Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

[#BROKEN Hasney]

http://static2.cdn.ubi.com/emea/gamesites/fcbd/static/langues/en-GB/images/header.png

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http://fc3blooddragon.uk.ubi.com/

Even though this was known about from 30th March, people thought it might be an April Fools, but it's real and I have no idea what the fuck they're doing with this, but I love it.

The year is 2007. It is the future. Earth has been ravaged by a nuclear war and new paths for peace must be found. A U.S. cyborg army may have found a solution: a powerful bioweapon on a distant island. A Mark IV Cyber Commando, Sergeant Rex Power Colt has been sent over to gather information and figure out what the hell is going on.

http://www.abload.de/img/boxartlgwcpya.jpg

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http://i.imgur.com/B9mZiyN.jpg

[#BROKEN Hasney]

Here's some SOUNDTRACK too.

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[Purgatory]

I dunno, been kinda partial to the lush, jungle environments. I guess we'll have to see what direction this takes.

It looks cell-shaded, ala Borderlands? Am I wrong?

[#BROKEN Hasney]

Dude, there wouldn't be any jungles left in 2007. It's the fucking future.

[Extreme Angle]

This is incredible.

[Kane Knight]

Dude, there wouldn't be any jungles left in 2007. It's the fucking future.

Fuck you, Hasney. You have no idea what the year 2007 is going to look like.

[Heisenberg]

I dunno, been kinda partial to the lush, jungle environments. I guess we'll have to see what direction this takes.



Perhaps you are a real, true Rakyat warrior Jason

[Fignuts]

Hope you can use the new weapons in the main game.

[VSG]

lol 144p playback in that video above. I love it.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

MAY 1ST

It's still an open world game and has Michael Biehn in it.

[Kalyx triaD]

Why does this have Far Cry 3 in the title? Seems to work without the brand name.

[Kalyx triaD]

Way more interested in this than FC3, btw. "Far Cry 3" is the one thing I dislike about the package.

[Fignuts]

Far Cry 3 is amazing you shut your dirty mouth

[Purgatory]

Quite amazing, actually. Fucking "terminator" tigers and having to dump 465768574645758 rounds into them to kill them, though.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

Intro and tutorial video with annoying man commentating, but holy fuck it looks good.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vcc26bLVLK4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Extreme Angle]

Intro and tutorial video with annoying man commentating, but holy fuck it looks good.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vcc26bLVLK4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The guy should have his own Youtube channel, he is gold!

[VSG]

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[Purgatory]

lol, has anyone else noticed the music? It sounds like some of the track from the original "Terminator" movie.

[Purgatory]

Officially, I think I really like this game now.

[Purgatory]

"Defend the hostage before he is shot to pieces...or just shot." I love the witty dialog. :-D

Then the random flipping off a downed enemy.

[Purgatory]

"If you keep getting caught while sneaking around, stop using assault rifles. They're very loud."

[VSG]

Rumour is, this is a ~5 hour standalone game for ~$15.

[Heisenberg]

Can't wait to play it, FC3 was awesome

[Purgatory]

Yeah, the map looked kinda tiny compared to Far Cry 3's.

Everything just screams "Terminator". From everything being in red, the music, atmosphere, one of the round names being "The Galleria 1991" (The Galleria was the arcade where Ed Furlong first encountered the T1000 in Terminator 2, also happened to be released in 1991.)

[VSG]

Available: May 1
Price: $14.99

Steam link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/233270/

[Kalyx triaD]

Why preorder?

[VSG]

No real reason to, I just shared that info for release date and pricing.

[Purgatory]

Nice. Can't wait for it.

[Raven Reaper]

lol, has anyone else noticed the music? It sounds like some of the track from the original "Terminator" movie.

I love how the main character banters about the tutorial pop ups being annoying and he's like Shit, can we just skip this tutorial? I got enemies to shoot!!

[#BROKEN Hasney]

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[VSG]

Bought an AMD: Never Settle Reloaded bundle (Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Crysis 3) and getting this as well for $60 total. Can't wait!

[#BROKEN Hasney]

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Michael Beihn is a legend.

