When was the last time you played a console outdoors? Scratch that. When was the last time you had a chance to play over an hour Ubisoft’s upcoming first-person shooter, Far Cry 4, at 18,569 feet above sea level?
Well, William Cruz, a 23-year-old Utah native, has achieved such a specifically thrilling feat.
As the winner of Ubisoft’s “Quest for Everest” Contest, Cruz was granted the opportunity of traveling to the Himalayan mountain range for what can easily be described as an experience of a lifetime. The contest was constructed to bring one lucky winner across the globe and travel the foreign landscape in which Far Cry 4 was inspired by.
As terrifying and exciting as it sounds, Ubisoft claimed that Cruz had never traveled outside of the United States before winning the contest. Fortunately, a passport was quickly filed for and Cruz traveled to Kathmandu, Khumjung Monastery, the Khumbu Glacier, and then arrived at the Ubisoft Base Camp at Mt. Everest. Traveling alongside a team of fifteen people, including sherpas, a video crew and a train of yaks that helped carry a hefty television, console and generator, the hiking enthusiast was said to have never experienced such a mountain journey before.
Once Cruz and his team reached the peak of Kala Patthar, where the winds blew at 25mph and the temperatures dropped to 17 degrees Fahrenheit, the contest winner took a comfortable seat and played Far Cry 4 for seventy-nine minutes, soaking up the game’s crazy adventure with protagonist Ajay Ghale and Pagan Min, the game’s flamboyant, ruthless villain.
For the rest of us normal gamers, we’ll have to wait two more weeks to play Ubisoft’s upcoming title.
Far Cry 4 is out on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PC on November 18th.