Far Cry 2 (Part 2)

I have to say I'm really impressed by this game.  I've been casually playing it for the past week or so and I'm really enjoying the gameplay.  I feel sufficiently challeneged by the normal difficulty setting for casual play.  The AI seems able to adapt to whatever tactic I'm using (albeit soemtimes it takes a bit longer than others) and I've even been successfully flanked once or twice despite my efforts.

I've found the tactic that works best is to approach a target from a concealed position, start a fire on the opposite side of my target (if possible), and pick people off from a distance.  The game actually makes you want to use the environment as a tool and seems to promote tactical thinking.  So if you simply ride into a base, jump on your jeep-mounted turret, and spray bullets you may come out on top... but probably not... and almost definitely not if you up the difficulty level.

I still have a few gripes about the game.  For starters the voice acting is really unimpressive.  It's almost like they intentionally found people who do bad generic accents, and a few actual Africans, said "Read this; don't worry how it sounds," and decided to go with the first take... every single time.  It's OK though, you won't notice the unimpressive voice acting because you'll be too busy watching the buggy animations during "cinematic" scenes.  At one point I entered a room to get a mission, one guy was sitting down, the other was pacing around on the other side of the room... nope... just kidding... now he's moon-walking over to his Position 1.

One thing I do enjoy is the Buddy System.  I like the fact that I can do my own thing, and when I get in over my head a "buddy" comes to my rescue.  If he gets banged up too badly I can either save him or let him die.  The downside is that they're only good for rescuing you, and once you're on your feet they become pretty useless.

I've been playing four a few hours almost every night this week and I'm still under 25% in the game.  I find myself getting distracted from the main story by doing more side missions so I can unlock weapons, buy gear, and unlock safe houses.  I get the feeling this is a bigger game than I expected.  Perhaps this game should have been called GTA... Grand Theft Africa.