If you close your eyes and think of your favourite moments from Far Cry 2 and 3, they probably involve things going haywire in beautifully chaotic ways: being attacked by an alligator while swimming toward shore, silently taking out an enemy outpost using only your bow and a riled-up panther, or launching a perfectly angled grenade at an oncoming enemy humvee, it exploding gloriously...only to land directly on your head. Far Cry 2 and 3 exemplify a special kind of sandbox game where the game isn't so much about all the stuff you can do, but rather what all the stuff can do to each other. There are tons of incredible ways the games' various systems interact, from unleashing wild animals on foes, to starting fires that spread in real time, to attaching a grenade to a bow and aiming directly at the gas barrel near a base's alarm. The interplay between player and ecosystem, and that ecosystem with itself is something few games do at all, with fewer pulling it off. Far Cry scratches a specific itch that can ultimately leave other first person shooters feeling a little empty. Therefore it's wonderfully exciting to hear that Far Cry 4 is (hopefully) coming this year to Xbox One, PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, and very possibly the TI-82. Details are scant, but we do know that it takes place in the Himalayas, the game's protagonist is not Jason Brody, and according to Ubisoft, "You will be equipped with a vast array of weapons, animals, and vehicles, and our highly detailed and interactive open-world will let players write their own story across an exotic and varied landscape." Oh, and you can ride an elephant. Yes, ride an elephant. Far Cry 2 and 3 walked the line between reality and fantasy in interesting ways, and it's the kind of feature that fits perfectly into Far Cry's particular of brand hyper-reality. But what other features, ideas, and mechanics should be included in this much anticipated next-gen debut for the franchise? The choices made by Ubisoft will define the game's legacy on newer consoles, and in the interest of lending a helping hand, presented in this list are ten features Far Cry 4 has to have if it wants to impress on the same level Far Cry 2 and 3 did.
