Far Cry 4 (2014)

This time around the sun, we have blasted our way through the oxygen-poor air of Kyrat in the world of 2014 Ubisoft's Far Cry 4: the crew this time is Will (hosting), Craig, and Brian. A far cry from a truly original concept, 4 is definitely a sequel to 2012's Far Cry 3, but yet it does so well enough to avoid too many Assassin's Creed gripes... but this might be the last time the franchise escapes so easily. Near-faceless protagonist Ajay Ghale, 26, is following his mother's dying wish to have her ashes spread in the mountainous terrain of her home country Kyrat, and Fashionable Dictator Pagan Min shows up right at the onset of your necrotic visit to run interference on the plan, for your mother is (one of) his lost love(s?). From there, you spread many other people's ashes all over the country as you liberate much of the countryside from the tyrannical dictator's clutches, and you'll do so with flag-totin' Americans and bible-thumping UAC born-agains, with Yogi & Booboo and magical materials that gain you access to hallucinatory Shangri-La, with an arsenal of crazy weapons drip-fed to you from a hybrid mix of Christian-history-inspired figures and egregious quantities of slain wildlife. Far Cry 4, like 3, has a lot in common with games like Mercenaries and Just Cause 2, and in setting has a few things in common with the later setpieces of Uncharted 2. Unlike that game, the world here is open to you to do with as you please, whether that's exploration-heavy or demolition-soaked. Listen to us this week discuss our approaches, what worked for us (the world), what didn't (the plot), and what chilled us (De Plure). Make sure you try not leaving the table!