Players looking forward to shooting their way through Far Cry 2's 50-square kilometers of African wilderness best set aside the better part of a few weeks (at least!) to do so. Varying reports suggest it could take as long as 100 hours (for compass-be-damned wanderers, no doubt) to complete the game's single player campaign alone.
Ubisoft Montreal creative workhorse Clint Hocking offered us an apparently inadequate estimate when he guessed that the campaign could be completed in as little as 25 hours, before adding that to see it all "you're looking at a 100-hour play experience." And, speaking to CVG, producer Louis-Pierre Pharand landed his estimate somewhere in the middle, suggesting 50 hours of play time to completion. Regardless of the varying possibilities, it's reasonable to expect that the shooter's single player experience will be long, evidence that not all devs are drinking from the same fountain as Phil Harrison.
When we last saw Clint Hocking, creative director at Ubisoft Montreal, he was making a last minute stop at PAX to show off Far Cry 2. The visibly tired Hocking took us on a tour of the new game's exotic environment, the African Serengeti – exoticism being the game's major connection to the original. A couple weeks ago at Ubisoft's Ubidays event in San Francisco, Hocking was there again, but in a smaller room (decorated in an African theme) surrounded by journalists actually playing the game.
"It's 50 square kilometers, an open world," he says. We'd heard the same thing previously, as far back as PAX. The game had always been ambitious; now, it was running quite smoothly right in front of us, on an Xbox 360. So, how close are they to reaching that goal of being an entirely open world shooter? From what I could tell in this very limited demo, pretty close.
Ubisoft has released a new trailer for Far Cry 2 as part of its Ubidays press event about to get underway in Paris. The trailer is narrated by Reuben Oluwagembi, a freelance reporter in the fictional African city of Port Selao. Oluwagembi wants to tell us about "The Jackal" – a merchant of death, a mercenary (we always think of that West Wing episode where C.J. performs "The Jackal" for the staff too). If you're paying attention, you'll notice a link to Reuben's blog – War Unlimited: My Journey Through a Warzone – where he writes about his experience covering the violence and factions that dominate Port Selao.
Far Cry 2 is expected later this year and will have us hunting down "The Jackal" across the African savanna on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Hopefully we'll get a firmer release date from Ubidays today.
Ubisoft recently released an introductory video for Far Cry 2, its upcoming human-hunt across the African plains. The trailer mixes clips of Ubi Montreal developers talking and actual gameplay footage. Although we got some footage showing off the game's engine earlier this year, we really haven't seen gameplay footage since Leipzig.
The developer clips in this trailer are actually quite entertaining, with Far Cry 2's art director, Alex Amancio, explaining how the team almost got eaten by lions while camping in Africa (silly Quebecers, should have hired someone with lion-mastering experience). Far Cry 2 is expected later this year and will allegedly be the same game on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
Ubisoft informs EuroGamer that Far Cry 2 will release in "autumn" this year. The game is currently in development at Ubisoft Montreal and this latest information narrows down the previous year-long release window of April to March of next year. Ubisoft also states a demo is likely for the game and that the title should release simultaneously for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.
Given the impressive footage we've seen so far of the game, Far Cry 2 can take its time in development and keep upping the pretty. And you know, our summer is already looking pretty full.
Seriously? Seriously. Ubisoft Montreal learned a valuable lesson from sports games, revealed Patrick Redding during a lecture on the narrative design of Far Cry 2. No, not that it's possible to sell millions of the same game year after year, but rather, games like Madden provide players with their own unique moments. Something big -- a game-winning catch -- can happen in Madden, and that particular event, and the specific elements that surround that key experience, become an epic moment in a player's mind. I created that -- it happened to me! The Far Cry 2 team is importing this concept into its free-form FPS and building a gameworld with unscripted highlights -- minus the Maddenisms.
