Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 offers a vast open Africa, where the player, playing a mercenary, hunts for the arms dealer known as the Jackal, all while contending with malaria afflicting the main character, weapon wear and jamming, and fire that can spread on its own across the landscape depending on wind direction, becoming a weapon just as dangerous as firearms themselves. This is complemented by weapons that wear down as the game progresses and can jam at the least convenient moment, and a wounded buddy who can be rescued mid-firefight, making every encounter an uncertain and unpredictable experience. The open world, split into two vast regions, is also not traversed via any fast-travel map — the player genuinely drives by car, boat, or on foot, which makes traveling between missions part of the gameplay experience itself.

The PlayStation 3 version launched simultaneously with the PC and Xbox 360 releases in 2008 and features the same open world, the same campaign, and the same side activities as the other platforms released that same day. Like the Xbox version, it runs at a fixed resolution and frame rate tuned to the console's performance rather than the scalable graphics settings available on PC, and the controls are adapted for the DualShock 3 instead of mouse and keyboard, which particularly changes long-range aiming and camera turn speed during firefights. Compared to the PC version, it thus lacks mod support and the finer graphics tuning based on hardware performance, but in terms of content it is an entirely identical game with the same storyline, the same factions, and the same side activities across the open world. Online multiplayer runs over the PlayStation Network with the same game modes as on other platforms, so PS3 players missed out on neither the cooperative nor the competitive experiences found on the other versions — they simply controlled them with a DualShock 3 instead of a mouse and keyboard, making the game more accessible to players who prefer a console over building a gaming PC.

Why play it: For players without a PC, this is a full-fledged variant with the same open world and campaign as on other platforms, albeit without mod support and finer graphics tuning.