200°

Far Cry 3’s writer talks rabbit holes, racism, and colonialism in a game he claims is misunderstood

Sophie Prell:

Jeffrey Yohalem is the lead writer of Far Cry 3. The game’s story has been criticized as being filled clichéd writing and well-worn tropes. Kotaku called it “dumb”, while Polygon wrote that the game often felt “exploitative and pointless.”

It’s easy to think we’re going to be over-analytical here. Yet, according to Yohalem, based on the responses he’s seen online, people aren’t being analytical enough. “The story is itself something that can be solved, like a riddle,” he told the Report. “What makes me sad is that people don’t engage with playing the riddle, trying to solve the riddle. It’s like a scavenger hunt where people aren’t collecting the first clue.”

Read Full Story >>
penny-arcade.com
Xof4147d ago

As a writer, one of the first things you have to learn is that OTHER people will almost never read the same things into a story that YOU do. Never. They'll see subtleties you never intended, and miss the ones you did.

That's why the peer-review process exists. That's why we go through dozens, hundreds of re-writes and revisions.

The worst thing a writer can do is blame his or her audience for missing elements of the story. When that happens, the failure lies with the narrative itself, not the readership.

That's writing 101.

Thatguy-3104147d ago

Think he over did the writing. He should have just focused on Jason saving his friends from the black market and getting revenge. The whole aspect of the tribes and the civil battle that was going on was just to much. That being said it was still a fun and good game. First of the far cry games that I have played and I can tell you I have become a fan.

Nimblest-Assassin4147d ago

All I want to know is what exactly is a "pussy trigger"

wallis4147d ago

A shitty writer blames his audience. End of.

Bimkoblerutso4146d ago (Edited 4146d ago )

To be clear, the story was about a group of bro-tastic, privileged 20-somethings taking a trip to a tropical island...WHEN THINGS TAKE A TURN FOR THE WORSE.

There were some interesting characters, but in all honesty, did anyone give two licks about any of Jason's bro friends or why he needed tattoos to gain power or why he needed to bed a hot tribal chick to free his mind? Not really.

It was one of the best games of the year, but let's not try to make it something it's not.

linkenski4147d ago

At least Bioware didn't blame us for not understanding ME3's ending. I'm starting to appreciate how they put it when people started complaining about that.

Xof4147d ago

...But they totally did.

Master_S4147d ago

In the second island the plot fails.

ElectricKaibutsu4147d ago

Geez, this sounds like the guy who did Braid. If you write a good story then people will like it. If you write a bad story or one that tries to be too smart for its own good, people won't like it.

SAE4147d ago

i didn't find it complicated , i actually want it to be one so we could get a sequel ..

from my point of view , the game makes you do bad things to survive and achieve a good thing or a right , that's how i understood it , you also got a choice in some point to make you decide what character you want in the game ..

in a shortcut to the story , you do what you have to do ..

ElectricKaibutsu4147d ago

Ah, sorry, I didn't actually play Farcry3 :-/. I was just going by the article. Maybe I'll give it a shot now though :)

SAE4147d ago

you have to play it , it's awesome :)

Show all comments (21)
70°

Our Favorite Villains in Gaming - Roundtable

There have been plenty of great villains in video games over the years. Now it's time for the VGU crew to name a few of their favorites.

90°

Which Far Cry Should I Start With? - A Beginner's Guide 2023

If you’re new to this long-running franchise, we’ve got you covered.

Read Full Story >>
gameluster.com
masterfox409d ago

Farcry 3 and literally thats it! lol

GamingSinceForever408d ago (Edited 408d ago )

I recently tried 3 for the first time but the frame rate was a turnoff.

I liked 5 and 6 though.

banger88407d ago

If you have a Series X or S, the Xbox 360 version runs at 60 fps with fps boost. It's a shame the remaster doesn't.

isarai409d ago

2 and 3, pretty much the only ones i really enjoyed. 1 was amazing for the time but aged quite poorly. 4 has the elephant gun, all i can praise from any entry after 3 lol

cooperdnizzle408d ago

Ummmm 3 than stop.

Okay maybe two as well. But yeah probably 3 and then move on.

