1. The Wave Mechanics Are Inspired By Wave Race 64!
One of the early missions I played required me to get to another island to rescue Mario from a precarious situation (a running theme in the early missions). To get across quickly, I called in a rebel drop to deliver me a helicopter - an enjoyably ceremony in which it gets dropped in a crate and suddenly appears in a poof of confetti. Unfortunately, the helicopter dropped in the middle of the road, and apparently a battered little car hitting it at 40 MPH was enough to turn it into a fireball. Seeing no alternative, I jumped off the cliff edge and wingsuited into the sea in search of a boat to steal. It immediately struck me that the water undulated and moved in a more convincing way than I'd seen in pretty much any game before. The Square Enix spokesperson playing next to me (taking time out of his self-imposed mission to hang a plane from a helicopter, untether it hundreds of feet in the air, then jump out of the chopper and try to land on the plane far below) explained that these were inspired by Wave Race 64. The legendary N64 jetski racer replicated realistic wave behaviours, allowing players to ride waves and use their patterns to make jumps and gain momentum. Just Cause 3 has similar mechanics, so the sea is more than just a vast plain to get from A to B, but an area with its own systems that you can master.
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