To start with, I should explain that I’m lucky enough to have this game running on a pc that can handle the higher graphics settings without much of a problem. [That was a space for people to grumble under their breath about me showing off.] The reason I say that is because a lot of graphics problems that many other people will have experienced didn’t happen to me. So if I’m hugely biased towards the graphics, I’m not just suffering from a low expectation threshold. Admittedly I’m not a blathering fanboy or girl either, so I may have a little more restrained views than some of the other reviews I’ve read or watched so far. 

Having said that, I have to admit I found the graphics to be absolutely amazing and almost everything they were promised to be. You know that the graphics are good, when you spend minutes looking at your screen just watching a sunrise; or if you forget to shoot someone because the leaves in front of you distract you. The graphics seem to show up exceptionally well due to the physics engine, since unbelievable movements in the game tend to distract you from just appreciating the graphics. The physics and lighting effects particularly look good when the settings are turned up to absolute maximum, but this did cause the pc to stagger a bit, although not as much as I anticipated. The water effects are some of the best I have seen to date, and the reaction of the water to movements while you’re in the ocean in a boat or swimming are very natural.  

What a wonderful day for a swim ...

Now that I’ve got the major portion of the gushing out of the way I can get on to a reasonable review. 

The sound is accurate, particularly when you have surround sound as the direction a sound is coming from is accurately portrayed. Unfortunately, there are glitches in the sound which can cause certain sounds to continuously repeat until you load a new section of the game. A particular problem is if a helicopter crashes to the ground, and the ground isn’t level it can often repeat the noise of the crash continuously. It wouldn’t be problem, but unfortunately the regularity of these occurrences is higher than you would expect in a game that shows such attention to details in other aspects. There is sufficient variation in sounds, particularly in terms of gunfire from different weapons, which allows you to clearly identify which weapon is being used. This often helps when you’re planning an attack strategy since taking on a guy with a machine gun is normally different to fighting an enemy that has a shotgun. 

I love the smell of explosions in the morning!