I didn't intend to buy JC4 originally, but after watching a fun preview stream and double-checking via the IGN 4K videos on YT that it looked the part on the One X I decided to pre-order the game anyway (the Gold version, and yes, I know that was foolish). This game looks like garbage most of the time. Low quality textures and frequent pop-in all over the place, lighting problems around the clock (I found this on reddit and this is what it looks like in a dark environment on my LG OLED TV as well, which makes me think that the HDR implementation must just be completely broken somehow), jagged edges all over the place. This is definitely worse than any other AAA game I have played on the One X so far. The one positive thing is that the explosions look really nice and the FPS are solid, but... at what cost? And why did the videos that were released before launch look infinitely better than the actual game? Anyone here as confused and dumbstruck by all this as I am? I just want to blow some shit up, but it's really no fun like this. I definitely regret this purchase so far. Here's hoping that this can somehow be fixed.

I've heard it's a mess on the PS4 as well and is also kind of crash-y on the PC version. As with most JC games, I'll probably just wait for a sale next year. The timing of it makes me suspect that they had to get it out before Christmas despite its readiness for launch, but who knows.

General consensus seems to be that this thing is busted in a myriad of different ways on all 3 platforms. Looks bad, runs bad, and is extremely buggy.

Even on PC it reportedly looks terrible, as if all the settings are defaulting to Low regardless of user configuration.

Looks like they're already sending out mea culpas.

Aw. Bummed to hear this launched in a rough state on consoles, especially considering this team could've used a victory after the trouble Just Cause 3 suffered.

Hopefully they'll turn it around. Wouldn't mind getting back into Rico Rodriguez's hijinks.

Sounds like the Digital Foundry team found it to be in a better place than its predecessor. Though they were sure to underline its shortcomings, too.

Not that they were ever a SUPER hot mess, but these games have had a history of always being broken in some ways.

I still remember the very first Just Cause on PC had for a long time a memory leak issue that made the game slow to a crawl the longer you played it. Back then patches weren't as speedy as they are today so I effectively had to just stop playing the game.

"Hi,

We knew this was ridiculously broken when we released it, but we released it anyway because the money guys said we had to. Thanks for picking up a copy! We'll now fix what we can until the bad publicity dies down and you all forget about it. Be sure to buy our next game, which will almost certainly be just as broken at release as this one.

You're welcome."

@frytup: Having a statement ready so quick definitely makes me suspect they knew this launch was going to go poorly and that it was rushed out before Christmas.

@rorie: I’ve been too busy to play games at or around launch lately...this sort of things lets me live the dad life without regret.

@rorie: I wouldn't take the quickness of this statement of evidence of that. Yeah, they probably knew this was a hot mess internally, but that statement they issue is little more than platitude and a summary of the upcoming branch of the development repo. IE any competent marketing department and project manager should be able to cobble this together in an hour.

As for the game, it's real disappointing on PC. Pop in, bad textures. Heck it's the first game in a long time that doesn't actually change the resolution when you do in the settings menu. You have to quit and launch the game again. And it doesn't tell you to, so it's likely a bug.

Here are NVIDIA'S recommended settings: https://i.imgur.com/ATxgype.png. Literally all low.

And on another level, they really done messed with the formula of these games. There's no C4, no grenades. Causing chaos is now pointless (it doesn't unlock new story missions or count towards area completion, just points.

I'm just so disappointed.

I'm getting sick of these rushed releases to meet release windows. I know they do it for business reasons but I don't think it's right that the consumers pick up the bill for fixing the game so that the publisher's don't have to put a dint their quarterlies.

It even seems short sighted on the business front as they push more and more consumers away with each game rather than making the brand stronger.

I'm playing on ps4pro on a 1080p tv, and it gives me the whole "supersampling mode enabled" thing. But it does look decidedly more blurry than most games I've recently played, like potentially sub-1080p blurry. Then there's some ugly pop-in stuff that does look like a graphical error and not just bad lod optimisation. And it's also weird that you get a (short, but still) loading screen whenever starting a mission, just to load a cutscene. It does seem to have less trouble maintaining a stable framerate though compared to 3.

? I think the game looks pretty good on Xbox One X...maybe slightly...blurry or soft looking? It's a far cry away from Just Cause 3. That game would literally become unplayable at some points. I haven't had any issues with this one. I'd rather a game be downgraded graphically (on console) to make it run better than have terrible FPS, personally.

I'm enjoying this one a lot more than 3 so far. Maybe after having played Red Dead 2 this is exactly the game I needed as a palette cleanser. The new balloon mechanic is a lot of fun. Feel like this is game is getting a harsher wrap than it deserves and 3 didn't for some reason even though 3 was just straight up completely busted.

I have a regular Xbox One. This is the ugliest game I've seen in awhile. It looks and feels like Saints Row and Crackdown had baby last gen and it's for some reason coming out in 2018. The shooting is awful too. Luckily I only rented the game and didn't buy it.

I'm playing one One X and it's not a good looking game. When you fly over the terrian, you see CONSTANT pop-in, as the level of detail changes through the stages. And it's not smooth, it's very jiggerry.

The framerate is great, but the destructibility is severely limited, basicaly only to the same objects over and over again, fuel tanks and such.

The map is probably the worst open-world map I have ever seen: you can not zoom out much, so you can always see only a small portion of the entire thing. The scrolling of the map is CHOPPY and incredibly frustrating. And I don't understand the squad forces system at all, I have to do the mission in each region anyway, before sending in the Chaos Army, so what is the point in this? I am sitting at 10+ squads the entire time, with no place to send them.

And the cutscenes are fucked: they are horribly artefacted by poor compression, they for some reason are laggy and choppy and the problems with rendering are present even here, in spite of them being video files! Shadows flicker on characers' faces and hair, there are some VERY poor textures etc.

I am selling this one ASAP, while the price is at least a bit high so I can get most of my money back, the rest is a price for being stupid and getting hyped into preordering!

The story is garbage as well, but that was expected so it's not bothering me all that much.

It's a shame because I feel like a super polished Just Cause game could be a massive success but each release seems to have just a few too many flaws. It seems forever trapped in the area most franchises grow out of after the first game or two where there is the foundation of a great game that just needs some refining.

Oh man, now I feel bad. I wish I'd seen this before I created an entire new thread. I figured this was just exclusively for the X-one. Do you know if y'all are going to do a QL of this, or are you too bogged down with end of year stuff?

You're right, in a bunch of ways. I think a great example is the shooting. Most franchises maybe let something like that hang for a bit but by now to have the same unsatisfying shooting feel says a lot.

I actually think Just Cause 3's traversal, with the hook, parachute, and wingsuit, is the best in any open world game by a large amount. Once you get down using the suit it's incredibly rewarding towards your skill and you feel like a superhero. Everything else in the game, including the performance, was lacking. It's a shame. I wanted to love it. I advocate for what is good in the game too but I am let down that they dropped the ball again.

By now, with Mad Max in addition, there is nothing else to say but that Avalanche is a very uneven open world developer and it's kind of crazy given how many games like that they have made.

For a hot minute there Avalanche seemed like a studio well-worth paying attention to. But Mad Max was kind of unmemorable Just Cause 3 and now 4 had tons of reports of bad performance and occasional bugginess and the actual game beneath all of that wasn't really worth it.

JC3's wingsuit was a lot of fun to play around with, I wish they could get it in a better game.