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IMDB link  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0400426/

IMDB ratings 3.2/10   4,203 votes

Release Date : 2 October 2008 (Germany)

Genre : Action | Adventure | Drama

Plot : An adaptation of the first-person-shooter video game where Jack Carver, a retired Special Forces Officer who now is transport for hire, by people and cargo. On one particular trip Jack ferries a photographer ‘Val’ who wants to photograph old Japanese WW2 bases on some of the Micronesian islands. He goes through hell when his boat is attacked and destroyed by an unknown party while Val is away. Surviving by the skin of his teeth, he must now find Val and uncover what is truly happening on these dark and mysterious islands.

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Dr Uwe Boll (pronounced Oovay Bowel) is back with another game/ movie tie in!  Stand aside you Brett Ratners and Paul W Andersons of the world as the king of hacks is back!

This time he’s not throwing C list name actors at us as I suspect he’s realised that between the Far Cry game title and his own name there will be enough noteriety to get this into the hands of horrified gamers and bemused movie lovers throughout the world.  And you know what?  Good luck to him - there have been an extremely small number of games that came over well to the world of cinema so I really don’t see this as a wasted oportunity at all.  See you on Zone Horror in a few months Uwe!

Possibly needs more Jason Statham and Diora Baird though.

See what you think anyway (Far Cry is on DVD right now in the UK, November 29th in US!):

(DvS Edit: There’s another version of the trailer over at the following link, should you really feel you’re not getting as much of a fix as you’d really have liked. IGN Video: Far Cry DVD Trailer – Trailer.)

5. Remove the Car Bomb-Transporter 2

I actually forgot why I even decided to see Transporter 2.  Never did see the first one, the second didn’t look great and I never saw the third either.  However, I did wind up seeing the film and it’s one that has disbelief written all over it.  One scene in particular, however, left me completely speechless at how bluntly unrealistic it was.  If you’ve seen the film, then you know that Statham’s car winds up having a bomb under it so what does he do?  He jumps off a ramp causing his car to spin around, the bottom of the car barely scrapes a crane hook that perfectly removes the bomb without issue and he still lands with little to no problem.  Normally I’d go into more detail, but I think watching the scene yourself should put it into perspective.

4. Refrigerator vs. Nuke-Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The Indiana Jones films have always been a favorite of mine.  Though Temple of Doom was always my childhood favorite, the other two (of the original trilogy) have since grown on me and I actually enjoy Last Crusade the most.  So it goes without saying I was quite curious as to how good Kingdom of the Crystal Skull would be.  Unfortunately, it does not hold a flag to its predecessors and there’s one scene in particular that I whispered to myself “I do believe that this is the most unrealistic scene ever.”  Towards the beginning, Jones finds out that he’s in an area about to be nuked so what does he do?  He hides in a refrigerator.  And since this is shortly into the film with our hero’s life at stake he of course manages to survive with the fridge conveniently being the only object that gets blasted away and lands in tact.

3. Needle vs. Bullet to the Skin-Far Cry

Alright, just so everyone knows, I actually how not seen this film and I never intend to.  I shelled money out for an Uwe Boll film once before and I will never do so again.  But I saw a review for this film which went through the entire film and one part that stood out in an idiotic way was towards the beginning when the super soldiers are tested.  During this scene, we find that the mutated skin can essentially bounce bullets back like rubber but after things go out of control they manage to suppress it with a needle to the skin.  That’s right, the skin is impervious to bullets yet needles go in without an issue.  Figure that out on your own.

2. Spin Back Time-Superman

I’m going to shamelessly admit that I haven’t seen any of the original Superman films.  In fact, other than the most recent film, Superman Returns, all I’ve seen of Superman at all are gameplay videos of Superman on the N64 and him in the TV show Justice League.  So it should go without saying I know about this scene from someone who did a video on the film and the turned out to be one by Doug Walker aka the Nostalgia Critic.  The video was a Top 11 countdown of the dumbest Superman moments and at number one was when Superman turns the world back to reverse time.  Apparently causing the Earth’s rotation to reverse would be the key to spinning back time.  I guess I’d better build a really fast airplane to do this and bring me back to my high school days.

1. Every Scene-Batman & Robin

Even though this list is supposed to be for single scenes from a single film, Joel Schumacher’s hilariously bad sequel to Batman Forever (which he also directed) has so many impossible scenes packed in together that I really can’t think of any other film that hits quite as low.  I won’t state every one of the scenes but here’s just a few of them:  Schwarzenegger surviving water that’s 50 degrees below zero, his freeze gun landing on top of a curved statue perfectly like a magnet, Batgirl jumping off her motorcycle onto Robin’s…swamp-like machine for a few seconds to jump back on her bike which has managed to keep up with the Batmobile and Robin without falling over, the bathooks always managing to hit/grab surfaces strong enough to pull our heroes forward, Batman and Robin air surfing using doors as boards while casually heading back down to the ground, etc.  If a single movie can actually top the level of implausibility here, then I think we’re in trouble.

Far Cry2 es un juego donde se involucra armas, con unas graficas excelentes, buena jugabilidad y sobre todo muy interesante… el juego excelente para pasar horas jugando, llevo muchos tiempo jugandolo y anda de lo mejor, lo recomiendo 100%. Tiene muchas armas, muchas opciones, muchos personajes interactivos, se encuentra disponible en varios idiomas.

Descargar Far Cry2

Funciona 100% en N85 y otros telefonos.

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Far cry2 is a game that involves guns, with some excellent graphics, good gameplay and above all very interesting … excellent game to spend hours playing, it takes time playing it and go for the best, I recommend 100%. It has many weapons, many choices, many interactive characters, is available in several languages.

