You’d be forgiven for thinking that these two games were poles apart. You’d be forgiven because they absolutely are – at first glance, anyway. Their settings, play styles and storylines are all vastly differ, but look a little closer and their Venn diagrams begin to overlap more and more.
As you are no doubt aware, for example, some recent Grand Theft Auto V screens showcased a new diving ability, complete with an enormous shark. Far Cry 3 had sharks. Both games are also famed for their large, hyper-real sandboxes and penchant for allowing the player to leave behind a trail of corpses so long that you could see it on Google Earth.
But perhaps most importantly, both games come from two of the largest and most respected stables in gaming today, namely Ubisoft and Rockstar. I think it’s fair to say the chances of Rockstar knocking it out of the park with GTA V are pretty big, but try as they might, here are 10 things that they won’t be able to top from Ubisoft’s best-gap-year-ever simulator. Beware: this article contains spoilers!
10. The Photo Of A Dwarf
People love to collect things. Things that appeal to them because they are pretty, or valuable, or rare. Or hilariously disturbing. Ubisoft recognised this, and every little thing you looted in FC3 was intricate or amusing. It seems unusual that a Grand Theft Auto game has yet to even venture down the road of pillaging, as there’s clearly a massive scope and desire to do so (see: Borderlands).
But Far Cry 3 got it just right, and every warm corpse you frisked was like tearing the wrapping off a parcel under the Christmas tree. Who knew what you’d find!? An LCD wrist watch? A meth pipe? Or even – no joke – a “rusty trombone”. Superb.
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15 Comments
I have to honestly say that most of GTA’s side missions have been boring as hell. Especially the friend missions where you have to keep them entertained every 30 mins. It was annoying and pointless. I think if GTA can take some cues from Far Cry and Skyrim it will be the best in the series. By that, I mean giving the player the freedom to play the game the way he or she wants to. I’m not talking about just going insane and hitting people with a car, or going on a shooting spree. I mean having missions that help develop the player you want. Heck, Saints Row 3 accomplished this so I believe that Rock Star can do the same. As Quentin Tarantino would say, some of the best material in film and entertainment comes from stolen and borrowed ideas.
While I agree that there are many similarites with GTA and Far Cry 3, I think they should be placed apart. They were made for different play styles. I wouldn’t even say that Far Cry 3 is as sandbox as GTA is. As reptitive as the side missions are in GTA, they are somewhat endless. Where as, Far Cry 3, you can accomplish everything in a relatively short amount of time, compared to that of GTA. While there are some aspects I think R* can learn from Ubisoft here, I think GTAV will be a superior game.
My only problem with the falling part of Far Cry 3 was just how easily Jason would take damage from something that wasn’t even a fall. Whilst diving into water was indeed brilliant, at times I would jump literally from the ground where there were no hills or cliffs or anything and he would fall and take damage, it could be the smallest mound of earth but if you jumped near it, there would be damage suffered. It wasn’t game-breaking and didn’t detract from how brilliant the game was, but it did draw me out of the game world a little.
One other thing that drew me out of the otherwise pretty realistic game world was the inability to travel to the second island until killing Vaas. I understand that they wanted to keep it there so you couldn’t do every side mission before making at least some progress in the main story, but they could have done so better. Maybe they could have had snipers positioned on the island to instantly kill Jason if he tried to make it across or at least scare him back, but instead there was just an invisible wall that you couldn’t get across. GTA at least had closed tunnels and broken bridges.
Finally, whilst kicking the hornets nest and burning all the weed was definitely an excellent moment within the game, we’ve burnt weed before in GTA : SA as part of a story mission, aided by the Truth, who is a fantastic character. Far Cry 3 executed the mission better and it was definitely more fun than the SA mission, but I still couldn’t help but think I’d seen it before. Oh and, there was a point where the game told me fast travel was unlocked on the 2nd island, even though I’d already been fast travelling all around it, that confused me slightly.
