Quick Look: Far Cry 5

@kid_gloves: Man, it's been super weird to see ostensibly liberal writers talking about how Far Cry 5 is just so different because it takes place in America.

From an article on Polygon:

The problem isn’t that Americans are upset that the game is set in here. The problem is that Far Cry 5 treats the country like a cartoon background, rather than a very real and very complex place. The series has done that for other locations, of course, but Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4 still felt like violence set amid beautiful “exotic” backdrops, with the mildest hint of a timely connection.

I mean, that's some mental gymnastics right there.

@bladeofcreation: Yeesh. That is a textbook example of "it's fun when crazy, violent things happen in 'Foreign Country X', but it makes me upset when crazy, violent things happen in MY AMERICA".

@dasakamov: That is (at least) the second example of that type of thinking that I've seen. I can't find it right now because Far Cry 5 searches are mostly turning up reviews, but there was a preview of the game that said essentially the same thing. I think it was Polygon as well. I guess part of the issue is that, "Montana is real." Which is true, but my understanding of the previous game is that Far Cry 4 is pretty much taking place in "totally not Tibet."

Okay, it's true that FC 5 takes place in a real country (but a fictional county), but the argument there just rubs me the wrong way. It's not literally dishonest, so much as it ignores context to make a pretty shitty point.

Exactly. All I could do is shake my head. I think Austin Walker had the best take regarding this game and how a western perspective can be blind to how FC 3 and FC 4 handled foreign locales versus FC 5.

gah not at all. I don't want quick looks just to see what games I should buy. I want to see ones I should avoid too.

Far Cry 3 felt like a kid's crayon drawing of what a pacific(Not that there was enough detail to really know what part of the world it was supposed to be in, it must be somewhere in the pacific though.) island is like. That polygon quote is bananas.

This game looks like boring AF + dumb jeebus ppl. It blows my mind how everyone can slurp up the same tired crap year after year when there are so many interesting games out there.

@mosthigh: What are some of the more interesting games in your opinion? Not trying to bait or mock you or anything, just genuinely curious what people out there are excited about.

Well the important thing is this, Cheeseburger the bear is a strong contender for best new character of 2018.

Don't discount my girl Peaches, she's great!

There's a very TV show/"next time on"/ad break feel to that fade and cutscene after taking the outpost (~30:00)

Yeah, it's quite odd that they chose to show endgame content when all that's left is open world filler.

Is it really surprising that Polygon has a super bad read? I often find myself shaking my head and saying "what?" to myself after reading most of their opinionated articles, both on video games and not video games. And this is coming from someone who, outside of video games, tends to share the same basic beliefs their writers seem to possess.

I can't think of another video game site I find to be so consistently off the mark as Polygon.

@backstabuuu: they truly are a collection of like minded people that come up with the weirdest angles possible when writing articles.

As someone with tinnitus (that thankfully is waaaaayyy better than it used to be) I find the extreme amount of ringing in this video obnoxious and painful. Farcry seems to be one of the very worst offenders for throwing this in their games. While I don't mind it being in there per se as most people won't have the strong reaction to it that I do, I'd really appreciate more games giving you the option to turn it off.

@humanity: Some of the games I have played recently that I found interesting: Hellblade, Vermintide 2, Monster Hunter World, Into the Breach, Divinity 2, A Way Out, and Battle Chef Brigade.

The first 2 sentences in that Polygon quote are not really all that wrong though, Far Cry 5 is super cartoonish. The problem I have is with the rest of the quote because Far Cry 3 and 4 (more so 4) felt cartoonish as well with their over the top villains and foreign landscapes only existing to serve as a backdrop for the wild shit you end up doing. 5 doesn't look all that different apart from having weaker antagonists.

At least I now know why the “you’ve been shot” indicator is purple. Pretty neat of them to have some effective colorblind options.

@thatonedudenick: Did you miss them having a pity stream on the day that Trump was elected president? Or do you not hear them sigh and wring their hands about tragedies around the country on the podcasts? They straight up told gamergate people to fuck off of the site when that was happening. It doesn't come out much, but it's not hard to pin down where their political biases lie.

And as for the game itself, the banner is a take on The Last Supper with guns, bondage, and a predominantly white cast looming over a an American countryside, all being released in a time when racial issues and gun ownership are incredibly sensitive, divisive topics. How could you not think that this game was going to invite some of those criticims and comparisons?

Halo crosshair is bad crosshair.

I love it when these threads fill up with people demanding to "take politics out of mah gaemes" then when everyone asks them why it turns out they're just struggling with the idea of art making them think. Anyway, it's a bummer but not surprising to see that Far Cry 5 is pretty bland and uses America as new set dressing but not much else. I was hoping to see them leverage being in a 1st world country to actually change up the gameplay or story.

And did Jeff land on a friggin' moose with that car?!

When this game was first announced it seemed like the developers were actually leaning into the interesting setting of southern US cults and antigoverment militias, but it is easy to see that they weren't expecting the response it got. Now it just looks like a $10 purchase to me.

The developers aren't American and so probably felt that this version of Montana was as fantasy as not-Tibet and far off magical tropical Pacific islands; it certainly doesn't feel any more real to me. Combined with that nutjob response from some parties about The New Colossus, and it's easy to see why Ubisoft would have ordered this game watered down into its current state.

That, or they came out swinging for the announcement trailer with no actual intent on sticking to its perceived promises, but no game company would do that, would they?

Not everybody wants that though? Politics are EVERYWHERE. There's nothing wrong with wanting to play something and just forgetting all that nonsense.

I can't help but think that some people jumped the gun and promised themselves things about what this game would have to say, after seeing where it takes place and who the enemy is.

This dudn't look great. Took a break from Far Cry after Blood Dragon, don't think this'll bring me back.