Exclusive first look at Far Cry 3

When backpacking, it’s crucial to follow three rules: 1) have somewhere to dry your towel, 2) ensure your cash is safe, and 3) be aware that you could be kidnapped by human traffickers at any time. Or maybe that last one’s unique to Far Cry 3.

The game was announced last summer, but following a video that introduced the ‘island paradise’, the pirates who live there and their clearly insane leader, we’ve heard little else.

Now, at last, we know more. With a bumper crop of new images and a trailer below, we can now see how your character, Jason Brody, winds up on the island.

We’ve also seen 20 minutes of gameplay. This involved an assault on a shipwrecked, pirate-infested boat to switch off a radio jammer, followed by a trip to meet the island’s doctor in his cliff-top lair, where he makes hallucinogenic drugs. He’s one of a number of characters who’ll dish out missions. We saw one that involved retrieving a rare mushroom from an underwater cave for one of his ‘remedies’.

Like its predecessors, Far Cry 3 is set in an open world full of non-essential side quests, but its main function is as a first-person shooter. And it looks like an accomplished one. The boat assault alone saw Brody display some serious knife-skills.

We’re also promised the series’ usual wealth of vehicles. Although hopefully without the unnecessarily long drives we remember from Far Cry 2.

Far Cry 3 is due out in late 2012