How one man made an 1,800 player action game where an entire industry couldn't
Red Bull "Forget Grand Theft Auto: Just Cause 2 is the ultimate virtual playground for gamers. The lush island of Panau stretches across 400 square miles of territory - roughly the same size as Hong Kong, except somebody drew it."
(Culture, Just Cause 2, PC)
Tipsed by: bensillis
Just Cause 2. > GTA 4. In my opinion I've enjoyed Just Cause 2 way more than I ever did GTA 4. It's so much bigger and there's more to do. It's also much more fun. Such freedom exists in the gameplay. The grapple hook and parachute. The jets and helicopters. You can get on top of the jets and skydive from them. So sick!!
I do hope GTA 5 is better than 4 was. I'd it's anything like San Andreas was, it should be an improvement over GTA 4.
All joking about Red Bull aside; I think that that was a great article to read, quite enjoyable. Well above the quality I have come to expect on N4G. I, for one hope to see more articles from the Red Bull site like this in the future.
Definitey beats the "10 reasons why" articles that clog this site.
It makes sense since they are a really unhealthy drink and gaming tends to go hand in hand with that (they have advertised in games like Worms, I think as a weapon, and Wipeout) If I remember rightly Red Bull is making a video game as well but I could be wrong.
I slept outside BestBuy the day the 360 came out and at about 430AM the redbull truck pulled up and handed out free redbull to the people in line. That might not mean much but there were there....
Wrong. Red Bull even had there own programmers make that cool Playstation Home place. They love games and I always see them supporting and puting money in game ads. On Topic: JC2 is still a fantastic game and holds up well even today. I really love the polished finished feel to the game and the best part is PC gamers did not get a sloppy port like Skyrim. Even without mods the PC verison can be really cranked up, not just talking about AA and 1080p You can make the water settings amazing. It looks 10 times better then ps3 or 360. A boss game done right!
Now please excuse me while I down a red bull and go play some JC2:)
Red Bull might not be associated much with the gaming industry but I think the article raises an interesting point...It's weird that this is the first game/mod of its kind
Theres creativity in all gens you just have to know where to look, Portal is as creative as anything previous gens had offer, and there is loads more indie stuff thanks to downloadable games.
@bumnut that would be true if the only games that exist were the heavily marketed ones.Theres just as much if not more creative games out and coming out as there was last gen.
The costs of making AAA titles has ballooned so much that it is killing risk. games get shorter, shallower, and easier when it costs $80-100 million to make and gamestop eats half your sales.
Which is why developers don't do stuff like this until they can get it 95% right. The glitches and general awkwardness that comes along with mods gets a free pass (as it should IMO), but people need to realize that quality control is a real thing.
am i the only one who thinks the headline is full of fail? like the whole gaming industry is trying there best to implement massive multiplayer but cant.
do we even know if avalanche was trying to put multiplayer in just cause 2
Nope, they weren't. They said as much. They didn't even try. Why? Because of results like this mod.
It'll take these guys a while to get the mod in working order, and Avalanche didn't want to spend several months working on a glitchy multiplayer component.
thank you for answering that. its nice to have people making mods like this, but its wrong to make the developers out like they couldnt while they didnt even try
"but there’s no massively multiplayer shoot’em up or action game to be found"
Darkfall (back in 2009) and planetside 2 (in beta) are both 1000+ player shooters. but yeah there is a severe lack of these games.
consoles & publishers are holding PC gaming back, so we are starting to so PC mods push the boundaries. its a good article, I will have to check out this mod.
It just shows exactly how broken the current state of the gaming industry is and how lucrative and interesting the indie game scene is.
I think (and somewhere I hope) - that the indie scene will be the future of creating games.
Right now - publishers are milking too many franchises and are spending too much money on trivial things like getting professional actors to voice their games.
That's all nice and all - but it isn't required and the money could be well used somewhere else.
Steam and Kickstarter are already making a push towards rendering big publishers obsolete - and they are having a lot of success with it.
The indie scene is NOT to be underestimated.
Sure there is a lot of crap out there - but as more tools like UDK and Source become available and easier to use - more and more quality games made by little more than 4-5 people are being released.
No publishers in their back, no stake holders - and some of these games have astounding quality - how messed up is that? :)
this reminds me of mag in a way. 256 people in a mad rush online was a step forward imo pity it didnt sell like hot cakes to force other developers to attempt similar large scale online games.
It didnt sell like hotcakes but I still think it did relatively well. You can still get into 1 or 2 large scale matches of domination today. Would have loved a MAG 2 ):
it did really well thats true but if it did half of cod numbers then maybe zipper would still be around and we possibly could have been playing mag2 at the moment. nevertheless once in a while when i get back into to it you can still find big matches going on.
It looks like a lot of fun. I was disappointed when I downloaded it with PS+ that it had no multiplayer. It's cool that someone took the time out to do it themselves
I always said multiplayer was a necessity for the Just Cause franchise. This looks immensely fun and has that same unpredictability as Grand Theft Auto's multiplayer. I hope that if the rumours of the third instalments future release hold true, that as well as making the game more polished and refined (Cover-System, stronger shooting mechanics, better AI etc...) Avalanche Studio's seriously consider a multiplayer component.
