Just Cause 3 patch arriving this week to address awful load times

Just Cause 3's first post-launch patch is on the way, and it will deliver "significantly improved load times," developer Avalanche Studios announced today on the game's website.

The fictional setting of Medici is a massive playground offering Just Cause 3 protagonist Rico Rodriguez plenty of opportunities to blow shit up, but all that natural splendor comes at a price: The game suffers from some lengthy load times, especially on consoles. Avalanche is updating the game to version 1.02 this week, and the 132.1 MB patch will include the following:

• Significantly improved loading times
• Optimizations to online stats
• General stability fixes
• Fixed an issue related to challenges, wherein vehicles sometimes disappeared when starting a challenge
• Fixed issues related to screen resizing and closing the game window before the game has fully started up [PC only]

Avalanche is rolling out the patch today on PlayStation 4 in Europe. The update will be available on Xbox One and worldwide on PS4 "over the next day or two," followed by a Windows PC release on Friday, Dec. 18. PC players in particular have been reporting all kinds of issues, including memory leaks, disappearing cloud saves and stuttering.

"We know many of you have been patiently awaiting today’s patch, and this update is part of a much larger plan to optimize and improve the game," said Avalanche. "To those of you still having issues, rest assured we are working hard to alleviate these, and are listening very closely to everything that's being said."

For more on Just Cause 3, read our review.