http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/6603-Far-Cry-3

Wow, Yahtzee actually liked it? He is getting soft in his old age. I do like the quote in the end credits of his piece:

"It's not a real holiday until you've napalmed a cassowary"

OK, now that I have had more time to play the game I'm loving it.  I was going to complain about the lack of weather but I finally saw a rainstorm in-game.

I've notice that too, very little weather. Also I notice there aren't the strong winds that sometimes blew all the vegetation around like in Far Cry 2. Maybe it's a limitation of the engine? Still, it's not a big deal.

my only complaint is that the enemy AI seems a bit dumb while also a bit too aware:  for example, I can go near an outpost and pick off the enemy one by one with a silenced rifle yet they will not sound the alarm when their buddy gets his head blown off in front of him but they also seem to realize where you are sniping from very quickly.

I rationalize their behavior by assuming that they don't sound the alarm unless they decide that someone is trying to break into the outpost.

Shooting Komodo Dragons with a shotgun? Exciting

Torching Komodo Dragons with a flamethrower? Priceless

Well, that was odd. I was jogging on a path in the middle of the island when suddenly I fell through the map. I couldn't rotate my view, all I could see were some stars as I fell, and fell, and fell... I finally had to go back to the main menu and reload

Remember children, save early and save often!

Good god, man, I'm still trying to decide if I'll pick this up or wait until after Christmas.

Either way you'll enjoy it .

I'm glad I got the game now, as I'll be visiting in-laws over the holidays

[Far Cry 3]

IGN have their nominations for GOTY
http://uk.ign.com/wikis/judgment-day?utm_campaign=ign+main+twitter&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

-Mass Effect 3
-Guild Wars 2
-The Unfinished Swan
-Borderlands 2
-Hotline Miami
-FTL
-Halo 4
-The Walking Dead: The Game
-Journey
-Dishonored

What, no Far Cry 3? It's my GOTY

I just had a great little mission as well. I had a Wanted Quest and had sneaked up on the pirates, but got my buttons screwed up and threw a grenade when I meant to switch to my bow . That alerted the boss and his crew so we played hide and seek for awhile. I had finally worked my way around behind them when a car load of Rakyats showed up and started a fire fight with them. With their attention diverted I was able to kill all the pirates with my bow except for the boss who I dispatched with the required knife. Awesome stuff

So here's something weird. I played FC3 for nine hours yesterday (actually a bit more, but nine hours in game that I'm sure of). However the stats page says my game time was only six hours. Weird. I'm 15% done according to the page as well, with two radio towers de-scrambled.

Over on IGN there is an FC3 crafting guide which just takes the info from the game and lays it out on one page. I did a copy and paste to make my own paper list, primarily so I could stop wasting time collecting skins I don't need anymore . That's what I spent most of my time yesterday doing, hunting. I was up till 1:30am lying in wait , watching a herd of deer, hoping some damn leopard would come attack them. So sleepy...

So I'm just now firing up for what I hope will be a complete afternoon of playing.

You can always ask Hark to come over and kill everyone in the game for you JZ.

I visualize this vast pile, nay, mountain of dead bodies and critters with Hark standing proudly atop it, saying "I would have gotten even more if I had used a gun"

Anyone unlock and try the Uplay Reward single player mission "Testing Unit"?

[Spoiler]

not really sure what i can say JZ,i played on normal...are you the same?
<snip>

Thanks for all the great info. I am playing on Normal and I kept running into the pirate patrols before I could get close to the outpost. I finally did capture it in an entirely cheesy way...

Spoiler for Hiden:

I drove up to in at high speed in a commandeered car with two good guys. I hopped out and they drove away. All the pirates from the outpost ran outside to chase them and when they were all exposed I used grenades and autofire to dispatch them .  Not exactly John Wayne, but it got the job done.

I am just having a blast with the game. One great moment... I killed two pirates I found on the road. I then noticed that they had been attending to something a little farther away. I walked up to it and found it was a bear in a cage. Huh. As I stood there, staring at the bear, a cayman (the saltwater crocodile) suddenly bit my leg. That freaked me out no end. I ran away a bit, fired off a clip of my AK-47 into the cayman, who thankfully was killed. What I had also done was to hit the cage, which unleashed the bear. Now I was really freaked out. I ran away and hid till I could reload, then attacked the bear. Sadly for me, I didn't have enough ammo. I should have kept running

[Spoiler]

Only had time for about 20 minutes today, but man, what a kick ass opening!

Absolutely agree.

Have a question regarding the outpost to the north of the starting village, Amanaki...

