24.11.2008

If this game had been released 5 or 6 years ago, it would have been the best game ever made. But it was just that bit too late. Like other games in a similar genre such as driver 3, it lives in the shadow of GTA. And since most people who play this game have probably bought it because it is a GTA like game, they will most likely be comparing it to GTA through and through, which is always a big mistake. With this in mind I started playing this game not expecting much after having read the countless cynical reviews about it on amazon. But even after playing the game for a few days now I'm still waiting for something really terrible to happen that will make the game awful.But it hasn't happened yet.This game is full of surprises. The feel of the game is very similar to GTA and the graphics are very similar to driver 3. The landscape graphics are astounding and remind me of the excitement of seeing such a beuatiful location recreated through the original farcry. Sometimes it's worth it just to ride up to the top of a hill and watch the sunset casting a bright orange glow over the huge and finely detailed collection of tropical islands. Or take a helicopter up into the earths atmosphere to take a good look at the whole map. Fortunately even the gameplay feels good with a more realistic vehicle feel than GTA(although sometimes hard to control depending on the terrain) but on motorbikes however its almost impossible to fall off. There are also lots of original bonuses such as parachuting, paragliding from the back of cars (or even as you drive off a cliff on your motorbike) flying a helicopter and plane early on in the game and being able to hyjack a car by paragliding onto the top and jumping in. Generally, its all very fun stuff and adds an edge that GTA doesn't have. However, in terms of realism, this game is about as real as a flying pony. If you do manage to forget to shoot out your parachute as you ride off the cliff (purposely of couse) then no worries, you'll land on your feet fine with about a 16th of your health taken off. And unless you're incredibly unlucky you're car or bike will still be completely ridable. I hate to say it but even though this can take away a lot of credit for the game, it makes razzing around and doing stupid things a lot more fun! There's something about riding as fast as you can off the top of a volcano, falling 1000 feet and then getting up to do it again. Not really being able to die in a firefight is also lacking a bit on the realistic side of things, but at the same time helps the game progress at a comfortable level being as there are so many missions. You can die but its not easy. With the resident evil 4 style view while on foot, the fire fights can be extremely fun and a bit more difficult if you decide to stick to this more accurate shooting view. However, the easiest way to die is just to get run over by a car. Sometimes you don't see them coming and once it touches you there's no mercy. Which seems a bit strange considering you can survive 1000 bullets and a 1000 ft fall. There is also a first person view for the vehicles, but they do become a lot more difficult to drive when looking through first person.The missions are fun but sometimes they can get a little samey if you stick to the side missions. If you're a die hard gamer and have to spend the next 72 hours after purchasing a game trying to complete it without sleep then this is not the game for you. There are millions of missions in this game which make it a long lasting game, but a game that is best played in small doeses. The main missions however are very interesting and can be played at any point in the game. The main purpose of playing side missions is to make friends and unlock safe house locations.I really like this game. It has a unique feel to it that's supported by its Spanish style music, finely detailed environment and lots of Spanish accented diologe as well as realistic soun effects. There isn't much development on the main character yet, but it seems the storyline sections of the game are effective enough. Another added bonus of this game is that there is no swearing, un-necessary violence, sex and dodgy storylines. There is of course violece when you need to liberate settlements etc. But unlike GTA you get to chose why kind of character you want to be.So ultimately I'm not saying this game is better than GTA, just that you shouldn't compare when it comes to playing it. Just take this game as it is and you will enjoy it!