During a lecture on narrative design today, Ubisoft Montreal's Patrick Redding revealed that Far Cry 2's health system is tied to infection. Upon arriving in the game's fictitious African country, the player's character -- the strong, silent type -- is immediately stricken with malaria. Ubisoft's Patrick Redding called this device the "ultimate mechanical drawback." The disease creates a dependence on medicine ('health packs'), but the pills aren't scattered throughout the plains or hidden inside crates. Instead, medicine can only be obtained from civilians. The developers use this device as one of the game's few "push" designs; otherwise, players control the order and scope of Far Cry 2.
The reality of malaria and its debilitating symptoms (ultimately death -- if untreated) forces the player to interact with non-threatening characters, in turn, exploiting the urge to anthropomorphize the AI. Human conditions are recreated through these interactions. A few doses might be exchanged for, say, travel papers. The civilians don't simply operate as the game's 'store,' but function as "micronarrative" elements who bring life to the gameworld -- like, the desperation inherent in a war-torn country. But Ubisoft Montreal doesn't "presume to know what's in the player's heart." Whether you obtain the papers simply to quell the fevers and convulsions, or instead come to sympathize with the civilian's helpless condition, the developers provide the space for freedom of experience. You've got malaria. Deal with it.
Much like Crytek began Crysis marketing with sweeping views of a tropical island jungle powered by CryENGINE2, Ubisoft has used this Far Cry 2 teaser to throw a coming out party for its "Dunia" game engine. We see romanticized views of anywhere Africa through a hazy film filter with little indication of actual gameplay, save for the obvious metaphor of brushfire – oh yes, there will be blood.
Once you're done gazing at the virtual safari, considering checking out MTV's chat with Far Cry 2 creative director Clint Hocking for some real insight into the FPS-cum-male weepy. "Yes, it's a shooter where you run around and machine-gun a bunch of people. But there are real characters in here who I hope you're going to develop a real relationship with," hopes Hocking.
Similar to spotting a remote outpost far off in the African savanna, we could've spotted this announcement ... oh, nearly six months ago when they first announced the game. Nevertheless, Le Ubisoft today announced that their upcoming FPS, Far Cry 2 – full of all sorts of procedurally generated goodies – will be coming to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles as well as the originally targeted PC platform.
When we spoke with Ubisoft Montreal's creative director, the lovely and talented Clint Hocking, about the possibility of console ports at PAX, he told us, "Our mandate ... was to make Ubisoft a top-tier PC game. That's my mandate, that's what I'm doing. It's obviously Ubisoft's business if they want to do a console version." He elaborated, "The engine is not alien to a console environment just because we have the expertise." So now, Ubi is taking advantage of said expertise to bring the game to consoles. While it's unclear if all three versions will ship simultaneously, the console ports will also ship in Ubi's 08-09 fiscal year, which runs April through March.
Taken at the Leipzig Games Convention, this 13-minute video gives a good taste of what FarCry 2 will have to offer. If you don't know yet, FarCry 2 takes place on the African savannah in a giant sandbox environment. Obviously, Ubisoft's Montreal Studio (Crytek is off doing Crysis) don't consider the now-classic Survivor: Africa issue a problem. When the television show Survivor went to Africa something got lost (like beautiful blue water and lush green vegetation) and they never went back to anything similar. FarCry 2 continues the gaming trend of a more brown environmental color palette. It'll be interesting to see how fans react to the new environment.
And before the calls of racism start over a white man going on a shooting rampage in Africa, the people you are shooting appear to be white. At least we think they are, way too much movement in the video to be sure, but a lot of the still images in the gallery below show white people. Although that opens up a whole other set of issues.
The game does look beautiful and is still in a pre-Alpha build. The title is expected next spring on PC. With any luck we'll get some console release projections in the near future. There is also a special introduction announcement for the FarCry 2 footage after the break.
