Finally, it's over. I never have to play it again. Ever.

I have finished Far Cry. In the end, I was forced to pull a "Kobayashi Maru" of sorts. Seeing no way to complete the final level properly, I cheated and removed all of the enemies from the final arena so I could stroll through to the exit point without fear of being blasted from all sides. I don't normally like to cheat, but I was beyond caring by that point. What started out as a good game soon deteriorated into... well, a chore. About half way through (for reasons I will explain in more detail below), it ceased to be fun. The only reason I carried on playing was because I desired to complete the game as soon as possible and reclaim the valuable 2.5GB of hard disk space it occupied.

Let's start by looking at what I actually liked about Far Cry. It started off as a typical stealth action game - one that was really quite fun to play. As the marketing blurb said, there are numerous ways to go about carrying out your objectives in the game. If you're told to get to a particular point on the island, it's up to you what means you use to get there. So if you're feeling resourceful, you can sneak up to a lookout point, throw a rock into the bushes to distract the guards and leap onto a conveniently located hang glider, sailing safely down the valley towards your destination as the mercs scream obscenities after you. Alternatively, for the Rambos, you can storm a mercenary base in a hail of lead and, with a little persuasion, requisition a 4x4 from a hapless merc.

The enemy AI, while not quite as amazing as the marketing people would like you to believe, is still quite impressive. The mercenaries you are fighting do work as a team and have a logical command structure. Finally, of course, the game is visually impressive. If ever you are in need of a tropical island simulator, the CryTek engine should be more than capable of meeting your needs. So, in light of this praise, where did it all go so horribly wrong? I have identified three major areas that brought this game down.

First, there is the story. When you finish the game, you begin to wonder if the script writer suffered a fatal vehicle accident towards the end of the project and the development team, unsure of how to continue, just threw up their hands and decided the story ended there and then. Of course, whether the script writer was particularly alive to begin with is somewhat doubtful. The story is about as inspired as the worst action-oriented 'B' movie you can imagine. Some of the missions, such as the one I will refer to as "Gosh, darn it! I left my PDA in the demon-infested Underground Mausoleum of The Vanquished, in the Canyon of Despair, on the Isle of No Return. Be a dear and go and fetch it for me." just defy belief and end up ruining any kind of sensible plot the game may have been developing.

Next, we have the monsters. What started out as stealth action game rapidly becomes a generic blast-em-up. At around the same time as the monsters come along, the missions start to take place more and more inside the confines of underground installations. Usually, there are only a few selected routes that you can take when travelling about these places, so the whole "do it your way" idea is discarded. I know the monsters are integral to the "plot", and I would have been happy to face them for a couple of levels just to give the game a bit of variety. But when you spend the entire second half of the game fighting them, during which time the only viable strategy you can employ is "Shoot!", it becomes dull to say the least.

Finally, we have Woman. She has a name, but it is irrelevant, for she is just Generic PC Action Game Woman™, as seen in all Generic PC Action Games™ over the last 5 years or so. Indeed, she probably appeared in the script as simply "Woman" until someone could be bothered to hold a meeting and it was decided to name her after the CEO's mother-in-law. She starts off as just annoying - she appears from time to time to give you advice and do all those things that Generic PC Action Game Woman™ does, like take nude showers in waterfalls, for example. If that were all she did, I could live with her. Just. But no. In later levels, you actually get to play alongside her! This may sound like a good thing - someone else to take your bullets and a little extra firepower. And it would be, if she had been blessed with the same legendary AI that the enemies use and for which the game has become well known. Unfortunately, as will become apparent after a few minutes of play, not all NPCs were created equal. Due to her skilled ability to avoid all cover when moving from place to place, she has a tendency to attract bullets. This wouldn't be a problem except that when she dies, you are automatically killed along with her. There are moments when I have just suicided by emptying rounds from an M4 into her back in sheer frustration. Here are some of them:

If you're playing Far Cry at the moment and are enjoying it, that's fine. But the moment you stop enjoying it, don't feel, like me, that you have to go on to the end. You can just stop, right there, and say to yourself what a fine game that was. Because the moment it starts to get bad, rest assured it's all downhill from there.

</farcryrant>

Things are going quite well in FFXI. I took part in a marathon levelling party the other day - over 3 levels gained in about 10 solid hours of play in Qufim. Hanajp got the party off to a good start, although there were one or two deaths early on. >_> Later, we were joined by Miyami, who was elected leader after Hanajp's departure and led the party for the 2nd half. Experience was reasonable (~200 per kill) and a good time was had by all. In other FF news, in case you can't tell from the picture, I am finally Chocobo-enabled! I can now venture about freely without fear of being eaten by beastmen thanks to my little feathered friend.

I have been Ragnarok Onlining more actively recently too, with the Episode V (Juno) expansion pack due to go live on the main game servers on May 4th. I think Al De Baran could be getting busier, with many higher level players getting ready to rush to Juno in order to make it their new home. I will probably pop along just after the rush, but I doubt I will be joining them for a while as I still have too much to do in the south of Rune Midgards to make it a sensible place to settle down in. For now at least. Once (if) I chose to exchange my nice blue tunic for a bird, I may move north more permanently. In related news, I notice that the RO Empire now has an euRO too (as opposed to an eRO, which would have just been made fun of). This branch, which seemingly sprang out of nowhere, is apparently being managed by Burda Holding International of Germany. I'm curious as to how many subscribers they have, or think they will be able to get. Surely anyone in Europe who wanted to play RO would already be playing iRO. I can't see many people willing to switch to another server and lose all of their characters, items and soforth.

