Been playing a bit of FC4 and like you mentioned in another thread, it's FC3 but reskinned. I like the weapon select wheel, I think that works well and it's easier to choose the throwables now. The scenery is a lot nicer than 3, which is saying something 'cos 3 looked very pretty.

I'm not sure where the plot is going at the minute, but the Saban (Sabat, Sabal?) guy at the start looks like Pagan Min's twin brother. I predict a family feud back story.

Not keen how the story forks very early but I suppose that makes it re-playable at least once. I'm really struggling with the combat physics, especially with the mouse acceleration difficulty. If I have that turned on, it's easier to look around, but much harder to aim. Had no such problem in FC3 (where I don't know if that was even an option, didn't need it). The 'hunter' enemies are like the FC3 pirates on speed, the way they hop around like mad. They'd make a good circus act with their crazy acrobatics.

After a couple of skill upgrades which seem to have fixed the jerky cursor action (implying it was game design malarky), I actually purchased a bow, killed another couple of tapirs and now I have three weapon slots open. Set-piece battles are (like FC3's) OTT, moreso here because the enemies indulge in bolivian marching powder to excess, and it seems to have got into the water supply, because the animals are similarly hyperactive. Bell tower captures are relatively easy (and thus far yield useless WWI-vintage weapons). The side missions (rescues and whatnot) and random enemy encounters are generally better, and I'm still tripping on the scenery (literally and psychotropicaly). Things are looking up.  (bounce)

I've adopted the approach of trying to get all the crafting upgrades (or as many as the game will allow at this early stage), before tackling too many missions. From playing through 3 again it was the most advantageous way of taking the game on.

I've got a recurve bow and have used it to take out the pirates-as-was enemies, even from a massive distance. It works well on the smaller animals, taking one well placed arrow to down them. I've tried taking on a rhino with the bow and it didn't work out too well.

I like the bait mechanic and it can sometimes lure an animal with just the pelt you're looking for.

Yeah the bait thing is a big helper, though it feels like a bit of a cheat (or more than it does in FC3, because the animals are a whole lot more rambunctious in 4). I got the recurve bow too, and I'm starting to like it even though I'd rather have a sniper rifle. The skills first then the missions is solid advice, and there's plenty to do so it doesn't seem too boring. I put about 50 AR rounds in a rhino's ass, and it just ran off, so now I leave 'em alone. Might try an rpg when I get one.

Well now I got a suppressed sniper rifle (which is great), I'm still using the bow a whole lot for close-in silent kills. I've knocked over quite a few bases, bell towers and a few revenge kills on the side. I read somewhere that the best (only?) way to kill the rhinos is with an elephant, or vehicle-mounted machine gun. Haven't tried the elephant riding thing yet.

I've taken down a few rhino with normal assault rifles. From what I've seen they tend to graze near water, so I find one, shoot it to get it to chase me, then dive into the water (they don't follow) and either nip out of the water when it's a safe distance away and rinse and repeat or find a boat and use that as a platform and shoot the rhino from there.

How many rounds, where (what part of the animal)?

Damn, just remembered I shot one in the head 3-4 times with an svd and it just shrugged it off.

A lot. And in the arse area (they were mostly running away).

I'm not liking how the animals are so goddam bulletproof in 4. Even the fucking badger, which is like an oversize rat. Jeesh.

To be fair, a lot seem to go down with one or two arrows from the recurve bow. I've taken a tiger down in two shots to the face.

STOP MURDERING RHINOS! :@

Rhinos are tough and best softened up with rockets or grenades, then finished off with a machine gun to preserve the hide.  Presumably someone on the internet has punched one to death, which might be funny to watch for the first fifteen minutes.

Elephant riding is good, second only to Sabretooth tiger riding in Primal.  Both are amusing and effective carnage machines.

To quote Python: I love animals. That's why I like to kill them.

I CAN'T MURDER RHINOS!!!  :-(

I opportunistically killed a pair of badgers last night, after they attacked and killed two enemies. Each badger took ~10-15 AR rounds to kill. THAT ISN'T EVEN FUCKING REAL!!! Anyway, I got a bigger ammo pouch out of it, so can't really complain.

Ah yeah, the honey badgers. Vicious little buggers in real life and the game.

You realise you're complaining about a game where shooting an animal in the face doesn't kill it instantly, but healing yourself (instantly) from a bullet wound is as easy as digging out the offending shell from your arm and wrapping a bandage around it. As well as all the other stuff that suspends your belief in reality.

Anywho, I suspect you're being a tad faceitous.  :-P

That may be true, but I liked the animals better in FC3, and I like the FC3 guns (and nades) in Ziggy's mod, which deal [more] realistic damage than the pea shooters of 4.

Killed a bunch of rhinos last night (enough for a bigger wallet + bait bag). Grenades definitely helped, but I still had to follow them about and dodge their charges while pumping arrows and bullets into 'em. (strangely the exploding arrows had no effect) A couple I got with handily-emplaced stationary MGs. I went to the Kryat fashion week thing but I missed the interminable and inescapable cut scene where it is all explained while I went for coffee, so I was left clueless as to where these allegedly special critters might be. OK, I get it now, the hunts are initiated at captured bases like in FC3.

Re the story - which fork did you go down? I'm at the point where I've got to choose between the woman and the man, save the people or save the information. Which one did you pick? I've no afflilation for either party, so thought I'd go for the opposite of what you've gone for. We can see how the game pans out.