Island games just "cashing in" on Far Cry

Don't let the crystal clear water and golden sands fool you: as far as the developer of Far Cry 2 is concerned, videogame tropical islands have become the imaginative equivalent of two weeks at Butlins.

With the sequel to Crytek's memorable PC shooter ditching the shores of paradise in favour of the treacherous beauty of Africa, creative director Clint Hocking believes anyone making a game on a tropical island now is just "cashing in" on the success of Far Cry. And that includes the series' original creator, whose second title, Crysis, is set on, yep, a tropical island.

"Going somewhere you knew was real but was really foreign and exotic, and you never really expected you would get to go in your real life - that's the magic of Far Cry," he told Eurogamer.

"You have to recapture that or you're not really making a sequel to Far Cry, you're just cashing in on the tropical island. Players have been to tropical islands in Boiling Point, in Just Cause in Lost every night on TV, in Crysis and Far Cry on console. All of these games and movies and TV - you see this place and it's not that exciting adventure that it was. Far Cry did it first."

You can read our detailed impressions of the E3 build of Far Cry 2 elsewhere on Eurogamer today. The promising open-world shooter is due for release on PS3, 360 and PC later this year.