FarCry 5 (Spoilers)

[Eulogy]

If you want an in-game explanation, the US agencies are having to sit on their hands due to the cult having a copy of a certain 'pee tape' that the President doesn't want the world to see, causing government inaction. I'm not kidding.

...wow, how many National Guardsmen would have flipped the bird to that order and went in to exterminate the cultists anyway, if this story had actual writers at the helm? Quite a lot, I'd say.

[TheFeniX]

...wow, how many National Guardsmen would have flipped the bird to that order and went in to exterminate the cultists anyway, if this story had actual writers at the helm? Quite a lot, I'd say.

Even ignoring the national guard, look at how local PDs can spit in the face of the president. Arpaio did so for years versus Obama, then got a handjob from Trump.

Cops just.... aren't real fucking big on their deputies getting killed, and they have the means and authority (and the blank check society tends to give them in general, much more when one of them gets offed) to retaliate on a level way above that of even the PEGs. I doubt the FBI are slouches here either. 3 Sheriffs ending up dead or mysteriously missing after (stupidly) serving a warrant under those circumstances: feds need not apply, you're going to have state and local law enforcement dropping the fucking hammer. And them including an FBI agent in on the deal is even worse for the writing.

This isn't some kind of "aw man, only an uber-nerd DBag like FeniX would notice this." It's just common sense in pretty much ANY country that has law enforcement. Sure, some countries do it better, but I've read more than enough stories of foreign cops coming down HARD when actual bad motherfuckers mess with them. Piss off those Baton wielding Brits enough to have them put down their tea and equip a team with guns. Let me know how that works out for you.

And this was something SO EASY to bypass. Drop the opening CoD:MW helicopter bullshit and just have it be 2-3 cops in a pickup truck coming to serve a warrant. Comments like "I thought they said this cult was only a few people, unarmed." "No big deal, just stay calm." THEN after you get there and slap the cuffs on, the dudes/ladies start walking out with fucking machine guns and shit. Instead they wanted some cool promo material that came off fucking MORONIC (as I couldn't contain myself in the video I made, it was so excruciatingly bad) as you walk deeper and deeper into shit because the game forces you to.

In that situation, my comment VERBATIM, would be "You can fire me right fucking now, there is no damn way I am getting out of this chopper." And I doubt I'm the only one who would say something to that effect. I'll go out on a limb here and say that's what 99.9% of sane people would say.

Really though, the saving grace of that whole scene was the delivery of "Just.... don't do anything stupid." Not only was it a "we're way past that buddy" moment, but I loved the delivery. Rest was garbage-tier.

[Eulogy]

The writing could have not shot itself in the foot (again) if it just said that the cult set itself up way out in Bumfuck Nowhereisstan, Samolia, where there is nobody around to drop a hammer on the chucklefucks and you're just some hapless dude who rolled snake eyes on the encounter table.

But nope. We gotta have REAL MURICAN FIGHTANS despite everything being moronic.

[FaxModem1]

The writing could have not shot itself in the foot (again) if it just said that the cult set itself up way out in Bumfuck Nowhereisstan, Samolia, where there is nobody around to drop a hammer on the chucklefucks and you're just some hapless dude who rolled snake eyes on the encounter table.

But nope. We gotta have REAL MURICAN FIGHTANS despite everything being moronic.

I think that was part of the appeal of the game, even though it's stupid and a bit silly. The idea of some second American Revolution/Civil War. The issue is that the writing doesn't justify it enough for anything to be remotely plausible, so we have to go with what's possible in our heads.

For me, that's that the country is doing so badly that Eden's Gate is a mild diversion from the country ending things going on elsewhere. Maybe Russia is actually full on invading Alaska right now so that the troops are occupied elsewhere, and the National Guard are deployed elsewhere because it's now a valid option to deploy them instead of keeping them at home. Or some other silly nonsense.

If the world is really less than a week from nuclear Armageddon, maybe whatever war the US is fighting is really draining the US of government resources?

