live events'. They're fairly unimaginative challenges that appear once a week, and usually get you to kill/destroy a certain number of 'X' thing with 'X' weapon. Until yesterday, they only rewarded you with a unique cosmetic for items that can be bought in the game with far less faff - but the latest one gives you a shovel launcher, which sounded daft enough for me to decide I wanted it.
You're about to watch many, many wolves die in the name of acquiring a weapon that propels spades at people with deadly force.
Videogames.
]]>As I drag my groggy-faced body to the monitor at 6.30 each Monday morning, I click the bookmark for my Steam Charts RSS and scrunch up my face so my forehead and nose curl over my eyes. How bad will it be? How familiar will the list of five-year-old games be? How will I think of... BUT WHAT IS THIS?!!?! FOUR new entries! Far Cry 5 taking up only one slot! No Witcher 3! No Skyrim! It's like Christmas, where Christmas is a day you just about get through without things being as bad as they were last year.
]]>With Steam's big VR Spring Sale on, obviously the charts are a bit full of... ha ha ha, no of course not. No one wants VR. Same old same old.
]]>Join us for our weekly skip through the bountiful fields of fresh gaming joy! Hold our hand as we guide you down the top ten selling games on Steam, to discover which heart-lifting original content has caught the attention of the enthused gaming public! Someone please help me!
]]>Far Cry 5 has a bad story in the same way that the bubonic plague has a bad bacterium. It is, by a considerable stretch, the most abysmally written narrative in AAA gaming. Not just in how it so idiotically interrupts you in the middle of other scripted missions to force you to play through hideously badly written enforced semi-playable cutscenes, but in every word uttered by every character from start to finish. And wow, does it reach its subterranean nadir when it comes to the finish. It is time to drape yourself in spoiler warnings and embrace the volcano of awful that is Far Cry 5's ending.
]]>As the Steam Charts slowly attempt to reassemble themselves after last week's complete collapse under the weight of Far Cry 5, think of this week's compilation as the moment the thought-destroyed terrifying monster is halfway through its grotesque reforming. Witness as its undulating viscera twists through recongealing flesh, a bleak but ghoulish moan emanating from deep within its darkest soul.
]]>The way I see it, there are only two significant failings in Far Cry 5. These are its story and the way it creates action in its open world. "But Alec," asks the imagined reader who hangs on my every word and doesn't just skip to the end in the hope I actually have something worthwhile to say, "doesn't that mean basically the whole game?"
"Ho-ho," I reply in this farcical imagined conversation in which I have already been infinitely more erudite than I am in any real conversation, "you have fallen for my clever introductory ruse designed to either make you nod in furious agreement or raise your fists heavenward in furious disagreement, and in either case you are now unable to resist the siren call to read on. And if, somehow, you are not, how about this: Far Cry 5 blossoms from infuriatingly stupid caterpillar into beautifully madcap butterfly once you have summarily murdered its terrible bosses."
]]>“I love to shoot the men!” you shout, as you pump 100 bullets into the prostrate torso of a dead soldier in Far Cry 5. “I’m so glad there are no cutscenes to--
THWOCK.
“Oh no.”
And lo, the lord delivered unto ye a sermon of the highest tedium, and the Four Ubisoft Writers of the Apocalypse rode over the earth and reaped the souls of all humanity with pointless exposition and dull characterisation. It was a bad time. But it’s not the only strong game let down by a bad tale. The latest episode of the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, is unable to discuss all the offenders, but we can take a punt.
]]>I have very much enjoyed the Far Cry series, most often despite itself. Far Cries 3, 4 and Primal (why is everyone forgetting poor old Primal?) have all occupied me for countless hours, provided enormous amounts of entertainment in their kleptomania-inducing maps, and always done so despite everything it thinks is so compelling about itself. Far Cry's self-belief in its own abysmal stories is always so grossly apparent, like a strutting buffoon bursting into the bar and looking around, confused, when every man, woman and animal doesn't immediately throw themselves at his feet. So then he starts loudly demanding people throw themselves at his feet. And when they don't, runs around putting his feet as near to people as he can and declares to the room that this counts. Oh Far Cry.
Unfortunately, this time out things have gotten a lot worse. Far Cry 5 - to run with the previous analogy - barges up to you, grabs you by the collar, and throws you down onto the ground by its shoes, screaming "MY FEET! WORSHIP MY BLOODY FEET!" Which is to say, engaging with its godawful cutscenes has become less optional. Far Cry 5 has the most egregiously bad imposition of its story.
]]>Right, well, I've had a month off writing this it seems, so it's time to check that Brendan and Alice have been looking after the Steam Charts properly. Obviously it requires regular watering, and perhaps most importantly, weeding, to prevent things getting out of contr... ALICE AND BRENDAN! COME HERE IMMEDIATELY!
