Far Cry 3 loses some good features from Far Cry 2, but gains an equal amount back, earning it the same score. 9.0
A lot of what FC3 lost has to do with realism. FC2 tried to be as non-game-like as possible. FC3 sacrificed realism for functionality.
For starters: gone are the realistic environments of FC2. In place are the overly colorful and Willy Wonka-esque vibrancy of FC3. Things look "prettier" now, but real life isn't pretty. I don't walk outside my apartment and become blinded with the luscious hues of greens, blues, and reds. Life is mostly dull colors; the grays of the asphalt, the lifeless brown of dirt, contrasted occasionally by a beautiful sun peeking behind a cloud. FC3 looks like an artist's rendition of what life would look like in a Dr Seuss world.
Along with realism lost are the guns. FC2 had rusty, disposable guns that jammed and served one purpose; killing. FC3 has customizable camos and colored reticles that seemed to be aimed toward the CoD fanboys. You even get bonus XP for headshots. Realism lost.
The "capture towers" for a bird's eye view followed by a dramatic exit is stolen from Assassin's Creed but is still a nice addition.
The "skin random animals for pelts and leather" is stolen from Red Dead Redemption, and is great fun until you've crafted everything. Then the skins are only used for small amounts of money... money that you will never need since guns become free and loot is found everywhere. The poker mini-game is also from RDR, but not as well done. There is no discussion amongst players and your player appears to have a neck problem, looking way too far right or left with a slight movement of the mouse.
Another realism lost is the addition of the "leaving mission zone" feature. I hate this concept. In FC2 you could come and go as you pleased, getting close to the mission area but deciding to check back later... just like real life. In a non-time specific mission, why would it matter that you ran "too far away" from the area?
Instead of a handheld device to check your map and objectives (realism), FC3 goes more mainstream quest game oriented, with giant, hard to miss icons plastering your "map" which is glued to your eyeballs and so is permanently stuck on your screen.
With any open-world, choose your own strategy game, I prefer to quick save and quick load a lot. I like to do different things, then reload and try other techniques just for fun. But for the first half of this game, I thought there was no quick save. This is because every FPS in the known world uses the F5 button, but FC3 decided to go with F9? And then not tell us about it? The only way I discovered this is because the forums are littered with this issue.
As far as animals go, shark attacks are awesome, alligators are awesome, except does some random guy REALLY have to get eaten every time there's an alligator in the area? The animals are also a bit too overpowered. I bent down to loot some guy and a giant bird headbutted me twice from behind, killing me before I could turn around... and I had 4 full health bars.
Speaking of looting, in FC2 you could interact with anything really easily. Just run anywhere near it and press a button. With FC3, you have to angle yourself just right and be just the perfect distance away for the prompt to appear. You can hold down E and move around, but "switch weapon, loot, and interact" and all done with E. So if a guy dies near a vehicle, you may find yourself swapping guns and climbing into the driver's seat before you actually loot him.
Couple of random goods: the weed mission + soundtrack was awesome, the shrooms trip was awesome, and Vaas is one of the best characters I've seen in years.
Couple of random bads: I never found a need to use custom syringes (and the plants were freaking everywhere). Jason can't seem to handle 5 foot drops from ledges without losing health and breaking a bone or two. Can I get a freaking marker on my map for dead bodies? I constantly kill an animal from a distance, run over to where I thought the body was, and have to look around in bushes for a softly blinking body until I find that it slid down the cliff... or give up completely on finding it.
Couple more random bads: the vehicles drive like a pontoon boat lost in a hurricane and slide around like somebody buttered your tires. Enemies are magicians with guns and will consistently hit you from 500 yards out even though you're doing evasive sprinting through thick shrubbery on a cloudy day at midnight. When you catch on fire, you first have to stand there and stare at the fire burn your arm before you get the option of putting it out.
The game is buggy and will remind you of your objective every minute or two, and if you do a side quest or a hunt and your main quest has to become your main objective again, it will basically restart (meaning you will make and receive the same phone call every time it switches back to the objective).
Finally, I hate the menu. It looks crappy, it's littered with high scores and website material (again removing me from the realism involvement) and it lacks a lot of shortcuts. Maybe I just haven't found a way yet, but if you want to sell your plants and skins, you have to double click each individual item, then confirm sale... over and over for all 30+ skins. And hitting the escape key doesn't bring you back to the game. It takes you back one sub-menu. And you can be like 5 sub-menus deep, having to spam escape to resume.
So great game, but a single patch could fix a lot of these problems (please fix the loot distance/angle thing).