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Far Cry 3 Survival Tips: Fringe Fiction’s Guide to Rook Island
Vaas and the Pirates of Far Cry 3
Rook Island of Far Cry 3 is not an easy place to survive. There are dangers that lurk everywhere from pirates to rabid dogs to the occasional crocodile.
In light of these dangers, here are some tips to help you survive:
- I suggest working on the Shark skill tree, either way you decide to approach the game, like Rambo or Sam Fisher.
- I suggest concentrating on takedowns of the Spider skill tree. You will need them later on, if not initially.
- When you have money, upgrade your preferred guns.
- When you have the animal skins, upgrade your pouches. You will need them although the rare animal skins may be a bit much (unless you have never, ever played a first-person shooter before).
- When liberating camps, it is best to go in undetected since it produces the most experience points, particularly when you arrive and explore the first island.
- Know your map when you’re liberating posts and work in one general direction. It will be beneficial to you on a few storyline missions.
- Bear in mind there is a SECOND island where you will obtain more weapons, gear and skills. I suggest you preparing for the transition.
- When doing the missions that involve the storyline of the game, I suggest you either craft medicine or purchase medicine beforehand. Additionally, purchase armor if you can. If you have the Endorphin or Unstoppable syringes available, I suggest you use them beforehand.
- Take time to explore the island for relics, plants, animals and loot chests and accomplish some of the other missions, like Wanted Dead, Supply Drop and Path of the Hunter. They will serve benefits later on and compound on each other.
- The VERY last storyline mission can get frustrating. Just bite your tongue and you’ll pull through.
With these tips in hand, you should be able to survive Rook Island — most of the time. Enjoy this fantastic game!
Related articles
- Far Cry 3 tips: Developer advice for surviving Rook Islands (polygon.com)
- Review: Far Cry 3 is one of the best games of the year (o.canada.com)
- Review: ‘Far Cry 3′ Is One Wild, Bad, Brilliant Trip (multiplayerblog.mtv.com)
- Far Cry 3 impressions: method in the madness (vg247.com)
Borderlands 2 (XBox 360) King-Mongus Video Game Review
Well, it’s been five years since the original Vault Hunters — Brick, Roland, Lilith and Mordecai — opened the first Vault on Pandora after battling bandits, Crawmerax, Moxxi’s Underdome, Colonel Knoxx, Claptrap’s Revolution and the Atlas Corporation. After getting the loot, the Vault Hunters went their separate ways…that is, until Handsome Jack and the Hyperion Corporation decided to find another vault — and mine Eridium and destroying Pandora’s environment in the process.
Gameplay (Out of 10)
Overall, this game is far more accessible than the first with easier transitions between bosses and areas. The game sets you up by fighting enemies that preview and prepare you for the tougher versions of it. For example, the Nomads prepare you for the Shock-Nomadic which prepare you for…well, I’m getting ahead of myself. For newbies to Borderlands, it’s far easier and “accessible” compared to the original with many missions giving the Vault Hunter “rare” loot. Unlike the original, the enemies now work more cooperatively, seek cover and work as a team. Besides that, the gameplay remains much the same — shoot and loot. Most missions are basically the same, aside from the bosses. Unlike the original, with boss fights, often the new Vault Hunter has assistance from the original Vault Hunters.
Now there are five classes — the Assassin, the Gunzerker, the Mechromancer, the Commando and the Siren. All have their strengths and their weaknesses. As for their original counterparts, Salvador the Gunzerker is closest to Brick; Maya the Siren is closest to Lilith; Axton the Commando is closest to Roland; and lastly, even though this may be debatable, Gaige the Mechromancer with her Deathtrap may be closest to Mordecai and his Bloodwing.
Unlike the original, each of the companies have significantly different properties. Maliwan is still the best elemental weapons, but it does have competition in Hyperion and Tediore.
For the veterans, some elements from the original Borderlands. What is most apparent are no more storage of health vials and no more gun-proficiency leveling. These changes either force one to adapt and think more methodically and strategically, if playing alone, or resort to cooperative gameplay.
Overall, the gameplay deserves a 9.0 out of 10.
Graphics (Out of 10)
The graphics are similar to the original Borderlands — a tad cartoonish, but this time, they run on the Unreal Engine 3. You either love it or hate it, but I love it. Overall, I’ll give it a 9.5 out of 10 for the minor glitches that appear here and there.
Sound (Out of 10)
The sound is pretty amazing, particularly the NPC voices of the enemies (especially the midgets and goliaths.) Overall, a 9.8 out of 10.
