14 DAY TRIAL // Far Cry 3 spins a story that mixes violence and madness and the man controlling the game universe believes that, as video game technology progresses, it will be easier for writers to create narratives that are both subtle and powerful.
Jeffrey Yohalem, who is the lead writer working on the story of Far Cry 3, has told GameFront that, “Because it’s full body motion capture, I can write lines of dialog that mean one thing but say another, and that’s a new thing for video games.”
The developer added, “In the past facial expressions weren’t clear enough, and as a writer you got told constantly — you’d write a line for a character like, ‘Give me that jar,’ but what the character really means is ‘I’ve had a terrible day, so just give me that jar so I can have one thing go right.’
“And that won’t be conveyed because the facial isn’t there and it’s just conveyed through the spoken.”
Yohalem believes that players should be challenged by game stories and should work a little in order to understand exactly what the characters are trying to communicate and how they affect the narrative.
I got some hands-on time with Far Cry 3 during E3 2012, and I came away impressed by the way the game tries to chance the core formula of the first-person shooter.
Unfortunately, I lacked the time to appreciate the writing.
Far Cry 3 will give gamers the role of Jason Brody, a tourist who needs to use survival skills in order to navigate a chain of tropical islands looking for his missing girlfriend and dealing with a number of characters that exhibit various definitions of craziness.
Far Cry 3 will be launched on the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 on September 4 in the United States and three days later in Europe.