"You weren't our first choice anyway"

[Heisenberg]

http://24.media.tumblr.com/905ede9db1bc14bf3b5f7c8289f8dc36/tumblr_ml4cnuR3Xe1qhpkk0o9_500.png

[#BROKEN Hasney]

REX: Sloane's blanket is six feet of my shit

[VSG]

1 week left!

[Tommy Gunn]

Never played Far Cry but I want this! I'm guessing it doesn't require you to have the Far Cry 3 disc.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

Nope. Totally stand-alone.

[Heisenberg]

Pretty ironic in this day of gaming age that one of my anticipated game releases is only $15 USD.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

http://www.destructoid.com/review-far-cry-3-blood-dragon-251865.phtml

You are Rex Colt. Part man, part machine, all American. As a Mark IV cyborg on the tail of the maniacal Colonel Sloane, your mission is to destroy the Cyber Soldiers, rip out their Cyber Hearts, avoid Cyber Sharks and stop a man from becoming a Cyber God.

It would be redundant at this point to mention Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is a tribute to everything gloriously stupid about 1980s entertainment, wouldn't it?

I don't know why Ubisoft decided to take this sudden and jarring direction, but I'm glad it did.



Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 [reviewed])
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Released: May 1, 2013
MSRP: $14.99

Although carrying the Far Cry 3 name, Blood Dragon is not a downloadable expansion or a DLC pack, and doesn't rely on the original game in any way. It's a separate downloadable game, able to be bought by Far Cry 3 owners and newcomers alike, telling its own unique story in its own unique style.

As a game, Blood Dragon plays out like a condensed version of Far Cry 3. There's an open island to explore, but it's tiny in comparison to what the main game offered. There's a leveling system, but it's linear and without customizable upgrades. There are enemy bases to liberate, animals to hunt, and optional missions to undertake, but not very many of them, and without much variety. This is all done by choice -- Blood Dragon isn't supposed to be as large as its big-budget, retail predecessor. In fact, much of the gameplay feels like little more than a vehicle for the eighties nostalgia trip -- a trip Ubisoft proves itself exceptionally good at.

From the low-fi introduction to the "tracking" loading screen, Blood Dragon is an homage as loving as it is keenly observed. Cutscenes are presented as vaguely animated 8-bit images that take up less than 30% of the screen, dialog and concepts are littered with references to such classic entertainment as RoboCop, Terminator, The A-Team and the World Wrestling Federation. Collectibles include VHS tapes and bulky television sets. It's all overdone, it's all labored, but it's presented with such shameless passion it comes across as remarkably heartfelt where it could have been simply cynical.



Michael Biehn provides the voice of Rex Colt, growling woeful one-liners with reckless abandon. As you may expect, the characters are all themselves parodies of typical eighties movie instigators. We have the streetwise black sidekick (who does die first), the typical love interest (who does get a cringe-inducing sex scene), and the evil war veteran gone rogue (who does provide the obligatory "A God Am I" speech).

It's worth noting that, as over-the-top as the story is, it commits to itself with a poker face. Rather than break the fourth wall to point out how stupid they are, cutscenes instead play out as if they were genuine, without relying on nods to the viewer to get its point across. Blood Dragon is confident its audience gets the joke, and therefore plays it deliciously straight.

This commitment is not, sadly, played out so securely in the game itself. Loading screens and in-game dialog are littered with jokes that range from smirk-worthy to embarrassingly strained. Lame gags about how weapon attachments are "like strap-ons for your guns" and Colt using not one, but two versions of the "he called shotgun" quip cross the line from parody to banality. For much of the game, Blood Dragon is effortless in its preservation of the 80s style, but the mask slips when it reaches too far, especially once dialog loops and the same, less funny wisecracks are heard over and over.



Though its comedy may be labored at times, the visual style is perfect. The red and blue color scheme, complete with scan lines over distant terrain, feels like any number of 80s science fiction films. The way Colt steadies his shotgun over his metal arm, spins ammo magazines in the air while reloading, and flips off enemies mid-combat all drip with the kind of try-hard machismo that once was the lifeblood of American entertainment. Every little detail conspires to create a believably anachronistic far-future 2007 dystopia, and it's in such details that Blood Dragon is able to be more than a cheap plundering of the memory banks.

