It seems like a small thing, but Far Cry 3 faded to black at the end of every cutscene, which was a bit jarring after spending those cutscenes in the same environment with the same first-person perspective. With all the seamless design sentiments that have sprung forth from more optimized tech solutions, we expect Ubisoft's focus on large-scale immersion to carry over in these subtle sort of ways. Will Far Cry 4 throw us in the combat deep-end from the get-go? What if it was up to us? At some point, we'll have to break-in our explosive new skill-set, but giving us the option to blast out of an initially stealthy tutorial would be a fresh slice of player agency. Either way, the second we get a chance to double-cross Pagan Min, we're taking it.
17. Crossbow All The Way
So... Ajay likes his bow to shoot the arrow for him, huh? Don't worry--classic archery isn't getting the boot, but it seems something faster and smaller is taking precedent. As long as we still have to account for some element of arc and distance, a cross-bow will suit us just fine. The great thing about crossbow'ing people in the head is the myriad of combat scenarios in which it applies. A slow-burn, stealth infiltration? A cliff-edge sniper perch? A last ditch, point-blank, no-scope surprise? We'd love an arrow-in-hand takedown as part of some reload perk too, but we'll leave that to Norman 'Daryl' Reedus' dispatching of the Walking Dead for now.
16. Kick The Heck Out Of Some Barrels... Then Shoot Them
We hope this means FPS feet are making a comeback! For some reason, visible virtual bodies still haven't found their place as an industry standard, when games like The Chronicles of Riddick, Breakdown, and the original Halo pulled it off brilliantly years ago. Far Cry 3 actively showed our limbs during healing animations, knee slides to cover and wing-suiting, but strangely whenever simply milling about, there was nothing to see below the waist (not like that!). In Far Cry 4, we've seen the new barrel-kicking feature, but we're pretty sure you can kick stuff in any context. It seems we now have melee options for both our Northern and Southern appendages. Can we kick mercs off our blade to punctuate a takedown stab? Can we upgrade to a drop-kick? Can we kick rocks off cliffs so they land on people? Maybe stealth kick our way through an entire mission? So many questions... most of them kicking-related.
Real Science Magazine called James' addiction to video games "sexually attractive." He also worked really hard and got really lucky in college and earned some awards for acting, improv and stand-up, but nobody cares about that out here in LA. So... He's starting over fresh, performing when He can. His profile picture features James as Serbian, vampire comic Dorde Mehailo with His anonymous Brother and Uncle at the Nerdmelt Showroom in West Hollywood. In James' spare time, he engages in acting, writing, athletics, hydration, hours of great pondering and generally wishing you'd like him.
