Started the original Just Cause, you know, just 'cause. 
I know it's a 2006 game, and back in the pre-dawn of xbox 360 games, maybe there wasn't a lot of Open World Goodness out there, but there are problems. Mostly there are problems from things I think they were trying to solve, which maybe weren't even problems to begin with.
The camera blur on rotation looks great, but why am I able to do these whip-turn camera moves in a vehicle, but when I'm on foot, no love? Pretty sure, last time I checked, I can change my facing faster on foot than in a car. There's also a major fish-eye effect on the camera whenever in a car, so every time I'm driving or flying or boat... -ing, the vehicle looks absurdly elongated. And I try to tweak the camera a little left or right, like I'm leaning to look for an alternate route, and (blur) WHIZZAM I'm looking 90º from where I was or (blur) WHAZZOW back behind me. Then I get out of the car, and I'm back to lethargo-camera.
Then I called up the map, and thought, Oh, this is going to be a nice, short game. Then I zoomed out. Sweet jujubees, the islands are huge. I feel like I can probably 1000/1000 this, no problem, but I worry that I'm going to get bored of "liberating" villages a hundred times.
More complaints: There's a
Political Map, and also a
Map. The former shows, in color, which regions have been utterly liberated, which are in unrest, and which are still under government control. The basic gameplay seems to be "liberate settlements," but in truth only settlements in "politically unstable" areas can be Liberated. AFAIK this is not explained in-game.
It is also unclear on the MAP, because all the to-be-liberated settlements have a Side Mission Start just outside them. This was starting to really annoy me as I'd go to a settlement to liberate it, and Joe Castro wants me to go hijack a van instead.
"Hey, fuckwit, I just showed up in missile launching helicopter. What are the odds I want to jimmy some cop car's lock? Do you think you and your buddies would like to liberate this town? I'm down, where are your girlfriends?"It turns out that Story Missions have to be cleared in order to cause unrest in a region, and THEN the settlements can be liberated. Which might be just a tiny bit more clear if the Political Map's colors were used as an overlay on THE MAP.
I also want to kill whatever game designer thinks it's a good idea to let the player's character get into a car which is about to explode. The car's on fire, I'm mashing Y-Button like it's Angelina Jolie's leathery clit sheath, screaming "GET OUT OF THE CAR, JACKASS. IT'S ON FIRE!" and Rico, always one for a flashy leap out of a plane or ready for a tuck and roll when leaping up onto a deck, instead, inexplicably, daintily opens his door and steps out one foot at a time. From a flaming car.
But while I was watching him get out, I must have been mashing the button to try an hurry him up, because he immediately turns around and gets BACK INTO THE CAR. Sorry:
back into the flaming car.
Slowly.