Barring somewhat most of the tedious “tutorial” missions in the beginning, playing the campaign in single-player is quite enjoyable. The references to the previous Borderlands is a nod to those who played the game before and actually quite funny (at least some of it). All in all, the Scooter and Ellie missions were probably the most humorous and enjoyable while Dr. Zed’s missions were the most intriguing.
Multi-Player Experience
This is how the game was meant to played — still. Having a couple of friends join you in the fight against Handsome Jack is great fun, especially with the latter boss fights and arenas. It can get pretty frenetic and kinetic as three more people join the game. Case in point: two gunzerkers and an assassin battling level 30 enemies in an arena gets pretty chaotic pretty quickly in round 5.
Overall (Out of 10)
This game is not made for loyal-bound Call of Duty or Battlefield fans where the FPS is fairly straightforward with minimal complications. Borderlands 2 deserves a 9.4 out of 10. It is a solid follow-up to the original, but with the story and changes, this game lacks the charm that the original Borderlands had.
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Far Cry 3 (XBox 360) Video Game Review
A beautiful and primal island in the Far East is visited by a group of college friends. At that time, however, pirates decide to invade the island and make it their own as a channel for their illegal activities, mostly human and drug trafficking — thus adding slight hints of The Beach.
Gameplay (Out of 10)
Overall, the gameplay is great, but it is certainly not without its flaws.
Unlike Assassin’s Creed III, which holds your hand for a substantial part of the game, Far Cry 3 doesn’t hold your hand beyond the first three missions. However, at any point, you are free to explore and trek the island on your own for the most part. Exploring the island has to be one of the most enjoyable — and time-passing — things to do in this game. You’ll find the island itself evolves and levels up with you akin to Fallout. It has elements similar to Assassin’s Creed III from climbing towers, crafting stuff to the random game of poker. The game itself also has elements of Cabela’s video games in which you hunt down animals. One last thing of note: throughout your exploration on the island, you’ll see the trials and tribulations of a couple if you pay attention.
Despite all these near-perfect mixes, this game does have its flaws. First, the AI of the pirates are a bit inconsistent. Sometimes, they are geniuses and almost too human; at other times, they are a few cards short of a full deck. Next, the AI sometimes does get lost — literally lost. Lastly, particularly around blind corners, takedowns don’t happen or aren’t permitted.
After all that’s said and done, it’s an 8.5 out of 10.
Graphics (Out of 10)
The graphics are generally fairly amazing. However, there are some minor issues. Sometimes, the NPCs (including the animals) get caught in the scenery — literally. I have experienced more than once already. The takedowns are particularly gruesome and brutal to watch. The cinematics, however, are simply amazing. The characters are too human to look and listen to. Overall, the graphics get an 8.5 out of 10.
Sound (Out of 10)
The sound is perhaps the best part of this game. You can hear animals growling at each other, and if you have 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound, you can pinpoint the direction from where it came. This deserves a 10 out of 10 in my book.
Overall (Out of 10)
If you can take the B-movie storyline with a grain of salt, this video game is fairly great minus a few glitches here and there. Rook Island is certainly more entertaining and breathtaking than what Liberty City of Grand Theft Auto IV or Steelport of Saints Row: The Third offers. The world is responsive in of itself and to you, and the vistas of the island are spectacular. Overall, I would give Far Cry 3 a 9.0 out of 10. This video game is well worth playing.
Related articles
- Review: ‘Far Cry 3′ Is One Wild, Bad, Brilliant Trip (multiplayerblog.mtv.com)
- Dark and thrilling, Far Cry 3 is a tropical Assassin’s Creed (theweek.co.uk)
- review far cry 3 ps3 xbox 360 (thesun.co.uk)
Top 10 Summer of 2011 XBox 360 Video Games
It’s summer already, and video games have come alive during this long, hot and tumultuous summer. Whereas most people have gone vacationing on beaches, enjoying the bright sun, some gamers have chosen to stay inside to enjoy the guilty pleasure of video games. Here are 10 top games for the summer to enjoy – while the last bit of summer remains.
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Although this is a movie tie-in and prequel, this game is still pretty good nonetheless. The single-player campaign is a bit short, and the multi-player could use some work. However, it is a solid Transformers game and ignore the critics that wanted Transformers: War for Cybertron 2 instead.
- Catherine. The much-awaited Japanese game that’s slightly less difficult than the Japanese version of said game and coming to the shores to the United States. It has platforming, puzzle-solving, sexual innuendos and anime all wrapped into one. However, the platforming is a bit on the touchy side. It’s one of those games you either love or you hate…
- Alice: Madness Returns. This is the sequel to the original Alice. Although not ground-breaking, it is still a solid platforming and hack-and-slash. The storytelling is still par and solid single-player experience although missing a bit at the end.
