A game that I’ve just gotten has been taking up my spare time lately. It is called Far Cry, and not only does it sport the best visuals of any game to date, but the gameplay is immensely fun. The game has you playing a guy marooned on a big, beautiful island, with a woman who hired you to take her there. Mercenaries shot the boat up, and you lose the woman and have to fend for yourself on an island full of men paid hard cash to protect the island from outsiders. Here’s a couple of tales that took place in-game:

Armed with just a simple pistol, I approached a 2-room hut, looking for ammo, since I was running low. As creep slowly inside, peeking around corners, and saw that the hut was empty. I found a clip of ammo and some grenades, and as I was heading out the side door, two mercs spotted me and yelled out for backup as they charged towards me, guns blazing. I ran back in the house, and lied down in the corner on my stomach, my pistol propped up where I expect their heads to poke through the door. The first mercenary was dumb, because he did pop his head in and I took him out with one shot. The second one hesitated before he dove in, but I got him too with my quick reflexes. The backup however, had other plans. I heard him approach the side door, stop for 3 seconds, then start creeping towards the front door. Since I heard him, I was prepared and aimed towards the front door. When he peeked in, I shot him in the leg, which made him dive out of the hut and away from my line of fire. 5 seconds passed as I was debating on whether I should get up and aggressively hunt him down, or wait for him to come in for me to shoot. He made the choice before I did. He tossed a grenade in the hut. My last words before I exploded into smithereens? “Fuck me.”

After I was finally able to get past that part, I approached an encampment, with about 8 mercenaries. One was firing on a target range. Another was doing push-ups. Two others were patrolling the area on opposite ends, and a third was on a watchtower, scanning for any movements. I swam underwater towards their encampment, and found another watchtower. I snuck up it and silently knock the enemy out cold with a wrench, so as to not alert anyone nearby. I took him gun, and as I was about to scan the area for enemies, the guy in the other watchtower spotted me and opened fire. As I was busy firing on him and ducking the oncoming hail of bullets, another guy snuck up the ladder and shot me in the back of the head. Arrrgh!

Suffice to say, I haven’t had to think in a shooter in ages, and I never had to this hard. I have to outsmart the enemy artificial intelligence, and they are truly intelligent. They will outflank you, trap you, smoke you out of corners, hide from you, and snipe you when you think you’re safe. This is the game where you wish you had eyes on the back of your head. Absolutely brilliant, and fun. Here’s a screenshot of the gorgeous visuals for you to feast on too.