The soundtrack is a perfect example. Though mostly original music, the tunes are so informed by melodramatic eighties scores you'll swear you've heard them all before -- in a good way. Heavy synthetic drums and needlessly ominous keyboard loops pierce their way through every cutscene and action sequence, further adding a level of authentic flare, and hammering home the careful attention to detail that makes Blood Dragon more than a cheap pastiche.



As a parody and a tribute to an era many players cherish, there's no faulting this curious Far Cry spin-off. As a game, however, it leaves me wanting. The action is certainly solid, but really does feel like a brief whirlwind tour of the Far Cry series' core concepts. As you unlock guns, sneak around strongholds, and tear through Cyber Soldiers with brutal takedown moves, you get the essence of a Far Cry game, but just the bare essence. The ridiculous additions of the Blood Dragon aesthetic are just that -- aesthetic -- with very little of the premise informing actual gameplay in any significant way.

The titular Blood Dragons offer something of a switch up, but like everything else, they're a taster lacking in substance. Aside from a brief introduction in which Colt must sneak past the half-blind beasts and lure them to locations with enemy Cyber Hearts, the Dragons exist mostly as beefed up mooks with a tangential link to the plot. While one can theoretically lure Blood Dragons to enemy strongholds and pit them against the Cyber Soldiers, such opportunities are rare. Many is the time I lobbed a heart, even with a Dragon near, and found no useful benefit in doing so.



The result of all this is a deep and well crafted premise in a somewhat shallow game. Blood Dragon is well made, and thoroughly entertaining to lovers of the eighties, but in many ways, it becomes a victim of its own success -- the core ideas are so fun, so lavishly crafted, one aches to see them in a game equal to their quality. Blood Dragon is a good little game, and I highly recommend checking it out, with the caveat that it's one of those games that does a few things well enough to inadvertently highlight its own flaws.

As critical as I may be, however, I'd rather have Blood Dragon exist as it does than not exist at all. A game this delightfully stupid can only make the world a better place, and I sincerely hope this isn't the last we see of Rex Colt.

7/10

[VSG]

No one got the game yet? I am waiting to get the key from AMD.

Edit: Fuck me, seems the keys given out may be up to 1 week late and are for Uplay download- not steam.

[Tommy Gunn]

Gonna get on the PS3 in a sec and buy it, should hopefully have it downloaded for later this evening.

[Heisenberg]

1.32gb, downloading on the Xbox currently, my Finals present to myself. Hell yeah

[#BROKEN Hasney]

3 gigs is winging it's way to my PC right now. Managed to get it for 8 quid too.

[VSG]

Ya I see this being sold for $8-10 on forums.

[Heisenberg]

Played through the first few missions of the game, and it is everything I expected, fun. Real life keeps getting in my way so I'm taking a break until later so I can enjoy it fully.

[VSG]

Got the key and downloading now :D

[#BROKEN Hasney]

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"Garrisons have these things called megashields which you can get through yourself, but keep the blood dragons out. By destroying a generator, the noise attracts all the nearest blood dragons and they come in and eat the soldiers within. If this for some reason doesn't sound fun to you, then I apologise because that means I'm not doing my job right. It's fun as shit. It's all the delightful chaos of letting a bear out of it's cage in Far Cry 3, but instead of a bear it's a giant dragon that shoots lasers out of it's eyes and literally eats people."

[VSG]

Amazing!

[Heisenberg]

One of my favorite parts of a cut scene http://24.media.tumblr.com/c0f8d42af6955e3f6bce575830e8818d/tumblr_mm5rwaeTuX1r5cynxo1_500.jpg

[VSG]

So anyone completed the game yet? I am having way too much fun with the dragons to even think about finishing.

[Heisenberg]

Going to enjoy the game. I don't want it to end so fast.

[VSG]

Ok so I finally finished despite me trying me best to do other shit. As a tribute to this mighty adventure, I present:

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