]]>There are many reasons why Far Cry 5 has wormed its way into my cold heart far more than I'd ever expected, but foremost among them are its recruitable animal followers. Why have a crack-shot sniper or rocket-spewing airplane pilot watching your back, when you can have a tame bear and unnaturally loyal cougar by your side instead? Sure, there's a cute dog, but screw that guy - Peaches the mountain lion and Cheesburger the grizzly are the best friends an anonymous law-enforcer on a one-person crusade to rid Montana of murderous cultists could have.
]]>I made my first Far Cry 5 map in the game's Arcade Mode this morning, in collaboration with my 4-year-old daughter. It took me about an hour, it stars 20 cougars, two enormous yetis, half a dozen windmills and a tasteful pink pillow. It even has a puzzle, of sorts, involving a rocket launcher and a very high ladder. It was remarkably easy to create - you should give it a go yourself (you don't have to include quite so many cougars, though).
]]>♪♫ When you go to San Fraaaanciscooo, be sure to wear a lanyard with ‘Media’ inscribed on it round youuur nnnneck ♪♫ That’s what Adam, John and Brendan sang to each other as they gleefully skipped through the streets of California’s tram-infested hill city. The crew were in town for the yearly Game Developer's Conference where they spoke to developers, played games, and gambled on the results of the annual awards show. Now they’re back and ready to tell you all about their Stateside adventures on the latest RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show.
]]>Ah, a new Far Cry has appeared! Having torn up the Himalayas, Polynesia, Central Africa and The Past, in Far Cry 5 Ubisoft’s lidlessly searing eye for endless open-world violence has turned to the USA. Specifically, we're in Montana, where Ubisoft have conjured a new set of colourfully monologuing nemeses who toy with you as they enact their Bad Plans while you try to ignore them so you can get on with the important business of hanging out with animal pals. Which particular brand of environment and Kurtz-like do we get this time? Let’s find out.
]]>Whenever I talk to anyone I know about Far Cry 5, all I hear is frustration. Frustration at the embarrassing and cowardly storytelling (I agree). Frustration at the weirdly functional crafting, shopping and perk unlock systems (I agree). Frustration that there aren't many mountains to basejump off (I agree). Frustration at how the near-constant arrival of roadside enemies, sometimes in all-seeing helicopters, is deleterious to playing it as a stealth game (I agree). Hell, I agree with every single criticism I've heard or read.
But I'm having a fantastic time. I don't mean this in a straightforward "lol but the guns are fun" way - fundamentally, Far Cry's setting and pace clicks with me in a way the even more outlandish 3 & 4 never did.
]]>It's only day two for Far Cry 5's Arcade Mode, a combination of map-maker and sharing tool which enables anyone to play anything made by anyone else from within the main game. As such, the pickings are currently slim - but even so, we already have an all-time winner.
Unless, for some reason, you don't share the belief that a volcanic island populated exclusively by homicidal Limp Bizkit frontmen is the pinnacle of human creativity.
]]>Having been supplied code for Far Cry 5 late, I haven’t yet had time to play enough to write the full Wot I Think, but since it’s out today, I thought I’d give you a whiff of its flavour so far. (tl;dr: It’s mostly pine needles and burning flesh.)
After 9 hours and 15 minutes of Far Cry 5, I’ve killed 912 enemies. That’s 1.6 kills a minute, including cutscenes and wandering plains, forests and mountains of Hope County, Montana. It even includes a spot of salmon fishing. There is a lot of killing in Far Cry 5, which is a game that does not like to leave you alone for a goddamned minute.
]]>After years of gallivanting around the world, Far Cry today settles down for a quiet life in small-town America. Far Cry 5 launched in the wee hours, the latest in Ubisoft's open-world sandbox shooter. This time, the mince plot is about saving Hope County in Montana from a naughty cult by wandering, driving, flying, swinging, and wingsuiting around while shooting faces and catching fish. We have a review coming in a bit but, for now, here's word that it's out and the launch trailer.
]]>John is missing. He flew out to GDC last week stowed inside Brendan's suitcase to save money, I'm sure you'll remember, but on the return journey Brendan's bag has gone missing. Vanished. Didn't flop onto the luggage carousel. The airport have no idea. John took a few cans of pop and bags of gross American chocolate in with him so I'm sure he'll be fine, but where is he? Amsterdam? Boise? Hong Kong? Honolulu? I'm sure he'll turn up. For now, here I am, I am taking over the Steam Charts for another week.
If there's one lesson to learn from last week's 10 top-selling games on Steam, it's that fancy open-world games are quite popular.
