One of the games that we unforgiveabley missed out on in my feature on' Upcoming Videogames to put on your 2008 Christmas wish list' was the sequel to the brilliant Far Cry, which is due out later this year.
Well, you'll be glad to know we're about to make it up to you, with all the details straight from the Games Convention, that we know about Ubisoft's first person shooter.
Set in Afrika, you are a gun for hire, trapped in a war-torn African state, stricken with malaria and forced to make deals with corrupt warlords on both sides of the conflict in order to make this country your home.
You must identify and exploit your enemies' weaknesses, neutralizing their superior numbers and firepower with surprise, subversion, cunning and of course brute force.
Utilising a new tailor-made engine, called Dunia, we can expect to see some of the most realistic destructible environments that we've ever seen in a shooter (everything will be destructible), along with special effects such as dynamic fire and storm effects. Through in a real-time day and night cycle, a dynamic music system and non-scripted enemy A.I. and we should be in for one hell of an explosive treat.
Fire will play a part in Far Cry 2 with Ubisoft boasting that it will be "the most realistic fire ever seen in a video game!" One of the new features will allow us to use wind and propagation to surround and trap enemies and grab Molotov cocktails or flamethrower and watch fire burn life out of all living beings.
Over 50km2 of open space, in which we'll experience no loading times, we'll be able to fight for two rival factions, choose our own path and make our way up to the primary target by any means necessary.
The no-scripted AI means that we should see all sorts of cool things on our travels, including enemies shudder as your reputation and in-game actions make them want to drop their guns and run for cover.
We still don't know much about the multiplayer component, although we do know that all the technical aspects of single player mode will be present in multiplayer.
Sounds fantastic! Oh, and there's the map editor too...
