There are so many things that make me happy: rain, ben, sugar, babies, string cheese… Far Cry Tuesday is among the things that cause me to smile.  If you haven’t joined Brimtown’s server Tuesday nights, I highly recommend it.  We party hard. 

One of the great things about Far Cry is the mapmaker (“Mapmaker, mapmaker, make me a map, space out the guns, let us add traps!” [heehee, yoink! ]).  I feel like I get a little taste of what it’s like to be a developer.  Paying close attention to weapon placement, base construction and respawn positioning I am able to create a whole world capable of anything my little (intricate) Calyber mind can think up. 

When I started playing with the map editor, my youthful imagination thought of it as an escape from reality where I could make my own paradise to relax from the cares of the world.  I started off with a tropical setting and created a beautiful island with palm trees, flowers and a small hut to sleep in and shade myself from the sun.  I placed a small box in the ocean where I could store all my buried treasure and a rocket launcher on the beach for shooting fish when I got hungry (and I don’t even like seafood!).  When I was done building my vacation island, I ran around it expecting to feel a calming peace of relaxation.  But instead of the tranquil feeling I had anticipated, I just felt bored and a growing desire to shoot stuff.

I deleted my tropical island and started creating a new map, where I carefully groomed the mountains and hills.  I wanted the map to be balanced and this time considered the gun-touting player instead of making a peaceful retreat.  It was rewarding making not only an attractive map, but one that served a purpose.  That purpose being to brutally kill each other, while stealing the enemy sample and protecting your own.  But, being an avid Halo player, balance was of the essence.  I started off with the construction of the land, bases, cover and foilage (that’s right, I said foilage… who’s gonna stop me?).  After which, I added vehicles, weapons and spawn points.  In the first week I finished my map and saw that it was good, and I called my map “Radius.”

I’ve owned Far Cry for over six months now, and this is my first time attempting, ahem, successfully creating my own map.  If you haven’t tried the map maker yet, I highly recommend giving it a shot.  It’s a little tough getting used to at first, but proves to be very enjoyable.  Don’t forget the “Undo” feature (hold the right trigger and press “B"); I didn’t discover Undo until I was almost finished with my map .  “If I dig a ditch, man… dubba dibby-dibby dubba dubba dibby-dibby dum!  All day long, I’ll camp here with my gun, sitting on my bibby-bibby bum.” (Double-yoink! )