JEECE408d ago (Edited 408d ago )

Far Cry 2. People constantly rant about games now being too easy, holding your hand, having too many unnecessary RPG-lite leveling features, etc. People specifically complain about open world games being too focused on tons of collectibles and "checkmarks" that just waste time.

Far Cry 2 is an answer to all of those complaints. It was made by Ubisoft before they fell into all the traps discussed above (and before they started inserting towers into their games to defog the map). It has respawning enemies, weapons that degrade, and the collectible diamonds are very useful in the game (which you find in a similar way to the way you find shrines in BOTW with a radar system). The map you have is an in game item you pull out while playing, not a pause menu that is unnecessarily detailed. Also the enemy AI and physics are much better than later entries in the series.

It has a mixed reputation because people at the time said it was too hard, the weapon degradation was annoying, and then respawning enemies were annoying. FC2 came out in 2008, so this was before games like Dark Souls and BOTW had come out and made it cool to like these types of features.

XbladeTeddy407d ago

Far Cry 2, the one with the AI that find you through walls and trees, can one shot you from a mile away and have 100% accuracy? That was frustrating not fun because cheap AI.

JEECE407d ago (Edited 407d ago )

Uhh, I mean, it isn't one of these games where once the enemies have detected you they will magically forget you exist because you walked behind a wall or went into a bush. And yeah the AI isn't stormtrooper level accuracy. Again, these are positives, not negatives to me.

To be fair, I'm really directing this at the people most critical of "Modern Ubisoft" or "Modern Open World" design elements. Like the type of people who fawned all over Elden Ring because it had a clean UI because they are so burnt out by the "checkbox" type of open world design.

If you like those types of games, then a later FC game like 3 and especially 4-5 would be more your style.

Show all comments (11)
120°

Far Cry 3 Is One Of The Most Important Games Of Our Time

TheGamer Writes "Far Cry 3 is a time capsule of what game design was like in the early '00s"

Read Full Story >>
thegamer.com
Knushwood Butt492d ago

Beat it twice; once on PS3, and once a couple of months ago on PS5.

Doesn't Far Cry 2 have some of the things they are talking about here? Diamond hunting, healing, malaria medication?

shinoff2183491d ago (Edited 491d ago )

I believe 2 did. I highly doubt it was the only game like that though. I imagine the writer isn't old enough to have played part 2 but I also feel it wasn't the first game to introduce stuff like that

They bring up mass effect 2. I felt mass effect 1 was better. It just seem cut down. The citadel was a joke in part 2 compared to 1. How do you cut back on that.

Profchaos491d ago

Having just replayed the entire me trilogy yeah I think 1 was my favourite I think 2 had better cover and shooting mechanics but everything else in 1 was better

jznrpg491d ago (Edited 491d ago )

Mass Effect 1 was the best . It played like an RPG . The other games were more shooter and lost the feel the first game had unfortunately

gurp491d ago (Edited 491d ago )

I played it on PC when it came out, might play it again some time
Far Cry 3 is the best of the series, it was ahead of it's time

Palitera491d ago

It seems the blogger didn’t even play RDR1 if he thinks FC3 brought these elements to the AAA table. Tiktokers always have a new surprise. Smh

Sgt_Slaughter491d ago

"Far Cry 3 is a time capsule of what game design was like in the early '00s"

>Came out in 2012

Okay then

BrainSyphoned491d ago

If we are going to talk early 2000's game design how about start in the year 2000 with games that are a far cry better than something released 12 years later.
"Chrono Cross, Baldur's Gate II, Diablo II, Dragon Quest VII, Final Fantasy IX, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, along with new intellectual properties such as Deus Ex, Jet Set Radio, Perfect Dark, The Sims and Vagrant Story."
The article names things Ubisoft has shoved into games to dumb them down and then claims we should rush off to play it. Maybe instead look back at it as the death of originality from Ubisoft and gaming in general.

glennhkboy491d ago

Far Cry 3 & Assassin's Creed VI: Black Flag are 2 of the very best games from Ubisoft. All Ubisoft games since then are all just copying these 2 games.

ChubbyBlade491d ago

This isn’t an early 2000s game…you’re about a decade to early on that one.

Show all comments (13)