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Far Cry 3 gameplay trailer follows the open road, climbs towers, kills dogs, tramples flowers

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Much of what we’ve seen of Far Cry 3 so far has been through the eyes of a man with his hands and feet tied together, a state hardly conducive to exploration. The fact hasn’t escaped developer Ubisoft Montreal, who have taken to PAX with an island playground in their sizeable back pockets.

The focal point of this demo are the radar towers that pepper Far Cry’s tropical island, each of which offers a Half-Life 2-style first-person platforming challenge, accompanied by horrible vertigo capable of crippling even when viewed through the safe window of YouTube from a sagging couch barely above sea level.

You’ll want to make the climb to pick out nearby Points of Interest, where you might find weapon upgrades or scraps with pirates. The demo concludes with the latter, a predatory beach base assault that ends in occupation. Captured bases provide safe haven from Far Cry’s notoriously hostile environment, as well as a source of simple mission objectives to be tackled a variety of ways, in contrast to the linearity of the main plot.

Exactly what is it you want from Far Cry 3? Hallucinatory theatrics, emergent play, or a wild jeep ride that veers from one to the other?