Art's JC2 game impressions

[Art Blade]

Alright, the first impression(s) was: What! Doesn't run with XP? Need a new OS, buy win7 (cringe, dual boot system setup... but I managed). Then: Need Steam (cringe). Then: Steam caused me to wait until I was even able to download an update, and when I finally downloaded it from Steam, it took like 90 minutes. Why did I buy the DVD again? Update to 1.0.0.1 = "download the entire game, including 1 kb of update?"

The joy was great when I had mastered all the above, the game fired up and actually let me see with my own eyes what I had only been able to watch on youtube (or screenshots) so far: Nice! Works! First thing I did was performance check, the dark tower. Average 32 fps but oh, not everything maxed out? Did that, got around 19 fps (1920*1200 res, no AA, 2xAF, everything else highest possible).

Decided to download the newest nVidia driver, going to tweak the driver's settings and then head on to check the results in a minute ;)

[Art Blade]

I decided to switch off SSAO, point light specular, Bokeh filter and GPU water simulation. The rest is on its max. Average fps 30.41, that I can live with, and everything looks still great :)

Now, starting a new career!  :-X

[Art Blade]

Yay! :) This is fun already, in spite of the fact that the controls (mouse, keyboard) are kind of wonky and feel a little delayed, not as crisp and immediate as FC2. Since I want to play and not to get a heart attack, I chose to play on the easiest difficulty level.

I am not familiar with the layout and that causes me to use the grapple as a weapon a lot more (including whacking people's heads with it and causing "fall kills") than actually shooting someone (but I started off with three headshots). Not as easy as it looks, to control your body movement, a grapple, and the glider, if you want to get around with style. At the moment, I am a little bumbling and move rather clumsily, more a disgrace to the mercenary guilds  ;)

This is quite enjoyable, really, to get into all this now by myself  ;D



edit: corrected a grammatical mistake

[Art Blade]

Oh and I might add, my win7 setup in English payed off: the game prompted me about the setup language "English" to which I thought "bloody YES!" and the game actually is in English, too (despite of my German version)  :-X ;D ;D ;D

Maybe that was the reason my Steam download took so long... maybe they needed to give me all the English sound files. Who cares now  ;D

[PZ]

Excellent reports, Art - I almost feel like I've been there in the room with you as you've done the installation and initial play.

You might have the answer with the English/German version.  Perhaps the entire English version needed to be downloaded because you've the German version on DVD.

I think you'll find that mapping your mouse buttons to frequently used functions will be the answer to comfortably and naturally playing the puppet master.

This is what I've done, and it works for me quite naturally (probably won't w@&k for others, but you get the idea)

• Grapple - I use it so often that it is my first side mouse button.
• Map - the other side button
• Melee - pressing the mouse wheel
• Action (E) - moving mouse wheel to the left
• Stunt - moving mouse wheel to the right
• Aim - top left button
• Grenade select - top right button
• Weapon select - mouse wheel
  

[Art Blade]

Thank you, PZ :)

I haven't got my mouse and keyboard drivers installed yet, the game recognises two buttons only with my mouse (not for much longer, though  ;) )

I use the default layout at the moment, until I can determine which is which, and I'll take a close look at your suggestion, thanks for your layout  :-X

And about the game:

Heh heh heh  :-* about one hour to familiarise myself with the controls and all, and to get the first location, where you start the game, finished with 100%.  ;D

Only got killed once when I was inside a police car and an armoured vehicle took me out in no time. Kind of underestimated my own armour...  :P But after that, I finished them off, mostly with a little pistol  ;D

This game definitely is great, I can take my own time to finish a mission, the helo kept waiting for me, I walked around until I found the last bit of equipment I could destroy or pick up. I am enjoying it  :) :-X

[Art Blade]

By the way, the vids on youtube impressed me already when I heard those explosions in stereo. Now with my own game, I hear them in 5.1 and I can't get enough of those sounds... fft-PANG!  ;D

Oh and I managed to tether a govmen to a gas canister and sent him flying away  ;D

[PZ]

... I can take my own time to finish a mission, the helo kept waiting for me, I walked around until I found the last bit of equipment I could destroy or pick up. I am enjoying it  :) :-X

That's the great part - everyone in the game knows their role and what to do.  I was on a mission where a Reaper helicopter pilot was to deliver me to a location.  He even left the bird there for me to complete the mission.

[Art Blade]

there we go again, overlapping posts!  ;D I was editing my previous post while you submitted your post, matey  :)

Yes, they know their places. If not, I'll stitch it into their brains with my grapple!  ;D

[PZ]

One really fun method is the "juggle kill" in which you grapple a govman toward you and when he is close, raise your weapon and blast him.  I use the sawed-off shotgun in such instances, and it offers great satisfaction.

The fall kill is also lots of fun because of the way the govmen yell on the way down to the ground.  I often try to set these up so I get the satisfaction.  ;D

Then there's the melee kill which was my favorite when I first started the kill - keep grappling the victim toward you and when he is close enough, keep hitting him with the grapple.

Finally, the pinata kill where you double grapple a govman to some vertical object.

These are just the beginning of the fun - there is so many different ways to use explosives and grenades (I'd recommend upgrading the explosives)

Of course, because you're on the PC, the wealth of mods, especially the Bolo mod brings another dimension into playing.

Man, you're going to have a blast (I think)  ;D

[Art Blade]

I'm sure of it  ;D

Already had two funny moments. The casino with the demolition officer outside... I grappled him and tethered him to a nice convertible (some civilian car), got in and ran him over. He was so surprised that he dropped his explosives somewhere far from me, and I heard them go off... while I watched that ugly bug wedged between my rear tyres  ;D

Then I thought "what's that noise?" - the giant waterfall. I jumped in and bounced around and down, down, down... until I left the mission area. The moment I opened my glider, the mission was called a failure. Tssss  ;D Just starting over now.

