Review! Far Cry 4

System:  Playstation 4 (also available on pretty much anything that isn't handheld)
How far did you get:  One campaign completion, did most of the important side stuff, didn't touch multiplayer

 Far Cry 4 is in a different position than Far Cry 3 was.  Far Cry 3 came off the heels of the frustrating Far Cry 2, and set a very high bar for the series.  Far Cry 4 comes off the heels of one of the best games of 2012, and unfortunately feels a bit like a rehash. 

Most of the things that were great about Far Cry 3 are still here, but that's a double edged sword.  While it's a beautiful game, controls well, and hits most of Far Cry 3's high marks, I still felt like I was playing something I've already played before.  This works for competitive games like Call of Duty, but the large and detailed campaigns are Far Cry's focus, and doing the same thing again is going to get boring after a while.

There are a few differences, but most of them are not for the better.  The setting is fine, but the story in Far Cry 4 is far less interesting.  The character you play as is painfully dull and puts you in the shoes of an obnoxious yes-man.  The two characters who send you on main story missions are both insane, and ask a ridiculous amount from you, and you're character just accepts it all.  He doesn't even ask why, he just does whatever they say.  The only reason you're in Tibet to begin with is to bury your mothers ashes at the specific place she asked, and without a single question, you agree to join a civil war.  Yeah, ok.  The side mission characters come off as so cartoony that you can't take any of their missions seriously.  The only character in the game that has a pretty great personality is the main villain, and he's criminally underused.  The only really interesting side missions come from putting a painting back together.  Each time you get a piece, you are taken to the spiritual world of Shangri-La.  You get to use some pretty cool powers here, and it has it's own story.  It also has the only real final boss this game has, and actually has real battle mechanics to figure out.  It's trippy, visually interesting and better than the main game most of the time. 

I didn't play the multiplayer component, but one pretty great thing added to Far Cry 4 was campaign co-op.  You have to unlock it about an hour into the game, but you and a buddy can join up and work out strategies on taking over base camps.  That's a welcome change over Far Cry 3's broken extra co-op missions.


Far Cry 4 is Far Cry 3 with a slightly shinier coat of pain, better co-op, and a bad story.  It's a competently made game and it is fun, but innovation seemed to be overlooked, which is too bad considering the series seemed to be going in the right direction.

Rating- 70/100 

Review! Grand Theft Auto V

System:  Playstation 4 (also available on PS3, Xbox One and 360, and soon to be PC)
How far did you get:  One campaign completion, messed around with online

Grand Theft Auto V (GTAV from here on) might be the single best reviewed game ever made.  Due to the depth and scope of this game, it's no surprise.  The only games that rival GTAV's size are MMOs and Bethesda's bigger games, but GTAV has far more variety and things to do.  You could be playing a third person shooter, a stealth game, a driving game, or even a sports game at any point in GTAV.  On nearly every block of Los Santos, there is something for you to do.  Every bit of it is absolutely beautiful to looks at as well.  I played the PS3 version a bit before picking up the PS4 version, and though the PS4 version is noticeably better looking, the PS3 version is still impressive as long as start up load times don't bother you too much.  Some of the things in this game even look real.  Take a few minutes to stare at a road sign.  It's something you probably don't pay much attention to in game like this, but if you spend some time to enjoy the scenery, you might be surprised in what you see. 

What GTAV does not do particularly well is being the best at any of it's many gameplay styles.  It's best gameplay style, third person shooting, is well done but it's certainly not better than the best third person shooters out there.  The controls in the game have a natural lag to them, which is something you should be familiar with if you've ever played a Grand Theft Auto game.  It's a realistic feeling, but it can take away from the fun as well.  Car controls are competent, but trying to shoot while driving is incredibly awkward and the game makes you do it in the campaign on a few occasions.  Flying vehicles are all a pain to use.  I avoided them at all costs when traveling around, but the game makes you use these as well.  The stealth gameplay was fairly well done, if not a little too easy.  This does not apply for the police, however.  Those guys are relentless, and added a pretty nice amount of excitement to the game.  Most of the sports games worked fine, but games that are made specifically for these sports are far more in depth.

There are a ton of side quests, giving you the option to spend well over 100 hours in the campaign if you wanted to.  However, the "strangers and freaks" you do these missions for were clearly set as side mission characters for a reason.  If you're going to spend time doing side quests in GTAV, be prepared to do a lot of pointless and boring missions for people who aren't that interesting.  The online component has you doing these kind of jobs as well, though they've added heists as well.  GTA Online is a pretty impressive thing for Rockstar to take on, but I didn't find a lot of things I wanted to do there. 

GTAV's biggest selling point for me is it's story.  You play as three different characters, each with different attitudes but with the same goal.  Franklin surprised me a lot.  He's the guy from the hood, but ends up being the smartest and most leveled headed character of the three.  Michael has the most interesting history, and it's fun to see what hijinks he gets himself and his friends into next.  Then there's Trevor, the comic relief of the bunch.  He's a horrible person, but it's hard not to root for the guy when he's killing off people even more obnoxious than he is.  The ending I received was pretty surprising, too.  Grand Theft Auto isn't known for giving you a happy ending, but that's what I got. 

If you're a fan of the series or like open world games in general, you're going to find plenty to do in GTAV.  A good portion of it is worth playing, though I did find myself wondering if what I was doing was just busy work quite often.  It is the best Grand Theft Auto though, and worth checking out. 

Rating:  82/100