]]>Cults in games have a long, proud tradition of getting to go full wackadoo. Mostly, they're a really nice device to lean on, especially in a game where you want to fill the world with collectibles and audio logs and you need some narrative to build that space. Also, they're pretty easy in that, if you don't give a flip about collectibles, you can generally parse that cults are evil and cultists deserve to die. I may have learned a few things about that the hard way this year. That said, Far Cry 5 releases this week and focuses on a cult in America that uses religion and being pretty crap people in general to take over an entire state. In preparation, we look back at some of the wackier cults to be featured in games' proud lineage of brainwashing.
]]>John is elsewhere this week, squeezed into Brendan's luggage for a flight to San Francisco and the Game Developers Conference, so I'm here for the regular rundown of last week's top-selling games on Steam. This week, the letters R, A, and S are well-represented with strong showings from both Mars and rats.
]]>The Far Cry 5 map editor will include bits and pieces from other Ubisoft games, Ubi announced today, which should let players create places far beyond rural America - and the modern day. A number of assets from Watch Dogs, Far Cry 4, the prehistoric Far Cry Primal, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (the pirate one), and Assassin's Creed Unity (the French one) will be thrown in. I'm so up for building a Virtuaparis monster truck obstacle course. It sounds like Ubisoft are planning to make a real go of player-made maps, building around them something they call the Far Cry Arcade.
]]>Cult-busting simulator Far Cry 5 is coming out at the end of March with a whole bunch of special AMD features, and to celebrate AMD is giving the game away for free for anyone who buys a select pre-built PC system with AMD graphics in it between now (February 27th) and May 20th 2018.
]]>Though Far Cry 5 looks like it'll offer plenty of silly open-world shenanigans, no matter how serious it pretends its doofy story is, the DLC will go extra hard on wacky. Ubisoft on Friday announced the game's obligatory DLC season pass, and it seems they're channeling that Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon B movie spirit again. Three DLC episodes are coming, with one fighting zombies, one going back to the Vietnam War, and one off to Mars. Normally I'd not go on about DLC before a game's even out but I thought you might like to know about the silliness.
]]>There's less than 2 months to go before Far Cry 5 swoops onto our screens and I can't think of a better way to celebrate that fact than to watch a story focused trailer. Actually I can, and that would be to watch a trailer that just shows someone mucking around with wingsuits, bears and rocket launchers instead, but we can't always get what we want. And in fairness, the new trailer does include a decent amount of that sort of thing too.
Get ready to see a whole bunch of people murdering other people while waving their holy books in the air, as well as someone being savaged by a bear, a dog and a combine harvester. Not at the same time, obviously. That would be silly.
]]>It's been a long time since Far Cry games were how you gave your PC its fiercest work-out, but hell, old habits. Ubi have just put out system requirements for March's Montana-set Far Cry 5 and they're pretty reasonable, in the main.
Basically, if you have at least a GTX 670 or R9 270 you're getting in the door, though if you want to crank it all the way to 4K and 60FPS and don't already have the high-end cards to do it, it's second mortgage time.
]]>As we lay 2017 to rest, let us remember all of the wonderful games that flickered across our screens and occupied our hearts and minds. But now we must promise never to think of them again because times have changed. This is 2018 and if we've learned one thing from the few hours we've spent in it it's that there are games everywhere. Every firework that exploded in the many midnights of New Year's celebrations was stuffed with games and they were still raining down across the world this morning. We cannot stop them, we cannot contain them, but we can attempt to understand them.
Hundreds of them will be worth our time and attention, but we've selected a few of the ones that excite us most as we prepare for another year of splendid PC gaming. There's something for everyone, from Aunt Maude, the military genius, to merry Ian Rogue, the man who hates permadeath and procedural generation with a passion.
]]>US-based shooter Far Cry 5 and accidental transformers racer The Crew 2 are both delayed, said Ubisoft last night, in a quiet voice. They announced the delays in the middle of their own livestream for Beyond Good and Evil 2 and shortly before the flash flood of news brought on by the Game Awards threatened to drown us all in release dates and trailers. There’s no suggestion Ubisoft has chosen this time because it will now be a quiet floater of a post in a sea of more interesting revelations. Oh wait. That's precisely what I'm suggesting.
]]>Apparently it is possible to drive a tractor and sneak up on baddies then mulch them mulch with its fearsome mechanical teeth in Far Cry 5 [official site], or at least it is in the new gameplay footage rumbling out of Gamescom this week. Even more importantly, the open-world FPS has a fishing minigame. You might have known this from poring over previews but I was happy to see it, so you may well be too.