29.9.2006

Until now there has been a bit of a gap in the gaming market for a GTA-style game on the Xbox 360 with an environment that shares a passing resemblance to the Far Cry world. Just Cause has come along to fill that gap - with a few differences. For starters you're not a criminal mastermind intent on taking over the world, or at least the local area. You are a suave Latin American agent with super-human agility and an unlimited supply of parachutes, specialised in regime change and cheesy one-liners. There are also no monsters in the game, moving it away from Far Cry territory. What it does have is a giant map made up of a number of different islands, set in a tropical environment with a definite Latin theme.If you picked Vice city up and plonked it down in Cuba you'd be halfway there. You can walk around, steal cars, helicopters, motorbikes and even busses just like Vice city, but what Tommy Vercetti could never do was hook onto the back of a passing car and take to the skies using his unlimited supply of parachutes. Once you've taken to the skies you can hook onto any other vehicle (including choppers!) within range to keep your momentum and travel for miles without even touching the ground. Should you decide to drive, one button press will put you on the roof of your vehicle and another will either land you on another car or you can take to the skies again. Rico is a surprisingly able character to be honest. He can swim underwater indefinitely, fly anything, drive anything and take quite a lot of lead before dying.Unlike your normal free-roaming 3rd person games, there is no money involved. All the ammo and health you are going to need can be found at your safe house and equipment can be airdropped if necessary. Throughout the game you have contact with your agency. They have a range of vehicles at their disposal and you can request for a vehicle you've unlocked to be delivered to your location. If you are of a lazy disposition you could just request extraction and get yourself delivered to one of your safe houses or to your next mission briefing location. This works a little bit like Oblivion's "fast travel" system in that respect. The map is so big you'll be glad of this feature! As you work through the story missions, more vehicles are unlocked. You'll have a motorbike available from the start, then a jeep, a boat and a chopper.Typically for games like this there are story missions and an array of side missions. In Just Cause the story missions are a relatively small part of the game. The main story is mostly focussed around causing political unrest and making things difficult for the reigning dictator. The side missions are mainly about returning peace to the islands. At any time you can start liberation missions - these involve removing the government blockades and the officials surrounding them, bringing the power back to the rebels. Just to muddy the waters a little, there are other factions besides the rebels and the government, but you'll discover those along the way.Graphically this game is a bit odd. Whilst it boasts impressive draw distances, vast outdoor spaces and decent water effects, much of the scenery is a two dimensional and the images aren't as crisp as I would have liked. Its still a nice change from endless cityscapes though and the graphics aren't disappointing enough to ruin the game. There are a couple of bugs in the graphics engine that'll have you stuck on top of a jeep's windscreen unable to do anything, but hopefully they'll patch that through Live.Sound is functional. The music is dynamic, varying tempo depending on what you are doing. There is no in-car radio though but you probably won't spend enough time driving to really need it. The background noise created by NPC's really add to the atmosphere and a load of 3rd party songs would ruin it. The sound effects are everything you'd expect from an Xbox 360 or PC game.In summary, there's plenty to keep you busy in this living, breathing world. Gliding around under a parachute is great fun and leaping from car to car isn't bad either. The controls are pretty intuitive but could do with being a bit more responsive sometimes, the map is huge, the graphics aren't bad, the achievements are achieve-able and there are plenty of big explosions.Is it worth buying? Yes, absolutely.

25.9.2006

When i first heard about just cause, it was only a few months before its released. I thought it looked okay and was quite supprised that not many magazines had picked up on it, through its development stages.I bought saints row 2 weeks ago and dead rising last week, and i thought, that was me for a while,no other game could pull me from them.From the opening, i wasnt too impressed. The ingame movies are abit bland, and presentation, well the menu could of looked abit better. I was pretty much unimpressed right until the very moment you gain control of rico, when he is free falling from the plane. WOW!.Just cause launches you into a sort of desperado/james bond action adventure.

2.10.2006

This is a strange game in that it really does feel next-gen with amazing graphics, especially the lighting and a hugely immersive world where you can travel anywhere and do anything. Even from the very first mission though, something doesn't feel right.You sky dive from a plane into some realistic looking water and swim to a beach where is all kicks off with local guerilla fighters. You then follow your contact to a jeep where an on-rails shooting sequence begins. The graphics, as I said are mind blowing but something about the completely over the top nature of even this first mission makes the whole thing unbelievable.The worst bit comes when you have to get rid of a road block and the soldiers

5.10.2006

First and foremost, i have to get this off my chest...This game is the biggest game i have ever played. The scope is just phenominal and flying above at a few thousand feet just proves this. With 1024 square miles as your "playground", absolutely anything is possible.You begin soaring towards a beach having just jumped out of plane, and this is where you can really see the depth of Just Cause. Islands fade in the background, miles and miles away, you begin to think it will take hours to cover this game. As the beach comes in to view each individual tree is instantly visible and the gunshots below sound with amazing FX. "Press 'A' to deploy parachute" appears on the screen and after following this action,

2.10.2006

You play Rico, an American spy dropped (literally) into a large South American country with the mission to topple the military dictator currently running things. To help you need to make friends with the rebels who are currently trying to overthrow the government and start a drugs war between two big cartels.The game is a nice third person shooter. A lot of the style of play will be familiar to anyone that's played any of the GTA games. Anything that drives on the road, floats on the water or flys in the sky can be borrowed or stolen and used. Weapons are plentiful and as you progress through the game more are opened up as your standing goes up. The greatest thrill comes the first time you hijack a helicopter.

25.9.2006

When I first turned on this game, I switched it off after about an hour. Boring and annoying I thought. I forced myself to play on seen I spent 80 on it and boy was I glad I did!. This game is very decieving, the first couple of hours is just pure boring but it just gets soooo much better. All out war!!.The game is like a mixture of GTA and Syphon Filter on PS2. For all you GTA fans out there, you need to try not to compare this game to GTA and enjoy it for what it is. It is a great game in its own right.They graphics are supreme and very well detailed. Especially the explosions. The sunset is almost like a real sunset.

