Soapbox: Go Buy The Best Console Version Of Far Cry 3 While It's Cheap On Xbox

Update (Tue 29th Aug, 2023): We first ran this story a few months ago, and now Far Cry 3 for Xbox 360 is on sale again! Therefore, we're giving it a little bump so you can decide whether it's something you're interested in purchasing.


Original story (Sun 21st May, 2023): Over the last few months I've somehow managed to squeeze out a couple of features about Far Cry 3, even though Ubisoft's seminal open world shooter is now a decade old. I just love this game so, so much, and it really proved that Ubisoft's open world formula did used to be fun before they simply added too much busywork and it all became a bit stale.

In truth though, Far Cry 3 pushed the Xbox 360 right to the limit back in 2012. This was a super late-gen release for the system and although the visuals were some of the best around at the time, the game's frame rate really suffered. Far Cry 3 was a 20-30FPS game on Xbox 360 hardware and going back always proved tough in the years after its launch.

However, in late 2021, Microsoft treated us to a lovely surprise when it added one last batch of games to the FPS Boost catalogue. When I saw Far Cry 3 included in that list I just about jumped for joy - this game finally running at a decent frame rate on an Xbox console?! Hallelujah!

Since then I've fully replayed the game and also spent a good amount of time just messing about in its open world, and it all still holds up in 2023. Far Cry 3 is the best in the series as I've already ranted and raved about here, so it's no surprise that I'd still rather go and play this over anything that's come from the series since.

You might be wondering - why are you telling me all this now? Well, the Xbox 360 version of the game almost never goes on sale digitally, yet it's on offer right now! It's been well over a year since this FPS Boosted version of Far Cry 3 was last discounted, and you can currently grab it for $5.99 / £5.99 on the Xbox Store.

Xbox Series X users should have no trouble finding a physical copy of the game for this sort of price (or even cheaper) and playing it that way, but this serves as a useful PSA for Xbox Series S users especially. The full digital price on this one is still $19.99 / £19.99 even in 2023, so it's well worth adding to your digital library at a discount even if you only have a fleeting interest in trying the game out.

We must also remind you folks that there is a 'remaster' of this game available for Xbox One — also playable on Xbox Series X|S of course — and that version of the game goes on sale often, sometimes even cheaper than this Xbox 360 discount. However, just... don't buy that version. It's locked at 30 frames per-second even on current-gen consoles and the visuals are hardly any different to the original. You'll get a resolution boost, sure, but it's simply a PC port and there's no real remastering going on in Far Cry 3 Classic Edition.

Anyway, poor-excuse-at-a-remaster-rant aside, we've now added the Xbox 360 version of Far Cry 3 to our digital libraries after playing the disc version since the game's FPS Boost update arrived, and it's been lovely to just dip into this classic whenever we feel like a good few hours roaming about, setting entire fields on fire and just causing chaos on The Rook Islands.

Are you going to pick up this rarely-discounted version of Far Cry 3? Let us know your weekend gaming plans down below!