Or due to tax cuts and bad budget from a certain tape making president, a lot of agencies got budget cuts, and the agencies that exist now don't any longer, or in reduced capacity.

I'm really just playing devil's advocate here, as it's just a lot of stupid to justify a game where Americans fight Americans in the 21st century without the government being involved, while not yet being a post-apocalyptic setting.

[TheFeniX]

Look, I got to read the butt-devastation from....... I guess white kids about how they were making a game that hates America! How it was multi-ethnic resistance fighters against white supremacists, guns were bad, Religion is bad, etc. All this shit kids were crying about, and that the game should be shut down. These are the types of weenies who campaign rigorously that games like Hatred, DOA, or all those Anime inspired pantie games (I'm not actually in the loop on these. There's something called Hunie Pop with big anime boobies that these types seem to like) deserve to exist and should be defended (I actually agree here) but that a game about killing white guys is "PC and SJWs out of control!!!!oONE!!" and should be censored is..... PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN! levels of hypocritical nonsense.

And none of their sky is falling bullshit was even true. Farcry 5 is a lot like Fallout 4: it's "offensiveness" is mainstream. I kind of wish it was true. I think it was cheap making the PEGs completely unsympathetic. Only Faith has an iota of it and you only get to hear about that while you're in the process of pumping 400lbs of lead into her 100lbs frame.

So, I'm a fan of Farcry 5 if only for that reason. The "pissing off crybabies" part, not how terrible the Faith fight was.

[Zixinus]

I find that ironic especially in view that the Far Cry series has a history (from the second and upwards) of racist cannotations, using racist tropes and even touches of colonialism. Not ones that add up, IMO, to the games actually advocating such but rather indicators of such in the writing.

It also confirms my theory that those that cry about SJWs are more sensitive than the SJWs they do advertently denounce.

There is nothing alluding to what you're saying.

I know. I'm just throwing another idea for an explenation into the discussion. It is the plot, or at least the set-up of an already existing game, but it is one that makes sense.

[TheFeniX]

Eh, I'm torn. My issue with SJWs and... I mean, they aren't really "alt right" morons, but I'll just call them "gamurs" is they will go to task to protect something that offends other people. But immediately drop all pretext of "games are art" the second they feel offended. Which I understand this mentality out of gamurs because up until recently near 100% of tropes, cliches, themes, whatever applied 100% to them. And there were a lot of great games in spite of (or maybe even because) of this.

They are completely reactionary at this point: "White Religious Villain" is a button for them now. NOW? When... man just LOOK at fiction in the past. No, they feel this way because SJWs have made "progress," so they're fighting for what they believe is their very survival.

While they've pulled some bullshit, I always have to respect a group like the ACLU. While constantly derided as liberal by naysayers, they are willing to side with anyone (including the NRA) is order to protect civil rights. The SJW "movement" (it's hard to peg because it's not actually an organization) is more than willing to throw whatever they don't like under the bus.

And let's face it, no one really listens to "gamurs" because they aren't worth listening to in the first place but also haven't been pandered too in forever. But God damn if I didn't have to listen to stupid shit like "Games are Art and we've moved past things like DOA: Tity Monster Edition." No we haven't. That's art. Not all art will appeal to you. Some art will offend you considerably. Too bad. Those types can blow it out their asses.

Hatred deserves another mention here since multiple rags like Polygon, Kotaku, among others harangued it continuously. They used it as a stump to basically say "we've moved past this." Even a high-up at ROCKSTAR had the gall to say the violence was over the top and had no place in the industry. The creators of Grand Theft Fucking Auto. Forbes (though man they have fallen far over the past few years) was probably the only site I could find that would say something to the effect of "This game has every right to exist."

And now, both SJWs and Gamurs seem butthurt that Farcry 5 didn't offend someone. It's like they're saying "It was your job to give us ammo to talk shit about you. HOW DARE YOU NOT DO THAT!" Worthless. I have to side with SJWs because at least they are usually just.... crybabies, I guess. Fatnerds and the like are vile people.