Donwload FarCry2

Running 100% in N85 and other telephones.

I go to a grammar school. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a high school where you need to pass a test to get in.

It’s meant to mean a higher overall preforming school – but all it really does is promote elitism.

Anyway, I’m in my fifth year and have had four different physics teachers. All I can say is, they saved the best ’til last.

My physics teacher is called Mr Bulson. He is simply a legend.

Yeah, he’s a typical geek and kinda weedy, but we love him all the same!

Seriously, he spends most of the lessons we have with him explaining crackpot theories, talking about his pastimes, or giving us headaches with complex number gibberish.

But recently we found out that he and his neighbor have built, in their spare time, a trebuchet, a laser cannon, and pretty much everything in between.

And just the other day, he jumped, from standing still, onto a three foot high desk. Turns out he has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Today, during a talk on projectile motion, he started talking about Half Life 2 and Far Cry. AND to make it better, he talked about the console! Oh, wow, the console. Like, only four people in the whole WORLD know about that.

Then, I got him into www.xkcd.com, a lovely little webcomic for maths folk. Seriously, go check it out. You won’t regret it.

I was listening through the Metal Gear Solid 2 OST the other night and a delightfully generic tune by the title of ‘Twilight Sniping’ came on. The song itself is basically impossible distinguish from the rest of Harry Gregson’s seminal sounds that populate the game, the title itself managed to conjure a vivid memory of the set piece in the game where you have to cover a girl crossing a thin bridge across the water with a sniper rifle against the setting sun. IT occured to me then that as a technique in games, time is underused. And no, I’m not reffering to bullet time but rather the natural passage of time from day to night. As a species,we humans have a sleeping pattern that’s pretty much hard-coded into the way we work. We even need to orchestrate the ludicrously frustrating ‘Daylight Savings’ in order to maintain that all important body clock we have. Each and every time of the day elicits powerful reactions from both body and mind; lethargy, confidence, paranoia, all of which are powerful tools to be utilised by designers. However, too often I see these free passes go underutilised, with games wasting the power of these disparate lighting conditions on cliche`s instead of using them to create unique juxtapositions and memorable scenes.

An otherwise fairly forgettable hands off sections becomes a visual marvel and deeply resonant through use this natural element. It prepares the player for Emma’s imminent demise (being the twilight moments of her life), and at least for me, combined with the lazy music made me feel tired. Obviously this feeling was an intentional part of the previous section’s design, which featured less enemies than usual and a slower movement speed for the player, however I doubt the feeling would have been as prevalent without the strong visual stimulus.   The only shame here is that it’s not integrated into the game play like it could be, as having to manage staring directly into the sun would be a great touch and go along way towards making the game feel that much more realistic and immersive. When it comes to integrating a day/night system into games, there are a few approaches I’ve seen designers take. Firstly there are linear games like Metal Gear which have a single time period for a particular area in the game/narrative, games like Fallout 3 which have dynamic progression of time and games like Crysis which integrate both of these techniques.

Pre-planned systems are definitely the easiest to implement, both from a design and graphics standpoint. The graphics team will know beforehand how the scene will look for every player and what levels of visibility the player will have. These are both solid advantages in the toolkit of a level designer, as dynamic systems can often leave certain elements much harder to find or produce odd visual glitches. Furthermore in games with totally dynamic systems designers lose the ability to manipulate the player’s emotions via the lighting in the scene. This really forces the designers into a tight spot as so much of human emotion is a reaction to lighting conditions around us, sight being our primary sense. In practice, designers simply place emotionally climactic moments inside where lighting can be controlled, something which is especially noticeable in Grand Theft Auto or any of Bethesda’s titles, where buildings lack any sort of windows making them completely enclosed insofar as lighting goes.

Far Cry 2 by and large doesn’t do this, which I’ve always thought was a pretty gutsy move. While certain moments are controlled (such as the point at which you map transition halfway through)by and large the game is content to allow you to play out various plot moments outside, at the mercy of a dynamic time system (and what a system it is, the sunsets in the game are simply breathtaking). In a game which already has alot of variation in the plot between playthroughs, one of my mates and I thought it was pretty cool that he killed a particular doctor at high noon where I crept in under the cover of darkness. Providing both a different experience in terms of game play and narrative consequence, we eventually decided his character had joined the Israeli Paramilitary force after watching spaghetti westerns as a child, while mine a convicted stalker conscripted into the Israeli army. Dynamic day/night cycles can produce pretty amazing moments of emergent game play, which are great when they occur however by the nature of such things, cannot occur for every player. It was an amazing moment when the fireball from the truck I had just blown into the sky cleared to reveal the morning sun’s rise, made all the better for the fact that it was an experience unique to my play through. However, should things like that instead be pre-programmed into the game so that players are guaranteed those sort of moments?

Any ways, back to Day/Night cycles. To an extent, the arguments for an against dynamic ones are just the same as the ones for scripted vs emergent moments in game play. Perhaps games like Crysis do really hit the sweet spot, making the sun always rise as you approach the first village in the game and always be the dead of night as you get ambushed by the knock-off’s in the graveyard, yet dynamically going up and down in such levels as Assault, providing a real sense of scale. One problem with the implementation of the dynamic systems is that they have to move so quickly in order for players to notice that they’re there at all, yet this often leads to weird inconsistencies in the pacing of a game. There’s one level where the sun can quite often fall and rise several times within the one battle, which is totally out of whack with both what characters are doing and the narrative. In this way pre-planned cycles usually feel more realistic, as they’re usually integrated with the narrative from day one.