For those who had forgotten, didn't know or don't care, I feel it is my duty to remind you that today is CLANNAD DAY! Take that, VisualArts doubters. I now have faith that Studio Mebius will follow suit and release some information on their two new games soon. They have released some cutepr0n to keep Mebius fans happy while they wait though. >_> Very thoughtful of them...

Today is also the day that Leaf's Aruru to Asobo!! ships. While not exactly a release on quite the same level as Clannad, it is still worth noting for the benefit of Leaf fans. (*waves maniacally*)

I was going to do a proper update, but it's 2:30am and I'm tired. I'll try and get something up tomorrow, in between playing with the new features offered in the version up.

My sister acquired a hamster last weekend, and struck by a sudden burst of originality, named it Boo. I am going to visit this weekend so I'll let you know if it's sporting any clip-on wings yet.

I hope some of you found last week's random link interesting (Elena - Ghost Town, for those of you who have forgotten or couldn't be bothered to look the first time). I have another one for you today. In 1999, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History hosted an exhibition entitled Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People. As you may know, I have an interest in everything Japanese, including the culture and history. Ainu culture and the history of the relationship between the Ainu and the rest of Japan is a particularly fascinating subject area. (...well, to me at least) Anyway, the organisers of the exhibition kindly thought to recreate the entire thing in the form of a virtual online tour, for those of us who weren't able to visit the Smithsonian to see it "in the flesh". The main page is here. However, if you find that clicking Enter just takes you back to the same page (I think it checks for IE), try going here for a direct link to the tour. It's multimedia heavy (requires flash) and so quite bandwidth intensive - it should be pretty nippy on a good broadband connection though. The full tour will take about half an hour, but hopefully you will feel that a few minutes broadening your mind is time well spent. You owe it to Nakoruru. ^^

It looks like a good year for game-derived anime fans. I would have just been content with RO TV and the ToP OVA. However, there is now even more to look forward to. First, there is the Wind ~A Breath of Heart~ TV series. Quite how this will fit in with everything else in the Wind universe, I'm not sure. Still, I'm sure that the vast majority of Wind/Minori fans will be happy to see Wind return to their TV screens. The OVA had the potential to be much more than it was. Hopefully the TV series won't go the same way and will instead build on the wealth of story opportunities provided by the game.

Another ren'ai sim to receive the TV treatment is August's Tsuki wa Higashi ni, Hi wa Nishi ni (hanihani). While I loved the game almost as much as Wind, I can't see quite the same potential for a deep, involving plot. However, it has Matsuri-chan which will at least partly make up for that.

Next, we have Key's Air movie, due for release this Autumn. It's being managed by Frontier Works, who, if memory serves, are also responsible for the Tales of Phantasia OVA. It's sounding good already. ^^

Another anime due for release is an adaptation of Peach-Pit's DearS, due out this July. There is also a game in the works, due on the 24th of June.

Phantom Brave gooooood.

I don't know why, but I've felt drained this week. I keep feeling as if I want to sleep, but can't actually get to sleep for some reason. At least not at the time of day I would like. I will endeavour to have a nice rest this weekend so that my sleeping patterns regain some semblance of normality.

First of all, I want to post this: Elena - Ghost Town. It has been mentioned on various message boards and blogs across the web quite a bit over the last couple of weeks, so there is a good chance you may have seen it already. However, if it has escaped your notice and you have a few minutes to spare, then I recommend you take a look at this fascinating journal.

I've been playing Tenerezza again recently, after neglecting it for quite a while. I put in about 10 hours last weekend in which I managed to obtain the first 3 maseki (fire, wind and water) and reach level 32. It really is great fun and makes a nice change from the other more serious RPGs I am playing at the moment. In stark contrast to Tenerezza, I have just acquired the depressive angstfest that is Leaf's latest offering, Tenshi no inai Juunigatsu. I want to finish Tenerezza so that I am on a happy-high before I even attempt to attack that. Also, while I'm on the topic of Leaf, the Aruru to Asobo site is now up.

The new television season is upon us once again and I have identified a few series that sound interesting. The first is Koi Kaze, a nice, angsty, incestuous love story. Based on the manga of the same name by Motoi Yoshida (Mizu to Gin), the story of a brother and sister who live apart as a result of their parents' separation meeting and finding love without knowing that they are related is not a new one. Nevertheless, the concept does appear to be well executed in this case. Takahiro Kishida, who has produced numerous pencil-and-pastel illustrations for Koi Kaze in the past, is the character designer for the series.

The Ragnarok Online anime will probably be quite unremarkable, but I shall watch it regardless since it tempts me through not one, but two of my great weaknesses - RO and anime. And it has Haruko Momoi in it so it can't be all bad.

Mahou Shoujo-tai Arusu (Alus? Alice?), which I mentioned some time ago, now has a website - of sorts anyway. There's nothing much on it, but it's there. Maybe they will put something of interest up in the future. Am I missing something with regard to the domain name, or is it just supposed to be odd? Much like the anime itself... and anything that's ever been touched by 4°C.

I've also found another OVA, to add to my list of videos (or rather DVDs) to watch out for, alongside Tristia and ToP - Cossette no Shouzou (Le Portrait de Petit Cossette), the first volume of which is due towards the end of May (although it will also be available on AT-X next weekend). Yay for angsty gothic horror. ^_^

And now, I must return to FarCry to be humiliated by monkeys. Darn those monkeys.