Anyone else feel the hunting aspect is a little overplayed in Far Cry 3? Like killing sharks for a new wallet wasn't ridiculous enough on the surface, there's something really off about a game that puts you on an island packed with endangered species and pretty much begs you to kill everything you see. You don't even get the logbook info about the animal until you've killed it. I shot a galapagos turtle in the face as it was trying to hide in its shell and i felt like shit for the rest of the session.

I've had tons of fun with FC3 (bluescreens repeatedly on my PC though, thanks Ubi!) but the economy elements seem pretty undercooked. Halfway into the game you don't need money anymore, so why loot anything? The only thing that's left for you is to murder all the animals to make bags of them. Weird.

Anyone else feel the hunting aspect is a little overplayed in Far Cry 3? Like killing sharks for a new wallet wasn't ridiculous enough on the surface, there's something really off about a game that puts you on an island packed with endangered species and pretty much begs you to kill everything you see. You don't even get the logbook info about the animal until you've killed it. I shot a galapagos turtle in the face as it was trying to hide in its shell and i felt like shit for the rest of the session.

I've had tons of fun with FC3 (bluescreens repeatedly on my PC though, thanks Ubi!) but the economy elements seem pretty undercooked. Halfway into the game you don't need money anymore, so why loot anything? The only thing that's left for you is to murder all the animals to make bags of them. Weird.

I went out of my way to snipe a Manta Ray.

But killing humans is fine. Well, scummy slaver pirate humans, but still.

@TheDudeOfGaming: Yep.

once i get the pelt i need i dont even try to kill them unless they directly attack me, and even then who cares about skinning them. but still i really have no problem with it. its also makes it more fun in some ways

i was trying to take a camp stealthy to got up high on a nearby hill took out my camera to mark the targets and gets rammed by a buffalo. so tried to kill it with my bow since it was the only stealth weapon i had besides my knife. got it then stealthy as a ninja i sidestepped around the side of the camp so i could get to a better spot to do some up close a personal stealth kill but walked right in to another buffalo. okay killed that one to without getting the attention of the guards. slowly walked up knifed the first guy and dragged him away and got attacked by a tiger that i apparently had let out of its cage with a arrow that missed the second buffalo and died.

only real problem i have with the hunting is that so far i have not found a way to kill animals under water other then getting attacked by a crock. not even when your "sneaking" up on a shark. but luring them to a nearby rock and using c4 does

@Grillbar: Run those sharks over with a damn boat.

If you only kill animals for the skins for the inventory upgrades you only need a few (and upgrades can be done all in the first half of the game), comparatively liberating outposts and doing story missions you kill maybe 100x as many humans.

Don't think the game begs you to kill everything you see at all, if you did, you would be doing nothing except wandering around forever killing animals that infinitely respawn and will be always running out of bullets :P Massive waste of time.

You need the money if you want to buy the special signature weapons (which are awesome) and maps.

Uh, where else are we supposed to kill endangered species?

@GunstarRed said:

I went out of my way to snipe a Manta Ray.

You have avenged the crocodile hunter.

@Grillbar: For water animals, mainly sharks, I take a boat out and shoot them from it when they're close to the surface.

Fuck animals.

@Sunjammer said:

Anyone else feel the hunting aspect is a little overplayed in Far Cry 3? Like killing sharks for a new wallet wasn't ridiculous enough on the surface, there's something really off about a game that puts you on an island packed with endangered species and pretty much begs you to kill everything you see. You don't even get the logbook info about the animal until you've killed it. I shot a galapagos turtle in the face as it was trying to hide in its shell and i felt like shit for the rest of the session.

I've had tons of fun with FC3 (bluescreens repeatedly on my PC though, thanks Ubi!) but the economy elements seem pretty undercooked. Halfway into the game you don't need money anymore, so why loot anything? The only thing that's left for you is to murder all the animals to make bags of them. Weird.

I don't like hurting defenseless animals for nothing. But in this game, they allow me to survive better. So i'm okay with it. And killing that tiger that wants to feast on my heart? I've got no problem with that.

In this game you can truly learn to appreciate the beauty of nature... before you slaughter everyone and everything, burn the forests and otherwise turn it all to endless piles of death, ashes and goo.

Videogames.
 
The economy is a little bad however, I'm barely 4 hours in and I've been able to buy every weapon I wanted, with upgrades, and got most of the bags already.

Everyone should own a flamethrower. You know. For their own safety and the safety of those around them.

