Grass and foliage can catch fire, allowing players to use it to their advantage in taking care of adversaries.

The artificial intelligence received some serious upgrades too. Each soldier has its own life, and operates according to the day and night cycles. They will eat meals, go on patrol or climb up to guard towers at appointed times. A scene will never play out the same way twice, and may even change on a day-to-day basis, so you must figure out their strategies on the fly. If you get overwhelmed and decide to flee the scene by hijacking a vehicle, it's entirely possible for the enemies to jump into a vehicle of their own to give chase. If the foes decide it's best to wait for a gunner to jump aboard, they'll wait a few seconds before hitting the gas. Before long, your pursuers will pull up beside you, shooting your vehicle's engine and trying to run you off the road. Unlike other action games, vehicles don't immediately explode when shot. Chances are, they will break down and sputter long before it becomes explosive.

Advances in intelligence don't stop with enemy behavior. At the start of the game, you select an avatar from about 14 different choices. Once that selection is made, the rest get seeded in the game as NPCs. These characters lead their own lives and may become valuable allies or bitter enemies depending on the decisions you make. You'll establish relationships with these characters that will impact the game in various ways. For example, if you get pinned down in a fire fight and one of your buddies happens to be nearby, the friend might come in with some reinforcements and rescue you from a dangerous situation.

Nothing beats the gratification of a well-played stealth kill.

Scheduled for an early 2008 release, Far Cry 2 will be released exclusively for the PC. Ubisoft has not announced system requirements yet, but mentioned that it will run exceptionally well on today's high-end Duo Core computers using GeForce 8800 video cards. The developers also promise that the game is optimized for single core processors, and it supports DirectX 10. If everything comes together, Far Cry 2 will mark a new step in realism and dynamic, interactive gameplay. Expect more coverage right here at GameDaily in the near future.