henke on 28/3/2018 at 11:56
Not playing FC5 yet, planning to dive into it over Easter weekend, but I did listen to the soundtrack today. These Ubigames often have great original music, like Hudson Mohawke's Watch Dogs 2 soundtrack and the sea shantys of Black Flag, but the Americana songs written for the Eden's Gate cult might be a new high point.
[video=youtube;FxtnTV2NOmU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxtnTV2NOmU[/video]
"Set those sinners free" is a stomping, menacing thing that reminds me of Johnny Cash's version of "God's gonna cut you down".
[video=youtube;HwNnFK9iAEA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwNnFK9iAEA[/video]
"Let the water wash away your sins" is a feel-good singalong about cleansing the earth of sin!
Dia on 28/3/2018 at 12:42
Thanks for all your help and advice, guys. Very much appreciated!!
catbarf on 28/3/2018 at 15:00
Quote Posted by Brethren
Maybe you guys are are right and it's just my perception with these games. I'd have to go back and look, but what were the issues tackled in FC 3 and 4? Any idea? I've no clue, I'd have to rewatch the trailers. To me it's always been more about the big, detailed, open world playground to explore, which is the reason I'll be picking up my copy after work tonight.
I haven't played FC4, but I think FC3 doesn't get enough credit for its themes. When people talk about the game it's usually about Vaas or the bit where you burn drugs to Skrillex or some of the other obvious elements, but I thought what was most interesting about the game was its relatively subtle deconstruction of the normal FPS power fantasy. As you go along and your character gets more and more powerful, the NPCs around you react with increasing alarm to how cavalier your character becomes about mass killing. By the end of the game you've fulfilled the usual FPS culmination of morphing from a clueless college kid into a battle-scarred warrior- but all the friends you've been trying to save throughout the game are like 'dude, what the fuck is wrong with you?'. And then it culminates in one of the endings completely eviscerating the 'white guy saves the natives' narrative that it's been building up. It's seriously underappreciated.
So in contrast to FC3's generic island, FC5 is set in a very relevant, contextual locale. It's not an abstract tropical island that can be used as a proxy to talk about colonialism or power fantasies in games, it's a setting that inherently touches on guns, evangelical Christianity, politics, the plight of rural America, things that are political in nature. I don't expect games to always be political, but for FC5 to not have anything to say about those issues at all seems weird. There's a difference between taking a side and exploring an issue, and a story that doesn't explore issues that are important to its setting is going to be weak.
Slasher on 28/3/2018 at 19:14
Quote Posted by catbarf
I don't expect games to always be political, but for FC5 to not have anything to say about those issues at all seems weird. There's a difference between taking a side and exploring an issue, and a story that doesn't explore issues that are important to its setting is going to be weak.
It seems like a mutually contradictory design choice. Pick a controversial setting and themes and go with the most uncontroversial presentation you can get away with. I understand Ubisoft taking a safe, inoffensive route. AAA games cost money and alienating chunks of the audience with in-game politics would justifiably have the shareholders calling for the development team's destruction. But why bother picking those settings and themes to begin with then?
EvaUnit02 on 28/3/2018 at 20:11
Quote Posted by Slasher
But why bother picking those settings and themes to begin with then?
Because since FC3 fighting larger than life, nutter villains has been part of the formula. Religious cults are often lead by larger than life nutters. Rural America is an interesting location to do virtual tourism, which to date has been untapped in AAA gaming. Virtual tourism is exotic locales is the backbone of the Far Cry franchise.
Come on man, these answers are as plain as day.
Zerker on 28/3/2018 at 20:30
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
I love these lolcow game journalists.
Drop the ad hominem and actually address the review text if you have anything worthwhile to say.
I was listening to the Giant Bombcast on the way home from work, and they're basically saying the same thing over there too.
Renzatic on 28/3/2018 at 21:28
I just want to shoot at privileged white people in a videogame.
Pyrian on 28/3/2018 at 22:02
Isn't that what Wolfenstein is for?