I can also hate both groups because they have given me cause to defend (among other things) Ubishit and Team Ninja. That's nearly unforgivable.

[Vendetta]

I think Farcry 5 is just sad that real life has eclipsed it.

Like if it had come out three or four years ago people would have shit themselves.

But now, well, the actual President just rambled incoherently on Fox & Friends for half an hour before presumably someone tranq darted him and took his phone away. Real life is far too silly for even the most heavy handed satire to keep up, so nobody notices.

[TheFeniX]

I think Farcry 5 is just sad that real life has eclipsed it.

Like if it had come out three or four years ago people would have shit themselves.

I think pre-gamergate (and maybe even pre-allthebulshitleadinguptoTrump) it might have actually passed without incident. Or maybe without dipshits to tout the "White Genocide" line, Fox News might have bothered to spread some bullshit lies about it.

But once it was released, those "arguments" would still have had no basis. Not that a shithole like Fox News ever apologized for any of the slander it shit out.

FC5 is a lot like other safe games these days. Developers try to showcase over-the-top gore and violence as somehow shocking in this day and age. It's really not. After shit like Fallout, GTA, The Saw series of garbage: audiences are not shocked by torture porn anymore. The emphasis on Comic Cook movies in the Action genre (when the genre was REALLY dominated by over the top violence back in the 80s and a little bit into the 90s) has maybe made us feel gore has taken a pass. Like, it's original when they are really just bringing it back or it just never left WRT video games.

But the themes presented are really cartoon villain levels of adult, even if adult levels of violence are caked on top. The only real difference I can find between a villain like Albert Wesker and Joseph Seed is..... actually shit, no. After the Joseph end boss fight (which felt like the Caeser boss fight in Fallout:NV) there's like no fucking difference. They're both megalomaniacal over-the-top cartoon bad guys who have magic kung/gun-fu

Difference is that Wesker is just way fucking cooler.

But now, well, the actual President just rambled incoherently on Fox & Friends for half an hour before presumably someone tranq darted him and took his phone away. Real life is far too silly for even the most heavy handed satire to keep up, so nobody notices.

And seemingly helped bring Kimmy to the negotiating table. I guess Crazy Guys with Nukes speak the same language. Here's a headline: "Trump makes stupid Farcry 5 story even less believable."

Jokes aside, I honestly doubt this game would have built up much resistance had it been someone like Capcom making it. They already removed a lot of Christian allegories and replaced them with "Christian." So, it already plays like a game where a non-Christian read the cliff notes of the bible and watched some U.S. Religious TV and made a game about what they thought could happen with an ISIS like mentality invading the U.S.

There's just so many competing gameplay and story ideas (cliches more like) smashing against each other in Farcry 5 to really take it seriously.

[FaxModem1]

Okay, I just finished the game, and that ending was bullshit. World War 3 is a Bliss hallucination, and we all just wigged out running from imaginary bombs. Joseph Seed killed Dutch, and now I'm chained to a bed in Dutch's bunker, probably being raped and brainwashed by a crazy person until the national guard arrives.

[TheFeniX]

That would have made far more sense like the whole "What the fuck are you talking about" lines from Spec Ops: The Line. After all the torture and drugs, the whole nukes going off was a haluciation because as presented... that whole scene is just even beyond FarCry 5 normal levels of suspension of disbelief. You aren't watching 3 nukes and taking the blast/heat wave without death being the LEAST of your worries. Even if you bought that, and you shouldn't, even if the bunker (open at the time of the bombs) was radiation proof: the idea of getting out of the area later safely is not on the table.

Going BACK from that: it was dumb to have each bad guy monologue at you after their boss fights BUT AT LEAST THEY DIED OF THEIR WOUNDS shortly after. Joseph takes combined gunfire from 10+ assailants, LOSES, and is not just still alive BUT COMPLETELY UNHARMED. And able enough to survive while handcuffed, and without injury, a car wreck that killed 3 people and incapacitated you for an extended period of time.

