Because Just Cause is better then Mad Max

Mad Max will be a deserted wasteland while with Just Cause you have a crap load to do

I don't know if its better as we haven't seen much of Mad Max yet (although from what I've seen JC is more fun in terms of crazy stuff to do but hard to compare a game that has been out for years to one with about 30m of gameplay revealed).

I do believe MM will be much more barren as it suits the setting but could easily have missions that utilize the "empty" spaces well (random bandit encounters/encampments both on foot or vehicular). There will likely be camps/towns/etc of various sorts as well reminiscent of the different groups from MM canon and even a few new ones to discover.

Depending in how far Avalanche goes (or is allowed to) it could be great even given a desolate setting. My biggest hope for any open world game is that they look at Bethesda for inspiration.

Bethesda games for all their faults are a more natural setting than most teaming with diverse people/fauna/flora which makes the world itself one of the best reasons to get the game. Many open world games have been going that route lately not focusing entirely on the human factors so often. JC2 looked great but a lot of its world was just too empty besides for vegetation. 3 I expect will remedy this though as video showed a lot of focus on more natural setting (2 was sort of cardboard cutout of tropics as looked good but bit lifeless at times).

I'm unsure of what MM will do for flora/fauna but hopefully they can add enough to make it a believable and living desert wasteland which will be the challenge.

Just Cause 2 revolutionised sandbox games when it came out. It just gives the players a crazy amount of freedom.

zelda has a story line? Actually do any nintendo 1st party games have decent (not even good) storylines?

Does Xenoblade count as 1st party? That's the only one I can think of.

Also, Ocarina of time definitely had a decent (but not great) story.