By Jim Rossignol on June 9th, 2009 at 8:46 am.
It’s amusing how calm Just Cause 2‘s lead developer is as he narrates the most ludicrous sequence of events I’ve ever seen in this footage. The trailer was insane, but this is just silly. If I have to die, I want this dude to choreograph it.
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09/06/2009 at 09:00 Matzerath says:
So his superpowers are ground level parachute deploying and horizontal grappling hook?
09/06/2009 at 09:05 Lack_26 says:
Is it just me me or does rico look like Guy of Gisborn, from Robin Hood.
Also, how is standing on the car getting in? Oh yeah, this looks ludicrously fun.
Edit: I wish this game came out when I was 10, it would have been even cooler.
09/06/2009 at 09:08 Gap Gen says:
Shoots a guy vertically into the air. “OK, I think he’s dead.”
But yeah, that is some Spiderman shit.
09/06/2009 at 09:09 Adrian says:
I’m sold! This looks incredible! just Cause 1 was one of the most fun games i ever played but this looks even better! Love how you can climb in front of the car for cover! People might argue that the grappling hook stuff is unrealistic but it was what really made the first game fun and it looks like they even improved it! Cant wait for this one
09/06/2009 at 09:11 MD says:
Haha, I love that when he offers to ‘drive you to his crib’ your character accepts by standing on the roof of the car. Naturally.
It’s in third person, and it looks rather ‘consoley’, so JC2 isn’t an obvious candidate for my wishlist. But it looks wonderful! No grittiness or sadism, just joyfully ridiculous violence in a beatiful and vaguely cartoony world. The movement looks brilliant, and if the controls are done well and the physics feel right (by ‘right’ I don’t mean realistic, just fluid and fun) then simply moving around the world will be a blast.
Lately I haven’t had many reasons to curse my outdated rig, but this is one of them.
09/06/2009 at 09:16 negativedge says:
Yes
These guys seemed to have just sat around and came up with as long a list of Things That Would Fucking Rock In A Video Game as possible. Some of the mechanics are probably going to turn out a little wonky, but I don’t care.
09/06/2009 at 09:21 Gap Gen says:
He says “it can be difficult to get the right timing” with grenades and then does it perfectly from 100m away between speeding vehicles.
09/06/2009 at 09:25 Langos says:
Please tell me he’s on god mode??
09/06/2009 at 09:28 Ian says:
So many things I should complain about but…
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
09/06/2009 at 09:30 Cypher3au says:
Must…buy…this…game.
09/06/2009 at 09:30 Pemptus says:
I just hope that MISSION VARIETY is in the developer’s mission statement. Right before the grappling hook lunacy.
09/06/2009 at 09:50 The Fanciest of Pants says:
Absolutely fucking bonkers. Looks like a goddamn blast to play.
09/06/2009 at 09:52 Ashurbanipal says:
“My favourite trick is tying a truck to a helicopter and use it as a wrecking ball.”
That man, he knows what fun is.
09/06/2009 at 09:54 MonkeyMonster says:
Pure Chuckle Juice in a can!
09/06/2009 at 10:26 Christian says:
Nice..this game really seems to be becoming a must-buy :)
Except: Do I smell the stench of Quick Time Events? I hate those things. Hate them!
When he jumps on to the other car near the end of the video and climbs into the driver’s side: a box is displayed with the word ‘Struggle’ and three buttons. Looks like good old button-mashing to take over vehicles. I hope they remove this..this really is a deal-breaker (for me that is).
Developers, when will you learn: QTE are not a good replacement for your lack of imagination regarding challenges! Don’t they teach that in schools any more?
09/06/2009 at 10:28 Andrew Dunn says:
The vehicle chase looked immensely fun.
09/06/2009 at 10:29 Muzman says:
Looks hilarious!
The guards seem to have been to the same bootcamp that did the stormtroopers from StarWars and I’d love to see what would really happen if you fired a rocket launcher while dangling from a parachute. But that’s not really the point is it.
