To understand these files, you first need to understand how Far Cry 3 manages its resources. Unlike modern games that load individual .MP3 or .WAV files from a folder, Far Cry 3 (released in 2012) uses a container system.
Location on your hard drive:
These two files are usually found together in the following directory:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Far Cry 3\data_win32\ To understand these files, you first need to
You cannot play the .dat file in VLC or Windows Media Player. You cannot open the .fat file in Notepad. They are useless without each other. If you delete or corrupt one, the game will fail to load audio. Location on your hard drive: These two files
Sometimes users search for this file because they want to change back to English after accidentally downloading a Russian/Polish/German version. If you uninstalled the English pack, you need these two specific files. To understand these files
Pro Tip: You cannot simply rename sound-french.dat to sound-english.dat. The internal file paths inside the .fat file are hardcoded. You must actually download the correct English audio pack from your game launcher or a trusted archive (be wary of malware on random file-hosting sites).
No. The game will not launch without them. They contain all the game's spoken dialogue and sound effects. Deleting them saves space but renders the game mute and prone to crashing.