In an interview with CVG, Alex Amancio, art director behind Far Cry 2 (PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360), explained that the idea for Far Cry's sequel was already planned before Far Cry: Instincts. The consensus was that Ubisoft wanted to start fresh, and that mean there were to be no more tropical islands, mutants, mutant powers (al a Instincts) or Jack Carver.

"We started fresh and our key was to have a realistic game," said Amancio, who added that TV series and movies have already delved too much into the jungle setting. They needed a new setting that proved different, but it had to keep as much a feeling of Far Cry as possible. So the story of Far Cry 2 was realigned to take place in Africa.

But Amancio also revealed that their team was originally created to design the sequel to Far Cry 2 and had little to do with what transpired with the predecessor. The original creators, Crytek, had sold the franchise to Ubisoft.

So far, the only thing that Far Cry 2 has in likeness with Far Cry is the open-world gameplay and environment. "We decided to push the bar further an actually have an open world, 50 square kilometres," he concluded.

We're to expect that Ubisoft will have more in store for first-person shooter fans as the upcoming E3 Media & Business Summit rounds the corner. Keep your eyes glued to this space when it happens.