Finishing the holiday gaming rush with a bang, Just Cause 3 launches on December 1st in all its over-the-top glory. Rico Rodriguez is back, and this time he's retaking his homeland from evil dictator General di Ravello. The Mediterranean island of Medici stretches out across over 1000 square kilometres of traversable land, in one of the largest open worlds ever. Getting across is a breeze now with the all new wingsuit, allowing Rico to clip the daisies as he swoops down low, before stylishly blowing a bridge to smithereens with a well-aimed rocket barrage.

As you'd expect, Just Cause 3 is looking stunning, with an unprecedented sense of scale that should hopefully make it an action-packed tour de force. Everything we've seen points to one of the most visually impressive open worlds this year, but at what cost? Have a look at the official Just Cause 3 system requirements to find out. 

Just Cause 3 Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows Vista 64-bit 
• CPU: Intel Core i5-2300 2.8GHz 2.93GHz or AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.8GHz
• RAM: 6 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 2GB Video Memory
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon HD 7870
• DX: DirectX 11
• HDD: 45GB Free Hard Drive Space

Just Cause 3 Recommended System Requirements

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 3.4 GHz or AMD FX-9370 4.4 GHz
• RAM: 8 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 3GB Video Memory
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 or AMD Radeon R9 280X

As you'd expect, Just Cause 3 is a pretty demanding game to get up and running, but on first impressions those recommended requirements also seem reasonable. Down at the low end you're going to need a moderately recent mid-range gaming rig, which puts Just Cause 3 in pretty much the same ball park as Mad Max earlier this year. In fact, they're almost identical, which is great news. Just Cause 3 runs on a slightly modified version of the Mad Max engine, which to my mind was one of the best performing and well optimised games this year. 

Provided you've got a semi-decent DirectX 11 card from the last four or so years then you should be sorted, with Avalanche claiming a GeForce GTX 660 or Radeon HD 7870 should be more than enough. If Mad Max was anything to go by then you should be sorted; that demanded a GTX 660 Ti as a minimum but ran like a dream on a 750 Ti. One thing to look out for is the memory demands. Just Cause 3 ask for 6GB RAM as a minimum, and we'd expect 4GB to cause some performance issues.

Moving up to the recommended system requirements for Just 3, and these really aren't too demanding in an age of Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Batman: Arkham Knight. There's a suspiciously tiny leap in GPU performance, which suggests you can get away with far less as a minimum, while Avalanche recommend some hefty processors. In a massive open-world like Just Cause 3, it's a time for CPUs to shine. If you really want to have a lot going on at one time, without a dip in performance, then a high-end processor is probably a must. 

Remember, you can always check out how well your PC can run the Just Cause 3 System Requirements here, where you can check benchmarking and performance from other users. Compare your graphics card to the Just Cause 3 GPU benchmark chart.

Cheers to everyone that pointed these system requirements out as well, including Mrrobin and the TheCaucasianAsian!