09/06/2009 at 10:37 Dood says:
This is what makes video games great. How could this game be not great?
09/06/2009 at 10:48 Kits says:
That looks absolutely mad…not had as much interest in games lately as I’d like, but seeing that fired up my desire to play. Can hardly wait.
09/06/2009 at 10:52 idmmao says:
Yeah, quicktime events every bloody time you wanted to steal a vehicle were a pretty big chunk of what was wrong with mercenaries 2. It really broke the flow of combat and it felt like you were taking an exam every time you wanted to get in a vehicle. Games don’t have to have a challenge every second to be fun, sometimes it’s fun just to be able to get into a helicopter when you want to. That was something the original just cause excelled at, and I’m not sure why they’re taking a step backwards here.
09/06/2009 at 10:56 Tom says:
Looks like what I was kinda expecting Crysis to be like.
Looks freak’n awesome! lol.
09/06/2009 at 11:13 Schmung says:
This makes Mercs 2 look positively po-faced. Looks like a great laugh and very polished. Count me in.
09/06/2009 at 11:21 DarthInsinuate says:
Bah, you don’t need to hijack cars, just tether the driver to the nearest tree and watch him fly away.
09/06/2009 at 11:49 Rei Onryou says:
This game is just full of win. I hope it can actually deliver. It also makes me wish that they’ll be a mode where you can only use your grapple, tether and ‘chute to complete the game. Because it seems completely plausible.
09/06/2009 at 11:50 Christian says:
idmmao:
Exactly, that took a lot of the fun out of Merc. 2 for me as well. Also, the animations got boring after a while..it was nice that they had three tank-napping-animations, but still…
DarthInsinuate:
If that works every time without QTE, that might be nice (although not quite as nice as just taking the car/plane(copter). But what if there are no trees around? You’ll only very seldom find trees near a flying helicopter..
I think GTA (and also Saint’s Row 2) had a nice concept here. You throw them out, but if you’re not careful, they just take the vehicle back from you and run you over.
Also, QTE just fell like they belong on a console, not the pc..it just isn’t “natural” and feels wrong.
Have I mentioned that I don’t like quicktime-events? :D
09/06/2009 at 11:53 Gilly says:
Must….HAVE!
09/06/2009 at 11:59 Little Green Man says:
He wasn’t in God mode: you could see his health going down when he was shot. He was pretty bad in that firefight – He came close to death at one point. Health was one of the crap bits in Just Cause – You could freefall into the sea from 2km up and not lose a single bit of health, but a little old granny in her car could almost instakill you if she ran you over and stopped.
09/06/2009 at 12:06 Spenot says:
There’s a distinct lack of using sharks as baseball bats. And we need sharks to grapple enemies to them.
09/06/2009 at 12:07 Tomo says:
That looks absolutely immense. It’ll live or die by how good the controls are though.
09/06/2009 at 12:14 Reverend Speed says:
Looks a bit unrealistic to me.
09/06/2009 at 12:22 MetalCircus says:
I enjoyed Just Cause 1 but my big problem with it was the tedious repetitiveness of the missions. They’ve done a lot of fun work to the grapple hook which does look awesome, and the graphics look fab, but I really hope they get some variety in the missions too!
Still, looks great!
09/06/2009 at 12:37 Walter says:
“If I have to die”
I was under the impression we all had to at some point.
09/06/2009 at 13:15 OMET says:
@Muzman
Apart from being a trifle risky, not much would happen (besides the ensuing explosion), as there is no recoil from an RPG.
09/06/2009 at 13:31 Gap Gen says:
Reverend Speed: Well, yeah, there are some inaccuracies (for example, if you look closely at the uniforms the guards are wearing, then they’re not the sort of uniforms you’d see in that kind of region. Oh, and the sound of the boat’s engine is sampled from a completely different series of boats).
