New month, new post. Post number 3 in fact! I'm not sure when I'll stop counting my posts, but right now each one feels like an accomplishment. The one piece of advice that I've always heard about getting better at writing is that you need to keep a regular schedule, but boy am I terrible doing that. Anyway, I'll take the small victory and move on.

Looking over my last post, I realized how "review-y" it came across. Not that that's a bad thing, but I think for the next little while I'll try and keep my posts a little less structured. Years of being in the engineering field has pushed my writing to be formal and highly constructed, so I want to use this blog to practice a more loose writing style. But enough inside baseball, let's get to the talking about games!

Some final thoughts on Shadowrun: Hong Kong <Spoilers Below>

I ended up finishing the campaign for Shadowrun: Hong Kong over the weekend. There was actually more left to do than I first suspected, and my final play time came up to about 15 hours. The endgame involved a very interesting mission inside a corporate high-rise that offered a variety of options to complete it, but unfortunately the very last mission had a not that compelling final boss and was a little combat heavy for my liking. Also, the story went a little off the rails with a late reveal of a machine that influences luck. Granted, I get that the Shadowrun universe is a hodgepodge of various mystical tales and so a luck machine isn't completely from left field, but it just seemed a little out there all the same. In any case, the character interactions still managed to keep me interested throughout, so props to Harebrained for their fantastic dialog throughout the experience.

And into the backlog we go

My original plan after finishing Shadowrun: Hong Kong was to start on Metal Gear Solid V. Unfortunately, these bangers started playing out of their minds and now all of my disposable income is being saved up for tickets for what is promising to be an exciting October (22 years in the making). So in an effort to have some compelling content to write about, I am delving into my backlog. First up, Ubisoft's Himalayan opus, Far Cry 4.

Do you know what the definition of insanity is?

I swear every time I tell myself that I am done with Ubisoft's open world formula, there's another game that does it so damn well. Far Cry 4 isn't all that much different from Far Cry 3, but the cycle of climbing up towers, taking over enemy outposts, and doing side missions is as addictive as it was back when they perfected it in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. I'm only 4 hours into the game but I can already see myself scouring the map for every piece of loot while I have a podcast, ballgame, or Giant Bomb video in the background. While the gameplay itself is getting long in the tooth the developers smartly freshened up the setting to deliver a new experience. The Himalayas are not exactly a common environment in video games, and it is good to see it represented here. Also, the examination of a fictionalized Nepal (known here as Kyrat) allows for a fascinating representation of the unique fusion of Chinese and Indian culture known to that part of the world.

I can't really speak to the authenticity of the setting, seeing as I've never been to the Himalayas, but I do feel a sort of kinship with the protagonist, Ajay Ghale. I am a child of first generation immigrants from Sri Lanka, itself a war torn nation in the Indian subcontinent, and I've definitely felt the pull of Eastern versus Western culture that Ajay seems to be experiencing in the game. The game doesn't push this aspect of Ajay's character to the forefront (at least not this early in the story), but there are some subtle hinting to this inner conflict. For instance, the pronunciation of Ajay's name varies depending on the speaker. Ajay and other more westernized characters call him "Ay-jay Gail" whereas the easternized characters refer to him as "Ah-jay Ghal-ay". It's something I've heard growing up as I have a cousin named Ajay and he went through the exact same thing. It's striking to me that Ajay prefers the westernized pronunciation of his name, and through it I infer that he has subconsciously chosen to embrace his identity as an American to the expense of his Kyrati heritage. It's the quintessential immigrant conundrum in the Western world of how much of the old world do you bring with you to the new one, and there is usually no right answer. I'm curious how much this thread will be developed over the course of the game and if Ajay finds a new balance between his chosen identity and the past his parents came from. At least in the meantime I get to attack outposts with a rocket launcher on the back of an elephant, so there's always that.

Next up on the blog

I've been summoned for jury duty this week, which so far has been a whole lot of waiting at the courthouse for my number to be called. It's given me an excuse to fire up my Vita as well as get back into iOS gaming. I've got Lara Croft GO and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath queued up, so I may discuss them depending on how much those games pull me in. Of course, I'll probably have gotten further into Far Cry 4, so expect to see more on that. Later duders.

Moved out of General to the Far Cry 4 forum.

When you're creating blogs and want to cross post them to the forums, make sure you associate them with the appropriate pages when asked, and then on the final page you'll get those pages as choices to post your blog to instead of just the default forums such as General, Off Topic, and such.

@Mike: Thanks for the tip!

@darth_navster: No worries, the blog interface has always left a lot to be desired

Hey man,

Just thought I'd add a comment as, like you, I'm also trying to get in the habit of writing a regular games blog. Personally, I've been struggling to find anybody interested enough in what I write to engage back with me about it and its becoming a little disheartening. But to be honest I get it... every (wo)man and his/her dog out there writes a blog and it's rare to find something that stands out from the crowd, be it in content or style. Most of the time when somebody posts a blog, unless it's for a site that I trust and regularly enjoy, I just glaze over it and move on, even though I know how frustrating that is when you've put so much time into writing something. Have you found anything like that, or are you actually gaining regular contributors? If so, any advice?

Anyway give my blog a look if the whim takes you. I'd appreciate it very much. Us bloggers trying to break into the scene need to support each other after all!

In regards your actual post... I just got completely fatigued by Far Cry 4. I loved Far Cry 2 and 3, but I just found 4 a little soul-less. For all it's problems with respawning guard posts, 2 really was something which made the whole "emergent gameplay" thing click for me and I hold that game really dear to my heart. 3, while completely different in style, really was a great, fun game. And then when I play 4, I see a polished and beautiful game that pretty much improves on the previous iteration in every area... Yet despite this I just can't enjoy it without a big pervading sense of "been here, done that".

I was actually thinking about this the other day and how much I'm looking forward to Fallout. This generation has introduced me to a lot of great indie games, and I'm really happy for that, but I am really, really dying for some wholly immersive first person exploration/RPG game that I can really dig my teeth into. I know The Witcher is a hugely impressive technical feat, but there's something about it being in third person that puts up too much of a disconnect for me (see blog post).

Beat Far Cry 4 in 15 minutes