Project Log update

Project: Far Cry

Created by: Zero_Limits
Country: New Zealand
Worklog
Discussion thread

History has taught us that every year there will be one or two games that will define that 12 month period; a short list of Must Have games that dominates our lives until completed. For example, in 2005 one of those games was F.E.A.R. Pre-order anticipation was palpable and the end and for the most part, the game didn't disappoint. For Christmas the year before, the game of the moment was undoubtedly Half-Life 2. Both titles inspired case mods, some better than others.

Wind the clock back a further six months to March 2004 and the one game we were all playing was Crytek's gorgeous tropical romp, Far Cry. The game still looks stunning today, two years later, yet failed to catch on as modding material. We saw this impressive side panel mod a while back but the community's attention quickly moved away to 2004's other big game release, Doom3.

Far Cry is back in the news, thanks to screenshots of it's spiritual successor, the insanely beautiful Crysis. The game is also back on our modding radar thanks to forum member Zero_Limits and his aptly named Project: Far Cry. He tells us that the largest LAN event in his native New Zealand is on the horizon and he has his eye on the top prize of the case mod competition. He admits that Far Cry is not the newest game "but it's still one of my favourites".


His basic plan is to build a custom case that will hold lots of hard drives. "On top if all goes to plan will be a model of the little island at the start of the 'Fort' level. It was the first level I played when I downloaded the demo and I still enjoy playing round on it today," he said. "Haven’t fully decided what I will have on the front and sides of the case but it will of course involve the Far Cry name/logo and probably a Trigen in some form or another."

Sounds like a plan to us.



His original intention was to build the case using sheet acrylic but discovered that the required 6-8mm thickness would cost in the region of US$200. This came as a shock, as the 3mm acrylic from his previous project had only cost US$45 per sheet. The upshot was a switch to MDF, bringing with it a cost of just US$20.

"In the end it shouldn’t matter to much as most of the initial case will be covered. I'm pretty happy with this now that I have started anyway as the MDF is a lot easier to work with." Indeed it is, and allows you to make rapid progress with very little investment. If you make a mistake, you can recover easily without bankrupting yourself.



One of the advantages of building a game-themed case is being able to fall back on assets created by the developer / publisher. Most have logos ripe for modding and Far Cry is no exception - you can see a crop of the game's DVD cover artwork above. Zero_Limits' material of choice was 0.8mm Plastruct, a model-making material.




The end result was fairly weak so he added another layer of 0.8mm Plastruct onto the back. Fast forward a few hours with needle files and things are looking great. Even the beginnings of the paint treatment appeared to be going well. Or so it seemed. Here is a copy of Zero_Limits' worklog update dated 19th April:

"Now seeing you all commented on the logo I thought I'd tell you a little more about it.... It's in the bin. Unfortunately I ran into a few problems while painting it and wasn't happy with the results and all things I'm not happy with end up in the bin. Watch the log for version 2 of the logo."

Hell hath no fury like a modder who isn't happy with his work. We're sure looking forward to seeing Version 2.0 of the logo. You can monitor Zero_Limits' progress through his Worklog thread, and post your feedback, thoughts, ideas and comments in the Discussion thread for Project: Far Cry