far cry

One of the games I had on my watch list for 2004 - Crytek's Far Cry - released their single-player demo last week. At a whopping 500 MB, it hardly seems worth it for another first person shooter. But I caught the torrent, installed and played it through. I should probably note up front that one of game's features, the so-called "farthest viewing distance in a First Person Shooter", I am inclined to agree with. You start off in a zodiac boat, and all around you are the typical environs of an island paradise. Complete with waving palm trees and pretty, glistening water effects.

Vehicular combat is very Halo-like, and you can quickly upgrade your zodiac to a gunboat and blast away at enemies on the coastline. The dune buggy you pick up in the jungle portion of the map controls like the cars in Enter the Matrix - absolute crap. The sound is truly an accomplishment, though; I found my teeth were chattering when I fired the pistol, never mind the automatic weapons. The AI is very cunning, and the ragdoll physics are more convincing than the exagerrated HAVOK Engine in games like UT2003 and Raven Shield. The many paths through the jungle towards your objective gives a pretty good impression of non-linearity, and it also allows you to avoid some unnecessary firefights. Unfortunately as I progressed through the map it quickly became a pixel-hunt – it seems the swarming AI went to marksmen school, and you're stuck with a wobbly aiming reticle. It doesn't exactly make for balanced combat. Did I mention the lack of mid-level saves? You have to hit prescribed auto-save checkpoints that aren't visible to the eye. Overall a good effort, and the toolset that comes with the game may catch the interest of some modders that will provide some additional multiplayer content.

I also downloaded the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time PC demo, just to see what it looks like alongside my experiences with the Gamecube version. It's very hazy looking, possibly a side-effect of being a console port, but still remains as beautiful as when I saw it on the Gamecube. The camera seemed to be locked in at some points, making some of the obstacles difficult to navigate and aggravated further by default Mouse-keyboard controls. This is not the game's fault though, having had my hands on a Gamecube controller for my first experience with the game.

You remember The Bard's Tale, don't you? And how everything was controlled by the keyboard while the sum of your sensory inputs were a collection of stills and inanimations? The team behind Devil Whiskey has engaged the replicator and created an identical experience. Don't get me wrong, however - the recently released version 1.4 of the demo is a fine homage. I just can't see myself dedicating time to it when there are other RPGs worth investing in. If you're still following the official remake helmed by one of the original game's designers, you can check out some new screens. Can't say I'm impressed though; I'd sooner pick up the highly discounted Dark Alliance for my Gamecube.

Curiosity got the better of me and I tried Gunbound after reading about it on PA. Can someone please tell me what makes this game different from Worms? Other than the fact that you can buy your Avatar a jaunty cap with the points won in battle. The official site's manual is full of so much broken english, if you're brave enough to read through the whole thing you'd end up shooting yourself in the ass. And I think I'd rather not mention the player community, or frustrating lack thereof ("This guy is teh suk. He doesn't know how to shoot!!!1 lol lol lol").

On the bright side, we did manage to dig ourselves out yesterday.

I have a mandolin, I play it all night long