Instead of searching for risky third-party download links that may contain malware, let your game client download clean copies of the files automatically. Open your Steam Library . Right-click on Far Cry 3 and select Properties . Navigate to the Installed Files tab. Click Verify integrity of game files .
If you own the game on DVD:
Guide: Restoring Far Cry 3 English Audio with sound_english.dat and .fat Instead of searching for risky third-party download links
You might accidentally download files meant for the Russian, French, or Spanish editions, resulting in broken text or incorrect audio tracks.
Then the screen went black.
If you cannot find a trustworthy "new" download online, you can regenerate them using the :
Right-click the file and open it with Notepad. Press Ctrl + F and search for Language . Navigate to the Installed Files tab
This is the classic symptom of missing voice files. If you hear background music and sound effects but no dialogue, you have likely confirmed the issue rests with the voice pack. The solution is either to acquire the correct .dat / .fat pair using the instructions above, or to delete conflicting language files like sound_russian.dat and sound_russian.fat as a troubleshooting step, forcing the game to seek the English version.
Unintended file corruption during installation or system crashes. Then the screen went black
The "File Allocation Table" that tells the game engine (Dunia) how to find and load the audio from the corresponding .dat file.
In Far Cry 3 , different variations of these two files manage the spoken dialogue for different languages. This is why, in the game directory, you might find files named sound_english.dat , sound_russian.dat , or sound_german.dat . The specific pair you are looking for, soundenglish.dat and soundenglishfat.dat , are the definitive containers for the game's English voice-over.