Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we complete our series on Far Cry 2. Brett describes to Tim some of the buddy system stuff he missed, and then the hosts look at later installments before turning to takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played: Far Cries 3, 5, and 6

Issues covered: a cry too far, buddies dying and having to choose how, variants on missions and why you might not do one, being able to replace some buddies, punishing moments and impact vs lack of control, a false sense of agency, making a safe area dangerous, wanting to get to the Jackal, your buddies turning on you at the end, how much the weapons and enemies update, always having a fresh gun, real things in the world as progression items, the fork in the road, quality of life and usability and the loss of the commitment to useful player friction, becoming the "list game," automated gaming, caring more about why you're doing what you're doing, missing immersion and discovery, watching the minimap/playing the UI, increasing enemy variety and using damage types, stealth improvements, playing in a dark way, going campy, leaning on cultures and claiming not to be political, diagetic design/character embodiment, healing yourself or your buddies, the right feedback at the right times, the feedback in the world, audio design communicating so much, greater depth of simulation, useful friction and leading to interesting encounters, what games iterated on these ideas?, open world checklist, dealing with the "real world."

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: STALKER, Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now, Crysis, Arkham (series), Assassin's Creed (series), Ghost Recon (series), Metal Gear (series), Ratchet and Clank (series), GTA III, Metro (series), Just Cause (series), Saint's Row (series), This War of Mine, Dark Souls, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time: ?? Spooky Game ??

Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub [email protected]