But if that’s the way it is, then you need this.
09/06/2009 at 13:53 jackflash says:
Too bad I don’t like third person games, this looks pretty neat.
09/06/2009 at 13:57 Skalpadda says:
If the whole game can keep that momentum going it should be amazing fun. Are the devs Swedish? The accent seemed familiar :)
09/06/2009 at 13:59 Dominic White says:
If you can watch that video, and come away ‘Umm’ing and ‘Hmm’ing and maybe even grumbling instead of grinning like an idiot, then you either have no soul, or your inner child is dead.
It’s like watching some kind of demented hybrid of Spider-Man and The Punisher on a tropical rampage, and there’s no part of it that doesn’t look ridiculously fun.
09/06/2009 at 14:09 Bongo says:
Skalpadda yes. IDG made a feature on them a while ago.
09/06/2009 at 14:27 Skalpadda says:
Thanks Bongo. Ah, it’s nice to be right. I should really try to read a bit more about what’s going on in this country :)
09/06/2009 at 14:27 Jim Rossignol says:
The devs are Swedish, yes.
09/06/2009 at 15:01 Lucky Main Street says:
That driving portion looks very Pursuit Force influenced.
09/06/2009 at 15:37 Sartoris says:
Looks awesome in a dumb fun way, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I just wish explosions had more oomph. I liked the explosions in GTA4, for instance.
09/06/2009 at 15:46 Noc says:
You know, the QTE didn’t bother me. I tried to figure out why, and then realized that it was because the action didn’t happen on screen.
It wasn’t “Oh hey here’s this awesome thing we’re not going to let you actually do!” Instead, it was very much a “Guy disappears inside the car, you hear a bunch of thumping noises, and some other guy falls out” thing. It’s very slapstick and not something that you’d have manual control over anyways.
It’s a bit telling that your alternative, Christian, is to have it be automatic. Which is still, you know, cutscene power. The problem with QTEs is that they’re prescripted and take control away from the character and give you a half-assed illusion of control instead; but this isn’t something you’d be in control of anyways. And it’s not even something you can see.
And it’s kind of funny.
09/06/2009 at 15:51 Pie21 says:
Regarding one’s suspension of disbelief at the physical inaccuracies observed in that video, this would perhaps be the perfect example of the Rule Of Cool.
Could this be the finest parachute-em-up ever made?
09/06/2009 at 16:00 cullnean says:
seems to me that the first one criminaly undersold
09/06/2009 at 16:01 Pags says:
I’m surprised he didn’t make the logical step of just double hooking the jeeps chasing him onto the trees. Also, the dev’s accent is brilliant.
09/06/2009 at 16:04 Ryan says:
OH MY OD IT’S THE CABLE FROM ROCKET JOCKEY
(please tell me someone else remembers Rocket Jockey)
09/06/2009 at 16:42 Pie21 says:
@Pags: I don’t know if it’s what you meant, but that just made me think of tethering two jeeps together just as they were about to drive down either side of an obstacle, e.g. a tree, or maybe a slow truck you just overtook.
Or better, a single enemy soldier. Or even better yet, multiple enemy soldiers. I get the feeling this game is going to follow the HL2 tradition of making the use of bullets to kill people feel wrong.
09/06/2009 at 16:42 Starky says:
re: Quick time events.
Yes they sucked in Mercs 2, badly – but this doesn’t seem as bad, I loathe quick time events as much as anyone, and mercs 2 especially with those random symbols instead of buttons on the PC version that looked nothing at all like the action they were supposed to be, hacked me off.
Still the ones in that vid didn’t seem like quick time events (press a button that flashes on screen or fail), but rather a quick time code, press 4 buttons in an overall time limit.
Which is fine.
Pressing 4 buttons in 8 seconds (Say S, Shift, W, then E) is MUCH easier and less frustrating than pressing 1 button per 2 seconds.