3.10.2006

The game is based in a luscious tropical archipelago of islands, the game world is massive and has realistic day/night, weather effects like tropical storms, lightning, low lying cloud and so on, the scenery is beautiful - think Farcry but with weather effects and on a much more massive scale and including towns, bridges spanning valleys, docks, an airport and so on.The game leaves you pretty free to do what you want and you're free to go wherever you want however there is also a mission based storyline which is pretty cool. Missions range from hijacking vehicles, to chasing a train through a valley in a helicopter to obliterate it with rockets. There's a wide range of vehicles - cars, motorbikes,

17.3.2007

Ive had this game now about a month and its just amazing....the graphics are superb and the gameplay is just so much fun...driving cars and motorbikes,flying helicopters and planes and jets,boats,parachuting,swimming, its all in this game...if you ever liked pilot wings on the snes many years ago then you have to get this game just on that alone but throw in a few missions and shooting fun and this game is just fantastic...parachuting is so much fun especially after you have pinched a helicopter,gone into first person camera(seeing just the rotas going round)and then firstly flying low across the sun drenched beaches and sand and the gorgeous looking water and then into the mountain forest

11.10.2006

I have been watching this title since it was first featured in a PS2 magazine sometime last year. I was astounded at the size of the game and thought it could be truly great. So, when I received the game, fortunately from my lovely girlfriend, I was hoping for the best. However, the first 30mins were full of mixed feelings. I wanted to like this game but it does suffer from Driv3r-itis, if you get what I mean. Firstly, I got very confused by that there is little tutorial, so I plummeted into the ground on the very first section, which was pretty embarrassing. Secondly, when I initially rode a motorbike I accidentally ploughed into another vehicle lodging me inside that other vehicle. Thirdly,

25.9.2006

You are an agent-sent in to help free an island from the tyranny of the government-by any means necessary. Immediately you notice that you've seen the plot before (Freedom Fighters) and that there isn't much of a plot-and you would be right-there isn't.Graphically, the game aims to do too much. For the graphics to be brilliant in every situation the game would have accomplished a feat beyond belief. While flying up high or surveying the scenery the place looks beautiful, lakes, forests, towns, you name it-like looking at a picture of the earth from a distance. However, close up, the graphics are a bit blocky, and there is some pop up, and there is a rather sad lack of detail. Every forest looks the same,

1.5.2007

I first got this game when it came out and got it as part of my xbox 360 package. Although I liked the game I decided to trade the game in after 2 weeks as I only had this and PGR3, I really wanted TDU at that time. Then after about 5 games later I started to get cravings for Just cause after seeing various reviews etc on it and decided to buy it back for £18. Now that I fully understand the gamer points system and have got used to the xbox 360 controls properly I have found the game a lot better than the first time I played it.I decided to take my time and not just fly through all the missions,

29.9.2006

this game is fantastic, u hav so much freedom. the size of the map is huge bigger than san andreas, a small island is 5 times the size of vice city! u can take over any village/town/city with a bunch of rebels if u wish to. ther are a ton of side missions for the drug cartel or the rebels. ther is so much variety in the missions 1 time i woz assassinating an army general, another i woz breaking a rebel comrade out of prison and another i woz destroying some coca fields with a truck packed with toxic! the arsenal of weapons ranges from sniper rifels, silenced pistols, rocket launchers, shotguns to assault rifels. the stunts u can do are amazing i luv hitchin a ride on helicopters with my grapplin hook or any other vehicle for that matter.

25.9.2006

I got this game on the day of release and have followed the trialers on the web so knew it looked good. Is similar to GTA style except it is alot bigger (the biggest game yet i think) and you have instant access to everywhere without having to wait until areas are unlocked. Plus there are alot more vehicles including bikes, cars, planes, helicopters, boats and prob more to be discovered.The Visuals are amazing and would say the best ive seen yet and I have Obilvion which is saying something. Water and sky effects are perfect. There are also no annoying loading screens except when you die and it loads up your last save which happens rarely.The skydiving element is cool and is great when trying to escape the cops or anyone chasing you.

30.11.2006

After playing this game for one hour, I didn't know how to feel. All aspects of it told me that the creators of this game were trying too hard for it to be the best. Because of this, some of the graphics were too harsh (and when I say 'harsh' I mean that the PS2 engine couldn't cope), and there was a limited supply of background music consisting of endless Mexican trumpet solos. I'm afrid to say that I agree with most PS2 magazines in saying that the game was purely Xbox 360 material.But, even though it did not meet some requirements, I think that it provided a colourful, atmospheric surrounding for an entirely new style of game. It combines action and adventure with time-based dilemmas such as exploding warheads,

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