I don't care about what I kill in video games. I really don't care.

@CaLe: I wouldn't kill Clementine, even if she rode on a tiger and the tiger was about to kill me and the only weapon I had was a melon sized grenade.

Somebody call PETA!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually being able to see (and kill) endangered species in the digital world is pretty cool. I don't think i'd feel bad, and you shouldn't too.

@Funkydupe said:

@CaLe: I wouldn't kill Clementine, even if she rode on a tiger and the tiger was about to kill me and the only weapon I had was a melon sized grenade.

If Lee had turned into a zombie and the only way to progress was to eat Clementine's brains, I'd do it. I wouldn't stop playing because I don't like what the game wants me to do. They should have done that. Missed opportunity.

@Funkydupe said:

@CaLe: I wouldn't kill Clementine, even if she rode on a tiger and the tiger was about to kill me and the only weapon I had was a melon sized grenade.

If Lee had turned into a zombie and the only way to progress was to eat Clementine's brains, I'd do it. I wouldn't stop playing because I don't like what the game wants me to do. They should have done that. Missed opportunity.

We dont need PETA people over here

Hunting animals in the game has been fun so far, I only kill animals that will hurt me though. But man fuck sharks..

@Hizang: But some upgrades require you to kill herbivores and such, do you just manage without those?

@Funkydupe said:

@Hizang: But some upgrades require you to kill herbivores and such, do you just manage without those?

I have already done those, I really don't care about this and don't see why its an issue. I kill humans in video games just fine so why do people care if I choose to kill a goat for no reason?

I'm gonna kill ALL the animals.

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

Videogames. The economy is a little bad however, I'm barely 4 hours in and I've been able to buy every weapon I wanted, with upgrades, and got most of the bags already.

There are loads more weapons that you can't buy yet. They're pricey.

@david3cm: See killiing is one thing. But that is a road to far!

Baby seal DLC confirmed

I SET A BEAR ON FIRE AND IT CHARGED ME AND I WAS ON FIRE THEN EVERYTHING WAS FIRE

@Demoskinos said:

@GunstarRed said:

I went out of my way to snipe a Manta Ray.

You have avenged the crocodile hunter.

Would it be bad if that was an achievement called Vengeance?

I guess simulated human murder is much more acceptable then?

Guys, treat polygons with respect please. 

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

Videogames. The economy is a little bad however, I'm barely 4 hours in and I've been able to buy every weapon I wanted, with upgrades, and got most of the bags already.

There are loads more weapons that you can't buy yet. They're pricey.

Yes, it feels lame to kill animals in video games. At least they're just pixels, but I don't enjoy it. So yeah, I am put off by how slaughtering thousands of rare and endangered animals seems to be so central in FC3.

Reading a lot of defensive irony here, y'all. It's looking pretty grim!

The "why can't I this when I do that" is such an old defense.. By that standard, I kill people all the time, why would killing kids be any different? At that point it boils down to eschewing your morals entirely for the sake of play. To me that seems like a mental handicap, not a freedom.

Believe me I'm no fanatic vegetarian animal rights activist. But I have a couple of cats and I generally like animal life, haha. Something about FC3 managed to rub me the wrong way. Spot a herd of deer running from a tiger, first instinct isn't wow, this open world shit huh, how about it. The instinct is to open the crafting menu and see what kind of handbag I could make if I killed them.

I suppose the herbivores are what bothers me the most. Chasing after squealing pigs with a knife so I can carry more flamethrower fuel just feels callous to me. It isn't like in GTA where you can kill innocents for a couple of bucks. You have absolutely no reason on this earth to kill innocents in GTA other than your own definition of pleasure (and I'm not gonna high horse it too much but TBH if you enjoy any sort of murder of innocents, virtual or not, you're pretty much a piece of shit by my book). In FC3 practically everything you can kill will have some actual benefit. Sure, you can stop doing it once that benefit goes away. That doesn't mean the game didn't ask you to do it.

@Sunjammer:

I guess you should look at this more as an introspective look at yourself. You like animals yet your first thought was to game mechanics. Also they way you describe chasing after pigs with a knife :P

For example i made a mental list of required skins, then got the upgrade that got me 2 skins for each kill, proceeded to kill animals fast/humanely with 1-2 shotgun shots (when if i saw them), crafted everything in probably the first 1/3rd of the game, and proceeded to never bother with killing animals again for the rest of the game unless it was in self defense. (not out of any sense of mercy mind you out of pure efficiency standpoint)

It just didn't rub other people the wrong way the same way it did you is all. Most don't value animal life above human life. Ergo they don't really mind killing and skinning animals for inventory upgrades. Equating peoples emotional reaction to animal killing in a game to killing children, is a straight up fallacy. Which is why "why can't I this when I do that" defense while old still works, because of how people feel differently towards animals, humans, kids.

