FCF: December 28, 2012 @ 7PM CST

It’s going to be the last Far Cry Friday of 2012 – so, you couldn’t possibly miss something like that, right?

I’m still looking for new maps to play, but we’ll definitely have the following in the rotation:

• Broken Piggy’s latest update to Pig Creek [insert random nouns here…] and his Beach Battle remake.
• Cold Justice’s new Jonestown map and a partially decorated update to the Firestorm demo map.
• Mikk Q’s Suspended.

As always, we’ll get the party started at 7PM CT and go until we get too tired or we can’t stand the broken lobby any more.  Just join Cold Justice’s party to get in on the end of year craziness.

Got a map you want us to play?  Submit it for review and we’ll get it into the rotation!  See our Map Submission Guide for more information.

After Action Report: December 21

Well, the world didn’t end after all.  The Mayans just ran out of room on the stone and decided it was too much of a pain to carve a follow-on calendar.  I guess we'll just have to move on and use that crazy thing Pope Gregory came up with.

It was a bit of a frustrating night.  Everyone had an Xbox lock-up, it seems, including Cold Justice who had a total of four hard crashes during the night.  Rooms were a bit difficult to get together, but we did get everyone to play.  Big on the rotation were Broken Piggy’s Pig Creek Falls Cave [plane crash campfire rocks] and Mikk Q’s Suspension.   Suspension is a vertical take on a shotgun topography map that is ideal for snipers and assault weapons.  Very pretty map.

Pig Creek Falls Cave was a beta that, despite a few rough spots, played really well and is ideal for 4-8 players.  I know Broken Piggy has done some clean-up of the rough and sticky spots we found, so it will be back in rotation this week.  While this feels like a traditional open sniper map, it has no real high spots, so assault and CQB load outs are recommended.  This map has a very natural look and feel to it.  The drunk pirates are a nice touch.

Cold Justice’s Firestorm demo map received good reviews even though it still needs another 10 hours of work to clean up and decorate.  It played well for firestorm even with just 4 players, but felt surprisingly large for 4 player team death match.  CQB and Assault load-outs work best here.

FCF–December 21, 2012

It’s a Far Cry Friday Apocalypse!

Yes, we’ll be playing again this Friday.  Not sure what maps, but we’ll find something.

Sorry for not being around much, folks.  Work trips and work pressures have been sucking away all my time.  Hopefully we can get a regular rhythm going after the holidays

We have maps!

While we'll be checking out the factory maps tonight, we also have 3 new user maps. I'll be posting more information around 5 PM CT today.

Extending map submission deadline

I won't be able to review any maps until 9PM CT tonight, so the map submission deadline for this week is extended until then. The map list will be posted later tonight.

Far Cry Friday on Facebook

We have our own community page on Facebook now: http://www.facebook.com/FarCryFriday.  It’s not much, but it’s a start.  We’ll be looking for ways to integrate Facebook and the blog.  Feel free to like us and leave a comment.

Call for maps!

Okay, we know the time-line is short, but if anyone has a map they’d like to get on the playlist for December 7th, then it’s time to submit.  I’ll be taking submissions through the normal deadline of 11:59 PM CT on Wednesday.

Note that we are looking for YOUR MAPS, not maps that you found interesting while browsing other people’s maps.  We’ll have a night dedicated to community maps in a few weeks.  For now, we want to see what you can do.

See the Map Submission Guide for more information.

Good news/Bad news

Well, I’ve spent a few hours with Far Cry 3 and my reaction is mixed.

Let’s start with the good news:

• Map editor is solid.  A bit different from FC2, but still very solid.
• Map objects collection is HUGE! 
• Multi-level water, while a bit restrictive, is a welcome addition.
• WATERFALLS!  ‘nuff sed.
• Tigers and sharks… oh yeah!
• Real tunnels and the ability to pierce the land – we’ve been wanting that since FC: Instincts.  And it works well.
• Solid gameplay.  The guns no longer feel squishy.  Very Call of Duty feeling.
• Lots of gameplay options when hosting multiplayer matches.
• Map downloads are FAST.
• Punishment animations FTW!

And now the bad:

• ROOM HOSTS CANNOT BAN PLAYERS!  This is a major issue since we can’t boot out annoying people/children/no mic/unintelligible speakers.
• No ready-up in the multiplayer lobby – if there are enough players, the room starts the match.  This will make hourly humanity breaks difficult to manage.
• No free-for-all death match?!?!?!?!?
• Vehicles are banned from multiplayer.
• Weapon spawns are banned from multiplayer.
• AI actions are banned from multiplayer.  (Not a great loss, but it could have been cool.)
• Custom maps not made by the room host are restricted to ONE MAP.  Switching to a new map requires a new room, even if the host has downloaded other people’s maps.

They’ve basically destroyed our ability to provide a quality, hosted multiplayer experience like we have had in the past.  I have some ideas about how the room will be run in spite of this, but it’s going to be a bit of a pain.  Lots of dropping and recreating rooms, I’m afraid.  And not being able to ban people is going to force us to go to invite-only rooms if people don’t cooperate.

Friday will be a test-run with the factory maps and a few user maps.  We’ll see how it goes.

Far Cry Friday Reboot!

It’s official.

Far Cry Fridays are returning with the release of Far Cry 3.  Our first session will start at 7PM CT on December 7, 2012.

Watch this space for more details.  A request for maps will go out on Tuesday, December 4, 2012.  Do what you can – we’ll be shutting down submissions the following evening at midnight US Central Time and will publish a map list on Thursday.

The host for this week will be Cold Justice.

In the meantime, refresh your memory by reading our FAQ and Code of Conduct.

It’s gonna be like crack, y’all!