Far Cry 2: we burnt to the ground left a grave to admire.

What continent haven't we picked on in a while? Africa? It looks like I'm going to have to put my mind on my diamonds and my diamonds on my mind for the next few weeks.

So besides trying to balance play time between Fable 2, some recent demo additions, finishing previously unfinished games, watching a slew of television shows and movies, and that thing we all do to be able pay for all this entertainment, I did set some time aside for Ubisoft's PC version of Far Cry 2. And then some was quickly adjusted to more and before I knew it I was watching my wife play Fable 2 as I sat and played through what is one of the best 1st person shooters since Crysis.

Thrown into a civil war that no one else in the world cares about (Jagged Alliance ... wink wink) you select one of 8 or 9 playable characters as you become intent on putting an end to a weapons dealer, the Jackal without a Y, who has supplied weapons to all sides of civil wars in Africa for years. After a very short tutorial on the controls you are let free to try to find and assassinate the Jackal purely however you want to. Different NPCs appear (characters you didn't choose to be) that you can befriend as well as faction leaders that are involved in the civil war who open side missions and clues as you try to track down the Jackal. Weapons dealers are found around the 50 Km map and sell loads of weapons, ammo belts, etc, for big shiny diamonds that can be found or gained from completing missions. And saying 50 Km seems irrelevant until you start trying to get from one corner of it to the next as jeep patrols chase you around with the tenacity of a coffee drinker in sight of a Starbucks on a Monday morning.

A lot of that description sounds like a glorified RPG game so to focus on what sets the game apart start to imagine other great FPS games you've played in the past. One thing that sets it apart is the fact that it's in Africa and is a great rendition of it. Landscapes full of trees, rocks, tall grass, weather, sun, wind, and wild animals with a bit of orchestrated African music in the background make it seem like it's truly set in an almost unlivable place. The graphics are below Crysis but above HL2 or Rainbow Six Vegas. One great thing that does set it apart from dine and dash FPS games is the large focus on transportation involving mainly jeeps. The sounds of laying tracks in the sand and throwing dust in the face of enemies giving chase sets it apart from previous urban or jungle FPSers and helps give the open and vast space feel to it and even more so when you have to travel on foot. There is no loading screens as you traverse the landscapes and only a few for small changes like mission completion, death, etc. Overall it still isn't as big as the entire territory Operation Flashpoint throws at you but that game has loading screens for separate missions and I haven't seen an FPS that big and probably won't until OF2 comes out next year.

The usual FPS physics are used with ragdoll deaths, explosions that throw anything not bolted down outward (with a new introduction in gas bottle physics where a bottle will flail around wildly and eventually torpedo into something and explode), and guns that act very much like you are in a dirty sand environment. Fire will spread through grass and other flora and even through wood and other flammable objects which allows for added tactics to try to flush enemies or for escape purposes.

Guns can wear over time, will have random quality when found shown by rust, dirt, scratches, etc, and can jam or sometimes break entirely beyond use. Vehicles too have the same properties but can be repaired by using a simple torque wrench on the engine. Overall combat is a little loose on the aiming and has the realistic sway of any person's aim like having to wave and use a ten pound AK against multiple enemies. The usual differing weapon physics is very apparent to the point where you can tell the stopping power of caliber of weapon after you burn through an entire clip of 9mm vs a single 30.06 bullet or trying to fire a Desert Eagle accurately with kick of the .50 vs a 9mm. Very tight hit boxes are on all characters and at times the useful headshot is very difficult to pull off as enemies will stay in motion quite often. The flip side is the rewarding feeling when you do pull off a headshot with tiny iron sights from a long distance.

The AI is pretty good as some enemies flank, wait till they have a good shot, sneak toward you before opening fire, and keep good focus while others are piss poor combatants that are easily flanked to give a nice mix of random battlefield experience in a would be civil war. There are some great features such as sniper baiting where you can wound an enemy and let his fellow comrades come to his aid after they think the coast is clear to soon find out you've got both of them in your crosshair.

Far Cry 2 does do some differing minimization of the HUD. Very little is shown and quickly fades to keep the feel for a better first person experience. Health, ammo/clips and small messages like weapon jams are about the only things that really show up and are only very small pictures in the corners. Maps are shown by actual small handheld types and can even be brought out in your lap as you drive the winding dirt roads. This HUD feature really keeps your eyes focused on your surroundings more than forcing your pupils to watch aiding indicators like a radar the entire time. No more chasing little dots in the little circle in that one corner of the screen that so many lovely games seem to find necessary.

Health is somewhat regenerative and large chunks have to be patched by using syringes full of friendly morphine. If your health falls very low you can bleed to death so an interesting bandaging system is used where you randomly have a bullet placed beneath your skin somewhere on your body. It then has to be dug out out by oddities such as with a knife or pliers to stop the impending death by blood loss.

As you do missions for weapon dealers, more available purchases can be made and things chosen appear in the always next door "armory". For weapons it is an unlimited amount after purchase. Unlike other FPSers where you can somehow carry a gigantic barrage of weaponry you can only carry 1 primary, 1 secondary sidearm, grenades, and 1 special weapon at any one time. This makes for interesting choices and combinations as distances between armories and mission objectives can get quite lengthy and ammo for certain choices can be minimal. Full ammo is very few extra clips so quality shots have to be taken at almost all times to clear areas to be able to pick up extras from fallen enemies. And yes, the Mac-10 is among the available weaponry which has it's beautiful sounding full 30 round clip burn in 2 seconds when you whip out in a pinch.

Missions can be done in what ever order the player wants to do them (can't really tell which is which until they are accepted) and can ignore them almost entirely if one wishes to just drive around and burn things down just hoping to happen upon the Jackal. Freedom always plays good in the red, blue, and white states.

I really couldn't find too much to dislike with Far Cry 2. I did notice that at times it is very hard to tell who is who in situations where friends are helping to complete missions and look oh so headshotty similar at a distance. Other than that silly friendly fire incident that my mission log described as a "lost in the fray of battle" death, there wasn't anything else really to complain about. Well that is of course unless you are so reliant on those little dots in the corner that you have panic attacks without them.

I never did get to finish the first Far Cry game since I never wanted to spend the money on it. If you purchase Far Cry 2 from gamestop's website you can download both for the price of one. This is also a great alternative if your comp really can't handle Crysis too well but you still want to play a great looking and entertaining FPS. This is probably the best realistic FPS games (not counting Crysis or FC1) since Rainbow Six Vegas, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Operation Flashpoint, Black, or HL2. So get out there and look for what sounds like a horse, smells like a horse, looks like a horse, but is actually not a horse; it's a zebra and it's a whole hell of a fun and exciting one to ride.