FAR CRY 4 vs. GRAND THEFT AUTO V [Face-Off Review]: No Clowin’ Around!

The November 18th release date was one for the ages: Dragon Age Inquisition (review coming soon), WWE 2K15 (Face-Off & Podcast coming soon), LittleBigPlanet 3, and Escape Dead Island & Shadow of Mordor for the last-gen consoles. Hell, even Watch_Dogs released for the Wii U.

But two in particular stand out today…and we have just the right Geek and just the right Nerd to battle it out on the control pad.

It’s the highly anticipated next-gen release of GHG’s 2013 Video Game of the Year, and the highly anticipated sequel to one of GHG’s Top 3 Video Games of 2012. Whew!

Ding-ding-ding!

GEEK – So, after spending countless hours exploring Far Cry 4 and the land of Kyrat, I can only say “WOOOOOOOOOW!” This is Ubisofts’ title of the year. After some mediocre drops recently (assa… ‘cough’ cre.. ‘cough’) this game hits the spot, and it hits it HARD.

After you finish the introduction mission, you are free to start exploring Kyrat. The first thing your boy did was jump into a hang glider to look around and see what I could see. The Templar witnessed majestic mountains, beautiful lakes and an abundance of wildlife. As I was taking in the sights of this beautiful land I heard a screech and saw a hawk flying next to me. As I was watching it glide in all its glory, it decided to attack my glider, sending me plummeting 200 feet to my death.

Welcome to Kyrat, bitches…

Far Cry 4 takes all the wonderful things from #3 and makes them better. If it aint broke, don’t fix it, right? The world is enormous and stunning, fully utilizing the hardware of the current gen systems. The reflections off the water at sunset will bring a tear to your eye; just don’t jump in the lake because a demon fish might bight your head off. Kyrat is every bit as dangerous as it is beautiful. From charging rhinos to rampaging elephants and snow leopards, Bengal tigers to rattlesnakes and royal soldiers, everything is out to kill you. Hell, if you go into the Himalayas even the lack of oxygen can kill you.

This game is more about just surviving the land than conquering it, which you actually also have to do.

Hunting is — thankfully — still a big part of the game. Hunting down the wildlife of Kyrat to acquire yourself some better gear is one of the tasks you will want to conquer first. You’ll also want to complete side missions for XP, explore the mythical land of Shangri-La, take over bell towers to clear the map, conquer bases for fast travel point, unlock better weapons, shoot mortars at hordes of enemies… sorry, I lost myself for a second there. There is just so much to do in this game you can never stay on task. You will start out trying to do one thing and do four or five others before you do what you originally set out for. With the size of Kyrat and all the activities it contains, you’ll never get bored.

Everyone remembers Vaas from FC3, right? Well– the dictator of Kyrat, Pagan Min (voiced by Troy Baker, who else), is like Vaas on steroids mixed with a little bit of crack. He’s so far gone it’s ridiculous. As you explore and complete missions he will contact you with some of the craziest verbose I have ever heard in a game. It gets to the point where you don’t know if you want to kill him or hug him. Well, hug him and then lock him up in an asylum for the next century because the dude is seriously tapped.

I won’t get into the story too much because I don’t want to play the spoiler here, but it’s everything you would expect from a Far Cry game. The best part is the choice system where you can pick what missions you want to do over other ones. Whatever your choice there are consequences though, so choose carefully.

Oh yeah, did I mention you can RIDE A FREAKING ELEPHANT!??!? The only thing I wish this game had is the tattoo from FC3 or something like it. The skills tree is still there but it isn’t represented by anything physical in the game. Other than that minor hindrance, the game is still fan-freakin-tastic. Trust me people, go buy this game. You will not be disappointed in the least.

NERD – What does Rockstar bring to the table with the re-release of Grand Theft Auto V to the current generation of consoles? Quite a bit when compared to other re-releases so far. Grand Theft Auto V has gotten a noticeable and welcomed graphical upgrade in a laundry list that includes the sun’s glare peeking over the buildings and mountaintops and the improved minute details such as grass and pebbles.

I’m not the kind of guy that looks at the grass while I’m popping police officers– but in the quieter moments, I appreciated the attention Rockstar made to the little things.

The wildlife and the cars are much denser in their respective areas and the game pops to life with brighter colors and a much larger draw distance. GTA V also increases their player count in GTA: Online from 15 to 30 making the cavalcade of carnage that much more palpable.

However, the biggest game changer is the first-person mode, which can be activated by simply hitting the back button. That attention to detail I mentioned is highlighted in the mode and you’ll learn things about characters by simply glancing around their abodes. Driving is improved with the first person mode and the impact triggers on the Xbox One function the same way as with Forza Motorsport 5. Combat is a mixed bag. It can be disorienting taking cover and assessing the situation but that comes with the restrictions of first person.

Luckily, Rockstar added a lot of customizability to the first person mode. You are able to walk and examine the world in first person but at the click of the cover button, you’re back in third person. Any player who has experience with Rainbow Six: Vegas 1 & 2 will know exactly what I am describing.

Grand Theft Auto V on Xbox One and PS4 is absolutely worth buying if you did not play it last year. There’s so much content to last you til next year — with plenty of PS4 cheats for you to try and GTA Online to extend that playtime with the highly anticipated bank heists on the way — to keep GTA V spinning in your disc tray.

For those that spent a great deal of time in Los Santos last year, I would still recommend this game to add to your current gen collection. Is it a day-one purchase? More than likely you have other, different, games to play and GTA V will be waiting for you to indulge your power fantasies once more.

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