In my opinion. the thing that elevates open world games above other genres and, in turn, some open world games above their brethren, are the little details, those immersive emergent moments and things that could so easily be overlooked or ignored altogether, but add life, a sense of realism and unpredictability to the world

Like how in GTA 4, your radio would buzz with static if you made a phone call from inside your car or how the NPCs would take out umbrellas and cover their heads with newspapers when it rained. Or in RDR, when an eagle would swoop down and snatch that rabbit you were about to shoot or how headshots showed the actual entrance and exit wounds. Those types of details, that bring the world alive

So now we have Far Cry 3 and already I've read about some incredible, cool little details and moments. One post mentioned how vultures would descend on a recently killed animal. Another said how enemies would verbally react to wildlife, yelling "Tiger!!" as a tiger emerged from the jungle and swept through the camp

Any other details or emergent moments that you've read about or have seen if you already have the game?

I assume with a quick look we will see a pretty nice vertical slice of the game. I hope then that you'll see what you're looking for. The game appears to be getting a lot of positive remarks from others around the industry.

Crocodile death roll!

Source.

I can't wait to punch sharks. Man, this game seems great.

@Timing: That's going to fucking sting the next morning.

This gives me some high hopes. I was worried this was going to become watered down like so many other franchises.

TECHNOLOGY!

I miss more play with physics and destructible environments. However. Flamethrowers are nice.

There's been a lack of good flamethrowers in recent memory. Hopefully FC3 delivers come tuesday.

@Funkydupe said:

I miss more play with physics and destructible environments. However. Flamethrowers are nice.

Same, that led to a lot of emergent hilarious shit in Crysis

It may not be exactly the same, but how minor dialog choices in Walking Dead yield minor results that still impact the atmosphere and flesh out the world. You don't find a lot of good story-driven games these days that go the extra mile (or just good story-driven games in general).