- Trenched. A real-time tower defense and action-strategy hybrid with mechanized mobile trenches by Double Fine. Great animations, lots of explosions and sufficient strategy for those into these kind of games. I enjoy this game tremendously.
- Toy Soldiers: Cold War. This is the sequel to the original Toy Soldiers released last year. The original Toy Soldiers was a combination of tower defense and real-time strategy-action game and was received with positive reception. Toy Soldiers was a great game in my opinion, and this sequel should be no different. This game is part of XBox Live’s Summer of Arcade.
- Ms. Splosion Man. With improvement in graphics and same fluidity in controls, this sequel to the original Splosion Man in XBox Live Arcade is far more difficult. However, it is enjoyable as the first and just as addictive. It will aggravate you at times with the difficulty scale, but upon defeating the level, you will feel rewarded. The original Splosion Man was far easier than this game, if frustration gets to you early.
- Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. Interesting blend of exploration and combat, a little UFO is taken to explore different lands in an artistic world. Although the game is extremely short, it is very good for entertainment. This game was much like Limbo or the Portal series in that there is little to no narrative as to what exactly is going on. This game is part of XBox Live’s Summer of Arcade.
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The much-anticipated game will debut in later this month. It will feature both first and third-person views in a shooter-role-playing-hybrid. The original Deus Ex spawned successors in Borderlands and other shooter-role-playing-hybrids today.
- From Dust. This game is from a god-like perspective to assist a nomadic tribe in a turbulent land. This game is part of XBox Live’s Summer of Arcade.
- Madden NFL 12. Although not groundbreaking as some of the other games listed above, this is among one of the most popular sports games. Again, it should rack handsome sales numbers, particularly since the NFL lockout has been over for the past few weeks.
Tekken (2010) Movie Review
-picture-MOV_a03e48a9_b.jpg "Tekken Movie Poster")
Official Tekken Movie Poster
With superhero action movies on the rise, like Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, this movie is not one of them. It is based on the popular video game series Tekken, a strategic fast-paced fighting game. The video game series is popular both in the United States and Japan. This movie is better than the original Mortal Kombat movie, but both still have some degree of campiness to it. This movie much less so, and it does play favors for those who played Tekken before. This movie is not Academy Award-winning material, but it is surprisingly worth a watch.
Cast
Jon Foo stars as the main protagonist, Jin Kazama. Tamlyn Tomita plays as Jun Kazama, Jin’s mother. Mircea Monroe stars as Kara, Jin’s love interest in the slums, known as the Anvil.
Upon entering the formal Tekken tournament proper, Jin meets his allies and rivals. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa stars as Heihachi Mishima, the head of the Tekken Corporation. Ian Anthony Dale stars as Kazuya Mishima, Heihachi’s son and one of the heirs to the Tekken Corporation. Luke Goss plays Steve Fox, one of Jin’s allies in the tournament. Kelly Overton plays Christie Montiero, Jin’s love interest in the Tekken tournament.
Cung Le stars as Marshall Law, Jin’s first rival. Darren Dewitt Henson plays Raven. Candice Hillebrand stars as Nina Williams, and Marian Zapico stars as Anna Williams, her sister. Gary Daniels plays Brian Fury, the half-cyborg kickboxer. Anton Kasabov stars as Sergei Dragunov, the former Spetsnaz officer. Lateef Crowder plays Eddy Gordo, the Copeira fighter. Roger Huerta stars as Miguel Rojo. Lastly, Gary Ray Stearns plays Yoshimitsu, the samurai swordsman.
Plot
The time is 2039, and after world wars have destroyed much of the world, corporations have taken over the run-down territories of which Tekken Corporation became the most dominant and cruelest. Jin Kazama witnesses the death of her mother by the Tekken Corporation, and after rummaging through her things, he finds out that she herself participated in the tournament. Seeking revenge for her untimely death, Jin defeats Marshall Law and finds a way inside the tournament. After defeating several of his rivals in the tournament, he seeks Heihachi Mishima’s head, but things don’t quite go as Jin thought it would. The tournament itself begins to unravel…
Review
Unlike some other people, I didn’t think this movie was altogether horrible. True, it had campiness to it, much like Mortal Kombat. Compared to Mortal Kombat, this movie was slightly better as it paid tribute to the players of Tekken video game series. Most of the characters performed the signature moves of their respective video game counterparts. However, most of the martial arts sequences turned into mixed martial art fights instead. The martial arts sequences were remarkably entertaining generally.
