Video Game Review – Far Cry 6

Before I begin I am fully aware of the current situation with Ubisoft and how the company treats employees. I hate that the CEO and Executives of these companies treat their employees poorly. It’s sad that an industry I love so much is marred by such a terrible work culture. In short I buy Ubisoft titles because I genuinely enjoy the work that countless talented people create. I support the artists, writers, programmers, musicians, testers, actors, designers, engineers, etc that make these games come to life. I stand in solidarity and support of all of Ubisoft employees, I want them to be proud of their games and work. They should be.

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Just finished the game earlier today Nov. 6th. Very happy with the experience overall. I enjoy the chiseled gun play and entertaining characters of Far Cry games. The villains are some of the best in Gaming and media in general, Far Cry 6 featuring A-list actor Giancarlo Esposito, who famously played bad guy Gus Fring on the hit TV series Breaking Bad. He plays a very well written and perfectly acted Dictator. I had hoped him and the player had more verbal and physical interaction like in past Far Cry games, but every scene he is in has Gravity and cements why he is a Feared Dictator. Also notable is the beautiful world maps they create and let us subsequently destroy. I especially enjoyed the music in this game, set in Cuba. The Island scenery is lush and beautiful with active day night cycles and weather effects and lots of different local wildlife

I spent about 60 hours on the Main story and doing other side activities. I’m close to a Platinum trophy on PS5 and will probably go ahead and get it. Only a few super grindy requirements to get the Platinum, otherwise most of them can be gained simply by being thorough and playing the game normally. For for strenuous “collect all of …” trophies I will use YouTube sometimes, no shame. I just don’t have time in my life to search every little location on a map and so I miss some of the more random collectibles on my own.

Buy Far Cry 6 Season Pass Xbox ONE Series X|S Microsoft Store



The pacing of the game isn’t bad there are some parts that kinda drag. The mission structure is tried and true and sometimes a bit repetitive. I like mixing up my weapons and I alternate between stealthy and Rambo play styles to mix it up a bit in combat. In Far Cry games you can pretty much be way overpowered very quickly in the story. It’s up to the player to use the different mechanics and weapons to keep things fresh. It feels great clearing out a whole enemy base without alerting a single guard, however, If you go in with a silenced pistol every time and don’t spice up the action things will get stale quick. Use the companions, and gadgets, and sometimes let the guard hit that Alarm to call in reinforcements. The game is an absolute playground of destruction!

The progression system is kinda flat in my honest opinion. The game starts you off with a full tool box and kinda lets you create your own action. You can equip silencers and armor piercing ammo almost from the very start of the game in your first couple upgrades. And you can customize and fully kit out every single weapon except for special named weapons which come with predetermined perks and buffs. Once you get the (very basic) stealth mechanics you are pretty much A one man super Army. The stealth is satisfying and super useful to get through areas easily but sometimes there is more fun to be had in going in guns blazing. The star of Far Cry games (other than the characters and world) is the guns and gun play. FC6 doesn’t disappoint in the slightest. The guns look and feel amazing. They sound good and feel powerful when fully upgraded.

Player stats and perks and special abilities are gained by switching to different types of armor. There are 5 kinds in a “set” each set of armor together helps with a certain defense or skill set. For instance, The hazmat set helps against poison and gives you boosts against poisoned enemies. The “Fuego” armor set gives you defense and buffs against/with fire and explosions. Parkour Armor set helps you move around faster and quieter, etc, etc. There are a ton of different sets and you can mix and match the 5 different pieces of gear; head, torso, hands, legs, and shoes for basically customizing a play style or load out type. My one gripe is that you have to open the menu every time you want to switch gear or guns or any other equipment. Some sort of quick swap, at least for armor and worn gear, would have been super nice and require less time in the menus.

One of the newer features of combat is this multi-function backpack Called a “Supremo”. It can do things like shoot missiles, create EMP blasts to disable machinery, or other cool abilities. This back pack is how you equip “Gadgets” such as grenades, health kits, and C4. Each one can be customized for a different load out and you can switch between them on the fly during combat. I will admit I underused this ability in battle mainly because I was having fun and forgot about it. Honestly the powers are nothing super amazing. They are fun to use but not a game changer usually. Just another tool in your arsenal that helps you destroy or take down enemies.