However, I have grown frustrated recently with the cliches game designers seem to fall into when given the opportunity to plan out how these things will go. Ravenholm, while memorable has always annoyed me with the gift of retrospect. A level in total darkness with zombies and heavy religious overtones? How very original of you Valve. Much better was the scene where you fought your way across the beaches in the dark to reach Nova Prospekt, although a mostly decommissioned prison at night is unfortunately not terribly interesting either. More interesting is Rassvet in Metal Gear Solid 3, which you’re introduced to in the morning, then later have to navigate at night. The changes in a landscape from night to day are frightening and revisiting fairly innocent places after the sun has set can be quite vivid. The more designers can use these sort of simple techniques which play on our fears which carry over from real life the more effective unnatural fears will be. Furthermore, placing situations which we typically associate with one time of day (zombies at night for example) into another adds realism and believability to a game world, lessening the ‘world revolves around the player’ effect.

I hope this all uploads properly, am having to use Scribefire since for some reason I can’t copy and paste into WordPress’s text boxes on my net book. Weird Stuff. On an unrelated note, DS:E ends on a weak note, but not as bad as I was fearing and God Of War 2 which I picked up on the cheap seems to be as frustrating as I imagined. When people talk about the stupid stories in videogames you can’t help but assume that they’re usually just poorly written, unimaginative and drawn out, however from what I can see of the first 40 minutes of GOW2, it is really just that base. The game play is also fairly annoying so far, with the combos I’ve discovered lacking disctinction from my normal abilities and the in game tutorial patronising.  Also, the game player’s a weird double standard with contextual interactivity. In boss fights it will usually dangle some interactive whatnot in front of yo which it’s natural to rush to, but more often than not the 10 minutes you spend trying o figure out how to use said object on the boss, where in the pattern it should be used, is actually wasted time as the solution is to hit the boss until he sits still and the game forces you to use it. Also, just because a boss is huge doesn’t mean it’s ok to have no feedback when the boss is being hit, it’s just mean to players. For the moment it seems that whatever I wanted to say about Beyond Good + Evil is gone, so the next post will probably be, as always, merely whatever playing on my mind at the time. Sorry.

Far Cry 2 – PC Far Cry 2 é a continuação de um dos jogos de tiro mais premiados de 2004, Far Cry. Desenvolvido originalmente pela Crytek, tanto a engine quanto as propriedades sobre o título foram adquiridos posteriormente pela distribuidora francesa Ubisoft. O fato é que esse título importante não foi esquecido. A plataforma de programação foi retrabalhada ao ponto de propiciar uma experiência satisfatória para atender às exigências daqueles que julgavam que uma engine de 2004 não conseguiria apresentar uma qualidade de última geração. As condições climáticas de Far Cry 2 variam constantemente durante a partida, fazendo com que o arranjo dos inimigos se dê de maneira diferente debaixo de chuva forte, céu nublado ou sob o sol forte. Existem 30 armas que podem apresentar defeitos caso um projétil as atinjam no meio do tiroteio, exigindo que o jogador se recolha e repare-as. A inteligência artifical aprende as táticas do jogador no decorrer da partida, de forma que em Far Cry 2 não existe fórmula pronta para a vitória ? cada ataque deve ser preparado de maneira única. 14 veículos permitem trafegar rapidamente por um cenário não-linear, que pode ser explorado da maneira que o jogador julgar mais adequada. Na versão para computadores, Far Cry 2 já usufrui da tecnologia DirectX 10 exclusiva para o Windows Vista. A versão 9 também é compatível com esse título, tudo a fim de aumentar a gama de jogadores que poderão reviver esse jogo que já é um clássico do gênero shooter.

Requerimentos Mínimo: Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz, Pentium D 2.66 Ghz, AMD Athlon 64 3500 ; 1 GB RAM; NVidia 6800 ou ATI X1650 com 256 MB; 12 GB de espaço em disco.

Recomendado: Intel Core 2 Duo Family, AMD 64 X2 5200 , AMD Phenom; 2 GB RAM; nVidia 8600 GTS, ATI X1900 com 512 MB.

Servidor: MEGAUPLOAD – Links: PARTE 1 - PARTE 2 - PARTE 3 - PARTE 4 - ON

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by Schandmaul

Ubisoft, einer der größten Publisher weltweit, mit Sitz in Frankreich hat heute die Übernahme von Nadeo bekannt gegeben. Die Firma mit dem Hauptsitz in Paris ist Publisher von einigen der größten Blockbuster der vergangenen Jahre. Fallout 3, Assasins Creed, die Elder Scrolls – Reihe,  Prince of Persia, die Myst-Reihe, Far Cry 1 und 2, Anno (ab 1701) und die neueren Siedler-Titel.

Bislang fehlten allerdings noch die ganz großen Rennspielserien. Die gab es eher bei EA, Codemasters oder anderen Publishern. Mit dem Kauf von Nadeo will Ubisoft vor allem in Sachen Online-Technologie, Online-Spiele und Community Kompetenzen dazu gewinnen.  Die Ergänzung für die Rennspielabteilung wird aber auch eine große Rolle gespielt haben.

“Die Akquisition von Nadeo ist ein wichtiger Schritt für unsere Expansion auf dem Sektor der Online-Spiele”,

so der Geschäftsführer von Ubisoft, Yves Guillemot.

Weiteres aus der Pressemitteilung:

“Mit Nadeo gewinnt Ubisoft ein Team von Experten und eine der besten Online-Technologien. Zudem verfügen wir mit TrackMania nun über einen Meilenstein auf dem Gebiet der Online-Spiele, der einen hervorragenden Ruf unter einer loyalen und engagierten Community genießt. Wir sind gespannt darauf, TrackMania einer noch größeren Zielgruppe zu eröffnen und das Können und Fachwissen des Nadeo-Teams auch anderen Entwicklerteams zugänglich zu machen.”

