The story in FC3 thus far (and I'm about 80% through, no hurry to complete), or at least the way it's presented, is its weakest element. A lot weaker than Dead Island I & II (and they were no great shakes), slight improvement over Call of Juarez Gunslinger (execrable). The things that make it all worthwhile IMO are the superb open world (stunning), environmental effects in said world (ditto), vehicles, combat (really good bots), animals, hunting tha' animals, being mauled by tha' animals, and watching the animals run amok (or just graze peacefully). Weapons, weapons and crafting systems are *pretty good* and adequate for gameplay, I've had better. It all adds up to a great game flawed, but not ruined by a weak (ludicrous, frankly) story.

If you think the story in FC3 is risible, I can't wait for you to have a pop at 4, Primal or 5...

Cool, thanks. When I've got some free time (don't get much of that at the mo) I'll have a look at FC3.

All their bases are belong to me.  (woot)
Last one I shot down a helicopter with the assault rifle.

Now I have to go back to the story.

I sure hope storming the big-ass prison is part of the story.

Ah. It's not a prison, it's a "fortress" http://ca.ign.com/wikis/far-cry-3/All_In

Was FC3 the first one with a 'stop all bases are belong to you' button in the options menu?  It's always worth one or two pops.  Keeps the love alive.

Apparently you can reload the bases after completing the game (including the story) with the latest patch (1.05), which I believe I have, but AFAIK you can't before that. It doesn't reset any man/beast hunts you already completed though. I am already looking forward to replaying on a higher difficulty level -- after getting all the best weapons, I find it's unbalanced.

It does get unbalanced - and there's a pleasure in tearing through the last few bases - but yes, I did exactly the same; cranked up the animosity in the reruns

I reckon it's the ability to take a base by sniping alone that makes it feel unbalanced.

Enjoying the sustained CQB firefights in the final missions, hated the phony knife "fight". I tried leaving the rocket launcher home, big mistake. Luckily I could pick one up here and there to deal with heavies. I even was able to gun down all the enemies (including three choppers, a bunch of jeeps with HMGs, and multiple RPG dudes) in the final helicopter escape on the first try.

Time for FC4. The moment your life has been leading up to.

Gotta hone my sneakin around skills and get the bad taste of the ending out of my mouth. Pah!

After resetting the bases (and losing all the fast-travels :-O ) I left the sniper rifle home and killed three pirates from close range using the "Shadow" suppressed pistol. I could've carried on without triggering the alarm, but I like bringing in reinforcements to these understaffed outposts.

Oh yeah, the ending was beyond stupid but, like, dude were on drugs :O) .

Did you see both endings?

One was enough.

Fair point.

My memory's a tad hazy remind me of the ending - is that bit where you can either kill or procreate with the warrior woman the end, or is there a bit after that?

She kills you. After you procreate. Then you turn up alive, as a "Survivor" (slightly higher difficulty).

Anyone try this mod? https://www.nexusmods.com/farcry3/mods/63?tab=description

I dl and will be giving it a try in the near -ish future.

Not tried that mod, but looking at the list associated with it, it would seem a sensible enhancement of what you've already got to play with in the game. Don't think I'd bother with the hardcore one, but regular sounds good.

Yeah, I got the regular to try out, I haven't got the 1000s of hours to learn hardcore. I'm finding the base cap's a lot tougher without the full slaughter 'em all load out (unmodded game). Last night I had to run over heavies with a jeep after I used up my nades and molotovs. I think I like the regular .45 ACP over the shredder for an SMG, but the bizon is the deadliest.

I tried the mod last night. Right after I installed it and started FC, steam ran FC updates on me, so I'm not sure it got nuked. Anyway game play does seem considerably more balanced on the "Hard" setting, but that could be down to early days limited weapons, health & skills. I'll need to review exactly what this mod is supposed to do to figure out if I need to reinstall it.

Edit: Yeah ok, it definitely got nuked. Need to disable automatic updates then.

Yep. I had to disable auto update in the ubisoft app (because you can't in steam) and launch from desktop instead of through steam menu to get around it. The mod came straight up unmistakable, with clever labelling in the FC style, and skipped the whole opening sneak past the pirates (which was rather good first time out, then tedious).

I chose the 'medium' difficulty, and it's fucking hard. In a good way. Enemy bullets do serious damage, and health is hard to come by. Enemies aren't tagged, ya can't see through walls, crafting ingredients don't glow in the field and so on. Actually you need to play through the unmodded game to know how to play the mod, because all the in-game cues are gonzo. All weapons and skills are unlocked out of the box, though you still have to earn/pay for them. The map is all revealed, you don't need to activate the radio towers (though you earn skill points and cash by doing so). Yeah this is a whole new game.