FatherJack wrote:Been playing this tonight, quite fun.
- The bad guys always stand next to exploding stuff, if not barrels then huge fuel canisters. Perhaps ridiculous behaviour but I prefer to call it excellent.
- The driving controls in cars are plop, it's as if instead of a wheel you have a sort of switched dial which gives you increments of turn, none of which ever seem to match up with "go straight on".
- Flying controls are easier than something like the BeeF series, where I always just crash on takeoff, but I still wish something would come out that's as easy to fly as the craft in Descent or Freelancer, ie: the computer handles all the pesky gravity and shit and you just look where you want to go with "faster" and "slower" buttons.
- All three factions give you the exact same first mission.
- Shooting tyres is fun, particularly when you're ridiculously standing on top of a speeding car.
- No cousins have contacted me initmating their wish that we might partake in a game of ten-pin bowling.
- Some control rage. The primary/secondary attack buttons are irrevocably reversed in vehicles and I cannot find a configuration whereby I can do a handbrake turn without accidentally ejecting the vehicle and deploying my parachute.
- Glad I got the PC version, you have to be pretty precise with the grappling hook which would be a pain in the arse on a console. The auto-aim still annoyingly grabs bad dudes though, when you meant to rappel behind them and shoot them in the back.
- The decoding/jacking seqences use the 1-4 keys, infuriatingly not registering the ones on the numeric keypad.
- You don't have to hit your landing marks when parachuting for cutscenes as precisely as in the first game.
- The film grain effect in the cutscenes is fucking awful.
- Have yet to find a good balance of pretty and playable. Optimal (ie: best possible, not best for my rig) is a bit too jerky, but default has distracting jaggie-shadows.
- It sometimes "forgets" key mappings. I found this out when ejecting a helicopter and discovering the parachute key had become unbound.
- Crappy timed missions.
I've put about 35 hours into this on my 360 so far, the sheer scale of it means I've only just got to 20% completion. I do tend to dick around a lot though. I didn't play the first one, but my brother recommended I download the demo to this and I loved it.
As far as rage inducing moments go, it does have its fair share. I've not managed to complete a single race challenge, probably due to the 'floaty' handling of the cars and the sometimes plain evil aeroplane controls. Some of the timed missions are tough, but all don't seem impossible - I usually nail them after a few tries. Some (most) of the voice acting is truly terrible.
That said, I've no problem with the controls on the 360 version and the grapple is surprisingly easy to get used to. Some of missions are just batshit crazy, some (like the stronghold takeovers) are a bit samey. The real fun starts when you've got your vehicles and weapons upgraded to the highest level I think.
As the Island of Panau is so vast, this link may help
http://www.maplib.net/fullmap.php?id=8630# - It's an interactive map showing stunt ramps, weapons caches, vehicles, points of interest etc.
Overall I'm loving this, but I want to get through my backlog of games before Red Dead Redemption comes out - I don't have the discipline for two open world games. Assassin's Creed 2 and Mass Effect 2 completion is my goal for this weekend.