It gives you time to read the combo, glance at the controller/keyboard and then enter them.
On the issue of the Parachute
Why didn’t they just give him some kind of high tech glider (ala batman) rather than a chute, it would have made a LOT more sense than some magical backpack of infinite silk, which vanishes on release.
09/06/2009 at 16:49 Elyscape says:
@Ryan: I THOUGHT THE SAME THING
09/06/2009 at 16:51 Marcin says:
Can’t wait.
(please remove the QTEs, brilliant otherwise, loved the first game, thanks)
09/06/2009 at 16:52 OutOfExile says:
So far this game is the only thing that can compare to Dead Rising 2′s awesomeness. The hardest question ever will: What’s cooler, riding through a bunch of zombies on a motorbike with chainsaws attached, or attaching a jeep to your helicopter and using it as a wrecking ball as you destroy an entire base. Definantly looking forward to this.
09/06/2009 at 17:04 Tei says:
I don’t want to play games with QTE. May make sense on a control pad, but are complicated with a keyboard. And I don’t want to use a control pad. So If your game have QTE, then you have lost a sale (me). *Jericho, I am looking at you*
09/06/2009 at 17:15 Pedro says:
Looks like Chuck Norris meets Arnold Schwarzenegger in an old 80s flick…..and I love it : ). Totally over the top action.
09/06/2009 at 17:51 Christian says:
@Noc: I see what you mean, and agree that it’s really a bit in the slapstick-direction and funny. But just imagine having to do the same thing over and over again..every time you want to steal a car.
Sure it’s not that bad as in Mercs 2, but still I think it’s just a waste of time.
And I’m not proposing to replace it with a nicely animated cutscene or anything. I’d very much prefer just an animation of my character entering the car and the former driver tumbling out in funny/spectacular ways. I don’t think I need any sort of (and not even an illusion of) involvement in stealing a car in a game (except Car-Stealing-Simulator 2.0, that is).
@ Starky: Yes, you make a good point there. But: if it isn’t a real challenge, why put in in there at all..but it did look way better than Mercs 2..
Don’t get me wrong, I’m very much looking forward to this..it promisses loads of fun, and the possibility to move fluently, jumping on to and off of things and destroying other things while doing that is great :)
And: strangely, I didn’t have any problems with the lock-picking in Fallout 3..
09/06/2009 at 18:35 Funky Badger says:
Tethering the “Elite” to the fuel canister, then shooting it. I think that was my favourite bit.
But yes, WIN.
09/06/2009 at 20:33 Sunjammer says:
Haha i’m in!
09/06/2009 at 20:34 Nerd Rage says:
You know, I always thought the title of the original game was supposed to indicate that all the mayhem this dude was creating was because he was pursuing a Just Cause (obviously I never actually played it), but now I’m starting to think it’s more like, “Hey why are you blowing up an entire island?” “/shrug Just ’cause”
09/06/2009 at 20:57 Dominic White says:
@Nerd Rage: Your character in both games is basically Johnny Depps insane CIA agent from Once Upon A Time In Mexico. You don’t need a reason to do anything, because you’re awesome and cool.
09/06/2009 at 21:07 Tei says:
Well… Is a game that don’t take himself serius, and seems a framework to make some crazy and fun stuff. Probably you can ignore the main missions, and just go crazy around.
09/06/2009 at 21:47 Moonracer says:
What did he say in the video? Something like “even cutting edge AI can’t deal with exploding barrels.” Heh. Regardless this looks like a lot of fun, though I also dislike the QTE. Having to memorize random button combos (or follow them in a panic) is not fun for me.
09/06/2009 at 21:52 Muzman says:
True, such things are force balanced (if that’s the term) so a person can hold one. Still I’m having a tough time picturing the vast expulsion of high velocity gasses from one or both ends having no effect at all. I could well be wrong.
