

The game manual is the "Thursday April 20 2006" edition and it's the "No. The game manual is written in the form of an issue of a newspaper - "San Esperito Vanguardia" and, in addition to the usual technical info, contains interesting articles about life and recent events in San Esperito. These are generally quite repetitive but are necessary to gain points with certain factions. The player can also partake in a variety of optional side missions, for example Races, liberating a village, or taking over a drug cartel plantation/villa. However, doing so can attract unwanted and potentially fatal attention from the authorities - " Heat". When not taking on a storyline mission, players can free-roam and create havoc. Although storyline missions are necessary to progress through the game, players can complete them at their own leisure. The open, non-linear environment allows players to explore and choose how they wish to play the game. Other key features of the game include parasailing ( grappling onto a car while utilizing a parachute) and skydiving. Players can also perform stunts with their cars in which they can stand on the roof and jump to another car, or choose to open their parachute whilst still in motion on the roof. Players can control a variety of vehicles, including cars, boats, airplanes, helicopters and motorcycles. On foot, the player's character is capable of walking, swimming and jumping, as well as utilizing weapons. The core gameplay consists of elements of a third-person shooter and a driving game, with a large, open environment to move around in. Just Cause is set on a fictional South American tropical country known as " San Esperito", where the player works as an Agency black ops agent Rico Rodriguez, supporting a Guerrilla war to overthrow San Esperito's dictator, who may be in possession of weapons of mass destruction. The game map is about 250,000 acres (1024 km²) in size, with 21 story missions and about 35 different side missions to complete.

The game was developed by the Swedish company Avalanche Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. It arrived in North America on September 27, 2006. Released on Septemfor Microsoft Windows, Xbox, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 platforms in Europe.
