Far Cry
Beautiful and original, could this unimposing shooter be just what the genre needs?
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If there is one thing the games industry is not short of these days, it is first-person shooters – they are as ubiquitous now as platform games were in the 16-bit era. If Doom and its successors began this explosion of FPS titles, then Half-Life consolidated it, and it’s this title, along with Halo, that have had the greatest influence on the development of Crytek’s Far Cry.
Set around fifteen years in the future, Far Cry revolves around a boat skipper who finds his life suddenly endangered when abusive military types invade his home archipelago. He takes this rather badly, as one might, and sets off from island to island to see what exactly is ‘going down’. The game uses this simple yet adequate premise as the excuse it needed to embark on some nice tactical group combat.
Far Cry is being developed using Crytek’s proprietary CryEngine, and all the indications are that it’s up there with the best of them. It uses similar technology features as Id’s forthcoming Doom III engine, particularly the use of a technique known as polybumping. This involves generating character models at high levels of detail, around 250,000 polygons, and then converting this model to a far less costly 1500 polygons per character, with no or very little loss of detail. All the usual bags of tricks are also present, including some impressive rag-doll physics and accurate vehicle movement modelling. Impressive as these features sound, such techno-jargon is common propaganda emanating from all kinds of developers these days. Crytek have wisely decided, therefore, to concentrate the greater part of their publicity on a more rounded view of the game, with particular reference to the game play itself.
What sets Far Cry apart, even at this stage of its development, is the design ethos under which Far Cry is being produced. The key point of this mantra is the avoidance of over-scripting as a design tool – that is, resisting the temptation to have all the game’s significant moments planned and executed in code, never changing with each replay. Rather, Crytek have sought to build a robust and powerful set of game tools and systems that allow them to simply set the parameters of a situation, and let the AI do the rest.
The influence of this decision has been both pervasive and positive. Essentially, the team aim to provide the player with a ‘sandbox’ to play in – the rules of the world are known and defined, but their application is left up to you. As such, the environments demonstrate a great degree of freedom. Expansive beaches and unrestricted island locales seem to be the order of the day – and doesn’t it make a nice change from the tree-textured corridor forests we’re normally subjected to? The terrain will also be deformable, and apparently will be to a much greater degree than Red Faction ever managed. The fact that the team make so little of this feature speaks volumes about their approach; to them, deformable terrain should be included not because it makes a nice gimmick or feature, but because in the real world a rocket launcher should be able to blow a huge hole in the ground.
Comments
Come on, if you bring this game out in 2004 with graphics like this? omg well then I can tell you already that ur going bankrupt dudes so fix the graphics and a bit on the story and then we will see further because imo the graphics of this game are crap :S:S
I am off
Ciao <[DIE]>DuSHieNTo^ : nr UT clan :D mirc--> quakenet.org
#[DIE]
The screenshots are pre-alpha. Gods, it's only been in development a few months, I'd say they were doing pretty well.
The chopper in the first screenshot looks a *lot* like the one out of Half Life
We used screenshots released in press releases by the publisher. However, just for you, I've added a load more :)
Dushiento? What the hell are you on about? If these graphics are rubbish, then my Mum's a moose. Great graphics aside the AI (according to PCZone) are going to be the best around. I don't care when it is released, as long as I can get my grubby mits on it!
Also though, I think your weapons have a tendency to go 'through' objects directly in front. Or do the weapons look like that anyway?
Dushiento? you suck! these are the most orsome graphics i have seen if u have better you can go shove the up your A#S! Plus the AI sounds completey oringal. U can beet i get this one the day it is out.
No more jungle corridors for me
cheese
Dush, this is a pre alpha build.
What that means to you is that the engine is still probably unfinished, and certainly unoptimised at this stage. The textures probably aren't finalised yet, nor the models, nor a host of other things that you cant see in the screenies. The first thing is always to get the game working - you can make it look prettier later, so long as it works first!
This game looks like it totally rocks
ive seen the engine running AWESOME
The freeform island adventuring brings to mind that classic 16bit game Midwinter. If Crytek had this title in mind while coming up with the design brief, and have the skills that they claim, this title could turn out to be a real treat.
See http://www.crytek.de for MUCH better shots. Weird how Ferrago chose the worst looking pics for this preview :/
I First seen a, being one screen shot at the start of the year in a PCPP mag and I thought it was just one of those average games,but I bought another book the other day and thought WTF this games gotta be the sweetest FPS that existed.
I went and downloaded the E3 CrytekEngine video the other day and thought I would design a mod for it or 2, no game has ever given me this much excitment since BF1942, and in comparrison I would say BF1942 is nothing to this, with graphics, AI, Dense jungle and vast lanscape and much more.I've even planned out how many days to work for my new job so i can save up to buy the maya radeon 9800 pro $863 AUS
so i can run the game. This will truly be a part of gaming history in FPS's great job Crytek:D
What will the requirments be???
To Dushiento^:
Let's see you do better!!
For anyone who doesn't know me I'm a 15yr old Australian, who writes scripts, plots, mods etc for games like these but i never get to make the mods because I don't have the tools to make them, I look for ages on the internet to download them but they're falty, but with this game it comes with modding tools and map editor because they want people to make mods because mods mean wider range of playability and that means the game never runs out of excitement, so that is another factor of the game that will be great as well.
I know why you think the graphics are crap because your too stubourn to realise that you need your eyes checked.
no matter how much AI is developed it will never come close to the harsh unpredictable reality of life. AI does what it's told...people are totally unpredictable. It's a well known fact that a computer can never generate randomness in it's purest form. I would prefer it if games used the power of my computer to render and more beautiful maps to roam (and shoot people in) like this game seems to be doing. I hope there is good multiplayer support as I was so disappointed that Vice City and GTA3 did not include it.
down with AI.
Unless it is female....
roamer you talk RUBBISH
YOU WHINY GIT
this game looks like it will be the wickedest game EVER!
The draw distances
I like what you say Roamer:)
but I think you need AI - what about all the AI in GTA3 and 4?
surely u remember ? you know ? those cars and people walking around the streets like idiot consumers?
hehe
Is someone knows what is "polybumping" exactly ? I'm studying 3D but I've never seen this word before.
Hey what kind of multiplayer will be out for this and when is it coming out
more info: http://www.zkulickyprd.cz/brain/?name=Madman