FC3 is a pretty good start I´d say, FC4 is in some ways less serious but also entertaining. FC5 is fun, but gets very dull after a while in my opinion.

I too am pondering this atm, as these games are on sale on steam. IMO if you want wacky zaney hilarious neon fun, Farcry 3 Blood Dragon(It's separate from FC3)is hilariously fun IMO.

Gameplay wise, I donno...I feel like it's a good tie between 4 and 5, 4 has some more 'mystical' elements from what i've heard but 5 is newer and has some more tighter mechanics(also it has the companion animals which I believe 4 was missing)

I'd say 4 out of that bunch.
5 has a bunch of annoying lil' things that pile up and drag it down, things you can't fix when on a console. Having said that, New Dawn is a good choice if you can find it cheap.

Though isn't New Dawn a smaller/shorter game than most of the FC series? Do its strengths make up for that?

New dawn feels like a serious downgrade, i regret purchasing it

it has this mad max vibe going on where you also have to craft your own weapons, if that is your thing go for it, it is indeed shorter than far cry 5

New Dawn or Blood Dragon are shorter but more focused. 4/5 has a lot of just... wandering about in not too terribly interesting places. New Dawn has side maps and outposts you can reset and load into and blitz through if you want to shoot shit. Blood Dragon has NEON and a button dedicated to flipping off.

If you're going a mainline game I'd suggest 4. It has ride-able elephants you can shoot handheld grenade launchers from. 5 just has too many lil' issues.

3 or 4 is what I would recommend. While 3 is a less buggy experience, you can co-op in 4 with a nice little story as well. 5 is kind of a mess everyone gave a passing grade to.

Would you still recommend 4 if I have no intention of playing it online?

A bit, yes. Though fc3 I would recommend more if that is the case. Fc4 adds some new weapon options but nothing really astounding.

5 is the best out of the three of them. The gameplay of all three games is kinda the same. You sneak around (or go guns blazing) into enemy outposts to capture them. The more outposts you capture the further in the game you go, and you unlock more stuff and get more money to buy guns and grenades. Additionally, you get XP to unlock skills which can increase your stealthiness, health, etc. In 3/4 you have to climb towers (which gets repetitive) to discover more of the map, and you have to hunt to craft items like bigger wallets and harnesses to carry more guns.

5 has the most freedom to do what you want compared to the others while having the same but more refined, tighter gameplay. 5 has character creation and unlockable/purchasable outfits if you care about that. There's a wide variety of guns to play around with that also have camos you can purchase and attachments. You've also got more vehicles than previous game, you have boats and planes and helicopters and semi trucks, and the map is more easily traversed compared to 3's jungle map. In 5 you unlock perks which can be used to unlock both skills and items rather than having to craft them. You can still hunt though which gets a lot of money, as well as fish. 5 also has companions, which you can summon 2 of at once. Companions like a bear, a puma, a guy in a plane, a guy with a rocket launcher, a sniper, a woman with a bow, etc.

I know you said you don't care about DLC, but getting 5 with the DLC unlocks more guns to play around with too, along with 3 mini-campaigns. If you can get 5 with all the DLC cheap, I reccomend it.

The gameplay will be relatively the same in all of them which is why I recommend 5, it has the most features out of all the games and it's the one I enjoyed the most. I liked 3, didn't like 4, and liked 5 more than 3. 5 just has more stuff to do that doesn't feel like filler, and you can explore the whole map, and you have more gameplay approaches to outposts rather than just sneaking around.

I've only played 3 and Blooddragon so I can't say anything about the sequels, but I can say they're good games. Blooddragon is shorter, but if you like the aesthetic/humor and don't want to fully commit it's a cheaper option. It also has t-rexes that shoot lazers, so there's that.

I would recommend 3, if you're only getting one. But, you really can't go wrong with any of them. In Far Cry 3 and 4 however, you will encounter mild to moderate irritation with crafting, because you have to craft just about everything. Like you have to craft a wallet to carry more money, and a satchel to carry more shit.

Far Cry 5 is set in America land, and of all the stories I think 5 is the strongest. You're fighting against a zealous religious cult that managed a full on take over of a fictional county in Montana.

As far as weapons... I'm kind of split between Far Cry 4 and 5. Because FC 4 has a fucking AWESOME elephant double rifle that just fucks everything. While Far Cry 5 has a sexy as hell .45-70 Lever action (and through updates, a sexy as hell LA shotty!) and short versions of both!

Personally I'd go for 5. It's a pretty fun time until you get to the end which sucks no matter which option you pick.
But do not under any circumstance play New Dawn. It's just an overall awful experience.
Also the music is pure crap at every point except one or two songs. Stream Mode disables the music but replaces it with nothing so you'll have to improvise like I had to if you want to stream it.

I usually turn off the music in open-world games since the selections they give you tend to be awful... Except in Mafia 3. That had some nice classics. XD

Good thinking.
You'll be saving yourself of earbleading noise that claims to be music (ENOUGH TO GET YOUR GOD DAMN VOD MUTED)
But still avoid that game, even if someone gifts it to you. Not even worth pirating.