And games (including this one) ask you to kill humans all the time for one benefit or another be it XP or loot. We've also been killing animals in games as long as we've been humans. And many eat herbivores pretty frequently in life too.

The moral of this is that your own morals might be challenged or eschewed for the sake of play, others like this thread has shown don't find it conflicting with their morals at all.

@Sunjammer said:

I shot a galapagos turtle in the face as it was trying to hide in its shell and i felt like shit for the rest of the session.

Aww, that's actually pretty sweet. One would think most gamers wouldn't care about something like that.

@Sunjammer said:

Anyone else feel the hunting aspect is a little overplayed in Far Cry 3? Like killing sharks for a new wallet wasn't ridiculous enough on the surface, there's something really off about a game that puts you on an island packed with endangered species and pretty much begs you to kill everything you see. You don't even get the logbook info about the animal until you've killed it. I shot a galapagos turtle in the face as it was trying to hide in its shell and i felt like shit for the rest of the session.

I've had tons of fun with FC3 (bluescreens repeatedly on my PC though, thanks Ubi!) but the economy elements seem pretty undercooked. Halfway into the game you don't need money anymore, so why loot anything? The only thing that's left for you is to murder all the animals to make bags of them. Weird.

I really love all the wildlife and the hunting aspect to the game. Was doing a mission yesterday sneaking up on a guard on a wharf when swimming, when out of nowhere a crocodile bit me and got into a fight with him Steve Irwin style. Was the biggest scare I have had in a game in a long long time and there are very expensive weapons on the other island I hear.

@Tennmuerti said:

If you only kill animals for the skins for the inventory upgrades you only need a few (and upgrades can be done all in the first half of the game), comparatively liberating outposts and doing story missions you kill maybe 100x as many humans.

Don't think the game begs you to kill everything you see at all, if you did, you would be doing nothing except wandering around forever killing animals that infinitely respawn and will be always running out of bullets :P Massive waste of time.

You need the money if you want to buy the special signature weapons (which are awesome) and maps.

Haha some how in every courier mission I have done, I've managed to run over the guy at the finish line by mistake and I still get the xp and money which is hillarious because he is the one I'm supposed to be giving the med kits too.@Sploder said:

I SET A BEAR ON FIRE AND IT CHARGED ME AND I WAS ON FIRE THEN EVERYTHING WAS FIRE

Sounds like one of those new Pokemon

@mrpandaman said:

@Demoskinos said:

@GunstarRed said:

I went out of my way to snipe a Manta Ray.

You have avenged the crocodile hunter.

Would it be bad if that was an achievement called Vengeance?

Crickey! - 50G

@Sunjammer: You should be able to slowly raise animals and get supplies from them after they eventually pass away in your loving arms.

"Oh little Olivander... you have been a faithful pig all of these years, and now... now you are providing me with the chance to hold more grenades. Your sacrifice will not be in vain."

@Sunjammer said:

(and I'm not gonna high horse it too much but TBH if you enjoy any sort of murder of innocents, virtual or not, you're pretty much a piece of shit by my book).

That's the highest horse you can get on without suffocating from the lack of oxygen.

I'm a pacifist, and I adore my animals. I go out of my way to help others, just because I can't stand to see people suffer. (I know that I sound self-aggrandizing here, but it's to make a point) I'm also a sadistic motherfucker in games. I actually scare myself sometimes. My choices in entertainment are pretty twisted all around, in fact. But that never translates into how I act in reality. In fact, I'm much calmer and more likely to be kind after a gaming session.

If that makes me a piece of shit, then so be it. I'd rather be a piece of shit for knowing how to channel my issues safely than be one for letting said issues roam free.

I'm far from perfect, believe me. But don't lump me in with murderers and psychopaths just because I feel my moral compass doesn't apply to polygonal constructs.

I felt bad about killing in a game, id say its a good thing and the game has achieved its purpose.

@ShaggE: Sorry, but I calls it as I sees it. If you think it's mega funtimes to kill indiscriminately, look in the mirror. I don't think the horse of not killing civilians is all that uncomfortable.

