#watchthis
Here are the deaths of eleven million Just Cause 2 games, caused by bodies smashing into solid ground, visualised on a map from the heavens. Please, watch it. More »
This is extraordinary – a cartographic depiction of player deaths in Just Cause 2, creating a beauteous terrain map composed only of light-points. Each point represents one of 11 million fatalities caused by impact with terrain or objects. It’s a god’s-eye view of gaming.(more…)
A map made of 11 million deaths it would be sad if it wasn't so beautiful. Square Enix has plundered the data from over a year of play and come up with this stunning new perspective of Panau, told entirely in 11 million tiny pins of light that each marks the end of a player's life.
"It's the sp...
If you can't beat them, hire them, provided that they have the necessary credentials and skillsets required to achieve the task that you're hiring for. That's a little wordy to serve as a business motto, but it's a philosophy possessed by Just Cause 2 developer Avalanche Studios founder Christofer Sundberg. In a recent interview with CVG, Sundberg explained that though piracy is worrying, "50 percent of the people that work for me come from a hacker background."
Sundberg added that though some pirates "see us as evil," that "in Sweden the [hacking] scene was huge... As a studio, we've found that there's definitely a lot of talent [in that community]." Also, it has the added bonus of cutting down on piracy, since all those hired pirates (privateers?) are probably going to get free copies of the game they made, anyways. That's just smart.
Dance Central
This is how the dancing genre should be done. Harmonix brought it on and stepped it up with Dance Central, a full-body follow-the-choreography game that showed off Microsoft's Kinect tech and ended up being the device's killer app at launch. Authoritative, yet fun, Dance Central felt like the first step in a franchise that could potentially have an amazing future.
Dance Central 2 is a given and I can't wait to see what it delivers. Harmonix has shown us with Rock Band that it can rapidly build upon a core foundation. Chained dance routines? Online dance battles? Customizable routines? It's probably all on the table... and I would dance on that table using a stripper pole for all of it. But, my gawd, I would give anything for the option to remove or exchange freestyle sections for more moves.
By now you know the drill re: Steam's holiday sale. We'll link incredible deals, and you'll spend tiny amounts of money you didn't expect to spend. Today, the objects of your impulse buying include the quirky item shop RPG Recettear ($6.80), Bully ($3.75) and Just Cause 2 ($7.50). See all the daily deals after the break.
#movies
Just Cause, a game series starring a swarthy man bathed in tight shirts and explosions, was always going to get a film adaptation. Thankfully, that adaptation sounds faithful to the games. Well, as faithful as you could get. More »
Despite the shortcomings of the product as a whole, there's a lot to love in Just Cause 2 -- most of which having to do with the many, many things you can do with a parachute, grappling hook and some ingenuity. By our calculation, that should earn the game a spot in the video game history books; and it seems Sony and Microsoft agree. The game has reached Platinum Hits and PS3 Classics status in the U.K., with an associated drop in price to £19.99.
We've contacted Square Enix to see if the game will receive a similar treatment in the U.S.. We certainly don't see why not. We love explosive stunts just as much as our overseas cohorts.
Eric Eisner's L+E Productions has optioned the rights to a Just Cause movie script written by Michael Ross, reports Variety. Producer Adrian Askarieh is helping the production company flesh out the project "before shopping it to the studios." L+E Productions' first project, Hamlet 2, was picked up by Focus Features for a reported $10 million in 2008, giving some hope to the possibility of Just Cause actually appearing in theaters at some point in the future. Askarieh also helped to get the Hitman film out the door, to which a sequel is currently in production.
The Just Cause film will apparently focus on the story of Rico "The Scorpion" Rodriguez as he takes on "deadly missions for the US government that come in the form of creating chaos and destrabalizing rogue nations from within and turning the bad guys against each other." Sound familiar? Let's just hope the adaptation doesn't take any of that ... questionable NPC chatter along for the ride.
#movies
A Just Cause movie, which we got wind of a year ago, now has a screenwriter and another producing partner, signaling that we're a step closer to an action-movie video game adapted into a video game action movie. More »
God of War 2 director Cory Barlog is likely working on the Mad Max game (a supposed tie-in with the 2012 movie sequel) at Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios. Eurogamer reports Avalanche Studios' founder Christofer Sundberg told the site, "I can't comment on the projects we are working on, but Cory is working here with us in Stockholm."
We've known Barlog had been working on a Mad Max game since 2008, with production reportedly still going on last year -- we just never knew exactly where he was making the game.
The studio's Avalanche Engine would actually be fantastic for driving an enormous, lush Mad Max game -- well, if "lush" existed in the Mad Max vocabulary. The engine certainly proved its graphical power in Just Cause 2. Now, if Barlog could only help deliver a cohesive concept, instead of just an empty sandbox, that could be a truly beautiful thing.
Ah, the Tuk Tuk. Almost universally recognized as the most useless vehicle of all time in regards to its implementation in video games. (You ever try to rack up a huge crash score while driving a Tuk Tuk in Burnout 3? It is impossible.) Avalanche, however, recently gave the poor, pod-shaped vehicle a facelift with a new piece of free DLC for Just Cause 2: Introducing the "Tuk Tuk Boom Boom" (pictured right), available today through Xbox Live, PSN and Steam.
You'll notice that Avalanche has peeled the roof off of this particular model of the vehicle, leaving just enough room for a massive, powerful cannon. It's also faster and handles better than the rollover-friendly standard version, meaning the Tuk Tuk Boom Boom might just become your new mode of transportation of choice when it's time to raid that enemy base -- or, you know, that impoverished civilian village.
#clips
Just Cause 2 has an amazing grappling hook technique, but it's got limits: you can only attach it to one thing (either two objects to each other or one to yourself). Lucky for us PC mods know no limits! More »
We don't know how one tires of wreaking havoc across the countryside of a third-world island nation. What more do you need? But if you have, you'll be happy to be reminded that the "Black Market Aerial Pack" is now available for Just Cause 2. For 160 /$2 you can add the the chaingun-toting F-33 DragonFly Jet Fighter, a multi-lock missile launcher and a hangtime-extending parachute thruster to your cavalcade of chaos.
The destruction's already begun on Xbox Live, but you can look for it to continue on PS3s when the PSN update arrives today.
Xbox.com: Add Just Cause 2: Black Market Aerial Pack ($2) to your download queue
The Just Cause 2 website has official news on the game's first two DLC packs. We'd already heard about the April 29th "Black Market Aerial Pack" (which will give you a new Jet Fighter to play with, along with a parachute addon to create a little more breeze), but less than a month later, May 29th will bring the "Black Market Boom Pack," with a Quad Rocket Launcher, Cluster Bomb Launcher, and an Air Propulsion Gun, which fires jet blasts powerful enough to send both soldiers and vehicles flying. You don't really get bonus points for saying, "This... is my boom pack," after sending said enemies into the air, but we'll pretend that you do.
Both packs will be $1.99 on PSN, or 160 ($2) from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Also on the official Just Cause 2 blog: you'll find YouTube videos of the game being played back at both slow- and fast-speed, showing off slow motion and time-lapse views of the impressive in-game world. We've put both of them after the break in case you want to give them a look.
Want some parachute thrusters? How about a half-shotgun, half rocket launcher? All this and more is coming in two sets of Black Market downloadable content for Just Cause 2. More »