Die Übernahme von Nadeo bietet sowohl viele Chancen, als auch Risiken.

Als Risiko kann man vor allem die sinkende Unabhängigkeit Nadeos anführen. Ubisoft wird Nadeo genau auf die Finger schauen und vermutlich deutlich mehr Mitspracherecht besitzen, als Nadeo lieb sein könnte.

Das 2000 gegründete, französische Entwicklerstudio Nadeo, war bisher relativ unabhängig und publizierte die Spiele bei Focus, DeepSilver (Deutschland) und anderen internationalen Partnern. Neben Trackmania ist Nadeo auch durch die beliebte “Virtual Skipper”-Reihe bekannt geworden. DeepSilver wird entsprechend enttäuscht sein, weil sie mit Trackmania eine sehr wichtige Marke in ihrem Portfolio verlieren werden. Samt dem bekannten und beliebten DeepSilver-Forum.

Vorteile sind natürlich ein finanzkräftiger Publisher, der Nadeo viel finanzielle Freiheit ermöglichen wird. Zudem kann sich Nadeo auf die Entwicklung ihrer Spiele konzentrieren und muss sich nicht um die Vermarktung kümmern.

Ich sehe das ganze positiv: Viele meiner Lieblingsspiele der letzten Zeit sind unter dem Label von Ubisoft erschienen und die Spiele wirkten nie so, wie wenn nur der Gewinn im Vordergrund stehen würde. Anno 1404 und Fallout 3 sind beispielsweise komplexe Werke mit viel Liebe zum Detail.

Ich hoffe, dass die beiden Parteien eine Symbiose eingehen und voneinander profitieren können. Nur so werden wir auch in Zukunft tolle Titel aus dem Hause Nadeo kaufen können.

”I’m a PC!” Ja, så skulle det låta om jag var med i en Microsoft-reklam. Mitt givna val av spelplattform är alltid PC då det ger mig mest kontroll; Vid dålig prestanda så behöver jag bara sänka inställningarna, för att ta ett exempel. Är det någonting jag verkligen avskyr så är det dock alla problem som plattformen medför. Spel slutar mystiskt att fungera, äldre spel går inte att spela utan komplikationer och drivrutiner krånglar. Någonting som jag blev påmind om idag.

Utöver att det är söndag, veckans absolut värsta dag då jag vet att jag dagen efter bryskt kastas in i min tragiska vardag som jag så gärna slipper och glömmer bort under de korta två dagarna som kallas helg, så är vädret verkligen värdelöst idag. Vilket resulterade i att jag ville spela lite härlig action för en gångs skull. Jag ville dra igång det ett år gamla Crysis: Warhead. Ett spel med perfekt längd och otrolig action i en enormt härlig miljö. Detta gick givetvis inte då jag dumt nog hade flyttat hela mappen från en hårddisk till en annan för några veckor sedan. Jag tvingades därför genomlida en ominstallation av spelet under vad som kändes flera timmar, men antagligen handlade om någon halvtimme.

Jag startade spelet och upptäckte genast att ljud saknades, men ignorerade detta faktum då jag inte går med på tanken att mina högtalare och mitt spel måste vara installerade på samma hårddisk. Istället drog jag igång en spelningslista med Ozzylåtar (vilken ironiskt nog tillsammans med iTunes även den ligger på en annan hårddisk än på vilken högtalarna är installerade) och tänkte att jag klarade av action utan ljud så länge jag hade lite klassisk rock i bakgrunden. Så jag satt igenom den orimligt långa laddningstiden ivrig att spela lite skön action, men möttes direkt av ett ”Crysis: Warhead har slutat att fungera”.

Med förhoppningar om att lösa detta Windows-problem (så fort ett spel är äldre än sex månader så går det givetvis inte att spela) så laddade jag hem alla patchar och uppdaterade spelet. Fungerar det? NEJ! Min värdelösa söndag skulle absolut inte till något pris få lysas upp av någonting så trevligt som att skjuta virtuella människor som försöker döda en virtuell avatar av mig själv. Spelet gick inte att få igång på något sätt; Jag testade att köra i kompabilitetsläge, jag testade att köra som admin. Ja, jag testade allt jag kunde för att få igång skiten.

Jag ser inte riktigt hur man kan misslyckas så fatalt med ett OS så att spel efter spel, program efter program och fil efter fil upphör att fungera om man saknar minsta lilla skitdrivrutin (jag visar verkligen prov på ett fattigt vokabulär här, men det kunde jag inte bry mig mindre om).

Jag älskar PC som plattform samtidigt som jag hatar den; Saker som att det inte finns ett enda smidigt sätt att uppdatera BIOS utan att riskera en förödande krasch. Saker som att varje nytt OS kräver att man installerar om och nollställer hela datorn för att man skall få ut allt från det. Saker som att bakåtkompabilitet är så otroligt svårt att få ordning på trots att man pressar ut nödvändig drivrutin efter nödvändig drivrutin som trots allt inte verkar förbättra ett dyft. Det är saker som för alltid kommer att vara en nagel i ögat för mig. En nagel som gräver sig djupare och djupare för varje misslyckat OS som släpps och för varje fråga som dyker upp vars inledande fras är ”Varför fungerar inte”.

