Far Cry 3

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed every second of Far Cry 3.
Yes, there are issues with the plot, particularly in the second half and the very end.
Yes, most of the characters (including the player character) are obnoxious morons.
But I just found it to be so much fun!

The graphics are outstanding - playing at "Ultra" on my laptop (at around 35 FPS) you could see every blade of grass and every palm frond; Rook Island is a truly beautiful place.
While there are a few too many "fetch the items" quests, I genuinely enjoyed hunting down all the relics and (in particular) lost WWII letters - it's very rare for me to bother 100%-ing a game, but with Far Cry 3 it was a pleasure.
I also enjoyed capturing the enemy bases - whether sniping from the hills, sneaking in with a silenced SMG or storming in guns a-blazing.

There were one or two frustrations:

• Limited weapon capacity early on feels a bit forced and frustrating - although it does encourage you to go hunting for upgrades, which I might not have bothered to do otherwise.
• Some of the watch-towers seem unnecessarily frustrating to climb
• It can occasionally be difficult to find the cave entrances when you know a relic is hiding nearby.

Oh and I didn't really like the ending.

Last sentence has to go to Vaas Montenegro, who started off looking very much like he was going to be the annoying standard gangster character, but turned out to be a genuinely entertaining and memorable psycho!