Eurogamer Expo 2012: Far Cry 3 hands-on
PS3, Xbox 360, PC preview by Matt Sawrey on 28th September 2012
Quite frankly, I have no idea if the Far Cry 3 demo I’ve just played had any kind of narrative objective. The truth is that I sprinted out of the opening shanty-town after a short chat with an elderly female shopkeeper, jumped into the first jeep I saw and sped off into the sunset. What I do have an idea of is the level of ambition Ubisoft Montreal has for the latest installment in its open-world shooter series.
The tropical island setting, reminiscent of Crytek’s original game, feels ridiculously expansive, whilst remaining eventfully populous: More than 3 times did I travel to something that caught my eye miles away on the horizon, and each of those journeys was peppered with interesting encounters, many of which were based around Far Cry 3’s detailed and varied animal population.
Ubisoft have molded a convincing, living, breathing ecosystem, one that reminded ofRed Dead Redemption’s. Tiger’s, Buffalo’s and a Boar all met the front end of my grille as a head-bobbing Hawaiian doll jostled about on the dashboard. There was a Bear that happened upon me during the middle of a gunfight, who proved surprisingly handy as a tactical distraction once I’d directed him toward my adversaries. And another tiger that sprung out of nowhere whilst I was sprinting through the salubrious, lush jungle, who managed to chase me off of a steep cliff into a river.
It’s also a technically ambitious game, rendering a heavy amount of detailed foliage with an impressive draw distance, beautifully tonal lighting and a multitude of complex physics interactions – the best of which I experienced when I drove a car of a cliff into a river: it jolted realistically and slowly swiveled upside down as the air glugged out and it flowed downriver. I was playing the specked out PC version and it will be interesting to see if the consoles can maintain a fidelity even resembling that.
Elsewhere there were worrying glimmers of Far Cry 2’s design issues – I could swear that a gang of enemies I previously defeated re-appeared in the same area upon my return, which immediately brought back memories of the dreaded re-spawning guard posts, although this may just have been Déjà vu.
The most structured incident I stumbled across was a small, well-defended enemy camp with a plume of black smoke billowing from its center. Here I sprung straight into classic Far Cry tactics, squatting in the bushes, scoping out the tactical options at my disposal: There was a heavily guarded entrance point and a few openings in the metal sheet exterior barrier, which I opted to take advantage of. After silently taking down the nearest guard I was spotted and set upon ferociously, which caused me to retreat to cover. Shooting feels thick, thuddy and appropriately powerful, and there’s a lightly sticky cover element that works naturally with your movements.
After emptying the camp a blue flag replaced the red one previously flown here and a team of blue NPC’s turned up to defend it. There were multiple other plumes on the horizon, suggesting some form of side-objective in which you overtake camps throughout the islands.
There are welcome remnants of both its predecessors throughout its look and feel then, but Far Cry 3 also plays like a step forwards in terms of its engrossing, detailed world of thick jungle and vibrant wildlife. And whilst I didn’t witness any of the psychotropic gameplay or narrative beats of a young photojournalist trying to find his inner-self by freeing an oppressed island, I did see a playground, a lush, unpredictable, tropical sandbox of freedom, tigers and lots of driving jeeps off of cliff’s into rivers.
The video was moved to another area so I will post it here for anyone who wonders what the conversation was about below.
HorTyS - This video shows a lot, I am half way through it now, very nice find.
The body armour could come in different types possibly Heavy / Light, I am sure there is also a Flak Jacket, these are things I have seen from pausing the multiplayer videos that were shown last April. But in singleplayer Armor appears to have bars that show it's strength which was news I hadn't heard before - nice.
Labelled above as Assets - I am unsure if this is the same as Skills / Perks.
I would expect that weapons in singleplayer will become available in multiplayer.
The takedown and drag body was shown at E3 2011 - Check the bit near the start where he emerges from the water and kills a guard near the waterfall - he breaks his neck though (so the takedown is slightly different) the body gets looted after it is dropped.
Also I don't know a lot - I am just a bit sad and browse around a lot looking for new info - My wife says I am a sad man anyway.
Thanks again for the video link![]()
Ha, whoops, I actually noticed the stickied thread after I posted here, so I moved my post to the stickied eurogamer expo thread. Anyways, yeah, I guess I hadn't noticed armor in multi, but I really didn't know it was in the SP. As for the dragging body from the e3 '11 vid, I remember that one now, but I thought it was just a contextual animation to pull him behind the waterfall, I hadn't known it was something we were going to be able to directly control. I am diggin' that vid as well, watched it twice already! I like it because while he messes up (we all do once in a while) the player clearly has a playstyle similar to what I'll be like, stealthin' it up & trying to sneak. One other little detail I noted was that because he cleared the outpost without triggering an alarm (killed the guy going for it before he could activate it) I think he was awarded extra XP (he got 1000xp, whereas if I remember in the pax vid they only got 500xp since the alarm was triggered.)
ps. you can't be that sad if you have a wife! I am very single.
HaHa
Yeah - so that means you have no one to answer to and can play FC3 as long as you want, I have to get up early or wait until Claire is at work - or use another excuse like the weather (which 85% of the time in England is pretty crap)Originally Posted by HorTyS Go to original post
Still she is really easy going and puts up with me so I can't grumble.
That video had an amazing Jetski Race at the end, unfortunately the footage is really bad and the tv in the vid was on a bad - here are some screen caps.
Locate an area where a race challenge is available.
Bring out the gambling side in you and have a wager
Notice the Novice / Skilled / Expert choices - this game will take forever to master everything
Go to your jetski
And race to beat his time.
This is the bit I love most - going up the ramp
And grabbing big air as you drop down the waterfall - reminds me of a cross between Wave Race 64 and Hydro Thunder
As the jetski lands you briefly submerge as it corrects itself
Then you get to the finish line for your results - and money if you do well.
What hurts the most is that from the video above it is clear to see that vehicles now handle so much better and are a lot more robust, and the jetski race makes it look so much more fun especially with the jumps, that has me wishing they were available in multiplayer for User Made Maps - I hope that someone was wise enough to understand how much a large majority of people want these available in the editor - although it goes against what they might want, there are huge numbers that would love having these in their own personal maps - it would be great if they had a change of heart on this subject.
I noticed some pop-ups along the race, I am thinking the footage is from consoles - if it is then it still looks very good but I think / hope the PC will be graphically superior and will not have pop-ups showing at that kind of distance.
HorTyS what platform will you be purchasing the game on ?
Yeah, this looks like Xbox 360 footage, thats what I'll be playing on. Not into gaming on pc, & my ps3 is pretty much only for exclusives (& with my tastes, my ps3 collection is pretty small). I'm not really too concerned with vehicles in multi myself. Doubt I'll play much of the multiplayer at all unless I get a good group of friends on it consistently. SP is what has me most excited about this game. Looks like it's my kinda game...
I pre-ordered the Insane Edition for the PS3, That platform is also supposed to have some exclusive stuff so I will be hoping it is something special but at the same time hope it is exclusive just for a set period of time so that other platforms might get the same content.
I also have a 360 and will be getting the game on that platform too, as for PC gaming this is something I have never properly experienced but the graphics do look superb on PC - I am unsure if I could ever get used to gaming on a PC, I would also have to purchase a new rig as mine is old and dated and has on board graphics.
Haha, I love my fiancee, but playing games does get A LOT more difficult when you're living together. Any relationship will have its drawbacks, and no all-day gaming sessions is definitely one of them.Originally Posted by HorTyS Go to original post
But then again, she's 19, and French-Italian, so I can't complain too much.![]()
Originally Posted by Holographik Go to original post![]()