The release of Far Cry 3 brought to an end, for me anyway, this year’s pre-Christmas rush of AAA game releases. It has been a pretty insane period that started with the surprise hit from Square Enix, Sleeping Dogs. The journey has taken me from a chinwag with the producers of Need of speed: Most Wanted, a hands-on with Assassin’s Creed 3 on the Sydney waterfront with the game’s Canadian developers to a drink-fueled “training” session celebrating the launch of XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
With the last game of the year comes the last unboxing of the year. Far Cry 3‘s special edition is suitably monikered Far Cry 3 Insane Edition. Not the most impressive collectors edition I’ve seen. But to be honest, this year hasn’t seen the same level of special editions as last year. As great as the Conner figurine in the Assassin’s Creed 3 Freedom Edition was, last year we had Arkham City, Skyrim and Uncharted 3; all with top class collectors packs.
Anyway, check out the juicy details on Ubisoft’s Far Cry 3 Insane Edition, below.
The game’s resident psycho, Vass Montenegro, points to the facially obscured wahine bobble-head just visible through the Far Cry 3 Insane Edition box.
The game disc comes in a standard case (although I did get a steelbook for pre-ordering the game from EB Game). The pack also includes a pouch in which all the extra goodies are stored.
The pouch is suitably stressed in a manner that you’d expect from traipsing around the jungle. Inside are the codes for the exclusive Monkey Business and Lost Expedition DLC missions and some other extras (watch for the nice little tip of the hat to Assassin’s Creed in the Lost Expeditions).
Then there the “battle damaged” island survival guide. Now, to me, it looks more like the “intentionally screwed up” island survival guide. It offers nothing extra in being all creased up except the suggestion that there was some anger management problems at the Ubisoft packing plant. Not as naff as the battle damaged batarang in the Batman: Arkham Asylum Collectors Edition from a few years back, but still a bit rubbish.
The guide actually isn’t bad (apart from being all creased up). The content is not as tongue-in-cheek as I’d have thought, offering real survival tips rather than madcap suggestions more in keeping with the tone of the game. To be honest, I gave it a flick-though and put in down. I can’t say that I’ll ever look at it again.
What made me come to the Insane Edition party was the inclusion of the rather bizarre Vass wahine (Polynesian for woman) bobble-head. To see the head of the game’s psycho mounted atop a hula girls body brought a smile to my face even through the plastic packaging.
The picture really doesn’t do the bobble-head justice in illustrating just how psychotic Vass’s head looks as it shakes away.
For such a little object, the Vass wahine has some pretty good detail. They’ve obviously spent some effort on what is really a rather odd inclusion for a game special edition.
As always, the most important thing in the special edition is the game itself. As is now the becoming the standard for Ubisoft releases, a Uplay passport code is included in the game pack. This one-time use online pass code allows access to the game’s online components and the Far Cry 3 Uplay area; worth noting if you are thinking about picking the game up used.
As I said at the beginning of this article, the Far Cry 3 Insane Edition isn’t the most spectacular special edition I’ve seen. If I’m honest the bobble-head isn’t really worth the price of admission. I’d have preferred a special edition with the inclusion of something more like the Vass statuette that EB Games are flogging for AU$49.99 rather than this. The package comes across more like a pre-order incentive than a bone-fide special edition.
At least the game’s top-notch, and I’ve got to say that the Vass wahine looks pretty good perched next to my Vault-Tec bobble-head from Fallout 3!
Look out for Grant’s XBox 360 Far Cry 3 review which I’ll be posting up shortly!