Hey there everyone. Today's BaD is going to be short but sweet on arcade racing games. I love arcade racers a lot. There was a point when I was a teen where I had two Mad Catz universal steering wheels to play arcade racers. One broke and I still have one but is not in great shape. Still arcade racing games hold a big deal in my heart. So it makes me so happy to see a sudden resurragance of arcade racers again this year. With the succesful Kickstarter campaign of Reto 80's styled Dift Stage and the litterally named 90's Arcade Racer (the game in the video), its lovely to see the genre still alive. Currently I've been playing Sonic and All Star Racing Transformed, a lovely Sega fan serviced nod to arcade racers. I know alot of people just ascribe the game as a Mario Kart clone and while there's definately some truth to that really its an arcade racer. More importantly, its a Sega arcade racer: Its the drifting, the track design, and music that all culminates into a friendly reminder of what Sega used to in the 90s so well. I love it.
BaD, short for Blog A Day, is something that I've done on 1up.com/Pixlbit. Its pretty self explantiority, you just blog a throught Feburary. So I'm cross posting what I do on PixlBit here on tumblr.
Of all of the games I'd probably find myself playing, Far Cry 4 was...nowhere on that list. But thanks to Santa dropping by my house this year and giving me a new Playstation 4 and a friend letting me try the game with them thanks to the Keys to Kyrat, I ended up getting the game. Unfortunately, upon arriving in the land of Far Cry 4, I'm not quite sure why I should be staying here or what exactly keeps me here.
Far Cry 4 is big. Like REALLY big. Its one of the biggest things I've ever played. Its vast and really open. There's a lot of good and bad with that but more that in a bit. Really best enjoyment I get out of Far Cry 4 comes from the freedom I can do to any situation. See that bunch of bad guys up the road ahead? You can sneak up and kill them with arrows, call in guys to help you take them out, or throw in bait to get an animal buddy to do it for you. OR you can do the “Corey” approach, jump on an elephant and just run right into them. It is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO satisfying to just jump on elephant and run right over everything pretty much. The emphasis on freedom here is so great is amazing, its also one of the many problems with Far Cry 4.
See Far Cry 4's openness is great and all but it all falls apart all to easily. Especially when you consider EVERYTHING WANTS TO KILL YOU! Maybe its because I haven't ever played such an open FPS game but my goodness the fact that I can't get just one second of quiet in the game its crazy. There are plenty of animals who want to kill me, people, and glitches. For example, this morning I was doing a Karma event, a mini-mission events that happen sporadically through out the world and award Karma points and EXP for leveling up. The mission was simple: Kill the bad guys and save a hostage. Usually I hate these things because I'm terrible at stealth but today I did good. Got all of the bad guys and was on my way up to save the hostage...only find the hostage dead? Why? A bloody snow leopard came out of nowhere and killed them...then attacked me. After I let out my rage on the leopard for screwing up my mission, I jump in my helicopter to fly off...then die when I tried to put the brakes on the helicopter to only remember helicopters don't have brakes. OK the last part was my own screw up, that unfortunately happens way to frequently as much as I like to admit, but the other parts are what really frustrates me. Why punish me for taking options you want me do? Why should throw out bait if the animal comes attacks me afterwards? Why call in help when the AI are idiots? The game doesn't help with that either with some baffling decisions it does in the missions as well. One side mission I did had me hunt fish with explosives. Now as stupid as that sounds, the real kicker came when I would go and try to retrieve the fish to only come back with damaged skin. Oh and there was a bunch of enemies mercs who would spawn on the other side of the river I was hunting and I had to deal with as well. Fun times. But what really kicks me about the openness of the game is how every place looks way to similar. It literally gives me a headache if I play the game for to long
As much crap I'm giving Far Cry 4, its not a terrible game. Well at least, its not terrible compared to say Unity. My biggest gripe is just justifying the pay off for all of the work I do in it. Today I was sent up to the Mountains, where I had to retrieve a case while maintaining oxygen. It was a definitely nice change of pace but at the same time had the same problems: too open and you get punished for taking advantage of the freedom your given. Its really made me think about how long I want to keep up with this. I think I just may stay around for the goofy fun in CO-OP but that's about it. Ultimately, Far Cry 4 best strength and weakness comes from its freedom it gives. Its nice when a game gives you so much freedom to do stuff, but frustrating when that freedom comes with so many catches...and honey badgers. Just screw those black and while devils.
