Just Cause 2 coming in Q3 2009

By Robert Purchese Published 10 February, 2009

Lead designer doing things properly.

Lead designer Peter Johansson has told Eurogamer Germany that Just Cause 2 will be out during the third quarter of 2009.

That's sometime between July and September; we had to count on our fingers.

Eidos had positioned the tropical action sequel for a late 2008 release but pushed the game back, presumably to make sure the lofty design promises were met this time around.

Many of these are abandoned features from the lacklustre but enjoyable openworld original, or ideas based on community feedback for Just Cause 1.

Boring side-missions have been replaced by chaos activities that reward destructive rampages by increasing influence with certain factions around the map. And the more influence you have, the more opportunities within that faction become accessible.

Gain enough favour and you may find yourself with enough power to knock out entire governments.

On top of all this will be reworked AI, lock-on targeting and a host of bigger and better weapons.

Head over to our Just Cause 1 review to find out what to expect.

Alternatively, pop into our Just Cause 2 gallery to see how the sequel is shaping up.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (15) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DFawkes #1 3 years ago

    I'm quite looking forward to this, I loved the over-the-top stylings of the first one.

  • kangarootoo #2 3 years ago

    The first one was a mixed bag for me. The first 20 mins were great, and hopping about the place from truck to helicopter and back again was lots of fun. But the progression within the game just didn't seem planned out properly. I just kind of got bored and stopped playing. They could learn a thing or two from Saints Row 2 methinks.

  • Penguinzoot #3 3 years ago

    Agreed. The story missions in JC1 were ok-ish, although too few IMHO, but the side missions were boring and repetitive in the extreme. Having said that, I absolutely loved the game. There was just something about it which struck a chord with me - probably jumping from helicopters ;)

  • X201 #4 3 years ago

    Given the shed load of bugs in the original (One of them even making the game unplayable) and the total lack of a patch to fix them I shall be giving this a wide berth.

  • ChaK #5 3 years ago

    I liked the 1rst one, and i'm looking forward to that one...even if it was originally planned for Q4 2008 *cough*

  • HonestJoe #6 3 years ago

    I hated the first game, but got a lot of fun out of just flying/driving around and ignoring what I was supposed to be doing.

  • bratmandu #7 3 years ago

    To be fair, Just Cause was Avalanche Studios FIRST game, and although it had balls control on vehicles, and little in the way of mission variety or things to do, the graphics were and still are amazing. It had a whole damn country, easily the biggest game I've ever seen, bigger than Mercs 1+2 put together by far. So i think they should be given credit for that!

    And as the man above says, a lot of fun can be had just getting around.

    If the second one has more to do, and more variety and better controls, then I'm in. (I got the full 1000 points for the first one).
    Edited by 2 at 10/02/09 @ 11:07

  • haldier #8 3 years ago

    At last, something with colour in it.

  • TuftyMcTavish #9 3 years ago

    Grab a helicopter, fly high, high up into the sky and sky dive out as dawn breaks over the land. Awesome. Loved the first game to bits, despite its failings.

  • crazyhorse174 #10 3 years ago

    "Just Cause? Just baws more like..."

  • glaeken #11 3 years ago

    I think what Avalanche showed with the first game is they have great potentional to produce something amazing given how good the game engine was. The scope of the island once you really get stuck into exploring is amazing. So fingers crossed for the sequel.

  • LowEnergyCycle #12 3 years ago

    I could not stand the first game. It was nothing but a frustration simulator in my experiance. Every time I wanted to do something fun and chaotic, a stupid game quirk, glitch or design flaw got in the way. Every time I wanted to further to story line, the game bored me stupid with repetative kill/fetch quests and absurdly easy shooting.

    It'd be nice if they got the sequel right, but the only reason I'm here is down to my burning hatred of it's big brother.

  • Scimarad #13 3 years ago

    Just Cause (the first one) was a very nice environment to explore.
    Edited by 1 at 10/02/09 @ 18:19

  • Vortex808 #14 3 years ago

    I'll probably get this if it's any good. The first wasn't that great, but the jungle environment, helicopters and parchute/grappel gun more than made up for the bits that were slightly annoying. I had quite a bit of fun with it now i think on it!

  • mkreku #15 3 years ago

    I really wanted to like Just Cause but as I tried to explore, there was nothing there to see. Did I miss all the cool stuff and was there something to be seen out there in the massive gameworld?