One game I completely forgot about in this months must buy line-up is Far Cry 2. I must have been a bit brain dead when I wrote that post as the game is looking more amazing by the day. Plus, there’s that little fact that I’ve pre-ordered the game. Oh well, with so many good games coming out in the next few months I suppose it’s forgivable that one or two may slip your mind from time to time. I think that space in my brain must be taken up by the worries about just how I’m going to be able to afford them all.

As you can see from the screenshot above Far Cry 2 is looking absolutely gorgeous, and it’s looking like it’s going to be the best looking sandbox game on today’s consoles so far (Fallout 3 comes close, but the grim post-apocalyptic vistas are in stark contrast to the beautiful and bright plains of Africa). Long grass sways in the breeze while gazelles hop gracefully through it, until you come along and all hell breaks loose - of course! I’m most looking forward to tossing a Molotov cocktail into the long grass and watching as the fire propagates across the landscape; hopefully setting off conveniently placed explosive barrels that go on to destroy an entire village. If that sounds good then imagine doing that in multiplayer!

I’ve been secretly hoping for a new game to come along that will drag the masses (and most of my Xbox Live friends list) away from Call of Duty 4 and give them a new obsession. As much as I love Call of Duty 4’s multiplayer mode you can’t really deny that it’s getting a little tedious these days. With the PC you can add tonnes of extra life to a game by playing user created levels and mods, with the console versions of COD4 this just isn’t possible and it makes it all a little boring. Thankfully Far Cry 2 is shipping with what looks to be an incredibly detailed yet simple level editor that will hopefully get the Xbox Live or PSN population playing the game past the first few weeks. I know I’ll be playing with the map editor a lot anyway, but I doubt I’ll be creating maps that will be popular with thousands of players. In any case, it’s looking way better than Halo 3’s Forge.

One problem I have with the multiplayer is that character classes won’t be progressive. Any upgrades will simply be confined to the game you’re playing in and when you leave you’re right back at the beginning. For those players used to the excellent rank system in COD4 this may be a bit of a downer, but I guess it’s something you can live with. Instead you’ll be able to unlock ‘blood diamonds’ by killing players and completing objectives. There’s a maximum of three but each time you gain one you’ll have access to higher power weapons for whatever class you might be playing. The classes, by the way, are Commando, Gunner, Rebel, Guerrilla, Sniper, and Saboteur. Commando is your standard assault class while Gunner and Sniper are pretty obvious. The Rebel plays with fire and the Guerrilla uses close combat and ambush tactics. Finally the Saboteur is basically a scout class, specialising in stealth tactics. If you get a diamond as the Gunner class you can start using the rocket launcher, but remember that you’ll have to fight to gain it again in the next match.

Class problems aside I still can’t wait to go paragliding over the African continent; and maybe it will also be amazing to do this while people are blowing each other up below me. In any case you’ll be able to find out with me from October 24th.