Varför saknar jag ljud? – Jag vet inte och det går inte att felsöka på något sätt.
Varför upphör spelet att fungera? – Jag har ingen aning, men jag skyller mer än gärna på Windows.
Varför skall sådana här problem alltid uppstå? – För att det är söndag. Alla vet att man inte får ha roligt på en söndag.

Hade jag inte vetat bättre så hade min dator vid det här laget varit utslängd genom fönstret. Den hade legat i regnet och kollat på mig med en ledsen blick i form av två trasiga läsare. Samtidigt hade jag gärna passat på att kasta ut mitt värdelösa Z-Cinema-system som trots ett onödigt stort baselement mest låter som en bilstereo från tidigt 80-tal. Så hade de båda skräpprodukterna praktiskt legat bredvid varandra i en tragisk pöl av förhoppningar och löften. Drömma går ju.

Nu tänkte jag att jag kanske skulle ersätta min tropiska djungelpangare Warhead med Far Cry. Det var trots allt ett bra tag sedan..men just det. Det fungerar ju inte heller! Min blick höjs sakta men säkert från datorn mot fönstret..

Are you Gordon Freeman? Or do you merely control Gordon Freeman throughout his improbable escapades? Although it of course varies from title to title, the question of identity (and by extension, immersion and narrative) and the degree to which we are the protagonists in First Person game is one of the most hotly debated issues within the industry. At this point in time more developers seem to be moving towards the ‘player as protagonist view’ within the first person space, as can be seen with the increasing number of games adopting the ‘Silent Protagonist’ approach, such as Clint Hocking’s flawed gem, Far Cry 2 or the critically acclaimed Bioshock, while more heavily characterized protagonists seem to have migrated to the third person perspective, especially after Cliff Bleszinski’s magnum opus; Gears of War. Today’s post will be less opinionated than the majority of my content, instead being focused upon exploring the effects of having mute protagonists, in terms of both narrative/characterization and player immersion within a title.

At the center of the issues surrounding the silent protagonist divide is the question of whether the player is the protagonist in the game. Many designers and consequently many titles take the approach that increased player involvement in the game and the game’s narrative will involve the player more and thus can create more moving experiences, whereas other developers believe that having the player carry out the actions of a well defined character can affect them more, both by creating situations where the player’s interests diverge from the protagonist’s and by creating a more complex narrative.

The idea of ‘Player as Protagonist’ was born out of early RPG’s which gave the player the ability to name their characters and then later customize them. The early games had no dialog, so for all intents and purposes the only expression of the character within the world was player defined, what items to wear, which enemies to fight and the character’s name, the only identity the protagonists given. Due to the minimalist settings (jail, dungeon, wilderness all infested with foes) it was often fairly easy for designers to perfectly align the protagonist’s and the player’s interests, in many of these early cases survival was the only option open to either. Although players were in fact more limited in these early games than in many modern titles, the low fidelity settings made it a lot easier for designers to focus the player’s interests on very simple objectives, while in games with higher fidelity the player expects more options within the world, causing the old model of having the player truly in the world to fall apart.

By and large, designers have had to abandon the ‘Player as Protagonist’ in absolute terms, as the fidelity of modern titles has increased at a much greater rate than the level of interactivity has. However, many developers still adhere to many of the principles of the player protagonist and try to craft an experience which is as catered to player immersion as possible, with the mute protagonist being one of the main techniques still employed by designers such as studios such as 2k Boston, Valve, Retro Studios or the Ubisoft Montreal team.

History aside, what does having a mute protagonist actually do for a game? Well, the most obvious effect of having a mute protagonist is that the player will never be yanked out of the (hopefully) immersive setting by a line which the player doesn’t agree with, whether it be because the protagonist says something that the player disagrees with or merely uses language which the player wouldn’t use. Furthermore, one of the logical extensions of this is that player will begin filling in the conversational gaps where it seems logical to them, whether consciously or unconsciously. This dialog that the player creates will (by it’s nature) always remain consistent with the player’s impression of the protagonist, never resulting in a situation where the player feels put off by his protagonist’s reaction. By virtue of the protagonist having no real personality, the player will just imagine the protagonist to be reacting in the way they think most appropriate, which logically is as immersive as a world can be without reacting to what the player is directly thinking. Player will inevitably also project some of themselves onto the protagonist in this scenario, endearing the protagonist to the player and investing the player further within the world.

However, in many cases a silent protagonist is a barrier to immersion. There are quite a few game’s I’ve played which have silent protagonists where the dialog felt awkwardly written, as some poor writer trained in a any other form of narrative had to attempt to learn how to make conversations which only involved one character speaking. There were certainly instances of this in Bioshock, where it seemed entirely to of place for he protagonist to be completely mute considering the events going on around him. Not a single question for Dr. Tenembaum regarding the nature of his mind after the game’s mid-climax. Not a single exclamation of outrage or fear during his tumultuous confrontation with Andrew Ryan? It simply doesn’t ring true to how any person would react given the circumstances and divorces you from the character. While games with less dialog and more action/visual storytelling can often avoid such pitfalls, in more complex, verbose narratives it often becomes very difficult for writers to seamlessly integrate a silent protagonist into the dialog. What works for the minimalistic Far Cry 2 does not work as well in Bioshock. However one has to wonder how a protagonist for Bioshock could even be written and whether an awkward and unbelievable silent protagonist might not merely be the lesser of two evils. Perhaps worse than the moments where your character speaks but doesn’t, are the occasions in these games where character’s monologues to your silent protagonist include reactions to words it’s assumed your character has said. Not only does this detract from immersion since your character has not, in actuality said anything (bringing the oddness of that to the player’s attention), but often the character’s dialog will imply that your character has spoken in a way entirely different from that in the player’s mind, another large blow to player immersion.

