I was reading a funny thread on Reddit the other day. The question was posed: Those of you in a relationship with a twin: Are you physically attracted to the other?

While the responses to the question were hilarious in their own right, it got me thinking of my relationship with Just Cause 2 and Far cry 3. I think of them as fraternal twins, very similar in style and nature (tropical islands, open world, various factions, exploration, unlockable weapons/abilities and the joy of random chaos). For me Just Cause 2 is the twin i'm in a relationship with, and Far Cry 3 her sister. Obviously there are some fundamental differences as you dig down further, but at least on the surface, you would think i you greatly enjoyed one, you would surely dig the other? (also this makes it apparent that i have never dated twins).

And that's my dilemma. i greatly enjoyed Just Cause 2. was able to get into the swing of it really quickly, it just clicked and I was attaching boats to jet planes and blowing up enemy camps in no time. I quickly saw what everyone was talking about. I am finding that i am forcing myself to keep playing Far Cry 3. Admittedly I haven't gotten very far in it, in fact i haven't even done the second story mission, but that's because i figured I should go out and hunt to craft the bigger holsters, larger ammo packs, etc to be better prepared. And that's where I am hitting the wall. The starting weapons, though looking cool with snazzy paint jobs are weak, inaccurate and loud. this makes hunting clumsy at best: for skittish animals I'm just shooting everywhere but the target despite aiming down ironsights due to my lack of steadyness and stealth; for larger animals I am furiously backpedaling and spraying and praying with peashooters. Also, in terms of humans JC2 and FC3 suffer from the same hated gaming Achilles heel: Endlessly respawning enemies. To give FC3 credit, its not as infuriating as in JC2 where they just spawn and spawn till you invariably die or flee (this tunred me off the game completely towards the end). In FC3 you can turn off alarm boxes, and more importantly you can dive into the underbrush to hide. But too often i'll run for cover into the jungle, and be quickly torn apart by a tiger, pack of wild dogs, or panther. At least those enemies are very localized and more importantly, visible. the worst are the fucking komodo dragons. They slink low to the ground so are difficult to spot, roll in packs, and only emit a low hiss (unlike dogs which bark, tigers/panthers/bears that roar to announce themselves) Also, once they bite, you continuously lose heath for a short time, but that time stacks with multiple bites. Just nasty fuckers all around. Anyway, to try and prevent this i try to plan out a stealthy plan of attack. But it can get to be very slow and meticulous, particularly since the only silent weapon i have is a regular bow, and I'm having trouble with the weird arc of the regular arrows. I do realize that I have to level up more to get silencers for the guns, and apparently down the line as you level up your abilities you become this crazy powerful death dealing jungle man. Furthermore, I still have plenty of radio towers to open up, which will give better access to goodies, and drugs to ingest. And I do see the potential of a ton of fun. i think i was just dissapointed that it didnt hit me out of the gate as fast as everyone else apparently. I plan to do a couple of story missions, hopefully then I'll be in better position to explore a bit more.

I was reading a funny thread on Reddit the other day. The question was posed: Those of you in a relationship with a twin: Are you physically attracted to the other?

While the responses to the question were hilarious in their own right, it got me thinking of my relationship with Just Cause 2 and Far cry 3. I think of them as fraternal twins, very similar in style and nature (tropical islands, open world, various factions, exploration, unlockable weapons/abilities and the joy of random chaos). For me Just Cause 2 is the twin i'm in a relationship with, and Far Cry 3 her sister. Obviously there are some fundamental differences as you dig down further, but at least on the surface, you would think i you greatly enjoyed one, you would surely dig the other? (also this makes it apparent that i have never dated twins).

