Far Cry 3 strands players on an island yet again with gorgeous graphics (video)

Ubisoft showed off the next version of its Far Cry series, which uses bleeding-edge graphics and sets the bar for technical prowess along with the Crysis game series, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo today in Los Angeles, Calif.

The game features some pretty incredible draw distances that lets the gamer see very far. The game can render complex details — like trees, grass and other jungle elements — far away from the actual player. The whole island is highly detailed and the environments are vivid with bright colors — a far cry from some of the bland-looking shooters that have equated “realism” with brown, dirt and more brown.

But from a purely technical perspective, it looks like it’s about on par with Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3. The story is pretty simple — players assume the role of Jacob Brody, a man trapped on a remote island with his girlfriend. He has to survive an onslaught of crazy people trying to kill him and find a way to rescue his girlfriend and escape the island. It’s a first person shooter that’s prizes graphics and realistic effects.

The demo opens with Brody captured by some of the island’s crazies, who tie him to a cement block and leave him to drown. Naturally, he finds a way to survive and escapes — there wouldn’t be a game otherwise — and players immediately begin swimming out of the trap. As soon as he finds a guy with a gun, he’s able to take him down and steal everything he owns.

It sounds like the plot to a number of other first person shooters — much like the original Far Cry and its sequel. But it looks like the game sports a number of new ways to take down enemies, like being able to jump off a cliff and stab someone. The player on stage was also able to sneak up to another guy, steal his knife and throw it at a completely separate enemy.

It looks like the game is supposed to focus on stealth gameplay as well, because there is an alert reticule on the screen that indicates where enemies are. They are usually white, bu they turn red as soon as the player is discovered. Naturally, once the player is discovered, he turns into a one-man army able to take down hordes of enemies.

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