Put it all together
And what have we got? One of the most visually appealing and wide-ranging, primarily outdoor FPS games to come along. You'll need a real workhorse system to play it at the highest graphics setting, but even a moderate machine like mine handled it without too much skipping and jumping.

It's got some issues. Like low dialog volume, no save-as-you-go feature, and some extremely difficult sections that scream for cheat intervention. But for the most part, Far Cry was a really fun game to play. It definitely had that "just a little bit longer" factor.

The tropical setting is a nice change from the typical dank dungeon and industrial settings of most shooters. Carrying twice as many missions as most FPS games, Far Cry will give you many hours of enjoyment. I highly recommend it for a ripping good time, and I look forward to a sequel.

I rate Far Cry from Crytek and Ubisoft at 4 out of 5. If not for a few pesky shortcomings, this game could have made a 5.

OUR RATING: 4 of 5

David Gewirtz is the author of How To Save Jobs and Where Have All The Emails Gone? For more than 20 years, he has analyzed current, historical, and emerging issues relating to technology, competitiveness, and policy. David is the Editor-in-Chief of the ZATZ magazines, is the Cyberterrorism Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals, and is a member of the instructional faculty at the University of California, Berkeley extension. He can be reached at david@zatz.com and you can follow him at http://www.twitter.com/DavidGewirtz.