Spoiler for Hiden:

I've been trying to assault the outpost so I can get rid of some of the local patrols, but I can't seem to even get close to it without being inundated with enemies. Should I be waiting for outpost assault till later in the game when I have leveled up a bit?

I've been at it a couple of hours and I'm having a lot of fun, although that's partly because this is exactly the kind of game I like: sandbox, modern (not fantasy), with lots of things to do besides the main campaign. So far (on the 360) I haven't run across anything worth complaining about, but it's early on yet. Like some have mentioned before, the inability to clean up the HUD is a bit of a pain, but I'm ok with it.

Picked up my 360 copy from Gamestop a little while ago, installing now. Gamestop perks were the "Four Missions Hosted by Hurk" and a physical paper hunting guide, which is a nice touch.

Interesting article on Kotaku: Why Ubisoft’s Two Big Holiday Games Are Better On PC (Hint: It’s Not Uplay)

It's about AC3 as well as FC3, but the FC3 comments regarding UPlay and Steam are revealing:

The only downside to both of these games, then, is that they require the use of Ubisoft's "Uplay" game portal, which is basically Ubisoft's answer to Valve's Steam service. You can still buy the game through Steam, but then you'll have to launch it from Steam, which will open Uplay and you'll have to launch the game again from there. Two types of DRM for the price of one! Or, as is doubtless Ubisoft's plan, you can just buy the game direct from them and bypass Steam entirely.

Uplay is a nuisance, inferior to Steam in every way. It's a pain to examine a game's achievements, I can find no way to track my playtime, and since no one is using the service, it's very difficult to tell which of my friends is playing the game. I've already spent so much time accumulating Steam and Xbox LIVE friends; must I really do this all over again for Uplay? The user-interface is a bummer, and it takes far too many clicks to get to a game. Worst of all, there doesn't appear to be a way to put a shortcut to a game on my sidebar; the shortcut I have just brings up Uplay, where I have to click "play" one more time to launch the game. In the case of Assassin's Creed III, that brings up yet another menu where I choose between single- and multiplayer. Three clicks may not sound like a lot, but in this day and age, it feels like two too many.

And another:

That said, an annoying game portal is merely a portal, and both games are very strong on PC. And hey, at least there really isn't any sort of always-on DRM. If you're considering which version of Assassin's Creed III and Far Cry 3 to pick up, go with the PC. As is usually the case, you'll get more or less the same core game on consoles. But, particularly with Far Cry 3, the PC is the only platform that feels powerful enough to really manhandle these outsized, ambitious games, which makes for a noticeably more enjoyable overall experience.

Are there any problems with the 360 version and the Uplay servers like they had with the PC servers?

[Far Cry 3]

Far Cry 3 on the 360, which arrives tomorrow, which can't be soon enough

Too much of a cliche?

"An Open Letter To The Mayor Of Horizon, Colorado From A Concerned Citizen"

Some very funny stuff in there.

it's a solid sandbox title.

Most excellent news! I need something to get me through the holidays

You can use http://IsThereAnyDeal.com for mailing you when the price drops.

Thanks for the link!

Played about 3 hours tonight and the game is pretty awesome.  I have the PC version

Would you mind listing your PC specs?

GT Legends is now available on Steam. Another great racing game from SimBin, with some great cars. I have the retail version, but trying to get it to work under Windows 7 was a nightmare because of the Starforce protection. They were doing a deal where if you sent in a picture of the box, the disc, your first born and the Loch Ness monster you could get a free digital version, but I never bother with this. I've added it to my Wishlist and I'll wait for a 75% off sale.

Speaking of that, is there any way to trigger an email for a particular game if it goes on sale on Steam?

[Assassin's Creed III]

I never played it myself, but seeing some of the horrible things said on this forum about Assassin's Creed III, I'm surprised no one picked it as the GOAT so far.

Article from Kotaku; The Weapons In Far Cry 3 Are Great, But The Weapon Descriptions Are Even Better

You can get Bridge Constructor for free, but there's a catch:

So got are stuck just a smell step from making it into the Greenlight top 100.
This is very frustrating :-)

So how about this: For the next week you can simply get the game for free (no DRM as well) and hope that you will give us your upvote as a kind gesture. Everybody wins (hopefully). And if you are supernice please also tell your freinds and point them here.

So feel free to get the full game from this link: Bridge Constructor download

One thing we can't offer of course are free STEAM keys later for the people who download the game now, but we would assume this to be understandable as the downloads are untraceable. We don't record them.

Too bad that those rally stages won't be part of the open world, but it's good in the sense that it gives them full control over making dedicated rally stages with no compromise.

