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Ubisoft has decided to kick off this year's E3 2014 press briefing with perhaps one of the most highly anticipated games on the publisher's upcoming roster: Far Cry 4, the follow-up to the critically-acclaimed shooter Far Cry 3. The next entry in the Far Cry franchise will leave humid jungles and scalding hot beaches behind in favor of the snow-covered mountains or Kyrat, a fictional region of the Himalayas.

One thing has already been made clear from the box art alone: Ubisoft learned from the success of Far Cry 3 and has elected to emulate the marketing as closely as possible by putting Far Cry 4's antagonist, a self-appointed ruler called Pagan Min, front and center. Sure enough, the gameplay trailer debuted at E3 2014 - which is comprised of the first five minutes of the game and is really more of a cutscene trailer - wastes no time in introducing him in all his magenta glory.

Before Pagan can make his entrance, however, the game drops the player onto a bus with a monkey, about to cross the border into Kyrat. Things go quickly downhill as fellow travellers are gunned down in a bloody battle and the protagonist is dragged out at gunpoint and introduced to Mr. Min himself: a preening, charismatic psychopath who kills one of his own men for disobeying instructions before inviting the player to join the party.

Far Cry 4 Pagan Min

Thanks to Pagan Min's penchant for selfies, this trailer also offers a first look at Far Cry 4's protagonist, Ajay Ghale, who travels to Kyrat in order to fulfil his mother's dying wish and finds himself embroiled in the region's civil war. Ajay's passport and accent reveal him as being American and he can be seen briefly on Pagan's camera screen. He and Min also seem to have some kind of personal connection, if Min's statement that he recognizes Ajay's eyes is anything to go by.

Ubisoft also announced the company has partnered with NVIDIA on Far Cry 4 and other upcoming titles in order to create "Hollywood levels" of animation and realism within the PC versions of games, using TXAA anti-aliasing that will offer soft shadows, horizon-based ambient occlusion, advanced DX11 tessellation and Nvidia PhysX technology.

Are you impressed or intrigued by the first trailer for Far Cry 4? Tell us in the comments what you think of this title so far, and stay tuned to Game Rant for more news from E3 2014.

Game Rant E3 2014 Live Coverage

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Far Cry 4 will be available for PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4 on November 18, 2014.