In our chat, we discuss what Far Cry 3 draws from its predecessors, what genre the game falls under, some of the game’s weapon and progression mechanics and the experience of losing one’s mind when put in a fight-to-survive situation.

How would you describe the genre Far Cry 3 falls in? At first, I thought open-world shooter, but now I’m learning that’s it’s an open-world shooter RPG.

What does Far Cry 3 draw from its predecessors?

Creating the character of Vaas, they thought they had the script ready and had Michael Mando reading for the part but they couldn’t get it at first. In the motion capture recording area, they told him they had cameras off, that they wanted the guy that if there were no rules, and they crashed, they had a terrible experience, who would that person be? Meanwhile, the cameras were rolling the entire time.

And for us, when we start talking about insanity and we start talking about the characters we wanted to see if we can get a “turn” in the player, so we talk about the turn a lot. When you’re out in the jungle or you’re alone, you’re scared, there’s a moment when you kind of turn, you go into a defensive mode, right - somebody pushes you too far and you get pissed off, there’s a bully at school and they push you too far and you get pissed off - you actually watch people unleash what’s inside. That was the emotional thing we wanted and when we first saw it, it was with Vaas."

They had Mando read the lines, and simply said no, that’s not that it, each time. They kept making him do it over and over, and they made him get tired, then he snapped and they had to calm him down - that’s the character they want. And Vaas was born.

Jason Brody, the game’s protagonist who must save his friends and survive the island may just be another case study of insanity, an origin tale of sorts.

How does that, Brody’s journey and transformation, play into the RPG elements and progression system of Far Cry 3?

We saw a hint of that with experience points earned during the demo.

As a shooter first and foremost, what can we expect from the weapons of Far Cry 3?

Any weapons that jam?

Continue to page 2 for details on weapon customization, graphics, experience points and questing in Far Cry 3!

Can you customize or upgrade weapons?

What can fans expect from Far Cry 3’s graphical enhancements?

What can you tell us about the experience points and progression?

And you see the fidelity in the plants, in the water, in the mountains, in the mist, in the draw distances, and then you see the fidelity in the characters. It’s just a ton of energy to try and do that. And then there are the memorable moments: using the water, using the environment. If they’re the type of player who wants to use the environment, we want them to swim down in the water and come up and take someone out, that you’re still wet when you come out, that you’re hearing the sloshing. Audio is a big thing for us too. It’s every single sense that we can master, we try and do."

We saw ‘Mission Complete’ notifications pop-up on screen during the demo. Are there side-quests that you can accept and pile on?

Is there a quest journal of sorts?

There’s a character in the game who’s my favorite that you haven’t seen yet and he’s got some quests that send you down an even different road and so yeah, there’s quests that you pile on, quests that you can do."

Was there anything you guys wanted in the game but couldn’t include?

Take a look at Jason at the beginning [of the game] and look at him at the end, because he’s different. And imagine if you can save one or two of his friends, imagine them meeting him after he’s been in the jungle a little too long. That’s what we’re looking for and it permeates through everything: how he moves, how he acts, the weapons and how he uses them, how he levels up and the experiences he has with different characters throughout the game."

What studios are working on the game?

Dan elaborated citing examples of different parts of the game they want to focus on or add that they can outsource to Ubisoft’s different development teams.

Are there any sort of companions and allies?

There were four-five times during the interview where Dan really wanted to tell us more about specific characters, the RPG elements, weapons and some of the neat surprises that haven’t been revealed yet. Needless to say, we’ve only seen a bit of Far Cry 3 and there’s a lot more to come.

Far Cry 3 will releases on September 6, 2012, for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

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