Monday, January 19, 2009

Beaten : FarCry 2 - And a Warning

I finished FarCry 2 this morning, after over three weeks and 49.5 hours of game time, and lots of exploring and driving around. I did not get all of the game's 221 diamond briefcases (a very challenging collection quest), all of the weapons and upgrades, nor all of the Jackal tapes.

As I stated in my previous review, the game is not stingy with save points, but something every XBox 360 owner should know is that there is apparently a corrupted game save bug where some of your saves will lock up the whole console when you try to load them.

It began for me in Act 2, mostly at save points that occurred when completing a mission. I surmised that perhaps it was the fact that, in those situations, I was still embroiled in combat and action on the screen when the pop-up for the save materialized.

However, in Act 3, the corrupted saves began occurring more regularly, even at normally quiet save points. The only ones that seemed to be free of this glitch were the ones that occurred in safe houses, so after several frustrating repeats of previous missions (and travelling to those missions), I began a strict practice of making my way to safe houses to make backup saves.

So to those XBox 360 owners who decide to play FarCry 2, be warned. Make multiple saves at safe houses after each major event. I also found one glitchy roadside checkpoint that I couldn't scout, and I tried many, many times, so I ended my game with 56 out of 57 of those scouted. At least I was able to unlock all of the safe houses.

In spite of these minor issues, I really did have fun with FarCry 2 - it had the right mix of exploration and action to keep me hooked. I may go back to previous saves and do some more exploring, and I may also try out the online modes.

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