Cry Harder: Outpost Resets, More Coming To Far Cry 3

Confession time: I never quite finished Far Cry 3. I've put infinity-dozens of hours into it, but I eventually got bored because I downed most of the outposts. As a result, my once-thriving pirate-and-oppression-overrun utopia devolved into a hive of peace and friendly cooperation. Gross, right? So I moved on to other open worlds and left Far Cry 3 stranded on its own little closure-free island, forever to rest until I forgot Just Cause 2 existed. But this, this is good news. We'll be able reset outposts soon - at least, after beating the game. Also, other things! Those things are after the break.

Also near the top of the list: a new difficulty mode. MASTER (officially written in all-caps, because yep) will put you up against "more aggressive wildlife, tougher pirates, and more deadly privateers."

Multiplayer's changes, meanwhile, might be even more impactful in the long run, given that they actually make it possible to play custom maps. Ubisoft broke down the current, rather game-breaking problem:

"With the current system, when a map maker has finished their map, they upload and publish it, essentially just sending it out 'into the wild'. They are hoping that it will get sufficient plays in order to get some valuable feedback. With a ballooning amount of user-made maps, this becomes harder and harder. The map maker can also have hard time finding enough players to play the map with, so they can judge for themselves where the map can be improved."

So basically, good luck finding a match against an opponent that's not your own suffocating loneliness. But soon, there'll be a beta-specific playlist that groups many custom maps under the same umbrella, meaning that fully populated matches will come to you - not the other way around.

Other upcoming features include a user-created map feedback system, mapmaker spectating, the removal of idle kicking from custom matches (by default, anyway), and the option to find other maps by an author. Little things, sure, but pretty crucial in the long run.

Actually, my only real concern lies with, er, the outpost reset system I'm so excited about. Apparently, it'll only unlock after you've finished the game, and it'll have an impact on other elements like side missions. A quick Google search, meanwhile, turned up this nice mod compilation with a far more convenient outpost hostility choice feature, making Ubi's approach seem fairly roundabout. Still though, it's tough to fault a major publisher too much for listening to its players.

All of these changes will arrive in "upcoming patches." As opposed to that other way videogame updates arrive.