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Ubisoft crying Far again...in Africa?

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Jul 19, 2007 11:17 am PT

French publisher announces sequel to 2004 franchise-spawning shooter is coming next year; Montreal studio developing, teaser site hints at Serengeti-esque setting.

Far Cry 2

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In 2004, Ubisoft shook up the PC first-person shooter genre when it released Far Cry. The game's dazzling visuals earned it high critical praise, including a nomination for Shooter of the Year in GameSpot's Best and Worst of 2004 awards. The accolades translated into income, with the game selling nearly 425,000 copies in the US, generating $12.9 million as of May, according to the NPD Group.

Far Cry's success launched a whole franchise for Ubisoft, with Far Cry Instincts hitting the Xbox in 2005, its expansion/semisequel Far Cry Instincts Evolution the following year, Far Cry Instincts Predator arriving in 2006, and Far Cry Vengeance tackling the Wii last December.

Unfortunately, Far Cry's success also led to some unwelcome developments for Ubisoft. Just months after the game's release, its German developer, Frankfurt-based Crytek, formed a " strategic partnership" with Ubi rival and part-owner Electronic Arts. The first project to emerge from that deal is the PC shooter Crysis, which has been turning heads at industry events with its groundbreaking graphics. In fact, its rapt reception has sparked talk of EA buying Crytek outright.

While disconcerting, the EA/Crytek deal didn't stop Ubisoft from buying the Far Cry IP last year. Today, the France-based publisher announced its Montreal studio is developing the first proper sequel to Far Cry, inventively titled Far Cry 2. Ubisoft Montreal developed Far Cry Instincts Evolution and the Prince of Persia series, and its currently finishing up Assassin's Creed.

"Far Cry marked the beginning of a new era for shooters. An era of gorgeous graphics and of advanced artificial intelligence," said Tony Key, Ubisoft's vice president of marketing, in a statement. "We are confident that Far Cry 2 will have the same impact again on the FPS genre landscape."

Other than its platform--the PC--and its release window--Spring 2008--little was revealed about the game other than what can be seen on its new teaser Web site. However, the site's splash page did hint the game might be set in Africa, showing pictures of trees in a Serengeti-esque plain with tribal drums playing in the background. Also, a French-language stamp bearing what looks like a lioness or leopard appears in the upper-right-hand corner. At the turn of the 19th century, nearly a third of Africa was under French or Belgian colonial rule.

318 Comments

  • PHeMoX

    Posted Jan 27, 2008 6:25 pm PT

    "ralinn

    @PHeMoX
    The demos were running on a dual core, not a quad."

    No, they really were running on quad cores.

  • Dublinkelt

    Posted Jan 21, 2008 3:41 pm PT

    will THIS HAVE MONSTERS ! ?

  • gamer082009

    Posted Jan 3, 2008 6:42 pm PT

    Ubisoft is pretty good with 3rd person shooters. But i'm not sure how many sucessfull FPS they've done. So this does worry me, Farcry 2 could've used the skillz of Crytek..this looks to be on the road to another HIGHLY anticipated flop. I know we may be ahead of ourselfs but lets be honest how many FPS's have Ubisoft done sucessfully? Only a demo will tell us the truth...if they don't release a demo in the future then we all know why!

  • numismatic

    Posted Nov 14, 2007 8:15 am PT

    Crysis is what has set the standards for fps on the pc for the next three years. I am afraid that far cry 2 is going to flop terribly.

  • renofury

    Posted Sep 21, 2007 3:12 am PT

    They would be fine without crytek, ubisoft mde so much good games like Rainbow six, advanaced war fighter and splinter cell, that i realy doubt it can ever flop an FPS!

  • TheFrostWolf

    Posted Sep 18, 2007 10:09 am PT

    I Don't think Ubisoft can pull this off without Crytek,when we think Far Cry we think of 'tropical islands,trees and mutants,Sciance Fiction storyline...africa is a wrong setting for this game I think,and Crysis undoubtably will be a much better game...because the core gameply in Far Cry was givin by Crytek and not Ubisoft I think,but iam not one to question ambition...i wish them luck

  • K_r_a_u_s_e_r

    Posted Aug 23, 2007 2:39 am PT

    This game is going to FLOP without Crytek, rofl @ Ubifsoft for thinking they can deliver Far Cry 2.

