Far Cry Instincts Predator

And so we turn to the Xbox 360 version of the original Instincts, which uses the same technology we'll see at work in the 360 Next Chapter (keep up at the back). The Xbox Next Chapter has looked good up to this point - slightly jagged on the utterly monstrous Samsung LCD TV some poor sap's hauled into the hotel room we're in, but still incredibly detailed for an Xbox game, full of life and with the same warm, sun-soaked atmosphere of Instincts. Switching to the 360 version is like putting on your glasses in the morning: it brings the world into sharp focus. At 720p, you can appreciate the outline of every leaf, every blade of grass. Arguably this is a bit of a problem - it can look a bit plastic - but it's very dense and persuasive, and Helias says the team's still working on the shaders.

You can see right the way off into the distance too, peering across canyons. Foliage becomes a bit simpler as you look further ahead, but there's still time. "We're still working on the vegetation to make it more interesting visually," says Helias, noticing our gaze. The overall image is fantastic though, and reminiscent of the PC version. Plus, it's all at 60 frames per second, even now. The water, in particular, is fantastic, and as you crawl up the opening beach level with the tide the sand looks wet. "We really worked on the water to make it as realistic as we could. The game is better in terms of detail even than the PC, I think. On the water, we have an oceanographic algorithm for waves; we think it's the most realistic it can be right now." As he speaks, waves lap up against the side of the boat - the boat's wake is quite simple at the moment and it doesn't bob particularly, but this will likely change.

"We changed the engine to use the three cores, and we use them around 90 per cent of the time, which is how we are able to reach the 60 frames per second. We are still working on the shaders though, we've redone every filter in the game to make them really work on HDTV." So has it just been a question of reworking the art assets? "Most of the time, yes, but the game's not only that. We have taken the improvements in AI from Next Chapter, and we have reworked levels in Instincts to accommodate the new AI, and situations will be different. We reworked all the action sequences. The reason we did this is because we want even people who played Far Cry Instincts on Xbox to be able to play it again and find more challenge.

"For example, in this canyon on the boat you were quite alone, but we have added other boats, and they will chase after you. Later enemies throw explosive barrels into your path." To good effect too - for the purposes of our demo Helias is in God mode, but the boat isn't, and it explodes as he tries to evade enemies without taking them on.

So then, not just a new instalment, expansion, extension - whatever - but anybody who had Instincts and buys this on 360 is really getting something of a remix too - "around 20 hours of gameplay total across both single-player games" Helias estimates, "and 24 maps for multiplayer, and the map editor". All user-created content will be exchanged in-game, too.

What's it like working on Xbox 360 then? "It's difficult, particularly when you are using the three cores; we have broken a lot of stuff in the process of getting it like this!" Helias chuckles. Perhaps so, but there'll be plenty of people who appreciate the effort. Transitioning to new hardware is a thorny issue - rarely more so than it has been with Xbox to Xbox 360 - but in Instincts Predator and Next Chapter, Ubisoft's hit on a nice solution. Hopefully the games will live up to it.