I know it’s not the pont of this game (or many at all for that matter) but it’s fun to see what sticks out. Jumping from a helicopter to a skyscraper, deploying an apparently rigid parachute almost anywhere, or turning cars into bolas on any surface (while being mostly bulletproof) doesn’t really get my attention, nit pick wise. But surfing on a speeding Humm Vee over rough ground and not even looking where you’re going. No one’s knees are that good.
09/06/2009 at 21:53 Pan says:
Argh! He got me with his wiiiiiirrre….
09/06/2009 at 22:25 Tei says:
Wait… I just remenber the *HORDE* of hook mods for Quake1. Actually even CTF (Capture The Flag) got one… Zoid! . Some of these mods (the simplistic ones) used a hook like this one, unrealistic, but others used one more phisic, and was also fun, in a spider-man-tarzan kind of way… .really fun.
Unsurprising, the Smoker mechanism of L4D is somewhat like that one (Zoid again!). WAIT!.. the one on L4D is somewhat more realistic. There are gravity for the things pulled.
I will be fun If a L4D mod let Smoker controls the hook, with a key to pull and other to release. More advanced controls will help raise hell over the survivors :-)
WAIT!… Imagine letting the Smoker use his tongue as a hook, to move trough the map!
NO!.. It will be too powerfull, and godmode :-)
09/06/2009 at 22:53 Andrew says:
Spiderman is NOTHING compared to this guy. And i used to think strength-throwing koreans into rickety shacks was silly physics fun. This sets the bar at a whole new level of crazy
09/06/2009 at 23:25 Surgeon says:
That looks totally bananas.
Bring it on.
10/06/2009 at 00:18 sigma83 says:
Infonugget: The settlement in the video, Pasir Hitam, means Black Sands in Malay.
10/06/2009 at 03:04 Idle Threats & Bad Poetry says:
Brother, I only had the demo for that game, but it was AWESOME.
10/06/2009 at 04:42 Wedge says:
Seriously, out of all this crazy un-scripted nonsense they showed you doing, people are bitching about ONE little QTE bit for hijacking a car? Or is everyone just complaining without actually watching the video?
It is funny when he says the games has “advanced AI” when enemies just seem like fodder to come up with fun ways to kill. Which from the looks of the game is fine by me. The double grappling hook is brilliant.
10/06/2009 at 09:24 Ian says:
@ Nerd Rage: A little from Column A, a little from Column B.
@ Muzman: Assuming you’re talking about Rico being bullet-proof I’m fairly certain they had God mode (or something like it) on for the purposes of that. Not that he was exactly flimsy in the first game, but that still looked like he wasn’t taking any damage at all.
10/06/2009 at 17:03 TCM says:
They have created a game that I would, without hesitation, associate with “awesomely stupid summer action movie”.
This is a must-buy, for me.
10/06/2009 at 17:59 Eschatos says:
The grappling hook and vehicle combat looks about a billion times better than in the first game. Now I just need to see some real combat, and actual vehicle driving.
10/06/2009 at 18:02 dsmart says:
Sold!!!!
10/06/2009 at 22:24 Wisq says:
I liked the part where he said “the key is to keep moving” and then camped behind stuff for a while. Or when he said “I could order a helicopter on the black market, but this one is free, sooo… it’s better”. ;)
That said, yeah, this does look great. Like Mercenaries, only better.
11/06/2009 at 05:56 Santiago says:
Ah I remember inviting a computerless friend of mine to play on my rig, getting, er, “drunk” and playing Crysis, grapping koreans and throwing them away, blowing up jeeps and all sort of stunts, I remember concentrating for full 15 minutes until finishing the first level then turning to my friend just to see him staring at the screen, mouth open, speechless like a kid. Then this looks like 10 times the fun!
16/06/2009 at 14:23 Gulp says:
“I could have ordered a helicopter from the black markets, but this one is free – so that’s better.”
Cheapskate! If you don’t support the black economy, who will?!?