I just thought I'd share my thoughts and info on my experience playing the game with various fixes and tweaks, so that perhaps new players or old ones who haven't played in a long time get an idea of what they might want to use. Of course, most if all the patches, fixes and solutions are on PCGamingWiki, but I just want to share how things work in practice.

First, the 64bits patch: truth be told, I have no idea if this does anything really worth it for the issues it brings. I noticed some textures looking more detailed, with some bump mapping. I haven't noticed any other graphical improvement regarding draw distance, texture quality or models, nor did I notice performance improvements, though I do have a pretty beefy computer. As for the "extra content and changes" they bring to the levels, I haven't seen anything other than doors opening on their own when you're close to them, which, in my opinion, is not a good change. These patches bring some graphical issues because of bump mapping, some textures can flicker or look weird, and cliff textures look horrible because of a bug. Overall, I wouldn't really recommend these patches.

For a vanilla and comfortable experience with the usual 32bits version, I always used FarOut Widescreen, which also adds SilentPatch and the Tent AI bugfix if you're playing with the 1.4 patch. This package fixes issues and brings proper widescreen support and even 1440p resolution, 4k and more. To me, this is the only thing one needs to play Far Cry in its current state on a modern computer. I personally do not like the Far Cry Fix patch that some people or PCGamingWiki recommends, mainly because it changes the cutscenes and messes with a few other things.

Lastly, you can tweak some settings in the system.cfg file, which can improve the visual aspect of the game, as well as fix potential sickness you may get from playing. Far Cry has Motion Blur by default, which I find to be very noticeable with higher resolutions. You can remove it by finding the r_MotionBlur line in the cfg file, and put it to 0. It does affect the screen effects when drowning or when a flashbang explodes, but it's not really affecting the experience. I also like to turn FSAA to 8 in this file, as well as the texture anisotropy to 16. You can tweak more advanced settings but at your own risks. I tried putting higher Vegetation draw distance but it broke trees and leaves.

And that's all, the tl;dr of all this is: In my opinion, Far Cry 32bits + FarOut Widescreen Patch + SilentPatch + Tent AI Bugfix + basic system.cfg tweaks is the best way to experience the vanilla game in a modern and comfortable enough environment.
Do not hesitate to share any tips or info you have if you want to add something !