Having said all that Far Cry 3 was still one of my favourite games in years and I loved every second of it! I reckon we’re going to see something truly special from Rockstar in GTA V though, more than we could ever imagine. But I’m always pretty optimistic! haha
I haven’t played Far Cry 3 yet (Or any other Far Cry) They look amazing but, personally I don’t like games in First person perspective so, I’m really hesitant about getting it regardless of the reviews but, I do think that altough both GTA and Far Cry are open-world-esque I think they’re completely different games, sure Far Cry may have great moments, moments that may even rival or better GTA but, I think although this article is a good read I’d like to see you (The editor?) maybe compare GTA against a game that gained high acclaim and is more or less a copy (With differences) of GTA. I think something like “Sleeping Dogs v GTA”, I loved Sleeping Dogs and I’d like to read about how others eiter loved it or hated it compared to GTA.
For example, some things in Sleeping Dogs were great additions and although some may have been small inclusions they certainly added to the feel and depth of the game expirience.
Most notable:
1, Combat (Sure, this was one of the games main themes but, it was pretty much flawless and never felt like button bashing)
2, Car boot access, I loved being able to put anyone in the trunk! Here’s a Youtube video I uploaded with just this feature http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WE8PHlmA34
3, Slo Mo camera (This slow mo only kicked in when you had a weapon and were beginning a pop out stunt or something, it wasn’t something the played could activate at anytime and only happened when lunging forward or taking aim at an immediate threat.
4, Garage, this gave a great sense of ownership to vehicles
5, Car smash, being able to ram cars to disable them is something I wonder why it was never included in a GTA game!
6, Customisation, the choice of clothing was pretty cool in SD and quick too.
There are a lot of reasons I liked SD but, these just some of them, if anyone else has anything to add I’d like to hear it
I don’t like FPS games much either, but Far Cry is a whole different beast. I LOVE Far Cry 2, I think it’s one of the best games current gen games around, and while I haven’t fallen in love with FC3 yet, I’ve only played it for about an hour. Definitely worth checking out.
Actually gta has had garage efore and gta iv did have where if you crash he car Enough it would just Shut off.and with the lothing you ere Always ble to do That more in San Andreas though But V will have that
GAMES IN WHICH THE BAD GUY IS THE SELLING POINT:
1. Sinistar
2. Space Invaders
3. The House of the Dead
4. Doom 3 (No space marine on the box here!)
Not to disagree with you, but that’s a fascinating concept!
It is indeed! Doom 3 didn’t even cross my mind. Good homework.
This game is no were near GTAs level
The Killzone franchise is a game where the bad guys with the glowing red eyes were always the face of the games, and the distinctive selling point, rather than the heroes.
San Andreas allowed us to burn down a weed plantation. So, actually 9 moments from Far Cry 3.
Dishonored brought back the wealth of stealth and the ability of choosing how, when and where you attack.
GTA: San Andreas had a mission where you burned weed fields so Rockstar already has them beat on that.
lol Rockstar Has always had tons of humor in their games so the first one gets knocked of second the beach from the screenshots the water looks better in GTA V then it does in far cry 3 Far Cry 3 Graphics are amazing and all but they look alittle bit fake Were as gta v looks like its real life also bears and sharks Their are Great whites in gta v from the screenshot it looks amazing also their going to include allot more animals just like red dead redemption they confirmed it on the ign questions also besides gta iv the side missions in the other games have been really great
The comparison of these two things is a non-issue. They’re different. Completely. GTA has its humor everywhere. They don’t need to just build it in pickups. You want a believable character? Play Vice City. Ray Liotta as Tommy Vercetti was sex. Stealth in a GTA? The hell would it be there for in the first place? It’s not that kind of game. These two things are different animals entirely and the person writing this based his comparison on GTA IV. Just that. None of the older games, and not GTA V as the title suggests this thing would be taking shots at. You can’t speak on the features of V, you don’t know what it’ll be like. Maybe the features will blow the things here out of the park. Only R* and those who’ve seen the game can say for sure. I’m not a GTA fanboy, but this article got me a bit angry. Do the research before making an article; make sure you know what you’re saying (Hence the SA pot farm against #1 here). And don’t point at GTA V being beaten before its out. You don’t know the competition, you can’t estimate it’s prowess without a sample of it at the very least.