Just Cause 4 shows you how to take on an actual tornado

Game makers love to show off about their dynamic weather systems and rain physics, but Just Cause 4 is taking it one step further with a full on tornado. The latest video from development studio Avalanche Studios shows hero Rico Rodriguez taking out the Black Hand's wind cannons to manipulate the path of the windy menace.

You can't just chase down a tornado in a Fiat Punto, so the video shows us the Storm Chaser, a special vehicle Rico can commandeer. Following the tornado you can see it sucking up buildings, vehicles and bridges, and spitting out the debris. Even a fighter jet doesn't survive a close encounter. 

"Thanks to Avalanche's new Apex Engine, everything you see as well as the trajectory of every spiralling object is being calculated in real time," says Omar Shakir, the game's narrative director. 

Rico finds that the game's bad guys, the Black Hand, are using wind cannons to keep the tornado at bay, and we get to watch him take them out. 

"The player can take out the wind cannons in any way they choose, right now we're using the railgun, one of the many new weapons in the game," explains Shakir. Cue pretty electrical sparks, and a look at the secondary fire option, which deploys a drone to fight alongside Rico. For the second cannon we get to see what Rico can do with a grappling hook, and it's definitely worth a look. 

Just Cause 4 will be released on December 4 on PS4, Xbox One and PC. Here's everything we know about it so far.

Rachel Weber
Managing Editor, US

Rachel Weber is the US Managing Editor of GamesRadar+ and lives in Brooklyn, New York. She joined GamesRadar+ in 2017, revitalizing the news coverage and building new processes and strategies for the US team.