DrakeFox: Still loved my experience of trying to sneak up on one of the mafia's mansions, getting spotted and just running for my life into the jungle as a helicopter chased after me.

lowyhong: Wait for a sale on Gamersgate. It won't be too long I wager.

The game is a love-and-hate one. I love its brilliance, its ambition, its goals; I also hate it so much I wanted to just quickly get it over and done with. For every beautiful moment that sweeps you off your feet, there are 3 events that make you want to punch something. In particular, the last 2 levels are just sloppily designed. I won't spoil anything, but seeing is believing.
lowyhong: It is, for some parts of the game. It's better than Far Cry 2, and really it's more Far Cry than Far Cry 2 will ever be - I stopped playing after Act 2 in FC2. White Gold did what FC2 couldn't - dream. It's one of those games where the developers must have spent more time in the drawing board room discussing the game, than they did actually developing it, because it shows in the gameplay itself. Sounds are broken (you need to download the Russian sound files from RPGWatch), quests are broken, perks are awfully unbalanced, vehicles are a joke, certain levels don't make sense, not enough weapons etc.

But you get to see the "could have been" of the game in some parts, and those in particular are done very well. The AI isn't a breakthrough (there's still the "musta been rats" quirk), but it is challenging enough to force you to take cover, and hiding in tall grass actually works!@!!!!111. If you've played STALKER on the hardest difficulty, you get a rough idea of what to expect. Some parts are absolutely fantastic - mostly in the earlier sections of the game. Even though the game starts to falter and stumble on its own feet later, and flaws become even more glaring, it's still worth playing just to know that something like that exists.

Minor spoiler (but safe to read): in one mission, I had to travel to an island where a former prison stood, but which was taken over by the prisoners. The mission was to find some artifact (or was it to kill the leader? Can't really remember, the objectives are forgettable). I had a helicopter, so I had a few choices to make to complete the mission. Do I try to parachute down into the base's headquarters, or is it wiser to park it at the pier and fight my way in? I also have a third choice, but that one's harder: find a landing zone where I can quickly get in, get out, but this was hard to accomplish since helicopters (hilariously) explode immediately when they touch anything.

Well I liked the chopper (though there are many in the game that you can hijack), so I chose the 2nd option. I wanted the loot! But really, I could have just entered by any way, as long as it's possible to. The degree of freedom in the game is amazing (until you reach the final stages, much palming of foreheads there).

prakaa: Sounds awesome, thanks!

Should I get the unofficial english patch? Anything else?

prakaa: For 5GB and just some sound, i'd rather get gameplay fixes than that...