Furthermore and possibly a greater handicap, having a silent protagonist forces writers into certain kinds to stories. Silent ‘protagony’ (yet another neologism) prevents writers from being able to create truly involving stories which are focused on interpersonal relationships, for example. Imagine a first person adventure written in the fashion of a Jane Austin novel, which featured a silent protagonist. Unless it was the touching romance of a person afflicted with mutism, the story would be impossibly awkward and very difficult to immerse oneself in. It is pretty much impossible for mute characters to be as complex as characters who have some form of self expression, crafting a narrative which is less interesting. However the video game space has a very long way to go in general towards crafting complex characters, so perhaps this shouldn’t yet be an overriding concern.

Finally silent protagonists prevent writers from creating characters which take the initiative in games. A silent protagonist will always be reactive to something, an order from someone or some event happening. This cramps narratives, making them far more predictable than tales in which the protagonist himself is an unreliable force. It also severely limits the roles in which a player could play in a game, for example, it would be pretty much impossible to tell the story of an lone silent antagonist, such as a rapist or murderer, because if the protagonist was a complete emotional void and didn’t have anyone to order him about there would be no motivation for such acts. Voiced protagonists are the only way to really have a game in which the player is forced to commit acts which they feel uncomfortable with, which is going to be one of the themes over the next decade which I believe will help video games rise into an interesting artistic medium. In games where the protagonist is silent and players have options, they logically cannot act in a way which goes against what they’re comfortable with and I feel that a game where a player was forced into a role they were not comfortable with (like rape, murder or being a member of the Gestapo) would come off as gratuitous and an abuse of linearity on the designer’s behalf. If the player cannot find a legitmate reason to do what they’re doing they won’t which is why situations players would prefer not to be in can only come about as a result of well defined player characters.

But then on the other hand, silent protagonists cannot make one liners, which would be a huge leap forward in the medium’s aspirations to art.

There a number of additional issues surrounding silent protagonists, such as player association with their silent protagonist and how many attributes can be grafted onto a silent protagonist before a disconnect starts to occur with the player, but all of those are firmly within the realm of implementation, not design. The increased difficulty of maintaining player interest in the story is another curious phenomenon that has been noted with a lot of silent protagonist games, particularly the Half Life series and the question of whether so many players would spend their days bunny hopping off Kliener’s head if Gordon interacted with the story somehow is an important one but sadly not one I can rant verbosely on.

This article was inspired by Dead Space: Extraction, where the very strong characterization of almost every character made me wonder about the differences between the well voiced protagonists in Extraction as opposed to the mute protagonist in the original Dead Space. Anyways, that’s my time up. A Beyond Good and Evil post is still on the agenda but has been sidetracked by Okami for the moment, which is my current shine thing. Alongside Dead Space: Extraction, my love for which is now branching off into the irrational. Also, Radiator + Korsokovia are still coming, my interest reignited by this article, particularly for the first chapter of Radiator, which is about relationships with a non silent protagonist, but to be perfectly honest I can’t remember whether he speaks or not, so that part clearly didn’t leave much fo an impression either way. However, that’s more of a mood piece anyways, which silent protagonists are good for.

Don’t worry, it’s over now

Nach der furiousen “Monkey Island Special Edition” – [welches es IMMER NOCH NICHT MIT DEUTSCHER SPRACHAUSGABE (für den PC) GIBT!!! Hallo LucasArts! Aufwachen!] – hat sich der Fan Hannes Appell der Technik der “CryEngine” (Far Cry, Cryis) bedient und zeigt eindrucksvoll, wie man den Adventure-Klassiker in ein 3D-Gewand kleiden kann.

Da kann man nur hoffen, das LucasArts sich das ansieht und wenigstens für den noch ausstehenden fünften Teil der Serie umsetzt (und nicht die grottigen TellTale-Studios damit betraut, die es ebenfalls nicht auf die Reihe bekommen, ein Spiel mit deutscher Sprachausgabe abzuliefern).

XIII – Die Verschwörung (2008)

Die Geschichte kennen wir in ähnlicher Form schon: Ein Mann ohne Gedächtnis wird gefunden. Obwohl er sich an nichts erinnern kann, scheint er extrem gute Kampfkunst-Kenntnisse zu besitzen und nach kurzer Zeit stellt sich heraus, dass er von der Regierung gejagd wird. Kein Wunder, dass man hier an die Bourne-Trilogie erinnert wird: Die Bourne-Romane, die als Grundlage für die Filme dienten, ähneln schon in Elementen dem Comic XIII von William Vance, welches auch schon als Basis für ein Videospiel verwendet wurde. Bei XIII erwartet den Zuschauer nun eine amerikanische TV-Verfilmung des Stoffes, die aber dafür sehr gut gemacht ist. Ein hektischer Schnitt versucht zwar, das geringere Budget etwas zu vertuschen, so ganz gelingen vermag es ihm allerdings nicht. Trotz dessen ist XIII spannend, mit Val Kilmer und Stephen Dorff zudem gut besetzt und hat mit seiner Aufteilung in zwei Teile auch die richtige Länge für den Stoff. Durchaus guckbar:

27 Dresses (2008)

Eine junge Frau war zwar schon auf 27 Hochzeiten, den richtigen für ihre eigene Hochzeit hat sie allerdings noch nicht gefunden. Romantisch wie sie ist, liest sie aber immer gerne die Hochzeitskolumne in der Zeitung. Eines Tages trifft sie nun den Verfasser dieser Kolumne, der sich aber nicht als solcher zu erkennen gibt. Dieser vermutet hinter der “ewigen Brautjungfer” eine neue Story. Dumm nur, das sich beide ineinander verlieben, sie aber hinter seine Story kommt. Es kommt, wie es kommen muss: Verwicklungen, Streit, Trennung, Versöhnung, Hochzeit, das übliche Schema einer solchen RomCom. Und genau so lässt sich die Handlung auch vorhersagen. Zu Beginn des Films sehen wir Jane als Brautjungfer auf einer Hochzeit, wie sie von dem Mann beobachtet wird und zack – wir wissen, die beiden heiraten. Und spätestens, wenn wir dann 1-2 Szenen weiter erfahren, das er die Hochzeitskolumne schreibt, ist der weitere Verlauf des Films klar. Es gibt keine Überraschungen, keinen Witz, nur Zucker. Für kleine romantische Mädchen vielleicht ok, aber ansonsten ganz übel.