Ubisoft's Clint Hocking made a special trip to PAX this year to show off his latest project: FarCry 2. But this isn't your run-of-the-mill FPS sequel, as our liveblog of the demo details, but an ambitious open-world shooter set in the exotic locale of the African Savannah. We were lucky to grab a couple minutes of Clint's time following the demo for an interview where we asked about the FarCry brand, the possibility of console ports, and how long they think this open-ended game will take to finish.
Why use the FarCry brand to make this game?
Well, I think that's kind of a business question for Ubisoft but my answer to that is, Ubisoft started with FarCry, published it and obviously started making the console games. The same time they were doing that – keep in mind I started conception before FarCry Instincts even shipped. They were in production when I started conception. And Ubisoft knew at that time that they wanted a top tier PC sequel. At the same time they knew about FarCry; at that time Boiling Point was announced; we didn't know about Just Cause; they knew they were going to make at least two sequels on the console; LOST was on TV. Literally they said, "We're worried that we're going to dry up this brand."
They inform us that there will be no visual or audio recording during the FarCry 2 demo. Developer Clint Hocking is on the stage, having flown to Seattle from Leipzig for this one, single demo. They've reserved the first two rows for press, eager to ensure their forfeiture of sleep doesn't go unrewarded. The screen is showing a Windows desktop with a big, shiny FarCry 2 logo. Carolyn Carnes opens up, reminding us there is no recording equipment (OR ELSE!), asking us to turn our cellphones off, reminding us this is a pre-alpha (read: if something goes wrong, it's early!) and of course, they won't be able to answer everything during the Q&A session.
They gave a limited demonstration of the game at Leipzig, but this will be the definitive unveiling of the game. She intros Clint, notes he was the lead developer of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (someone yells out, "Oh yeahhhh!") and creative director of the FarCry 2 project. He's been on the project for over 2 years now, starting with a small team of eight guys working to determine how to make a sequel worthy of the original. They went into production three months ago and "aren't even alpha." They're targeting first quarter 2008.
The demo, due to a technological circumstance, will be run in an unfortunately low 800x600 whereas the game has been running for them at 1600x1050, 30fps. The good news: the frame rate should be great.
Ubisoft has officially announced a sequel to 2004's tropical and somewhat topical first-person shooter, Far Cry. Praised for its luscious visuals, large environments and merciless pig slaughter, the PC game eventually made its way to consoles in confusingly titled spin-offs such as Far Cry Instincts Predator and Far Cry Instincts Evolution. We think there may be some colons in there too.
Simply entitled Far Cry 2, the new addition to the franchise is being developed for PC by Ubisoft's Montreal studio (original developer Crytek is currently pouring tears into Crysis) and is scheduled for a Spring 2008 release on PC. Aside from the above logo, apparently dragged behind Ubisoft's car before it was uploaded, no further images relating to the sequel have surfaced. Expect loads of jungles, obnoxious henchman and distant weeping.
Over two gigs worth of screenshots, videos, and concept art was apparently accidentally posted by Ubisoft on their public ftp server. Whoops. While some of these games have already been announced, some haven't, although there aren't any real surprises here: Assassins Creed, Farcry 2, Farcry PSP, Farcry Wii, Lost, Naruto, Open Season, Prince of Persia, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Rocky PSP, Splinter Cell Double Agent, Splinter Cell Conviction, Surf's Up, Star Wars PSP, Shaun White, TMNT, and TMNT GBA.
Ubisoft isn't too pleased about the leak either, stating,"The publication of this type of information can only be harmful to the game development process and we will take all steps necessary to prevent this from happening in the future."
While we can understand why Ubisoft wouldn't want employees or summer interns posting confidential information on the internet, how does it harm the game development process? We can understand if the raw code for Splinter Cell: Conviction got out, or if a disgruntled programmer posted a disk image of Far Cry 2, but screenshots and videos? And while TGS is unfolding?
Over two gigs worth of screenshots, videos, and concept art was apparently accidentally posted by Ubisoft on their public ftp server. Whoops. While some of these games have already been announced, some haven't, although there aren't any real surprises here: 
