Allright, I bit and traded in a few titles to get FarCry. Titles well traded...
As everyone has mentioned above, the graphics are absolutely stunning. I'm running it on an ATI 9800 Pro 128 and from the shell casings flying and landing around my feet to the water and the ripple effect it has on objects beneath the surface...that game is brim full of eye candy.
A couple people mentioned the storyline...and even though the plot is about the caliber of that of a Sunday afternoon UPN action special, it keeps the action going, which is pretty much what this game is all about.
There is a multiplayer game. You need to register with ubi.com or join a LAN game to play. I've not hopped into an online game yet, still wrapped up in the SP.
Back to the eye candy and the effect it has on the game...this game truly does have an amazing draw distance. Jaggies are very rare and usually only seen on minor background fauna. Baddies are very well drawn and animated. While AI is a little soft, the bad guys know how to duck for cover, grenade you out of cover as well as suppress and flank. Of course, once I got my autoshotgun, ain't no one gettin' close to me!
My one huge beef with the game is...SAVE POINTS! You cannot just do a quick save, you need to get to a particular location and then the game autosaves at these certain points. Even though this is one of my biggest pet peeves with games (no excuse for it with PC games, IMHO), I was willing to buy the game and I'm still having a blast playing it.
Summary
Fun, fairly brainless action game. FarCry will lose my GOTY award to HL2 if HL2 is ever released
and it's story and scripted events remain on par with the original.
Pros
Graphics, animation.
Weapon accuracy.
Cons
Save points vs Quicksave
High sys requirements
Note: If you're a modder or mapper, you'll love the CryEngine Sandbox! I do not have a lot of experience doing either but the tools that appeared to be available here are pretty extensive. Once I wrap up the SP campaign, I may dig into it.