Spoilers.

I purposefully held off on playing Far Cry 3 until I had a new PC built, (and for a reasonable sale). This past weekend I had a ton of time set aside to devote to the base game, and the...expansion? - Blood Dragon. I have a hard time devoting a ton of time to shooters anymore, so I knew I needed to get through the game before I lost interest or it felt like a chore.

For the most part, I really enjoyed 3. I have some complaints, but this post is about one in particular - the ending. I know I'm late to the game in general, but it really ended with a binary choice? I wish games would get away from this mechanic. For a game to have barely any choices for its entirety, having one at the end makes no sense.

In order for this to be a comparison, I should just get to it. (I played a lot of this game today, hard to keep my thoughts straight!) Far Cry 3 had a very typical build up to the end. After Vaas' death, the player is set on finding Vaas' boss, Hoyt, and killing him. I didn't have a problem with the privateer segment, as the fast traveling instantly with no fear of alerting guards was a nice breather. Through a few missions, the player slowly tears down Hoyt's operation in order to get close to him.

The climax ends with a somewhat lengthy escape sequence, which is where the ending began to fall apart for me. I'm not a fan of when games wrap up with shooting galleries upon shooting galleries, throwing as many enemies as possible. That's just never been fun to me. Also, "Ride of the Valkyries" as you escape in the helicopter just didn't seem to work. I get the game had a lighthearted feel at times, but that just came off as silly in the final moments where everything was very serious.

I'm typing too much. Here's my point! Blood Dragon was an absolute blast. Sticking to the main story quests made it even more enjoyable, (that map felt very lifeless and I had no desire to explore). The entire campaign was short but a perfect length. The 80's goofiness didn't have enough time to overstay its welcome. I laughed constantly and had a smile on my face the whole time. The ending sequence was again, shooting galleries, but this time it was fun.

There was no stress because your weapon was basically a one shot kill. Instead of worrying about failing and having to replay, I could just waltz right through the insanity of everything exploding in neon colors with synth music playing.Then it got even more insane by riding a blood dragon wearing armor! At the end I was treated with a literal fireworks show as I brought everything to ruin.

Playing these both together in a short amount of time was an interesting experience. Blood Dragon was so short that I didn't even have time to dislike anything about it. I think by the time I was finishing 3, I was worn out on Jason Brody's incessant attempt to sound like a badass, so I didn't care what happened to him or his friends. Overall though, Far Cry 3 and Blood Dragon were awesome and I highly recommend them.

If you stuck with me, thanks for reading!