WTF?! Far Cry 6 Game of the Year (GOTY) Edition launches Friday as an inexplicably strange bundle and costs $120. Several things make this version of the game weird, which I’ll discuss, but the main conclusion should be: don’t buy it. . We don’t want to encourage this kind of marketing.
I’ve noticed that game-of-the-year editions usually have a few things in common. They usually come out about a year after the title’s initial release. Far Cry 6 turns one year old on Friday.
More often than not, the GOTY version includes some or all of the DLC already released. The Far Cry 6 GOTY Bundle consists of all currently available DLC, the upcoming Lost Between Worlds expansion, and oddly enough the 2013 Far Cry 3 expansion, Blood Dragon. It also throws in three cosmetic/weapon packs. These special edition bundles are often at or below the game’s original retail price.
Finally, GOTY editions, at least the ones I bought, have won a Game of the Year award at a show or expo, be it BAFTA, Dice, The Game Awards Show, or other well-known organizations. Far Cry 6 does not share this distinction.
Now don’t get me wrong. Far Cry 6 is not a bad game. It usually follows the winning formula of the franchise. However, it was nowhere near my favorite game of 2021, and the prize wins reflect that.
It was nominated for Best Music at BAFTA, but lost to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. It earned three nominations at The Game Awards, but didn’t take home a trophy. The National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers (NAVGTR) gave it several nominations. However, it only won Outstanding Lead Performance in a Drama for Giancarlo Esposito’s portrayal of dictator Anton Castillo and Outstanding Graphics/Technical. NAVGTR was the only organization to nominate it for a GOTY, but it lost to Deathloop.
The bottom line is that while FC6 was a good game, it faced stiff competition and never won Game of the Year. So Ubisoft is only using the designation as a marketing gimmick to spark interest in a game whose sales have dropped significantly since its release. It seems a bit vague to me.
Better skip this bundle, and here’s why. Weapon packs are worthless in my opinion. They are mainly cosmetic and add no value to the game, so let’s keep them out of the big picture.
The three DLCs – Collapse, Control and Insanity are worth the fun and go for $15 each or $40 if you buy the Season Pass. Combined with the game, that’s $100, which is the exact price and content of the Gold Edition. Blood Dragon costs another $15, the same price as when it was released in 2013. Ubisoft hasn’t announced how much Lost Between Worlds will go for, but based on the GOTY bundle you’d get it for $5, which is good.
However, the three DLCs are too expensive in my opinion. Remember I said they were “worth the fun”, not “worth the price”. Better wait until these go on sale and then pick them up. Blood Dragon is also asking a lot at $15 for a title that is nearly ten years old and takes about two days to complete with a 100 percent trophy.
Guard. Let me phrase that differently. Blood Dragon is worth its regular $15 price tag for its hilarious one-liners and 80s retro vibe. But it often goes on sale. I recently bought it for $8 and today it’s on sale for $7.50 on the PlayStation Store.
Speaking of PlayStation owners, all three DLC and Blood Dragon have been reduced by 50 percent. That price is $10 less than the season pass and throws in free BD. Unfortunately, Epic doesn’t have a sale and the game isn’t available on Steam, so if you want a discount for PC, you’ll need to be patient.
I’ll close by saying that the FarCry 6 GOTY edition is disguised as good value. It is indeed the best deal you can get right now if you are in a hurry. However, the bundle can currently be picked up more cheaply on PlayStation through individual purchases, and it probably won’t be long before Epic has a similar sale.
The other thing is that buying a game of the year edition for a title that hasn’t won GOTY encourages developers to award themselves prizes or use obscure publications to give their titles GOTY status just to get the to stimulate flag sales. Not something I’d like to see become a trend.
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