After coming back from Vegas, it was time for me to take a trip to the island of Yara in Far Cry 6. I played Far Cry 5 weeks ago and loved it, so I was ready for a shinier package, new story and new locale. Even a few hours in, I’m having fun and love the views. Some bugs and performance issue slow things down, unfortunately.
Far Cry 6 Setup and Settings Fun
I don’t usually need to mess with brightness, controls and sound. Graphics, on the other hand, I always review. In Far Cry 6, there are settings to turn on ray tracing for shadows and reflections, but no DLSS. Far Cry 6 does include AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR). I’ve seen positive reviews for it, but prefer DLSS, knowing it uses those expensive AI cores in my card.
It is nice that Ubisoft included a benchmark scene to test out the performance of settings. The graphic quality did not seem that great regardless of settings, but the fps changes helped me pick my settings. I stuck with all defaults, but turned all ray tracing on and AMD FSR to Quality.
Unfortunately, I experienced frame drops and micro stutters even with my Nvidia RTX 3090 and even at lower settings. Doing some research, I found out I was not alone and tried a workaround of disabling Ubisoft Connect overlay, but nothing worked. At that point, I cranked to Ultra and basically same situation, but looks a bit better. Hopefully a patch is on the way to fix stutters.
Another weird Far Cry 6 setting snafu was the crouch button. It defaults to toggle on/off, but only holding the button works even after changing it from hold/back. It was then I realized the CTRL button I was pressing is toggle, while the ‘C’ key worked as expected. Don’t make my same mistake.
I will say the act of crouching behind cover and peaking from side to side, or over cover, works great so far. I really like the shoot from cover mechanic. The way it automatically peeks around, or over, cover is smooth.
Crazy Stories and Some Minor Bugs
Anton Castillo is the big bad dictator of the story. The great Giancarlo Esposito (Gus from Breaking Bad) is the actor behind the character. For sure, one of my favorite parts of the game. He’s both polite and menacing. I love him as the villain in this Far Cry.
Unfortunately, his soldiers are not so great in the game. Not so much the characters, but the almost broken spawning of them. I’ve cleared a whole camp of soldiers only to have them respawn in their same spot on the other side of the camp. I tried walking from one side of the camp to the other a few times and same issue.
I don’t mind if security escalates (bring air support), but spawning in the same spot seems lazy and is definitely annoying. What’s worse is a gun boat I planned to come back to, disappeared. Respawn issues, then disappearing issues. That definitely needs a patch.
Minor Mission Bug Leads to Fun Story
Later, a minor Far Cry 6 bug made for an interesting ending to a mission. After fighting soldiers alongside Camila Montero, our escape via horseback was set. We walked to the horses, but then she just walked back to the mansion we were at. The game required me to follow her, so I was stuck.
After following her back to the mansion, the game corrected itself a bit and she start running towards our destination. I thought it was a long trip until she jumped onto an ATV. After jumping on, we rode past horses. We spooked them and they ran into the ATV, sending us rolling over. I had to revive her before we continued on.
After that, she jumped on a horse and I jumped on another. We were back on track. A temporary bug turned into some emergent gameplay that not many other people experience. Maybe my version of the mission ended in a better way than the intended.
Juan Cortez, the Spanish MacGyver
Right from the beginning Far Cry 6 missions, the game introduced me to Juan Cortez and his pet Crocodile, Guapo. He’s got a lot of charisma and is known as a heavy drinker. His ingenuity makes him the Spanish MacGyver. He reminds me of some interesting characters on the Spanish side of my family for sure.
Guapo the Pet Crocodile
In true Far Cry form, the buddy system is back as Amigos. This time, the first one is a great one. My first amigo was Guapo, the pet crocodile with a big gold tooth. It’s always a bit nerve racking petting the croc or watching it swim by while swimming. Watching him attack enemy soldiers is a true joy. It also makes for a great distraction.
Resolver Weapon Customization
Resolver (Spanish for settle, sort out, solving, etc.) is the word to describe the culture in Far Cry 6 for making something out of trash and spare parts. It’s basically the Spanish version of “Macgyverit”. It refers to weapon modifications to weapons from homemade, like coke bottle silencers, to more advanced.
My first taste of the real custom weapons was a flamethrower, Tostador, created with a combination of gas pump, gas tanks, Sterno cans and pipes. I’ve also built a nail gun, but I’m really looking forward to that CD launcher that plays the “Macarena”.
Far Cry 6 Supremo Backpacks
Supremo refers to the overpowered backpacks gifted to Dani Rojas to take on the military. It’s a refreshing game mechanic that acts like a panic button. I love how the look of the packs appear made of random parts and household items.
It also doubles as storage for throwables like knives, grenades and Molotav cocktails. So far, I’ve acquired a Supremo pack that shoots rockets and another shoots poison. They have long recharges between uses, but are a ton of fun to use.
Waiting for the Next Far Cry 6 Patch
Far Cry 6 is fun, but I’ve cutdown my playtime in hopes of a patch. With my AMD 5800X and my Nvidia Geforce RTX 3090, I’m extremely spoiled and can’t accept the micro stutters. I’m also hoping they patch the weird soldier spawning to avoid future frustration. Meanwhile, my son already finished the whole game.
With Back 4 Blood out now, I think I’ll use that to bide my time for a patch.