[PZ]

Good one - the munitions officers are found in various areas, and they always drop their grenades (activated) when they are killed.  It can normally be a challenge to get away before they explode of you are close when you get him, but your technique is not only very good, but very funny.  :-X

I'm going to try something like that the next time.

[Art Blade]

Thanks, good to know that I'm funny even while killing people ;D

What I've noticed is that you can take your time killing people. No need to panic, just pick them one by one, and preferably find some cover first so they don't perforate your jump suit too quickly. :) I killed 76 peeps so far and never had any worries about ammo. Waltz in, randomly shoot someone, easy-peasy  ;D

[PZ]

As you accomplish more, and clear out areas with greater efficiency, the military security level rises, as does the govman aggressiveness - keeps you on your toes as the game progresses so you don't become bored.  ;D

[Art Blade]

I think so  ;D

Right now I've taken on a faction mission for the Ulah boys, some stronghold takeover I believe, something where the boss will be "radiated." Before that, I went on a stroll and pulled a statue down with a fire truck and caused some chaos around. I realised that your health doesn't revert to full when you take on a mission... better get your health up before you start a mission  ;)

[PZ]

There are often health packs available, especially on the stronghold missions.  Playing on casual certainly helps my gaming skills.  ;D

[spaceboy]

glad to hear you're enjoying it Art - welcome to Panau!

[Art Blade]

thanks, mate  :)

Had to pause the game for a while, now back into it. I just unlocked the extraction feature (I remember it has been asked about), I think it was just because I completed a 2nd location, I wasn't doing anything else at that time when the message popped up.

[fragger]

Watch out Panau, Art Blade's on the case 8)

[Art Blade]

you bet!  ;D

I thought I'd do some random exploring, couldn't find a fast car (the plane I won an air race with dropped away from down under me when I accidently hit a key that made me bail out). Hijacked a fishing boat, from there some military fast boat, on to some rocket site, gliding to an outpost, grabbed and unmounted a massive gattling gun and then... I played traffic warden around a T-junction. Took out like 80 military vehicles and killed probably 300 peeps there. Trying to establish and uphold the law there isn't an easy task  ;D

[PZ]

Sounds like you jumped right into the mix of things  ;D

[Art Blade]

hehe, yes :)

I think I get distracted easily. Last thing I did was the faction mission about those rockets sending satellites into orbit, and the (slow) fighter plane you get in the end of that I used to explore some of the map. I realised that it wasn't just that easy because undiscovered locations require quite a low fly-over to register as discovered. So the nearest thing I got to was the airport, I wanted to get that faster plane there but alas, I spotted a colonel (which in three attempts I didn't survive). So I started off from a Ular Boys stronghold, hopped in one of their armed vehicles and wanted to drive to the airport (before that I used an extraction which indeed didn't cost a penny). Now on my way to the airport "we" happened upon some govmen and ever since... I kept fighting on the streets, practicing proper headshots (around 150 now) with a pistol and my kills have accumulated to around 750. So instead of getting back to that damn airport, I kept enjoying myself fighting govmen all over the place for maybe two hours  ;D

[PZ]

You're experiencing what spaceboy mentioned regarding how he plays the game, and what I too experience most of the time.  While it is fun to do the missions, it is just as fun to continue exploring an area after the mission is complete.  I like the way you get to keep the vehicles/weapons you end a mission with - that goes for the races too.

[Art Blade]

yes, that's pretty cool :)

In general, this game has got many many aspects of what I wanted a game to be: Be able to walk, drive, fly, swim, enter locations (well, not that much here, but it is not that important in this game) and have loads of different items (weapons, vehicles). And indeed, walk in peace or wreak havoc, just the way I like it. On top, I can't beginn to describe how HUGE this gameworld is  :-X

I now have gathered some experience regarding air combat with helos, and in general how to move around (including grapple-gliding). The easiest vehicles to drive on the PC for my taste are boats and bikes. The rest is not too decent. I think, if they made the game better for the PC regarding graphics, they forgot to adapt the controls. A keyboard and a mouse just don't w@&k like a game controller, yet the game seems to behave as if it expects to be played with one.

The fact that it is a third person shooter is not present in my mind, I completely forgot about it and just took it as it was, and it is really ok. I think due to the circumstance that you use a glider and a grapple a lot, it wouldn't w@&k that well if it was a first person shooter.

The landscape and environment is impressive. Weather and such is great, the sounds are really good... this game truly is fantastic :)

[PZ]

I know exactly what you mean, and agree completely.  I don't even think about it being 3rd person.  By the way, there is a cross hair mod which makes it feel more like 1st person - it moves the cross hair rather than it being static in the center of the screen.  Using this mod makes aiming way better on the PC, which is already better than the console.

However, I dread using the vehicles - reminds me of driving the ATs in FC2, which I never did master on the PC.  Flying the planes is a challenge until you become accustomed to the thankfully simple controls.  Using the modded thrusters is actually my favorite method of flying, and you can cover as much territory as a jet if you like.

One thing I noticed this morning as I worked my way through one of the small islands; you never know what you're going to discover even though there are a limited number of possible items.  The way that the developers have mixed and matched the items makes each area feel unique - sure there are the small villages that all seem alike, but when you o to the larger military areas, harbors, and airports, you get some variety.

The game is huge, and I'm still having a great time working my way through it.  :-X