Far Cry (2008)

Til Schweiger in seiner Paraderolle: Mehr als einen Gesichtsausdruck brauchte er für diesen Film nicht, und so musste er sein ganzes Können abrufen, um bei den Anforderungen des Films nicht unterzugehen. Was soll ich sagen, er erfüllt seine Rolle mit Bravour. Das der Film ansonsten scheiße ist, das liegt ganz sicher nicht an ihm. Naja gut, nicht nur. Denn Uwe Boll hat es auch mit Far Cry nicht geschafft, etwas brauchbares abzuliefern. Die Story (ähem…), die Dialoge, die Schauspieler – hier passt irgendwie kaum etwas zusammen. Nicht fehlen darf in so einem Film dann auch die obligatorische Sex-Szene des Helden mit der Heldin inklusive ebenso obgligatorischer Einleitung à la “Jetzt aber raus aus den nassen Klamotten”. Der Witz des Films lässt sich dann auch prima in dieser Szene ablesen: Beide liegen im Bett nebeneinander und sie fragt “Hast du eine Kanone in deiner Hose oder…?” Huch, mag da der unbedarfte Zuschauer denken, ein schmutziger Witz. Aber da zieht der Schweiger doch tatsächlich eine Pistole aus seinen Boxer-Shorts, denn er geht “nie ohne” schlafen. Das da aber noch keine Kanone war, als er ins Bett gestiegen ist, darüber denken wir am besten gar nicht erst nach.

The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Die Welt geht unter, und ein Vater sucht seinen Sohn, findet nebenbei auch noch zurück zu seiner Exfrau. Bombastische Zerstörungsorgien sucht man in diesem Film zwar nicht vergeblich, diese spielen aber nur eine Nebenrolle. Das Hauptaugenmerk liegt leider auf der kitschigen Vater rettet Sohn-Geschichte, die in weiten Teilen durchaus dazu fähig ist, einen gepflegt zu langweilen. Der Film ist, über die gesamte Laufzeit gesehen, leider nicht ganz so spektakulär wie er es gerne wäre, denn irgendwann ist das Eis nun mal da, und dann passiert auch mal lange Zeit gar nichts – bis dann die nächste Stufe eintrifft (noch schlimmeres Eis), dauert es auch ein wenig. Vielleicht gut geeignet, einen verregneten Sonntag Nachmittag rumzukriegen, mehr aber auch nicht.

Crysis’in yapımcısı Türk kardeşlerin sahip olduğu Crytek şirketinin oyun dünyasına adını duyurduğu oyun olan Far Cry oyununu gamershell.com sunucusundan tek link olarak ücretsiz indirmek için:

Far Cry(Ad supported) oyununu ücretsiz indir

Not: Bu paylaşım yasaldır.

Having just sat through Death Race I have to ask this question. It should have ended with the chick standing on the roof of the car in the Frankenstein mask, the cutaway signifying the possible escape of the drivers. It ran on a few minutes longer, with an ending which was completely unnecessary and destroyed my interest in seeing a sequel. I have to make it clear, straight off the bat, that I’m a big fan of the original, and the thought that this would be similarly laced with barbed commentary appealed to me.

Wow, was I wrong about that or what?

It could have set up a great B-Movie franchise of explosions, gratuitous violence and general mayhem, but after the add-on scenes set in Mexico I’m not sure a sequel would even be possible. It isn’t as if creating a kick-ass franchise is difficult, as even the abysmal Butterfly Effect has managed to drag on to three equally yawn-inducing installments. As for the craptastic remake of The Omen, the least said the better…

Why are remakes so hard to get right? I’m not going to include the constantly revised stuff here, because anything with Sherlock Holmes or Batman is going to be revamped in a few years anyway (and Batman currently has a few versions available), so this is centered solely on fresh remakes on dead properties. Such as Planet Of The Apes.

Rule One (which must be obeyed at all costs) is that a remake must engage the fans of the original. Halloween (which was too slow and too retro) missed a few vital pointers from the original and demystified Michael Myers to a degree that it wasn’t really a horror film. It wanted to be taken seriously, but when there is an audience waiting on a certain type of film, they’re going to react badly when they see something that doesn’t push their buttons.

Rule Two is don’t fuck up the ending. This is where I ought to launch into a “What the Hell is the point of Tim Burton?” rant, but I really don’t care to expend energy attacking someone who doesn’t even have the courtesy to learn about the subject of his films before he starts directing.

Anyone who makes a comic-book movie having never looked at the comics is a fucking hack.

And a pretty useless one at that. There are at least a dozen major problems with the first Batman film, and even an awesome Batmobile can’t save the film from the dumbest ending ever. Who in their right mind kills off the Joker? Then he compounds his errors with the Planet Of The Apes, where he kills the potential series with a completely uncalled for coda in which… Sorry, I can’t even bring myself to relay the end of the story.