If we weren't actually shooting him why did he give up? Why was he bloodied (like the least amount he could be)?

The answer is: "Shut the fuck up and pre-order Far Cry 6."

[tezunegari]

The message of Far Cry 5: "Leave the raving wackjob cults alone, or the world will end in nuclear fire and you will become the plaything of the cult leader."

Really? Ubisofts writers for this game should be fired and blacklisted.

The only ending that makes sense is the secret "Do nothing" ending. (you don't arrest Joseph Seed at the beginning, and the Marshal threatens you and the Sheriff with prison). Now why would you not arrest the insane Cult leader while surrounded by armed cultists, horribly outnumbered, outgunned and have only the helicopter as way out.

The second ending "forgiving" ends with Hope County under Seeds control but at least the Sheriff has a brain and plans to go to Misoula and return with the National Guard... and then switches on the radio while still deep in PEG territory with only one radio station. "Only you..." starts and it's implied you end up killing the others.

And my favourite, the "Resist" ending. You fight Joseph Seed in a Bliss induced halucination and arrest him. And then a nuke drops. You run with everyone including the insane preacher towards Dukes bunker... everyone but Seed and you dies in a car crash, Duke is implied to be dead. And you will spend a long time alone with Joseph Seed in the bunker chained to the bed with handcuffs.

I have the suspicion that the writers wanted a "the villain is the good guy" twist for the game.
And if they had made the Hope County Resistance Groups responsible by attacking PEG property... it might have worked. But the PEG started everything, from kidnapping, torture and mindfuckery to taking over the bloody County with force.

Cults like the PEG should never be portrait as being right...

Here's a better version of the "Resist" ending:

[TheFeniX]

Downer endings can work and I don't even have a problem with Joseph being "right." Because let's face it, Old Testament God was a huge dick. So, "Farcry: Jack Chick edition" wouldn't insult me. I do discredit the game for being "safe," such as how it ignores that all the people you've been killing were once and still are U.S. citizens who have mostly been brainwashed to believe in Jebus. There's nothing worth celebrating about that whole deal.

I'm not saying they have to offend, but I don't give credit for being "safely offensive" like how Fallout 4 was. Hell, a lot of AAA trash is.

Like with the Waco incident, no one really gave a shit about the men who died there, but the flip-out was all the women and children who got burned to death. FC5 has no children that I've seen. There are female Cultists and Resistance, but every instance of someone being mutilated and crucified in the game are all men. Though a much weaker example: Even all the dogs fit the "safe" definition of "good dog" and "bad dog." The bad guys either have rottweilers or their wolves that are painted up and mangy as Hell. All the cultists, aside from Faith (who you can never punch in the face), all act like bathwater is made of acid.

I'm not even saying I want some kind of QTE beatdown of Faith a la Andrew Ryan in Bioshock. But you know what? That would have shocked me. It would have been the developer saying "we're going to push some buttons here." But you can't even hit her with a melee weapon (aside from throwing one) as far as I know. Meanwhile, they were MORE than willing to let me and my co-op partner wail on Jacob seeds head. Because he earned that beatdown.

But AAA devs are just not the place to go for this. They've found their "safe" levels of violence and that's all they're willing to push. But it's also hard to give other developers props these days for going the opposite route. We've been messing around with Conan Exiles, but the stuff it pushes gets a pass because no one cares about what FunCom is doing. The game has boobs, dongs, cannibalism, human sacrifice, slavery. One of the character's whose (past) exploits you can follow is a former sex slave (The Harlot) who fucks her way across the lands in exchange for safety (and the game never shames her for doing this). She dies tragically due to events unrelated to her sexual exploits. You know, basic "Conan" stuff.

I'll get back in topic and just say: FarCry 5 seemingly wanted to take a stance, maybe even multiple, then just really didn't make a single firm "here's the point" and so what you're left with, since the whole game is "cutscenes loosely tied together with gameplay and some plot" is the point you made: "Joseph was right and actually IS the voice of God." But that's only because the game is so painfully broken in the story area.