One person didn't create this, five guys over the course of months modded an already developed game. The mod is horribly glitchy.
The reason buy you don't see 1000 person multiplayer online is because no one wants them. With 500 people on your team you can't even know who is on your team. Its pretty much run and fire in every direction. There is no strategy involved.
This is the biggest plus for PC gaming, IMO. Not the major graphics leaps, but the modders. Modders do what lazy or unimaginative devs can't or won't. They take a good game and make it amazing. Truly, the master race.
The Glorious PC Gaming Master Race I played the Just Cause 2 1800 mod and it is fun. Gets old after a few days but it is very chaotic and fun.
lots of comparisons to GTAIV of course.
JC2 game world is much much bigger than GTAIV and more open spaces and the 1800 players is CRAZY! I never was on a server maxed at 1800 but several hundred players provides enough run n gun n car/jet jacking fun.
Now - Join us on Filmwatch as we celebrate the release of Star Trek Into Darkness this month with a must-have collectible for Star Trek fans! | Promoted post
150°
70°
30°
10°
10°
40°
10°
Ad 
10°
Everyone's a critic these days.
I've enjoyed Just Cause 2 way more than I ever did GTA 4. It's so much bigger and there's more to do. It's also much more fun. Such freedom exists in the gameplay. The grapple hook and parachute. The jets and helicopters. You can get on top of the jets and skydive from them. So sick!!
I do hope GTA 5 is better than 4 was. I'd it's anything like San Andreas was, it should be an improvement over GTA 4.
http://www.cardesign.tv/wp-...
http://blog.seattletimes.nw...
O-T
Liked JC2 alot, great game with so much replayability...
Related image(s)
I, for one hope to see more articles from the Red Bull site like this in the future.
Definitey beats the "10 reasons why" articles that clog this site.
P.S Redbull have sponsored a few gaming tournaments i'm sure.
On Topic: JC2 is still a fantastic game and holds up well even today. I really love the polished finished feel to the game and the best part is PC gamers did not get a sloppy port like Skyrim. Even without mods the PC verison can be really cranked up, not just talking about AA and 1080p You can make the water settings amazing. It looks 10 times better then ps3 or 360. A boss game done right!
Now please excuse me while I down a red bull and go play some JC2:)
This is the first time a multiplayer mod has gained mainstream attention, though.
Edit:
And it doesn't stop there. This topic is my new favorite now. What was the news story again?
Download BOLO Patch 4.0.
Enjoy the rest of your life.
These days everyone wants to make the next COD.
OT
I need to give this game another try.
looks glitchy
Except for Bethesda :D
like the whole gaming industry is trying there best to implement massive multiplayer but cant.
do we even know if avalanche was trying to put multiplayer in just cause 2
It'll take these guys a while to get the mod in working order, and Avalanche didn't want to spend several months working on a glitchy multiplayer component.
its nice to have people making mods like this, but its wrong to make the developers out like they couldnt while they didnt even try
Darkfall (back in 2009) and planetside 2 (in beta) are both 1000+ player shooters. but yeah there is a severe lack of these games.
consoles & publishers are holding PC gaming back, so we are starting to so PC mods push the boundaries. its a good article, I will have to check out this mod.
I think (and somewhere I hope) - that the indie scene will be the future of creating games.
Right now - publishers are milking too many franchises and are spending too much money on trivial things like getting professional actors to voice their games.
That's all nice and all - but it isn't required and the money could be well used somewhere else.
Steam and Kickstarter are already making a push towards rendering big publishers obsolete - and they are having a lot of success with it.
The indie scene is NOT to be underestimated.
Sure there is a lot of crap out there - but as more tools like UDK and Source become available and easier to use - more and more quality games made by little more than 4-5 people are being released.
No publishers in their back, no stake holders - and some of these games have astounding quality - how messed up is that? :)
hoping for a just cause 3
mag was amazing
Would have loved a MAG 2 ):
I really hope they introduce multiplayer into JC3.
As if you would want that many in a cod map anyway,lol. They are small.
Only reason they get away with the amount in this game is the sheer size of the island.
Most dissapointing MP was Crysis
Was massive island and the mp was crap, should have been BF3 style in the jungle.
More does not mean better.
One person didn't create this, five guys over the course of months modded an already developed game. The mod is horribly glitchy.
The reason buy you don't see 1000 person multiplayer online is because no one wants them. With 500 people on your team you can't even know who is on your team. Its pretty much run and fire in every direction. There is no strategy involved.
Like Call of Duty then.
Modders care about games and the community.
Developers only care about money.
I played the Just Cause 2 1800 mod and it is fun. Gets old after a few days but it is very chaotic and fun.
lots of comparisons to GTAIV of course.
JC2 game world is much much bigger than GTAIV and more open spaces and the 1800 players is CRAZY! I never was on a server maxed at 1800 but several hundred players provides enough run n gun n car/jet jacking fun.
Nice mod and very well done!