Also, pretty funny to take the "I kill humanely in my video game" approach. Kind of proves my point that you do care ;-)

@Sunjammer said:

I shot a galapagos turtle in the face...

Oh man, I just lost my shit...that's not a sentence I ever expected to read. I guess I have to buy this game now.

@Sunjammer: lol, as I read this thread all I can think about is how much I'd to love have a sweet new pair of muscly-armed-seagull skin boots.

i wouldn't necessarily agree that just because a person gets a thrill or a "release" simply from acting out, even violently, in a videogame automatically makes them sadistic. that's a bit of a stretch. but i would assume that combining any form of self-indulgence with a thoughtless person, especially as it pertains to their own morality, that individual certainly runs a greater chance of becoming a total piece of shit, perhaps even worse...

@Sunjammer said:

@ShaggE: Sorry, but I calls it as I sees it. If you think it's mega funtimes to kill indiscriminately, look in the mirror. I don't think the horse of not killing civilians is all that uncomfortable.

*looks in the mirror* Hey, look at that, somebody who has never killed anybody, and has in fact gone out of their way to do the opposite. *doffs hat at reflection*

You can call it as you see it all you like, but if what you see is based on an inability to separate fiction from reality, then what good does it do? If what I do in a game reflects what I do in reality, then you'd better call the police and tell them that I opened fire in a crowded street in GTA. I'm sure they'll get right on that, you hero, you. In fact, after they convict me of First Degree Gaming, I'll even own up to it and make a public apology to all of the character models that needlessly went from "AI state" to "ragdoll state" by my hand. Truly, I will feel the utmost remorse for possessing a passerby in Saints Row 3 with a talking squid, and then landing a VTOL on him. Amaaaaziiiing graaaaace, how sweeeeet thy soooound...

Tell me, Mahatma. What are you doing on Giant Bomb anyway, if this disgusts you so? Vinny and Ryan have both shown extreme mercilessness in their gaming, and the others aren't exactly virtual saints either. By paying them with a membership, do you not support their virtual terrorism? Doesn't Vinny's gleeful response to randomly whacking pedestrians with a speeding car door in Sleeping Dogs dig at your pristine morality?

@ShaggE: Seems like I struck a nerve there. Defensive much?

But sure, I'll examine myself. I'm not perfectly rational about this shit as much as anyone. TBH I've probably tried to put words to something I can't properly articulate, so I'll moderate myself and try again:

Watching Vinny smash a random bystander's face in a car door is one thing, doing it myself is another. I find it physically uncomfortable to do that kind of shit. Is it funny to watch? Yep. Because it's fucking outlandish to me. It's dark humor on a level I can't personally execute. In the same way, since I started getting the feeling that Far Cry 3 has it "in" for animals, to be honest, I found it sort of darkly funny. My girlfriend asks what I'm playing and I answer it's an animal genocide simulator.

The argument that bothers me here, really, is the notion that hey guy, you kill people in games all the time, why does killing animals bug you so much, and I can't help but feel that animals are not even remotely in the same category. Perhaps I've simply become indoctrinated to think human beings are okay to maim because they're "us". It's like making racist jokes that concern your own race. It's okay then.

In the same breath, I felt physically ill in Splinter Cell Conviction when the game asked me to smack Grim around in that cutscene. I don't like the idea of punching a girl. Fallout 2, in Europe, didn't have kids in it. When I later heard the US version did, and had a "child killer" set of responses, my stomach churned a bit. In my broken little mind, kids and women are "not me", so it's not okay or funny to make violent, murderous jokes about them. I'm just not dude enough for that shit.

It does boil down to personal morality then. I apologize if I personally insulted you, that was stupidly defensive of me when I had my rhetoric challenged.

Maybe the question, in the end, is where player choice intersects the requirements of the gameplay. For instance, perhaps Far Cry 3 only really bugs me because it specifically asks me to kill animals I don't feel I should have to kill. You can't flip the coin any more ways than this; The crafting system in FC3 is pretty dumb. Can't sell shit because your wallet isn't big enough for the cash, guess it's time to run over some bull sharks in a speedboat! Gotta git that wallet upgrade!

So maybe it's the crafting system requiring me to do things that seem callous is what really bugs me. As for the hilarious killing of innocent bystanders, I'll leave that joke for you to enjoy.

But killing that turtle is going to stick with me for a while. Whoof.

You can't kill a deer in front of its child in Far Cry 3. ADVANTAGE ASSASSIN'S CREED !