Just Cause 4 reminds me of Tim Allen’s old standup act, where he’d complain about a power tool in his yard or garage not having enough power, and then the punchline would be, “So I rewired it” with that animalistic grunt for a chaser. Just Cause has always been a potent sandbox -- a power tool in its own right -- rife with possibility for players to wreak untold havoc and destruction. But Just Cause 4 doesn’t just offer more ways to wreck shop. Instead, developer Avalanche Studios rewired the whole damn thing.

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“ There’s even a tornado!

“ A Metal Gear Solid-esque device that lets you stick balloons to your targets, which inflate shortly after impact, lifting giant shipping crates, cars, or yes, individual bad guys into the air.

“ Just Cause 4 might have the most impressive large-scale physics system I’ve ever seen.

“ It’s hard to overstate how impressive the tornado’s path of destruction is.

Just Cause 4 now has mods you can attach to your grappling hook. The Pulse mod, for instance, adds an electrically charged explosion when you stick your Retractor to things (the Retractor being the toy that lets you stick two things with a wire and then smash them together). How about attaching booster rockets to people so that they go spinning wildly into the air before exploding? There’s also the Air Lifter, a Metal Gear Solid-esque device that lets you stick balloons to your targets, which inflate shortly after impact, lifting giant shipping crates, cars, or yes, individual bad guys into the air. At which point, by the way, they are physics objects and can be grappled onto or otherwise toyed with.These massive weather events -- blizzards, sandstorms, and lightning storms are apparently also in Just Cause 4 -- are comprised of actual physics. So yes, things get sucked up into the tornado as they should, from random debris to cars to passenger jetliners. It’s a hell of a sight to behold, honestly. I’ve seen many games tout their physics in the past -- some of them even doing so impressively -- but I think Just Cause 4 might have the most impressive large-scale physics system I’ve ever seen. The Black Hand is evidently trying to keep the tornado from getting to the capital city, and for some reason Rico wants that to happen, so Shakir went around destroying several wind cannons that were keeping the twister at bay.I asked game director Francesco Antolini about it, and he told me, “We want to make our players happy. We didn't want to come to market with the same shortcomings that we did with Just Cause 3. We wanted to have something new.” I asked if the shortcomings of the console versions of the last game compared to the PC version helped seal the decision, and they acknowledged that it was one of their motivating factors.The decision seems to be paying off handsomely in Just Cause 4’s initial showing, and the December 4 release date means we don’t have to wait too long. Tim Allen would approve.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews and Xbox Guru-in-Chief. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan , catch him on Unlocked , and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.