Welcome to Yara, a tropical paradise frozen in time. FarCry 6 thrusts players into a modern-day guerrilla revolution. Dictator Castillo dreams of his country returning to its former glory, even if it means dragging his citizens through a living hell to do it. His son Diego has a moral compass and disagrees. You don’t play as either of them, instead being a random person driven to incredible violence by sheer circumstance.

Ah, FarCry. I’ve missed you.

So you want a Yaran revolution?

Hype, right?

OK, this is a FarCry game, and it’s a more serious setting than ‘doomsday cult‘ of 5, but still not as engaging as ‘tourists land on drug island by accident’ of FarCry 3. The Yaran revolution (second revolution, really, which goes to show how well the first one went) is a compelling fight. I mean, give me any excuse to join a revolution and I’m there.

The Yaran military are almost cartoonishly fascist. Occasionally you meet a bribeable official, but never a soldier torn over committing atrocities in the name of progress. This works, as you don’t even feel a little bad melting these drones with a flamethrower, poisonthrower, hyper-powered crossbow, or any other delightful flavour of steaming hot death.

FarCry has always (since 3) been known for its stellar gunplay, and I can’t fault FarCry 6 either. Assault rifles feel assaulty, missile launchers feel bulky, and the nail gun is annoying; just like in real life. The level of customisation is also much appreciated. Why yes, Ubisoft, I do want a silenced armour piercing MP7 in matte black that I can use to clear a roadblock in 45 seconds without being noticed. Yes, I do want a compound bow to snipe with in retro style. And yes, I certainly do want an improvised weapon that fires deadly CDs at enemies.

You know me so well.

How Far can you Cry?

FarCry 6’s Yara is a beautiful archipelago, with a rich history full of caves, mysticism, and inexplicably advanced guns hidden in these caves surrounded by mystic symbols. And that’s one of the more beautiful aspects of a FarCry game; the suspension of disbelief is needed, true, but it’s a damn romp.

The driving isn’t great. Never has been in FarCry, really, so nothing hugely surprising. Helicopters, planes, dune buggies, tanks, and a weird hovercraft that handles like a lawnmower (and may have at one point actually been a lawnmower) are all available, but there is only one way to travel in Yara.

Wingsuit.

Seriously, airdropping to a fast travel point and gliding your way to the nearest objecting is now and forever will be the height (ha) of mobility. Yeah your clothing can give you neat bonuses for speed, which of course I use too, but the wingsuit is king, queen, and the whole royal court. Mobility and traversal are how you get me, y’all, and I love the freedom here.

A wheely good dog

I regret that joke. But Chorizo is now the main character of FarCry 6, and I think that’s glorious.

For the last several games, animal companions have been the best part of a FarCry game. And while nothing compares to the wonders of snuggling Primal’s saber-toothed tiger, when you have adorable wheelchair dog and ghost jaguar on your side, you’re still gonna have a good time. Does the ludicrous nature of distracting a fascist military with a special needs sausage dog undermine the seriousness of the revolution you’re a part of?

Yes. Yes it does.

And that’s where we hit a wall. This story may just cut closer for me due to being a bit of a history nerd and recently learning an awful lot about actual horrors that went down in real-life banana republics, but it certainly puts a damper on the fun when the human rights abuses you’re fighting are interspersed with some wicked cool dubstep.

That’s what FarCry does, right? Push the envelope, make things uncomfortable and then cut the tension with a weirdly coloured gun or a crocodile in a jacket. I dunno; fun as it is, are we calling time on good taste here?

FarCry 6 my ass, it’s probably Millhouse

Don’t get me wrong, FarCry6 is a solid game. It hits all the marks of the previous entries, with the trademark humour and a decent dose of absurdity. But it isn’t sharp, or new, and it certainly doesn’t push any boundaries. As a shooter it’s a solid win, but I expected more from FarCry.

I’m an Irish immigrant living in New Zealand, so I’m not the right person to judge how accurate the depiction of a Carribean dictatorship. But it does feel believable, in the “oh hell this couldn’t happen but also it definitely does” kind of way.

There comes a time in every game’s life when it’s gone as far as it will go. FarCry 6 isn’t there yet, but this iteration might be writing on the wall.

Still fun though.

The post FarCry 6 review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

I was so damn hyped for Gods & Monsters when we saw the initial trailer.

Now however … I am so damn excited for Immortals Fenyx Rising.

Even better it will be out December 3 on Stadia, Xbox Series X\S, XB1, Switch, PS4, PC, and will release on PlayStation 5

My hype is already maxed out for this one.

The post Ubisofts Gods & Monsters is now Immortals Fenyx Rising releasing 3/12 appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

Defeat the Legendary Prince of Persia in Limited-Time Game Mode and Earn Exclusive Cosmetic Rewards

Ubisoft has announced Blades of Persia, a For Honor^® cross-brand in-game event themed around Prince of Persia, playable today through April 2. Blades of Persia will transform For Honor for three weeks, bringing a limited-time game mode, a new quest for the Arcade mode as well as new Prince of Persia–inspired items for players to collect, including a free event pass available to all players.

Following a sandstorm that has descended on the lands of Heathmoor, the Prince of Persia arrives to stake his claim to the throne in For Honor. He brings an army of sand creatures in his wake for a special limited-time game mode, Ruler of Time, which tasks heroes to fight and defeat him and his sand creature minions in a variation of the Harbor Dominion map. During the match, the Prince will periodically emerge from a sand tornado and seek to destroy any heroes in his way with the legendary Dagger of Time.