  • DJ_Steady

    Posted Aug 22, 2007 3:27 pm PT

    I loved Far Cry, this game was nearly perfect in my eyes.. Can't wait for FC2.

  • madmachinegun

    Posted Aug 8, 2007 12:04 am PT

    oh god no...far cry won't be the same without crytek. and its the only franchise ubisoft hasn't ruined for itself yet....

  • JPMcferran

    Posted Aug 2, 2007 6:15 am PT

    sounds good but crysis sounds Better. but farcry is always fun

  • champmanfan

    Posted Aug 1, 2007 1:57 pm PT

    bonafidetk: no, Crysis isn't the sequal; they are going to make FarCry 2. Crysis plays differently to FarCry & with all the changes they made its only fair to everyone to just make a new game, then take some of the great bits of gameplay from Crysis and implement them into FarCry 2 - or are they just trying to make more money by creating 2 products from 1 idea being FarCry??

    For me Crysis is still like a techdemo since we don't know the background story to the main character, but do any of us really care with all those fancy trailers?

  • ironsulphate

    Posted Aug 1, 2007 10:33 am PT

    Africa huh?..Its giong to be so wrong if we had to shoot africans.

  • ogretroll123

    Posted Aug 1, 2007 9:25 am PT

    Awesome! Ubi Montreal is working on it! They've never made a crappy game... (Though they've made Sub-par games *cough*TMNT*cough*)
    As anyone else noticed that Canadian companies that aren't EA make great games?

  • bonafidetk

    Posted Aug 1, 2007 7:48 am PT

    I was always under the impression that "Crysis" was the sequel to "Far Cry" .

  • SVKill666

    Posted Jul 31, 2007 11:27 pm PT

    lol @ "...developing the first proper sequel to Far Cry, inventively titled Far Cry 2."

  • oritxupolite

    Posted Jul 31, 2007 12:40 pm PT

    In french http://www.nofrag.com/2007/jul/29/26183/

    Summary: The world is based in the book "Heart of Darkness" of Josef Conrad . Boilint Point /Stalker style game , a bit more arcade .

    And very interesting the influence of the
    small ucranians developer - the GSC Stalker primitive team - in other games of Ubisoft , like SC DA - the endings structure- , or in this game . Is a big studio version of Boilint Point . and one world or history based in one "cult" novel or movie , like the Stalker world . Good news for the videogames and pc games, a nice tendence of the industry , take the more innovative id

  • champmanfan

    Posted Jul 30, 2007 11:13 pm PT

    So 4 years for FarCry 2?,

    Its always worth waiting for these great games since theres not many fps games that score over 95% these days. I don't know what the highest score for a fps is on here for a PC title but Cysis is looking like a 97% game.

    Note to Ubisoft: Please dont rush it out, then issue patches on release day

  • LostPlanetDB

    Posted Jul 30, 2007 7:51 pm PT

    Crytek=best in graphics

    all said...

  • knux15

    Posted Jul 30, 2007 6:58 am PT

    Um yeah... First off this is just dumb! lol I'm sorry guys but Ubi you had your chance to do something and you failed with turning your back on the PC market! Not only on this franchise but one 90% of your franchises now! Now you see Crysis coming out which HAS been in production since before FarCry came out and you want to pump out the game in 1 year? Haha I seriously hope you updated that engine because Cryengine1 is nothing to Cryengine2... By the way on the EA/Crytek buy out crap, if they do it then I just simply won't buy another one of their games... EA makes good sports games but no matter what they do they suck at any other genre... They just do!

  • Don_Shadio

    Posted Jul 29, 2007 11:38 pm PT

    FAR CRY WAS AWESOME.... AND I HOPE FAR CRY 2 TURN OUT EVEN BETTER, THO I WONDER HOW GOOD IT WILL BE AGAINST CRYSIS

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