Just Cause 3 launched to a fairly positive reception in 2015, with its over-the-top action and new pieces of traversal equipment making it a mayhem lover’s dream. But on consoles, the game also suffered from long load times and horrible frame rate drops, and, unfortunately, it looks like the latest patch has done little to rectify the technical issues.
Digital Foundry recently conducted a comparison between patch 1.o5, which launched on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and an older version of Just Cause 3. The game is designed to run at a constant 30 frames per second. It isn’t ideal for an intense action game, but it’s serviceable, and what we’ve come to expect from current-generation systems.
In the “Lavanda” region, Just Cause 3 runs on both patch 1.04 and 1.05 at close to 30 frames per second, but this is only when driving slowly in a car. As soon as Rico jumps out and begins letting loose on the town with his arsenal of weapons, this number drops by about 10. There is very little noticeable difference between the two versions of the game, and huge explosions continue to cause it to chug, sometimes as low as 15 frames per second — not exactly the greatest thing for a game that focuses on blowing everything up.
The problems seem to persist equally on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Microsoft’s console sees drops of up to 15 frames per second, with its lower resolution having essentially no impact on the frame rate in this case.
Digital Foundry is quick to note, however, that this is on the original, 2013 design of the Xbox One. The Xbox One S, which does feature a slight boost compared to the original system, may fare better. But with Project Scorpio expected to offer a significant performance advantage on older games, it might be best to put Just Cause 3 on the back burner until the system launches next year.