And that's my dilemma. i greatly enjoyed Just Cause 2. was able to get into the swing of it really quickly, it just clicked and I was attaching boats to jet planes and blowing up enemy camps in no time. I quickly saw what everyone was talking about. I am finding that i am forcing myself to keep playing Far Cry 3. Admittedly I haven't gotten very far in it, in fact i haven't even done the second story mission, but that's because i figured I should go out and hunt to craft the bigger holsters, larger ammo packs, etc to be better prepared. And that's where I am hitting the wall. The starting weapons, though looking cool with snazzy paint jobs are weak, inaccurate and loud. this makes hunting clumsy at best: for skittish animals I'm just shooting everywhere but the target despite aiming down ironsights due to my lack of steadyness and stealth; for larger animals I am furiously backpedaling and spraying and praying with peashooters. Also, in terms of humans JC2 and FC3 suffer from the same hated gaming Achilles heel: Endlessly respawning enemies. To give FC3 credit, its not as infuriating as in JC2 where they just spawn and spawn till you invariably die or flee (this tunred me off the game completely towards the end). In FC3 you can turn off alarm boxes, and more importantly you can dive into the underbrush to hide. But too often i'll run for cover into the jungle, and be quickly torn apart by a tiger, pack of wild dogs, or panther. At least those enemies are very localized and more importantly, visible. the worst are the fucking komodo dragons. They slink low to the ground so are difficult to spot, roll in packs, and only emit a low hiss (unlike dogs which bark, tigers/panthers/bears that roar to announce themselves) Also, once they bite, you continuously lose heath for a short time, but that time stacks with multiple bites. Just nasty fuckers all around. Anyway, to try and prevent this i try to plan out a stealthy plan of attack. But it can get to be very slow and meticulous, particularly since the only silent weapon i have is a regular bow, and I'm having trouble with the weird arc of the regular arrows. I do realize that I have to level up more to get silencers for the guns, and apparently down the line as you level up your abilities you become this crazy powerful death dealing jungle man. Furthermore, I still have plenty of radio towers to open up, which will give better access to goodies, and drugs to ingest. And I do see the potential of a ton of fun. i think i was just dissapointed that it didnt hit me out of the gate as fast as everyone else apparently. I plan to do a couple of story missions, hopefully then I'll be in better position to explore a bit more.

I instantly got a fraternal twins vibe between JC2 and FC3, but unlike you I LOVE both of the twins. 
Just Cause 2 is probably going to go down as my favourite game of the generation and Far Cry 3 is not far behind for all the same reasons. 
 
You gotta get your hands on a silenced sniper rifle. It feels cheap at times but whenever I get frustrated it's nice to know that I can just give in, use the sniper rifle and clear anything if I feel the need. 
 
...unless a tiger sneaks up behind you of course.

@ProfessorEss: thanks for the tip! Will hold out for the sniper.

The sniper helps, but make sure to use it on enemies that are isolated or on elevated areas. For some reason, if you miss a guy by inches or if you kill one and his buddy finds the body, they are immediately drawn to your location no matter how well hidden or distant you are. It's like they are all mathematical geniuses who can calculate a reverse trajectory in seconds. Or....just hold out for the RPG and blow the crap out of everyone.

I dig them both. I told a friend that if he loves FC3 that he needs to dive into JC2 when he finishes the game. Saints Row the Third is to GTA4, as Just Cause 2 is to _______? Love it!

@Phoenix778m: Thats a spot on point about the Saints Row the third to GTA4 as Just Cause 2 to Far Cry, thanks for mentioning it. Definitely helps frame the expectations.

I would suggest doing some story missions in between. They give nice xp to get some of the survival skills.

I felt that JC2 was worse in this regard. Difficulty ramped up pretty quickly and I felt I had to get more HP. Spend a whole afternoon searching for health upgrades, that wasn't fun.

While both really don't have great stories, I think I liked JC2 better because I felt like I could easily go anywhere when I wanted to and create mayhem. The traversal in FC3 is your normal FPS pace and doesn't make it as fun when I could get anywhere as fast as you can in JC2. I could play JC2 for hours on end and never touch a single mission. Playing FC3 like that lasted about an hour or two before I realized I needed to do a mission as there just wasn't as much action to create off the bat. Once you take a stronghold you do the hunting mission or assassination then you pretty much do that for all of the 30 or so others in the game. It was still fun as hell to approach a base from any side and play it stealthy or go in with guns blazing. But other than the occasional tedious side mission or hunting for upgrades, the open world isn't all that fun. I wish there was more reason to explore it other than just collectables. More random enemy encounters, more diverse and combat focused side missions, and maybe even some smaller bases that couldn't be taken over would have been cool. Once you did the strongholds in an area, you pretty much had no reason to be there anymore as all the enemies were gone and all of the side missions were short pointless. In such a vast and open island setting, there sure wasn't much to do at all. I only did the hunting missions that were needed for upgrades, and all the health pack races were less than a minute and super easy. I still loved the hell out of the time I spent with it, but I just wish there was more to do than what it offered. I know not every game can have a Skyrim level of content, but I felt this whole game was just strongholds, radio towers, a dissapointing story, and not much else to do. I will go back to JC2 and screw around with all it's mechanics for hours and still never finish the whole story, FC3 I finished in 10 hours and have no reason to play again anytime soon. I could reset the strongholds, but that just wouldn't be fun.