Once I got the hang of it, the kidnap-to-forced-missions weren't that bad apart from the tedious cut scenes, which are skippable. I went back to the white mountains for the shooting gallery one and managed to get through it on the 3rd try, jumped down a rabbit hole and wound up in the arms of the honky bow dudes, or whatever that crazy survivalist militia call themselves. Still haven't figured out the silver bars thing but I read somewhere they can be found in safes, which I haven't tried to crack yet.

Safes are a great resource and are often housed in bunkers and store-rooms with lots of other good shit and collectibles.

OK so that's next on my agenda. Truly you are an invaluable wilderness guide and pillaging mentor.  :-D

Got the F.A.N.G. center, my toughest outpost cap of all the Far Cry's. Must have taken me ten tries with variously the dog, the sniper lady, the bow lady, (who all stupidly run into the middle of the action and constantly need rescuing) and finally the guy with the ordinary assault rifle who supposedly carries extra ammo (maybe just for himself), and doesn't do stupid stuff. Well, not so much. I also swapped out the shotgun for the LMG with suppressor and optical sight, a truly awesome weapon. I think there's a mascot grizzly bear around that I can sic on people, but haven't checked him out yet. Oh yeah, Jacob sent his hunters after me again, so I fast travelled back to henbane country.

As I remember, and if it's the place I think it was, I did a lot of the spadework for that level from on top of a billboard or watchtower first with the sniper rifle, then with explosives.

Yeah it's a giant steel sculpture (or water tank) shaped like a cartoon bear. That was the last thing I tried.

That was the one. And I had some monster Winnie the Pooh I could direct into the fray.

Why was it the last thing you tried? As I remember it, it was hanging over the map like a dagger of oriental design in an Agatha Christie plot...

It looked like it would be terribly exposed to both ground fire and helicopters, and I only climbed it to see if there was some treasure up top.. To some degree it was, and I used a few medkits, but it was also an ideal platform to shoot down helicopters. Anyway I began my assaults from the tree-covered slopes on the opposite side, which worked fairly well up to a point.

According to this FC5 had an update last summer to allow base resets after finishing the game:

https://www.gamecrate.com/impressions-far-cry-5s-new-game-makes-cultists-worth-fighting-again/20633

The safes aren't exactly brimming with treasure though: $250 and 4 bars of silver looking very sparse in something the size of a steamer trunk -- about as much as a bear skin plus a skunk are worth, which you can collect walking up any road.

The 'black market' [skill] AP ammo OTOH is a real game-changer.

Blowed up the giant statue of Joseph, killed Faith, blowed up the drug factory, freed the sherrif in a cascade of shootin' galleries and  missions-on-rails, which all felt pretty old as far as game design goes.

The open world game is brilliant, but whoever wrote the story with all the torture and sadism going on is kind of a sick fuck, no?

I do like Peaches.

I decided in the end that it was to distinguish your protagonist's killing from 'baddie' killing.

Yeah I get that, but it's not like the protagonist is suffocating babies or cooking parents to feed to their hungry kids. That's just OTT.

Ive sunk ~74-hours into this sucker, and the progress bar shows only 50% completion.  8-O

(I freely admit I am shilly-shallying around in the open world, doing loads of repetitive stuff, but that's how I play most games, and how I measure if they're any good. I also freely admit I had to let Peaches die, during a ferocious firefight against three LMG-wielding jesus christers  :-(( )

That's how I play games too. I don't like mopping up sub-quests after completing the main storyline, so I try to get through them early.

RIPeaches

Peaches is back in action. I've been pushing into dark areas of the map, cleaning out some prepper stashes, picking up perks and testing out new weapons. Can't figure out if Johnny is already dead or there's something I need to trigger for the showdown, haven't done Jacob yet so maybe he gotta go first. Oh, just checked out a walkthrough. There's a bunch of missions left to do initiated by assorted stupid characters which I mistook to be side missions.

> I don't like mopping up sub-quests after completing the main storyline, so I try to get through them early.

Always bugs me when games place too much urgency on the primary mission, to the extent of making you feel guilty to spend ten minutes helping a farmer.

Far Cry generally don't do that. If anything, it's too easy to lose the plot. And the plot kinda sorta doesn't actually matter anyway, which is good, because it's stupid.

Will you be having a go at the "New Dawn" sequel?