Anyways…

Rule Three. Don’t betray the fans of the original. As if having to watch Tom (not gay) Cruise running around in Mission: Impossible, we find out that the heroic Jim Phelps betrayed the IMF. Really? The same Jim Phelps who put his ass on the line every week to save the world? The man who put more villainous dictators in their place than Dubya could ever wet dream of? It was a slap in the face to the fans of the original series, and an insult to intelligent viewers.

Rule Four. Don’t remake Casablanca.

Rule Five. Big robots fighting each other over a Rubix cube isn’t big and isn’t clever.

Rule Six. Never let Pitof direct.

Addendum to rule six: Never let Uwe Boll direct. Anything.

Rule Seven. Just because everyone else is doing a _____ film, doesn’t mean you have to resurrect a crap franchise to cash in. I’m half dreading the announcement that some half-assed reimagining of an old cartoon will be appearing in cinemas soon, because it nearly always turns out to be a bad idea. If you need proof that it’s not a way to appease fans, then just look at the mess which Transformers made of its source material.

Rule Eight. Always keep the villain alive for the sequel.

I’ll add to this when I pluck up enough courage to watch what Uwe Boll did to Far Cry, and I suppose that I’ll have rules for making films based on computer games as well. I may even have to watch Super Mario Bros for that, so I might have to sober up before posting my thoughts. If I watch Tomb Raider I’ll need to be really drunk…

Far Cry 2 Review

Far Cry 2 is a 1^st person shooter set in the dangerous and most dramatic parts of Africa. Far cry 2 is a free roam game and the environment around you is massive, explore up to 50km2 of land. Your Objective is to take out a group called the Jackal who are selling weapons to the good and the bad so that it keeps the fighting going on, your job is to assassinate the leader of the Jackal. Run, jump, slide and glide and more. Choose from a wide range of weapons and hijack cars, use IED bombs and collect the Famous Flamethrower and the M249 Saw.

With the Real time immersion you can see the environment change from day to night as if it is real. Make your own world with the new map editor exclusively to Ubisoft. Choose up to hundreds of miscellaneous objects and loads of vehicles and the famous Glider.

Games2u© Rating *****

Brilliant game definitely worth the money!

OK, am inteles, cum ziceam mai jos, imbatranesc, ma scol de dimineata, lipseste sa-mi cumpar o sacosa de rafie si sa umblu cu mainile la spate ca mosii aia comunisti. Da’ chiar sa nu ma mai descurc cu un rahat de joc de calculator?

Care-i chestia? Pai zilele astea sunt singur acasa, nevasta-mea e cu familiunul in Austria, la bai. Dap, nu se mai poarta Herculane sau Govora, se poarta Austria si nu le mai zice mofete, se cheama spa. Si cum ma plictiseam eu duminica pe acasa am zis sa caut pe net un shooter decent. Am cautat ceva mai vechi, sa  mearga si pe rasnita mea de calculator, darcare sa fi avut la momentul respectiv recenzii bune. Am luat pana la urma Far Cry. Doar ca n-am reusit sa trec nici de primul nivel. Ma ardeau baietii aia rai de n-aveam aer. Si nici rabdare nu prea am avut, asa ca dupa mai putin de o ora m-au apucadnervii si l-am dezinstalat. Ce naiba, parca acu’ o suta de ani eram meserias la Return to Castle Wolfenstein sau Medal of Honor? Au devenit jocurile astea mai complicate sau mi-am pierdut eu reflexele? Am zis sa imi acord inca o sansa, asa ca am luat si F.E.A.R. (primul, ca al doilea sigur ruleaza ca naiba la mine). Diseara daca am chef sau cel tarziu maine mai bag o fisa, mai incerc o data. Daca nici cu asta nu ma descurc, e clar. O sa raman la adventure si eventual un Tetris pe nivel de incepator…

Let me start off by saying that I have never played Far Cry 1 or know anything about it. My experience is with Far Cry 2 and Far Cry 2 only. I saw the preview and review awhile back in a Game Informer and it looked good. It did receive an 8/10 from GI so I thought it would be worth buying used. Man was I wrong. I think this game is terrible. It is so bad that I don’t even want to play it all the way through. The graphics are on level with PS2, the movement is choppy and the camera angles are akward to me.

There were a few good things. The map is huge. It’s basically an open world that you are free to roam as you wish. Jungle and desert landscape mostly. You can drive any vehicle. The story was kind of cool. You are out to take down a huge arms dealer that is responsible for like every war in Africa ever. The pop-up map was cool in the sense that it had several functions but failed in guiding me clearly to certain missions. You also cannot look at it while driving, but you have a GPS sort of thing in the car with you. You get buddies who come to your aid when you are killed. Overall the idea behind this idea is genius but game design flaw ruined it for me.

I found the gun selection garbage. You have to purchase guns and gun upgrades, which is realistic but a pain in the ass when you have to spend 5 mins driving to a safe house with an armory. You also can only save your game in a safe house, another pain in my ass. I got stuck in a couple rocks and in a boat engine which frustrated me since I had to load from a safe house far from where I had glitched. Some AI were just running into a tree or box of some sort. Althuogh it made it easy for me to kill them it ruined my perception of the AI capability.

I’ve read reviews were people say that they hated the first 6 hours or so of the game and loved the rest. Maybe that’s the case but I’m struggling to pick it up again. Also let me add that the graphics in these pictures is not what the game looked like to me. I have a 1080p LCD with HMDI and all that jazz so I know it’s not my tv.

Overall Score: 6.5/10

Replay Value: 6/10

Graphics: 610