As long as they allow me to drive whatever car I want on the Rally stages. And as long as they don't make the mistake that the Colin McRae did by making stages shorter and shorter. A four minute rally stage is an abomination. The last really good Rally game I enjoyed was Mobil 1 Rally Championship for the PC. I seem to recall one stage went on for about 25 minutes and you were on the edge of your seat the whole time

IGN details the December car pack, seven cars instead of six...

highlighted by a custom Halo-inspired 2011 Ford F-150 Raptor.

Ask me about GOTY in a couple of weeks after I've had some time with Hitman 5: Absolution and Far Cry 3 

My other big purchases this year?

• Sleeping Dogs - Pretty good, but I suck at fighting games, so no GOTY for me
• Borderlands 2 - Also pretty good, but... well, it didn't really click for me, I guess because it felt like grinding after a while. Too much like the first one.
• XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Great idea, but the game seemed to be not fully realized. If they had spent a few more months in development fleshing out all those features for which they had hooks but no implementation, well, it would have been better.
• Forza Horizon - This was something of a flop as far as I am concerned. You put the Forza name on the box, you'd better be putting in your "A" game. It just seemed that there wasn't as much there could have been and should have been.
• Call of Duty Black Ops II - I finally have reached the point where CoD games just don't seem interesting any more. Sure, there are different bells and whistles, but it's the same gameplay on the same tiny maps. I so miss Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising.

Played a couple of hours of the main campaign and got through the first three levels. I then fooled around with the Contracts mode and I have to say that it is a lot of fun, especially to make up contracts for others. Hopefully I can avoid the save game bug and keep enjoying the game.

More information on the rally expansion pack coming out in mid-December.

Well, I was at Gamestop today trading in a bunch of games to pay off my pre-order on Far Cry 3. I ended up with more money on my Rewards Card than I planned, so I broke down and picked up H5:A . So here's hoping the fix for the save game bug comes out soon.

you want to see the Far Cry 3 Map editor trailer?
sure you do!!

I only played around a little with the last game's map editor because the maps could only be used in multiplayer. The inclusion of a single player sandbox mode is, for me, a big plus for the editor, although I notice that the video said "and even some AI" indicating that the AI couldn't be fully implemented on your own map. Still, it's a step up from FC2 and another reason it's definitely a Day One purchase for me.

[Galactic Civilizations II Ultimate Edition]

Galactic Civilizations II Ultimate Edition is 75% off for the next seven plus hours. Just picked it up

So I ran into the save game corruption bug. I was well into the game when it hard locked on a cinematic/loading-screen. Next time I booted up the game it said my save game file was corrupted. 360 version. Now I have to start all over from the beginning. Fantastic!

Looked around a bit on the net and read up on this bug; sounds pretty gruesome . I was considering getting H5:A but I'll hold off for now until there's word of a fix. I went through this with Test Drive Unlimited 2 and it's really, really no fun to lose your progress in the game

Just noticed that there is a Xbox Live Black Friday only sale for the Forza Horizon October car pack, 200 points instead of 400. Also, today only, get Horizon for only $14.99 USD.

I know this is also posted over on the Steals And Deals forum, but I'm posting here for those who might not have seen that thread, or might be interested in the 200 point car pack.

[Spoiler]

Kotaku have actually got their review up now
http://kotaku.com/5962414/far-cry-3-the-kotaku-review

Kotaku asks:should you play this game?

Spoiler for Hiden:

Yes

I like the sidebar in the article where he compares FC2 to FC3. Even though I am greatly looking forward to FC3, I'm going to be holding on to FC2, it's still a great game even now.

Kudos to Ubisoft Montreal for allowing reviews to be posted so early as well, I'm getting very leery of these games developers that force them to be held till day of release.

and the Autumn Sale is up!  Daily deals, flash sales and all that good stuff.

OK... I fired up Steam and I see all the deals and sales, but I can't find my Wishlist. Any ideas on how to access it? I looked in My Profile but no luck.

UPDATE: Never mind, I found it by adding a new game to the Wishlist and it showed me a link to it. Weird.

So these early signs point to me being glad i pre-ordered

I'm glad I pre-ordered, too . I must be one of the few people who liked Far Cry 2 better than the first. So far I'm happy with what I've read about FC3, like this article.

OK, don't know how I did this, but I was able to download for free the Lamborghini Miura '67 which was listed as a Season Pass car, except I don't have the season pass . I did have to buy it in game, but hey, it was otherwise free. I shared it to the Club GT garage.

Nevermind, I was confusing the 1967 Miura with the 2006 one. I was able to download the 2006 Miura, even though it's listed as a Season Pass car, but when I try to buy it in game it tells me I need the Season Pass. Oops