Five years after the release of Just Cause 2, one of the best and most underrated games of the previous generation, we finally see Just Cause 3. The footage follows plenty of teasing, from postcards to James Bond intro homages. It also follows the recent gameplay trailer for Mad Max, the other often-delayed open-world game from developer Avalanche Studios. There are some noticeable similarities, both games focusing heavily on vehicular combat, but for me, Just Cause 3's use of color helps it stand out against its cousin and the vast majority of blockbuster video games.

In the footage, we see series protagonist Rico Rodriguez zipping through lush fields, flying over malevolent dictators, and blowing up practically everything. I spoke with Avalanche Studios founder and creative director Christofer Sundberg at this year's Game Developers Conference about how the developers plan to attract players from the original game, that he says after a half decade still has hundreds of thousands of active players.

"[We're] designing a game that constantly encourages exploration and challenges players," says Sundberg, "not to break the game, but explore the game. I like to see our players as anarchists. You can't really tell them what to do. If you tell them to go right, they will absolutely go left. Or up and down, in this case. So, design a game that really encourages experimenting and exploring and not trying to set up rules for the player. Because many games try to limit. It's sort of a caged freedom. For us, we have this motto: ‘If you can see it, you can go there. And if you poke it, it reacts.' That is something that we've developed over these 12 years that we've existed. That we should never have any boundaries for the player. I'd like to just give the world to the player and let the players take off and do whatever they want."

Players will get that chance later this year, as Just Cause 3 is scheduled for a 2015 release on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.