Meanwhile, for those keen to inspect the finer details in static form we also offer our 30-strong triple format comparison gallery. To see how each edition compares, and to establish whether any engine optimisations have been made since Far Cry 3's launch just five months ago, we pit each format against the other in our head-to-head videos. On the surface it's unrecognisable as a Far Cry game, but a close look at the PS3, 360 and PC versions of Blood Dragon reveals a familiar technical origin. The switch-up is taken to an absolute extreme: details in game's bleak wastelands are now punctuated by sharp bursts of fluorescent pink and green - a simple look that's far removed from the lush jungles we explored in the previous game. The basic template of Far Cry 3's gameplay remains largely as-is, with hunting animals and securing territories serving as asides to the main adventure, but it's the visual design that receives the biggest overhaul. The humour in this small-scale release is crucially at centre-stage - a nutty satire, which for some will call to mind the deranged pulp schlock of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. And yet, for all that, bizarrely, it works. It shrouds the details of its world in an overbearing smog, forces blood-red scan-lines over the picture, and bears out its coming-of-machismo story mostly through pixellated 2D cut-scenes. Rather, it hampers its visuals outright to stick to a garish retro 80s aesthetic. However, unlike its use in last year's Far Cry 3, this stand-alone expansion avoids playing to the technology's usual strengths. On the one hand, the game is built on what ranks among the industry's finest multi-platform engines, Ubisoft Montreal's own Dunia Engine 2, which specialises in realising sprawling sandbox environments subject to wild-fire outbursts and dynamic weather. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon will go down as one of the strangest Face-Off subjects we've covered in recent times.
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