In addition to the special mode, For Honor will receive Prince of Persia–themed changes including revamped in-game menus with new visuals and music from the Prince of Persia universe. The eventalso introduces a variety of themed customization items. As part of the free event pass, players will have access to 30 tiers of Prince of Persia–inspired gear and loot. Within the free tiers, players can obtain a new Battle Outfit, Sand Mood Effect, Emblem Outline and 26 new Ornaments, as well as Salvage, Steel and Crates along the way. Players will also be able to acquire these in-game items while the event is active:

• 26 new weapons are lootable on the battlefield.
• Two illustrious outfits, Ratash and Sandwraith, are available via the in-game store for 20,000 Steel.
• The Prince’s own execution is available for purchase via the in-game store for 10,000 Steel.

As the sands of time pass in the event, the Prince will embrace his evil roots, eventually transforming into the Dark Prince and signaling a new game mode on March 19. Details about the second week’s game mode will be unveiled on March 19.

Launched in February, 2017, For Honor recently entered its fourth year of post-launch support, titled Year of the Reckoning, with Year 4 Season 1: Hope. With more than 20 million players, For Honor is available on PlayStation^®4 entertainment system, the Xbox One family of devices including the Xbox One X and Windows PC. For Honor is also available on UPLAY+,* the Ubisoft subscription service.

For more information about For Honor, visit forhonorgame.com.

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Ah, FarCry. Home of radicals, mutants, despots, and wildly aggressive badgers. I’ve missed you.

For a series known for its exotic and outlandish locales, FarCry 5 is a bit of a departure, with the action taking place in the fictional Hope County in Montana, USA. It’s like an old joke; a sheriff, two deputies, and a federal marshal walk into a cult compound, where a megalomaniac has seized power and is running the county as a theocracy, killing or imprisoning all dissenters.

That’s not too close to home for our American cousins, is it?

We’ll get the technical stuff out of the way immediately; FarCry 5 looks, sounds, and feels gorgeous. Everything from the movement of the animals, the reflections on the water, the flicker of the flames as you roast a cultist alive, it’s all extremely pretty. The music is a steady, low-key country style, and I love it; it’s my PS4 theme as well now, I’m really very fond of that soundtrack.

The story isn’t the most original in the world, no, but it’s fun. The NPCs are unique enough that it doesn’t get super irritating to be in the cycle of rescue, talk, repeat.

The companion system, Guns/Fangs for Hire, makes what was traditionally a mostly solo experience… Well, it makes it annoying. Sure, for some of the bigger assaults it’s handy to have a dude with a rocket launcher, a badass lady in an attack helicopter, or a goddam grizzly bear show up and wreck some cultists. But I’m a sneaky sneak at heart, preferring the stealth approach, and the aforementioned ursine companion… Isn’t.

But you don’t care about any of this. You want to know how fun it is to beat some heads in with baseball bats, and shoot fanatics in the face with grenade arrows. The answer is very. It’s very fun. I didn’t want it to end. While some weapons initially feel underpowered, but once you start to unlock the goodies you’re in for a good time. Or you can do what I do: attach silencers to all your weapons and be a ghost until your companion breaks cover. I do miss the ‘swipe on touchpad’ feature to change weapons, though. I mean, I kept doing it by accident in FC4, but when I meant to do it it was fun. Maybe I was the only one who actually liked that? Regardless, the weapon wheel is still the weapon wheel, and easy to navigate, even if there’s a fishing rod in there now.

Fishing really is a bizarre inclusion to the series. Do people in Montana fish a lot? Probably. Do they fish a lot while fighting off waves of drug-addled religious fanatics? Probably not. The fact that every time I tried to fish some jerks with an airboat and an assault rifle showed up and scared the fish away didn’t help. They also shot me a lot. Wasn’t a fan of that either.

While you spend a lot of time hunting the most dangerous game (cultists), the other game is always hunting you. There’s nothing quite as terrifying as the badgers of previous games, but between skunks, wolverines, cougars, and the Eagles of Death Mountain, you won’t be relaxing in the wilds anytime soon. Seriously, are eagles really  like this? Because it seems like you can’t go anywhere without getting dive bombed by these feathery monsters. Someone call an ornithologist after we liberate the county from the Father, this is messed up. Probably all those drugs in the water.

I love the older FarCry games, even that weird genetic modification plot from the original. The series is known for its colourful characters, subversive humour, and self-aware style. There’s not a lot of weirdness here by comparison, but there’s enough to know it’s definitely FarCry. I especially liked using an alien weapon while accompanied by Peaches, a cougar trained to eat men, and Adelaide, a cougar who is a maneater, and also my favourite character because god damn that woman owns. I spend a lot of time in these games, and immersion is a huge part of why I enjoy them.  The interactions between companions are the best part of this, because there might not be a lot of em, but the ones in there are solid gold. I especially loved hearing Jess, a hunter, complimenting Peaches, because it’s just cute as hell.

If you want a final endorsement, here it is; I bought the Season Pass. This is a game I received free for review purposes from Ubisoft, and I spent actual money on content I can’t access yet. That’s how much I love this game. FarCry 5 may pull some punches by not committing entirely to its clear inspiration, but it’s a rollicking good time, and any fans of shooters, fishing, or setting fire to wolverines should give it a look.

Now if you’ll excuse me, the bear and I have things to do.

Brian reviewed Far Cry 5 on PS4 from code provided by the distributor

The post FarCry 5 Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.