Those that have enjoyed the experience of games such as Far Cry and the superior hardware demanding Crysis, compliments of the German video game company Crytek, are probably looking forward to the release of Far Cry 2 which is set in Africa. I really enjoyed Far Cry (the GAME!) for the B-movie vibe, but the luscious landscape with the beautiful beaches are what attracted me to it. I wonder if Africa can provide similar eye candy as a backdrop.

This recently released demo shows a good amount of gameplay footage in completing one mission. Throughout the footage, the host notes that there are 50 square kilometers of open land to explore and proclaims "It's an open world, you can do whatever the fuck you want" ( in an African setting... riding elephants, hang gliding into giraffes' heads. I wonder how rich the sandbox experience can be).

Although that is a lot of terrain to have, it won't automatically improve the fun factor of a game, but it does sound and look good so far (though the scenery may be drab in many parts). The fact that there are no loading screens in any parts of the map is a nice touch for such an expansive map.

The demo begins by introducing your "buddies", other characters that you will interact with and who are also playable. I was hoping for the guy playing to mess with these characters as they were talking to you. I know the first thing many would do is to punch the NPCs present . The landscape is well crafted, boasting tons of technical features such as a wind system and fire propagation (fires spread to flammable objects such as the surrounding vegetation) which they did not dive deeper about.

There is a lot of great footage (despite a crash  ), and a heated gunfight, during which the host kept silent, which I appreciated so the game could just speak for itself. Overall though, I would have preferred to see a technical demo with a constructed map just for showing off the technical features of the environment engine, the A.I, and even the hang glider. Also, I would've liked to see more in-depth footage of repairing cars. In the demo it seemed very simplistic, and I'd like to know how complex it can become.

During the demo you'll see some familiar weapons from the first Far Cry and some new ones ranging from a machete to a flame thrower. A new feature for some weapons is the random chance for it to "jam" on the player, which I think could really heighten the game experience. Hopefully it will be a rare occurence to keep the idea fresh and won't get overused dilluting it's effectiveness of creating subtle suspense and sudden tension when it occurs. I did enjoy the use of F-bombs coming from the enemies and the protagonist which just gives that extra sense of what you'd expect to hear as bullets are flying by.

The game still has many months of development so it has a lot of room to polish up, but I think it looks great so far. According to the host, it will boast at least 50 hours of gameplay and I guess time will only tell if your beefed up PC, or a PS3/Xbox 360, will be able to handle it.