Far Cry 6 promises to be one of the biggest releases of the coming generation when it drops next spring. Details are already leaking about how it will run on PC, along with the ray-tracing capabilities on different devices.
The system requirements have not officially been announced yet, but PC Game Benchmark suggests that it will require a minimum of 8GB memory and around 100GB of storage, with 16GB being the recommended value. In terms of the GPU, you looking at an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 or equivalent at the very least, but ideally a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti or equivalent. They also believe that an Intel Core i7-6700K will be recommended, but that you may be able to run it on Intel Core i5-4460. Lastly, keep in mind that this is mere speculation and the actual requirements may be higher.
It is comparable with other titles, such as CDPR’s blockbuster RPG, Cyberpunk 2027, which supports ray tracing. Far Cry 6 has also been confirmed as supporting ray tracing. In truth, the game will likely need NVIDIA’s DLSS 2.0 for optimal performance with ray tracing. However, it’ll also support it on AMD’s recently announced Big Navi GPUs. Team Red is also working on a DLSS alternative to absorb the performance hit, but at the moment there’s no ETA on when it’ll be available.
The challenge for game developers today is to make something that does not just play well, but looks amazing and delivers an immersive experience beyond the expectation of gamers even a few years ago. Far Cry 3, which was set on the fictional Rook Islands, a tropical archipelago, lifted the series from the mid-range shooters to the top of the pile but did so with great characters and a storyline to boot. The villainous Vass still resonates with gamers today and although the Rook Islands were attractive to look at, the demands placed upon the developers by consumers in that area were far less stringent.
With the ninth generation of consoles on the cusp of going mainstream, ray tracing and the like is expected, and a game that plays well but looks ‘last generation’ will likely be panned for not utilizing the hardware available. For a franchise such as Far Cry, the challenge is to stand up when compared to iconic titles earlier in the franchise, but also to deliver something new and exciting. The Far Cry series lost its way a little after the third installment and is back in a tropical climate doubtless looking to reclaim some of the past glory.
The new release will be set on Yara, a fictional Caribbean island ruled as a dictatorship by El Presidente Antón Castillo, who will be played by Breaking Bad star Giancarlo Esposito. It is not the first time the Caribbean will have been used for a video game setting either. The lush greenery set against deep blue seas and sunshine has provided an attractive backdrop across a range of releases. A number of the titles featured on Foxy Games use the Caribbean as a setting, including Pearl of the Caribbean and Pixies v Pirates. The Pirates of the Caribbean series also made a splash on consoles, whilst Assassin’s Creed Black Flag even aped Far Cry 6 in being a crossover title, released on two generations of machines at once.
By revisiting the setting of Far Cry 3, but adding in the depth and substance of a current-generation game, Ubisoft will be hoping to get the franchise back on track. That may be the case for the console release, but with specifications not yet confirmed for PC, the jury is still going to be very much out.
