FAR CRY 2

It took 20 years of forced slave labor to build the Great Pyramid of Giza. Using the map creator in Far Cry 2, it will take only about an hour. Last time we saw this game in action at Ubisoft Montreal, we were introduced to the basics of the map-creator tool, which gives you the ability to create and alter terrain on the fly with the push of a button. This time around, we take a look at several user-created maps from the Montreal team to show just how crazy you can get. Be sure to check out the recent-image pages for even more looks at these maps. The pyramids are just the beginning.


Infinitely stack girders to re-create La Tour Eiffel.

The global icon of France has been painstakingly re-created using steel beams, concrete slabs, and a radio tower. By placing a spawn point at the top of the tower, you can afford yourself a striking view of the virtual Seine River, as well as the soon-to-be corpses of your enemies. But watch yourself: The surrounding trees in the Champs de Mars provide ample cover for ground-based snipers. You could spend hours creating this map yourself, or download a finished version and start from there. The original author will retain credit, however.


You can add up to six vehicles on any map, including a hang-glider atop the Stade Olympique.

The former home of the 1976 Summer Olympics and baseball team Montreal Expos also acts as a well-protected home base in team-based multiplayer matches. Nevertheless, an enemy positioned in the surrounding neighborhood could blow up anyone standing on the baseball diamond with a well-placed mortar strike. For a quick tour of the grounds, hop in one of the beat-up coups on the street. You can add up to six vehicles to every map, including a hang-glider at the top of the stadium.


Set the weather and time of day for each created map.

Reconstructing the necropolis at Giza makes for a great match of king of the hill. One nice feature of the map editor is a playability meter. If it's green, your map is easy to jump into and play. If it's red, you probably got trigger happy with the object tool and the map is so cluttered that you can't tell your right from left. This pyramid map is wide open. Although it doesn't provide much cover, it is green and ready to go. Also take note of the dazzling sunset; you can edit both the weather and time of day for each map you create.


A paint-texture tool allows you to instantly spray patterns in the sand, such as this ripple effect.

Just when you think you've had enough of World War II, here comes a map of Omaha Beach, or at least an Africanized Omaha Beach. Instead of Higgins landing boats, you can storm the beach with Far Cry 2's finest fishing trawlers. Instead of hunkering down in a cement bunker, you can defend the coast from a tin-roofed shack. You can use the mound tool to instantly create hills or, conversely, dig craters. The rippled sand effect is actually applied using a paint-texture tool that also includes patterns such as dried river bed.


The validation tool will ensure that intricate creations play by the rules.

In Far Cry 2, a picturesque boat ride in one of Venice's famous canals is far from romantic. Instead, it's a scene for a bloody battle. The use of bridges may seem like a logical choke point, but players are surprisingly mobile in the water, having the ability to dive down and quickly hide from danger. Just make sure the map plays by the rules. A validation tool will force you to have all the requisite spawn points and multiplayer objectives in place so the map can be played in every mode.