If you want pure camp and ridiculoys ness so ludicrous it is entertaining play FarCry Blood Dragon

Get FC Blood Dragon, it's just one one of those games that is pure and unadulterated camp that will entertain you oddly enough.

I'm interested in Blood Dragon, though I'm specifically looking for something to play on the PS4, and it never got a PS4 release.

Nobody has mentioned Primal, which I find surprising. The story is forgettable, the characters are forgettable, there's references, and there's stupid shit all around. Furthermore, the gameplay is fantastic. While everything is more based on the mele aspect, and using throwing weapons and bows over the previous gun play of FC3 and FC4, it's just fun to zip around as a spear chucking fool with no regard for da rulez.

The only downside is that is seems to have something of an odd mix of things. Instead of money, you go out into the world to collect what you need to craft better weapons and armor, much like AC4, and yet the story *can* be finished with the basic starting items. It's a weird mix of difficulty all around, but I found it to be a wacky spin off of the series that was just fun to play, and surprisingly worth the price tag at the time. Then again, Ubi Montreal was the ones making it, so it's no surprise that it came out so well. Really, I'd call FC5 the black sheep of the series, as it has so many MMO concepts out there, with an over all decrease in the fun of the gun play that the series was so heavily built around. In FC3, all of its DLCs, and FC4, all of its DLCs, the guns felt real, and like they hurt. In FC5, every gun felt like it was shooting .22 rounds at people with the strength of elephants, with a shovel being a more effective ranged weapon than a machine gun.

I think I know why this is though. I think FC5 was built on the same engine as FC: Primal, and that was probably done because New Dawn was going to be very much like Primal, and so they just used the same engine for the games so they could asset flip from FC5 and Primal into New Dawn. I'm actually going to be buying New Dawn soon™ to see what it's about with my own eyes. I'll get back to you on that if it's worth a damn, though given that it's released in "Fuck you, it's February" I don't think it will be. Seriously, February is when the game industry releases games that aren't good enough to be released in the christmas season. Except Apex, it seems, as Apex looks to be a solid game that was ruined by market saturation. And THE HACKS!

I really like FC4 - Yeti DLC, The Snow covered land can bring beautiful views, and FC 5 is alot of fun, I really enjoy it myself.

FC2



Jokes aside, FC3 is also a great game too... From before Ubisyndrom went Ummmmmmmmmmmmhhh



Ya know.

You gotta play 5 if you haven't. It gives me FC2 feels, and I mean that as a huge compliment, FC2 is one of my favorite games ever, flaws and all.

Like, in 3 I got bored after Vaas, with 4 I was bored from the jump 'cause it just felt like more 3 (though Pagan min is a fun villain), but 5 is gold.

FC5 is the best of the series, as far as I'm concerned. I started on FC2 and despite all its flaws I love it. FC3/4 were both good games, but they're also pretty much the exact same game (a few game mechanic differences aside). I actually didn't play FC5 until last month, because 3/4 were so similar and I expected more of the same, but what I got was a great refinement of the series. The shooty bits (aka most of the game) are far smoother than in any Far Cry, the vehicles handle better, it just plays better in every way. Plus the crafting stuff isn't onerous (FC3 was a little annoying, FC4 was real bad, but FC5 is quite reasonable), and while there's still plenty of busywork like in previous game (so many different types of collectibles that exist for the sake of being collectibles), the game isn't as in-your-face about "WHY HAVEN'T YOU FOUND ALL THE COMIC BOOKS YOU LAZY BASTARD?!" like some of the previous games were.

In summary, if you're going to jump into the series, FC5 is probably the best place to start. FC3 is also a good starting point, but I feel like it's not really worth playing past the halfway point, when the interesting villain is taken out and the excruciatingly uninteresting "real bad guy" is revealed, and he's just sooooo boring; basically the back half of FC3 feels like a lame FC3 sequel. FC4 has a great villain, but there's too many annoyances for me to recommend it as a starting point to the series. If you're feeling masochistic, though, start with Far Cry 2. The freedom and immersion haven't been beat by later games (though FC5 comes close), but it's full of idiosyncracies that can make it a challenge to get into.

To each their own opinions ^^'

Frankly, tho? I want Blood Dragon 2... Thats what >.>''

Far Cry 3 Blood dragon is a fun time, it's a standalone too, short condensed experience in a neon lit island of dinosaurs and stuff, good time. 4 is pretty fun though, honestly they're kinda similar enough, that it doesn't matter that much between them

Far Cry 3, Primal, and 4 are my Top ones, also Blood Dragon because of the Futuristic 80's. But i barely had a chance to play it due to sudden Crashes and that damn U-Play Launcher..

Far Cry 3 Has that feeling like the 1st Far cry, set on a Tropical Island, Jungle theme.

I think many people might despite Primal, but i love it in my personal opinion. The Crafting system and the uses of Spears, Clubs and Bows turn it into a entire different game, rather than shooting with guns mounted on Vehicles.

Far Cry 5 seems rushed to me, and the map seems very small compared to the previous Main ones. And the Storyline has that Catholic-esque Religion-whatever vibe, which is kinda a let dosn for me. But the Country setting is a plus.