Massive Far Cry 2 Preview Feature and Developer Interview

LP Pharand and Clint Hocking talk to Lazygamer.co.za

When I heard that I had some time with the developers, I instantly realised that I wanted to ask them a few questions about their decision with selecting Africa as their setting. We took some time to question Clint Hocking (Creative Director) and LP Pharand (Producer) and pick their brain about their upcoming title.

[We did not have recording facilities available so, so I will not be putting down direct quotes but will still put this section into a Q&A format.]

Q: When you came to Africa to do your research, what was the biggest shock to you as foreigners and developers of a game set in Africa.

A: As Clint was unable to make it through to Africa, this answer was left to LP. He stated that all they had was a North American understanding of what Africa was and how they were so amazed to see how wrong they were. The biggest surprise to them was the geographical make-up of the land and more specifically the way that it would be completely flat savannah for miles and then completely change to dense jungle in the mountains in a matter of minutes.

Q: What precautions did you take (if any) to avoid any issues with regards to racism and political topics in your game.

A: LP Pharand was very quick to answer and say that he believes that it is “about time” that game developers tackle issues such as these in videogames. Movies and Books have been made and written on these themes and with videogames maturing so much he doesn’t see why the topics should be avoided. As a side note, I must add that Far Cry 2 is based in a fictional unnamed African country.

Q: What was the main focus that you wanted to push in Far Cry 2 as a title that falls under the Far Cry brand.

A: The main focus on Far Cry 2 was to keep the great elements that made the original Far Cry so popular. The developers have done all that they can to keep the players immersed in the game by introducing concepts such as little to no hud as well as always keeping the player in the eyes of his character and never pulling it out for cutscenes or animations. This can be seen with the integration of a map that is used by the character inside the game, to avoid players needing to jump into a menu every 90 seconds to get their bearings. A large element of the game is also the freedom that they wanted players to have in the huge 50 square kilometer open world that was created for the game.

Q: With the game featuring an open world and day night cycles, will any of the missions be time specific or have time limits attached to them.

A: The way that players approach missions are completely up to them. There will at no point in the game be time limits or missions that need to take place at specific times of day. Clint makes it clear that the player should be able to do whatever he wants whenever he wants and make his own decisions on how and when he approaches a given task.

Q: Will there be co-operative play in Far Cry 2

A: There is no co-operative play but it could be a possibility for future titles. There are no plans for DLC that will enable co-operative play either.

Q: Are there any differences between the console and PC version of Far Cry 2

A: The two versions of the game are indentical in terms of gameplay. The only difference between the two are that the graphics on the PC version can be pushed higher and the console version has a controller interface whereas the PC version uses a windows interface.

Q: With regards to the map editor, are there any issues with sharing over closed networks such as Xbox Live?

A: Far Cry 2’s map editor only uses elements already in the game and most of the creations are created procedurally, meaning that gamers will only be downloading the settings onto their systems and nothing external so there are absolutely no issues whatsoever.

Q: Will it be possible to kill every person in the game?

A: As you leave areas and come back to them at later stages, the areas will repopulate with people and enemies, so it will not be possible.

Q: What about the flamethrower in terms of fire propogation, will it be possible to burn down everything in the game?

A: This is wholly dependent on memory, when you hit the limit of the consoles memory, the console will remove old data and make space for new date. This is something that we have seen before in racing games, just think about skid marks disappearing to make space for new marks.

Q: How will achievements/trophies be spanned out over single and multiplayer?

A: The single player campaign will make up roughly two-thirds of the achievements/trophies with the multiplayer taking the rest although there will be a one for the map editor as well. There will be none for finishing the game on specific difficulties as the length of the game will make it difficult for players to play it through more than once.

Q: Far Cry 2 was originally set to be released in March 2008, but was pushed to October in the end. What difference did the extra time make and what would the game have been like if it was released in March.

A: Ubisoft was very supportive and allowed development to continue for a few more months. While the core elements were there, they were far from perfect. Clint Hocking went on to say that he thought that the March version of the game would have been “annoying” saying that there was still a lot of polish needed. LP also added that with so many ideas being put in the game they were given more time to realise what worked and what didn’t, saying that they had to stop being stubborn and just realise that some elements weren’t working and had to change or be removed. The in-game map was an idea brought in later on that incurred a lot of expenses but Clint pushed hard for it and in the end Ubisoft allowed it and it seems to make all the difference in the end so the end product is now much more of a game than it would have been had it been released earlier in the year.

Click Page 3 to read our Single and Multiplayer Impressions >>

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Last Updated: October 9, 2008