A few years ago, on the tenth anniversary of the release of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, I posted some thoughts about the development of that game, and the impact it had on my life. Specifically I talked a bit about how the intense stress and long hours on that project affected me. In a follow-up post I clarified some of my own thinking about the complexities of crunch and game development. These challenges are still with us today.
It’s unfortunate that we haven’t figured those problems out yet, but as I said back then - it’s hard and it’s complicated. Oversimplifications of the conversation don’t actually help the people who are living the problem - they are mostly just ideology. What we need to address the problem is discourse, reason and focused effort, not opinions and outrage.
Anyway - I’m not writing today to rehash that debate. I’m writing because another tin anniversary has passed; this, the tenth anniversary of the release of Far Cry 2.
This anniversary has been even harder on me than the last. Far Cry 2 is the last game I shipped; back on October 21, 2008. If you’re a professional game developer reading this, there is a pretty good chance that you have shipped more games than I have in my entire career (3), AND that you have not even been a game developer for the length of time I have gone without shipping.
It probably takes some special kind of self-loathing to frame it in those terms, but this is the kind of twisted shit you can come up with to torture yourself when you’ve got ten years to really make a meal of it. A couple years ago there was a big conversation among game developers about imposter syndrome. I remember thinking at the time “ha ha, fuck all of you fakers! In two years I’ll be writing about how it’s been a decade since I shipped a game! I’m the Original Impostah!”
Well, here we are.
But fortunately, I’m not lost in some dark forest of self-loathing with seized-up joints, unable to move. I wish I could talk about what I’m working on these days, but that will have to wait a while longer. I’m extremely thankful and fortunate to be where I am right now, and I wanted to celebrate this tenth anniversary by sharing some of the things that have kept my heart beating, and have helped me maintain my motivation and focus for a decade, despite so many setbacks and missteps.
For ten years, Far Cry 2 has continued to generate thoughtful responses, meaningful criticism, and increasingly sophisticated analysis. The reviews of the game mostly stopped coming after the first six months. But the critical discourse and the analysis of the game continued, and continues still. In fact, some of the best articles and analyses of the game have been written in the past 18 months. Some people say the game is a ‘cult classic’, some say it was a ‘sleeper hit’, others call it a ‘reference game’. That’s all fine, but what matters to me, and what has kept me going over the years, is the simple fact that ten years later, people are still inspired to play it, to revisit it, and most importantly, to write about it.
So for the tenth anniversary of Far Cry 2, I wanted to share some of the best and most thoughtful criticism of the game that I’ve come across. I went back through old emails, searched the internet, and spent hours organizing my Instapaper account in order to narrow it down to what I feel are the ten best pieces written about Far Cry 2.
In terms of how I filtered them; for the most part I avoided reviews, and tried not to select pieces from the six months that immediately followed the launch of the game (I failed, but I tried). I also tried to avoid pieces that were explicitly comparing Far Cry 2 to other games in the series - there are a lot of those. Part of the reason Far Cry 2 continues to be written about today is, of course, because it stands as a reference for the games that have followed it. But looking back at comparisons - even favorable ones - doesn’t elevate the discourse much, and I wanted to focus on writing about Far Cry 2 outside of the context of other games in the series.
So, over the next few posts, I’ve gathered together my Top 10 articles about Far Cry 2. I could have easily made this a Top 20, and some very great writing didn’t make the cut. That said, within many of the pieces I’ve chosen to share, you’ll find links to other pieces that would have made the Top 20, so they are there if you look for them.
So, thank-you to everyone who has played the game and shared their perspectives and opinions on it over the years. You’ve made a big difference in my life, and without your passion, insight, criticism, and perspective, it’s not clear that I would be where I am today. I owe you all an enormous debt of gratitude, and I look forward to repaying it.
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