Where it turned sour perhaps was that the movie does not follow the Tekken series storylines and all the characters spoke proper English, sometimes with a British accent. Kazuya Mishima was a bit disconcerting as he didn’t have the graveling voice in the video game series. In light of this, there was ample eye-candy in the movie, particularly Christie Monteiro. This movie was obviously catered to gamerboys rather than gamergirls who played Tekken, as some of the sequences featured revealing women dancing or otherwise.
Verdict (Out of 10)
Despite its flaws, it was a solid action movie. It is certainly better than some of the other video game-related movies to date in my frank opinion. I would rank this movie a 6 out of 10. This movie is no artistic masterpiece, but it is worth a $1 Redbox rental.
Alan Wake (XBox 360) Video Game Review
Alan Wake XBox 360 Video Game Cover
Alan Wake was released on May 18, 2010 by Remedy and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It tells of a man by the name of Alan Wake, an author of popular thrillers, who loses his wife in a cabin in the Northwest by a lake. Although the video game was critically acclaimed by the media upon its release, I beg to differ — somewhat. Remedy could not escape its past, like Alan Wake’s. Despite the ingenuity of its gameplay mechanic, the story itself was something reminiscent of Remedy’s past — the Max Payne series. There are too many similarities not to ignore. With this in mind, the story and gameplay that were originally captivating at first fell to the wayside of tedium by the end.
Story/Plot
This game is heavily dependent on the story, but the main story lost its impact at the end in my honest opinion. Upon the arrival in Bright Falls, the couple of Alan and Alice Wake get a cabin near Cauldron Lake during Deerfest, the yearly festival within the town. As told by the locals of the community, Cauldron Lake is said to hold spirits that want to enter the real world. When they finally settle down, Alice is kidnapped. As Alan Wake walks to resolve the mystery and battle Taken with his flashlight and assorted guns, he finds the kidnapper, but he is ultimately stolen away by the Dark Presence. After battling more and more Taken and possessed objects, he eventually comes face to face with what happened. Through the help of Sheriff Sarah Breaker, his public relations officer Barry Wheeler and others, he finally faces the Dark Presence and defeats it with the guidance of Thomas Zane, a writer who disappeared before. However, it was not without cost in that he sacrificed himself and his writing to bring everyone back. Alan Wake eventually finds himself back with Dr. Emil Hartman, a psychiatrist and author of The Creator’s Dilemma, at Cauldron Lake Lodge. The game itself is broken into six intermingling “television” episodes.
Gameplay (Out of 10)
The gameplay is almost directly counter to the game mechanics in Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell video game series. Whereas Sam Fisher, the main character in the Splinter Cell series tried to find ways to stay cloaked in darkness, Alan Wake, on the other hand, had to find ways to stay in the light through use of generators, spotlights and streetlights throughout the city. He gets upgrade from normal flashlight to a heavy-duty lantern and guns from a revolver to a hunting rifle. The combat itself is fluid. Lastly, he can dodge attacks from the Taken and occasionally go into a “cinematic dodge.” This cinematic dodge is similar to the original Max Payne‘s slow motion minus the shooting. It is a solid 9, as on occasion, Alan does get stuck on objects in the world.
Graphics (Out of 10)
The graphics are quite amazing. The vistas of Bright Falls are quite beautiful in the daylight. In the darkness, however, it is not quite as good. The particle effects on the Taken are quite spectacular. And the movie cinematics are quite compelling. The only downside of the game is that Alan Wake and the characters overall are a minor improvement over Max Payne in Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. It is a solid 8.8.
Sound (Out of 10)
The creepy effects are half-way decent, although not out of ordinary for traditional horror movies. It lacks the impact of Electronic Arts’ Dead Space or Dead Space 2. It is a solid 9.5 nonetheless.
Verdict (Out of 10)
The game gets a solid 9.1 from me overall. However, this game is about $20 now and well-worth the price of admission for about an 8 to 10 tour of Bright Falls. There is a free download of the first expansion pack, The Signal, included in the package. The Signal itself is a bit more difficult than the original game, and by playing the expansion pack, Alan Wake encounters Thomas Zane for the first time (in his mind through this two-hour long dream sequence essentially.) This video game is perfectly suited for fans of the horror genre and video game survival horror genre. As a gift, it would be perfect the gamer on Halloween as a basket-stuffer.
L.A. Noire (XBox 360) First Impressions: The Elegant, Brainy Cousin of Grand Theft Auto and Mafia
L.A. Noire (XBox 360)
Playing L.A. Noire made by Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games, this game fits into the mold of a niche game with its much slower pace and thinking involved. It’s far brainier than Grand Theft Auto and a bit more cinematic than its cousin Mafia II. Although admittedly there is shooting involved, but there is far more investigation involved which leads to some brainwork. The game helps by lending a notebook involving major clues involved in cases. In some ways, L.A. Noire is including the interactive parts inspired by the CSI video game series and Bully. However, unlike the CSI video game series, this game has more direction in the clues involved.
