Are you reading what I said or just trying to be contrarian? I answered your question in my own post.

It's a bad thing when "everyone" realistically just means "the loudest and more ignorant group," which is generally what these choices boil down to. The customisable character is a result of the potential lost sales that come from setting a game in deeply religious America with western religion as a driving factor in the story. You can already see the backlash the setting is getting from people who feel offended that you'll be shooting religious white people, and it would only make it worse if your protagonist was either a) anything but white, making the aforementioned people a million percent more furious or b) white, continuing the trend of making exclusive protagonists and throwing away any chance at making a narrative with any sort of direction, gravitas, or commentary. Making a customizable protagonist makes it pretty likely that the player character will not have any significant bearing on the plot beyond nodding their head and shooting who they're told to shoot. There won't be any commentary on race and politics, no socioeconomic views, no examination of how class or gender or colour or (potential lack of) belief affects life in modern America. Your character will exist as a mirror for their new unpredictably violent antagonist to bounce off of, rather than a potential foil to expand and explore ideas with.

If this was a series where the player character was actively involved and interesting throughout I would be worried as being customizable may lose that focus. Since Far Cry 3 and 4 have fairly forgettable performances from their protagonists I say go for it.

I'd prefer the far cry 2 pick a character out of a lineup and they each have a different backstory. I thought that was cool.

@the_nubster: I wasn't trying to be contrarian and I expended on what I meant in a few posts above so I won't get too much into it here, you're welcome to read it. In short I think you are painting with a really broad brush in naming "everyone" as apparently the most loud and ignorant people, instead of simply "people" - people who have different tastes, needs and preferences as evidenced by the responses in this thread that praise that choice. The integrity of the story does not solely hinge on who the protagonist is. It is in fact a much more powerful experience when the protagonist is supposed to be You, the person, rather than a preconceived character that reacts and feels in a very specific way. This way the game is bouncing off its ideas of every player on an individual level instead of saying "this thing makes you angry and now this other thing makes you sad." It is in my opinion extremely shortsighted to say they have already ruined their narrative and compromised its value without having even the smallest inkling of what it is apart from a superficial look at an early trailer.

I'm fine with it as long as there's a Zap Rowsdower preset. Just pretend the nazi inspired cult is in Canada instead of Montana and voila, you've got the 'Final Sacrifice' game that everybody has always wanted.

I've long been a supporter of player characters that are actual characters and not just empty vessels for the player to fill. But as far as I can tell, your character never mattered in Far Cry. 3 is the only one I played, so I might be mistaken about this but it felt like the main character was already completely interchangeable. In fact, if the character continues to be as much of a non-entity as he has been in the past, it seems kind of silly to make you go through the trouble of creating the character in the first place.

Maybe this actually means the character will have a more personalized role in the story, now that I think about it. Why would they make you create a character otherwise?

Holy. Shit.

I want this so bad now.

Yknow what the funny thing about Ubisoft games is? You've played one, you've played them all.
50% of the game will be climbing towers to uncover more of the map and getting showered in a billion mission icons, and 50% of the game will be mass murdering generic bad guys
Ubisoft is horrible at innovation and would rather play it safe every time for the $$$$$
Whether or not you can customize your character won't change a damn thing when it's basically just going to be another re-skin/mod of Far Cry 3 but set in Montana

I wish they add a custom radio where you could add your MP3's GTA has always done this with there PC version's more games need this.

@s-man1236: considering I hate having to make custom characters in games, I don't give a fuuuuuuuuuuuu...

The FC protagonist has meant so little, for so long, I can't see what this changes at all. It's a total lateral movement.

Personally I've always read the design of their PC as being effectively a blank slate other than the context of why you are there.

"The whole game can be played in co-op" -- mystery solved!

I see now that these posts were before E3 -- so people may have missed - whole game is co-op. You will see your buddies.

Eh. Seems rather pointless to me considering its only functionality would be for co-op purposes, but I think the strengths in modern Far Cry's casts always emanated from its villains. They're the ones that get the biggest marketing pushes and often make the plots more interesting. Get someone who hasn't played Far Cry 3 to describe a character from the story and I almost guarantee that a large majority will identify and start talking about Vaas.

That's not to say the PCs are often poorly developed in these games, but I don't think we'd lose a whole lot from this so long as the cult preacher antagonist is interesting enough. That's my take on it.

I think it's naive to think that this Far Cry will tackle racism and religious fundamentalism in any meaningful way whatsoever. It's a Far Cry game. Sure, it would be cool if they put some real thought into a message about these issues and used the game to portray that, but it is kind of hard to go a serious, socially aware route and then fly over a town dropping grenades on to houses, burning crops to the ground, stealthing around and ruthlessly slitting throats, etc. For the action to work the game framework needs to leave little moral ambiguity in your actions.

I think it's a great idea. Let people play as the whoever they want.

I don't care what race or gender I play as, but I'm not really big on silent protagonists, and very few games put as much care into a voiced and fully customizable protagonist as something like Saints Row. Unless they're going to put that kind of effort into things, I'd much rather have a well written character of any gender or race.

Time to bring Amanda Huggenkiss out of retirement.

It's not a perfect solution, but I feel like in that case just have two performances. 1. Male - 1. Female. Then apply it to whatever template you pick. Customize appearance, race, etc. separately.

I don't care in the slightest. I have been on the side of a well crafted story instead of giving choices that don't do much. I generally don't spend any time customizing a character. I am not angry of it being there, but is really isn't exciting either.

Thats a good question

Most game stories are poorly done, so gimme that customization!

If a game does have a great story going for it where the protaganist is more than an empty vessel, I agree, don’t mess with that.

A couple of examples where customization works:

Mass Effect

FemShep is one of my favorite protaganists, and Jennifer Hale’s performance was the afterthought next to the Mark Meer Shep. If it was locked down to default dude, I’d have not fallen for Mass Effect half as hard as I did.

Saint’s Row

Your voiceless cipher matured into a wise-cracking ball of fun in Saints Row The Third and IV. I had fun tailoring multiple characters across multiple playthroughs to the voices available. I thought it added to that series tremendously.

Sunset Overdrive

Another goofy game out to have fun that benefitted from customization. I really dug my custom...jumpy, smashy, Melvins fan.

It's fine, I personally don't mind playing characters of the opposite sex.

Hell, i love Metal Gear Solid because the main characters are just the coolest (not Raiden from MGS2 though).

Also I think seeing your arms, including a colour of their skin, totally has merit. And the "feeling" of playing the character you have chosen to impersonate changes the feel, at least for me, even if I am not looking at the model all the time. I will play this solo but for me this is a welcome change.

That's great, I might not ignore this game if the customisation options are good.

Seems like they've nuked any race elements that would go hand in hand with this type of group. I think I saw Asian cult members in some footage.