I am really loving the movement and the moment to moment crazy open world action that this game has to offer.

That being said, I find most of the challenges needlessly frustrating. I've failed to get 5 gears on races multiple times because hitting a small rock causes my car to do a triple flip and/or spin out completely wasting precious seconds. I just don't find trying the same challenge 5-10 times rewarding and having them be the only means of unlocking upgrades is a little bit annoying. I probably tried the first wingsuit challenge 15 times and managed to finally get 3 gears from it.

Is anyone having a similar experience or am I just kind of bad at games?

I also dislike the fact that i have to do challenges for the upgrades. On the other hand there are so many challenges in the game that i think that you can unlock most of the stuff even if you dont 4 or 5 star every challenge.

I haven't had to retry challenges multiple times to get at least three gears yet, but I have had to try them a fair few times to get 5. They feel fair to me. Mostly, at least some of the challenges are definitely marred by Just Cause's subpar vehicle controls. I expected that, but hoped it would be better.

Meet Boat Frenzy 1, which is impossible with the boat they give you.

I haven't had a much of problem getting at least four gears from many of the challenges I've come across. Wingsuit or vehicle race challenges often have me restarting the challenge once or twice for four gears and more for five. The frenzy challenges often have better tools in the area than it gives right at the start, which helps greatly in getting five gears within a couple of tries. The worst experience with the challenges I've had so far was a frenzy involving APCs. Had to fight the controls a bit to stop Rico from flip-flopping between the gunner and driver seats and wasting time. I couldn't find anything better to use rather than the three APCs on the map.

I kind of don't love them either. It doesn't even really make much story sense. I'd rather being doing side missions that give loot that I can spend. The loading times are nasty, as well. Too bad. Still a solidly entertaining game.

It's really the loading times that kill it for me. I'll just do a challenge once or twice before moving on.

I like the wingsuit ones and honestly think they are pretty easy once you get good at using the wingsuit.

Some of the others are also okay, but I agree that most of them actually aren't fun. Races with motorcycles and planes are the absolute worst (All bikes/planes control like total shit!) and the "Weapon Frenzy" ones are only okay with certain weapons. Sniper rifle? Not fun. Boat with a minigun on the front, were you constantly have to switch between the gun and trying to manouver the fucking boat? Terrible.

@sessh: yeah, the planes are horrible. i'm just going to save those until i can do them all with a jet or something

i enjoy the wingsuit challenges, but all of the others are either mediocre or just a chore to get through. i would have just much rather had xp or the challenge system they used in mad max for upgrades

I'm really hoping that's the case. Requiring players to 5-star all side missions for a trophy/achievement or special weapon/vehicle unlocks is cool, but if that's how they're locking up the core skill upgrade path that would be a bummer. I've been generally okay with the side missions, restarting maybe once to get 3+ gears and moving on.

Except the boat-based destruction challenge. Fuck that thing. The boat they give you requires you to drive the boat to a suitable location (pointed in the right direction), exit the cockpit, slowly crabwalk to the machine gun mount, and then "use" the machine gun in order to start destroying the base. Rinse and agonizingly repeat, because the destruction targets are spread out along a canal. I lucked into a 2-gear score and nope'd my way out of there. Hopefully there's a boat unlocked later that lets you fire without leaving the cockpit.

The racing challenges are flat out awful. The driving model can't keep up.

@thatdudeguy: yeah, you definitely don't need to five star everything

in the case of the tethers the total you need to upgrade everything is 15 and there are 20 available through challenges