The interrogation is particularly interesting as the facial features of each character are fantastic. With each case, Detective Cole Phelps interrogates each suspect, using the evidence collected at particular scenes or identification of the weapon and its casings. The music is crucial to the game as it helps the player identify pieces of evidence. Additionally, the music in the background, is very period. Cole Phelps interrogates the suspect by looking at the suspect and deciding if they’re lying or not. He is given three choices based on the suspect’s behavior: Lie, Doubt or Truth. The player can request help from the Rockstar Community on cases using an Intuition point. The interrogation portion reminds me of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? television show sometime ago. Despite all this, the animations for the characters are still reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto or Mafia. Although a tad cleaner, their bodies are still very blocky, including their arms and hands, and some of the animations are glitchy. In fact, during the second case, I suffered a glitch in the game as the suspect attempted to run away and was partially stuck in the wall of a store.
L.A. Noire is the elegant and brainy cousin of Grand Theft Auto and Mafia so far. It’s inclusion of evidence-finding combined with interrogation of suspects makes full use of the “revolutionary new facial animation technology” (as declared on back of video game case). It is bound to be quite lengthy with the cinematics, finding each piece of evidence, the interrogations and the fact that the game is contained on three game discs. I expect the game to last for at least 30 hours, if not 40. Overall, I have gained a favorable first impression of the game. It is at least a 8.7 out of 10 so far, but this game is not without its flaws.
Portal 2 Ending [SPOILERS]: How It Impacts Portal 3 and Half-Life
Upon completion of Portal 2, it will be interesting to see how the people, the machines and the events that transpired in Portal 2 video game impact the Portal 3 and the world of Half-Life in general. Although both Portals did not have a deeper plot, like its brethren Half-Life, both games do exist in the same world, according to the commentary made by Cave Johnson, the late CEO of Aperture Laboratories, during the exploration in Portal 2. Please note that there will be spoilers ahead for those who have not yet completed the game.
Portal 3
- With Chell gone, it will be interesting how involved the new test subject and the robots, Atlas and P-Body will take part. Will they become participants instead of off-the-grid in Portal 3?
- Will Wheatley make his return from the moon in Portal 3? It is possible that he might crash as part of space debris and find himself back inside Aperture Laboratories.
- Given the destruction by Wheatley intentional and unintentional of both the old and the new laboratories of Aperture Laboratories, it will be interesting to see how GLaDos rebuilds it. Since she assisted Chell in destruction of her own body, she now knows her own structural weaknesses.
- With the deletion of Caroline core personality, GLaDos in Portal 3 will be inordinately vicious. Given this case, Portal 3 puzzles might become more difficult perhaps than in Portal 2.
- Will Chell meet the supposed Ratman in Portal 3? Out of necessity perhaps, she might make a return to assist the new test subject or for that matter, the slew of test subjects discovered while playing co-op, in their escape from the facility. Will Ratman join her as well?
- The legacies of Cave Johnson and Caroline might make their way into Portal 3. More gels? Maybe the development of a gel-portal gun? Not entirely out of reach.
Half-Life
As interesting as how Portal 2 is affected by the events that transpired, it will be more interesting to see how it will impact the world of Half-Life.
- Maybe Wheatley will return to assist the Combine or the good Gordon Freeman. That would be interesting twist.
- Maybe Gordon Freeman and Chell will meet whereby Freeman might learn the design of the portal gun and possibly construct one himself. With both the gravity gun and portal gun, who needs guns? At least Gordon Freeman might encounter the friendly Companion Cube of Chell’s.
- Maybe Gordon Freeman will learn the location of Aperture Laboratories and somehow the Combine will get involved as well. GLaDos will have to learn to fight to defend her laboratories.
- Maybe Wheatley will become the Monitor for Black Mesa, like GLaDos is for Aperture Laboratories. That would be an interesting spin on things in both Half-Life and Portal worlds.
Closing Thoughts
These are just some interesting what-ifs to throw around. I wouldn’t put any cake…I mean, stake in it. Given how Valve slowly develops games, it will be a long while until we see another Portal, Half-Life or for that matter, the multiplayer video game Team Fortress 2. In both worlds, Wheatley remains a potential wildcard in his involvement, and it will be interesting how involved he might be in future installments of both series. In any case, whether these propositions and predictions come true or not, at least, it gives us video game and Portal fans some food for thought in the meantime.