]]>Far Cry 5 [official site] is a Far Cry game. It's impossible for me to say whether it'll be a great Far Cry game, an adequate Far Cry game or a poor Far Cry game, but after playing it at E3, I can definitively state that it is a Far Cry game. Clearing out a town of angry cult members, I sniped, shotgunned, stealthed and 'sploded my way through a bunch of buildings, and had a jolly good time.
You know about this though. You've played a Far Cry game, right? So let's assume all of the vehicles and guns and missions are working fine, and if not we'll figure that out when we have review code and can take a proper look. For now, it seems best to talk about the dog.
]]>Each year E3 rolls around like a giant evil worm, crushing all that's good and pure. BUT that worm also announces lots of exciting gaming news as it wreaks its carnage upon the Earth. Here we have gathered every announcement, reveal, and exciting new trailer that emerged from the barrage of screamed press conferences over the last few days. And lots of it looks rather spiffy.
A rather enormous 47 PC games were either announced, revealed, or updated upon, with new trailers, information, and released dates that will all be missed by at least three months. We've collected the lot, with trailers, in alphabetical order, into one neat place, just for you.
]]>Good news: yes, Far Cry 5 [official site] is still totally a game to goof off and dick about with a pal in co-op. It inevitably would be a goofy playground, as much as Ubisoft played up their boring satire about a cult in Montana, but I'm glad to see an E3 trailer leaning more on the goof. Along with a wee bit of gameplay, this video fresh out of Ubisoft's E3 presentation has your dog fetching guns, a co-op pal smashing around in a huge truck, and generally loads of big explosions and loud noises.
]]>Hark! It's the sound of our sweet voices taking up an hour of your precious time. The RPS podcast of old, the Electronic Wireless Show, has returned in a fresh new body. We've got news, interviews and silly features, as well as some of the traditional idle chat.
This week, Pip, Adam and I are chatting about Far Cry 5's "Last Supper" image, the recent layoffs at Hitman developer IO Interactive, and enjoying a jaunt through melancholy puzzler Old Man's Journey. There's also some Quickfire Questions with the developers of survival puzzler Rain World, news from Paradox Con and lots more.
]]>There have been some strange old murmurings around the glacial reveal of Far Cry 5 [official site], people worrying about it in all sorts of strange ways. And as the final reveal appeared at the end of last week, and we learned that - sigh - yes it is about a doomsday cult and your efforts to thwart them, I'm left wondering at what it could have been.
]]>Far Cry 5's [official site] first full-length trailer is heavy on the plot, showing a cult that will bring people into its fold "by force if necessary" and all the grimness that entails, but it's also packed full of colourful car-chases, wide open countryside, and there's a bit where a man is being chased by a bear. Oh, and planes. There will be planes. The game will be out February 27th 2018 and you can see the trailer below.
]]>Poor Ubisoft. They crafted this enormous open-world icon-riddled niche of their own, trod it into the ground while flogging it to death, and then other people came along, borrowed their ideas, and built superior games with them. In the last year, despite decent showings from Far Cry Primal, The Division, Watch Dogs 2, and Wildlands, players and critics were beginning to weary of yet another open map of odd jobs. None was particularly at fault, but we were experiencing perhaps the sense of diminishing returns, and certainly the weariness of fatigue. And then this year we got Zelda: Breath Of The Wild from Nintendo and Horizon Zero Dawn from Sony. Pow. Two platform-pushing monoliths that schooled Ubisoft at their own games.
In the wake of being so astoundingly outshone, what can Far Cry 5 [official site] do to reclaim the crown?
]]>Update, May 24th: Ubisoft today released some artwork which sure makes it look like Far Cry 5 is about a kooky Christian cult. Watch yourselves, gang: the master satirists of Ubisoft are at it again. Who wants to place bets on how many times they say "subversive" during Friday's big reveal event?
Well, I wasn't far off in my prediction that Far Cry 5 [official site] would be "set in the fiefdoms of a post-Brexit Britain." Ubisoft have squeezed out a quartet of teaser trailers for the next open-world FPS and yeehaw, it's off to that America. These trailers show teensy corners of Hope County in Montana, and... that's about it. It's set in Montana. When it is set is unknown. One's mind might jump to the Wild West but these look pretty dang modern to me. We'll find out for certain at a a proper big reveal-y thing on Friday. E3 season drags everything out.
]]>Far Cry 5 and The Crew 2, Ubisoft announced today, as if you hadn't already guessed. That's it. They have nothing of substance to say about either game. Oh, and would you believe that more Assassin's Creed is coming too? Astonishing. Ladies and germs, we truly are in the runup to E3. Ooh I swear it starts earlier and shoutier every year! Back in my day, E3 was held in secret in dark stone chambers and the only way you could tell what happened was to watch for logos forming in your tea leaves.
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