Far Cry 3 expands as High Tides DLC washes ashore on January 15

High Tides, a PlayStation 3 exclusive downloadable addition to Far Cry 3, now has a release date: January 15, 2013.

Far Cry 3 is a fantastic game. Had it not been for The Walking Dead, it easily could have earned our Best Game of 2012 honors. However, despite its high objective quality, the game has been largely overshadowed, at least in terms of marketing, by Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed III. While the latter title has a full DLC road map planned out for it, we’ve heard precious little about what new content might be coming to Far Cry 3.

Most recently (read: last month), Ubisoft revealed that PlayStation 3 owners would receive “exclusive” access to an upcoming DLC pack dubbed “High Tides.” We’re amused to see that the title is a sly reference to both the ocean which surrounds Far Cry 3′s islands and the title’s abundance of hardcore drugs, but the important part here is that thanks to the latest episode of the PlayStation Blogcast the DLC pack now has a release date. Come January 15, those of you who own both a PlayStation 3 and that system’s version of Far Cry 3 will be able to enjoy High Tides alongside any friends of your choosing. That’s a crucial detail, as the High Tides DLC is focused on the game’s cooperative multiplayer modes. It includes two new co-op chapters which reportedly serve as an extension of the co-op campaign found in the initial release of Far Cry 3, as well as “new missions, tougher fights, bigger competitions, some great up-close time with your favourite characters, and explosive moments unlike anything you’ve seen before.”

Neat, huh? But what of the DLC’s important logistics? We already know it will debut on January 15, but how much might this DLC pack cost prospective co-op gamers? That’s the best part: Instead of charging players $5 or $10 for the High Tides pack, Ubisoft is instead offering the addition totally gratis.

We realize that at this point you Xbox 360 devotees are probably feeling pretty left out. We commiserate. However, we wouldn’t well up with tears just yet. Though we have no official confirmation of such, it seems very likely that this is yet another situation in which “exclusivity” is not as accurate a descriptor as Sony would like. It’s often common for a console manufacturer like Sony or Microsoft to offer a games publisher money for temporary exclusivity rights on games and downloadable content. You might recall this sort of thing from an article on upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops II DLC that we published on January 8. In that situation the DLC is slated to hit the Xbox 360 first, with additional platforms being added at some undetermined point in the future. We expect the same situation will happen with Far Cry 3′s High Tides pack, if only because the game sold quite well on Microsoft’s console and you can be sure that there are many, many Xbox 360 owners who would love to see new content for Ubisoft’s hit shooter.