The graphics are top tier, and on the ps5 the game ran perfectly and I had no issues with freezes or other major glitches. Occasional in game glitches but they are just kinda funny and not terribly inconvenient. The game ran smoothly for me over the course of 60+ hours. The enemy AI is decent when you are engaged, but pretty basic if you are playing stealth. It’s not the hardest game and is fairly liberal with health and player durability.

Far Cry 6 PC review: familiar messy fun | Rock Paper Shotgun
Gorgeous scenery and world.

Overall I highly recommend Far Cry 6 if you like shooter games in general. This is a top notch shooter! Great open world, entertaining characters and a Good story. Nothing revolutionary (pun intended) but a solid video game worth a play through, and not to miss if you already enjoy the Far Cry formula of games. As always, thank you for reading and I hope this was informative without spoiling anything.





Video Game Review – Ghost of Tsushima

By far one of my favorite games of 2020 for sure and winner of several “best of” awards throughout the gaming industry. The style and authentic feeling story was a joy to behold and the tight sword play stay entertaining throughout. The story follows Jin Sakai through what amounts to a classic tale of revenge and family drama. It is an open world master piece that is made by a lesser known studio called Sucker Punch. What they did with the subject material and the visual aesthetic is simply brilliant.

Long story short, I devoured this game. I have always connected deeply with the ancient far east culture. I took a traditional form of martial arts as a kid and I got a lot out of it. I have taken the teachings of my karate training and fascination with the Japanese culture with me throughout my life. Not that this has any to do with the game but I connected deeply with the feel and vision of the game. This game let me live out my fantasies of being a samurai warrior. I don’t know why this time and setting is usually skipped in modern gaming unless it’s strategy games or the Dynasty Warriors series. There was Tenchu Stealth Assassins back in the day.. and Bushido Blade.. we’re talking old school PlayStation 1 here. like 1995. There may be some other great samurai subject games out there but those are some of the ones that come to mind and they aren’t even necessarily “Samurai” games like Ghost of Tsushima stake out to be. This game is literally a Japanese Samurai / Samurai movie simulator.

The main character is Jin Sakai. He is an honorable samurai from a noble clan who is forced to do less than honorable things to keep his homeland and his people safe. The games art style is where it really shines. This game is absolutely beautiful and it really shines in the aesthetic department. Sucker Punch used super rich contrast and color pallets so all of the scenes look like they could be a painting or out of a graphics demo. I am playing on the OG PS4 which at this point is like a 7 year old system but i was surprised how the massive world and depth of colors played well together. The game ran smoothly and loading screens were fairly short from what you would expect from a game of this sheer size.

Everything about the game was superbly Samurai. While I don’t know how historically accurate or true some of the conflict is, I did enjoy the various romps through the world and the side characters you meet tell interesting mini stories within the main narrative. I spent easily over a hundred hours in the game and I completed pretty much everything I am fairly close to a Platinum trophy.

The game has some repetitive elements toward the end stretch. If you are seeking trophies or achievements you will be doing the same things over and over. Luckily this game is absolutely beautiful so going to random locations and the far ends of the map are fairly entertaining in their own right. This is pretty standard in many large and long open world type games. There is always the first part where you feel overwhelmed and then you get side tracked from the main story and over level yourself then once you are bored of all of that you are like, “oh yeah there is still a whole main story arch to finish” That’s more or less what happened with me and this game. Some of the larger games of recent memory (coughs AC Odyssey coughs) have definitely dragged on. Like they could have been 20 less hours and still been phenomenal games.

Ghost of Tsushima drags a little bit for sure but it’s not as bad as some of the other games out there. It’s definitely worth seeing to it’s conclusion though. there are some memorable parts at least for me there were.

Once you beat the game, sucker punch released a free update that let’s you team up with other human players and fight gauntlets of demons. The art style is a bit different and the expansion kinda delves into the myths and demons of Japanese culture. At least it seemed like it to me. The art definitely looked darker. I haven’t played the expansion except for a couple of matches but I plan to once I get back into the game to get that Platinum trophy.

Overall this game is excellent and worthy of your money and time if yo like the open world style of game. It doesn’t do anything super new in terms of innovation on the formula but what they do with the world and the colors and the stories is absolutely superb. Not to mention a full multiplayer mode added on after the fact, Ghost of Tsushima is a no brainer and a must play if you enjoy anything Samurai or ancient Japan.