What's the most impressive "open world" in a game?

[sandorski]

GTA has always been the cutting edge of Open World. However, Far Cry 2 and Skyrim have more interesting Worlds. I would probably put Far Cry 3 in here, but so far I have only put an hour into it.

 

[futurefields]

Far Cry 3 has no variety, even all the people look the same.

 

[zebrax2]

minecraft

 

[Dumac]

seriously this looks like ass compared to GTA5...

Skyrim vs GTA5.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Skyrim has a bunch of geometry you cant even access or climb over. In GTA5 you can touch everything. You can even explore the sea floor!

If you upgrade your agility etc you can get on almost every mountain in skyrim. You can't get up every peak in GTA5 no matter what.

 

[zerocool84]

While I enjoy Bethesda games, they just reuse everything over and over again. Every "dungeon" is the same, every town is the same, every npc is the same, every voice is the same, everything is rehashed over and over again. It gets boring after a while. Looking at the same textures on the floors and walls for every cave I enter gets old. Regardless, they are still fun games.

 

[HeXen]

Frankly I found Shenmue on DC to offer more interactivity within it's map than GTA 5

While I enjoy Bethesda games, they just reuse everything over and over again. Every "dungeon" is the same, every town is the same, every npc is the same, every voice is the same, everything is rehashed over and over again. It gets boring after a while. Looking at the same textures on the floors and walls for every cave I enter gets old. Regardless, they are still fun games.

I believe it was stated that all the dungeons are hand made. I don't recall seeing any dungeon that was the same as any other aside from the fact that they are dungeons...you can't expect too much out of a dungeon/cave or any under earth dwelling. In Oblivion they even stated that every stone is different but dunno how true that was.
All games rehash textures, even Rage with it's virtual texturing, despite the marketing still rehashed everything with their stamp tool over and over.

A lot of what you mention I blame their use of their rehacked version of the Gamebryo engine. Other things like voice actors could have been limited due to budget, I'm sure it takes a huge budget to make such a deep game like Skyrim.
Let's face it, Skyrim has over 300 quests and more if you include DLC's and they all have some very nice variety to them unlike AC series or GTA series.
I'll still never forget the painting quest from Oblivion, it was unique. Others are trivial like passing along a message but at least there is some variety and plenty to do at every corner.

Overall I think we're limited still by technology to offer a truly open and interactive world but Bethesda games seems to come the closest.

 

[futurefields]

You can't get up every peak in GTA5 no matter what.

What? Yes you can, you can go everywhere you see in GTA5.

 

[futurefields]

Skyrim vs GTA5.

See what I did was compare apples to apples.

 

[HeXen]

What? Yes you can, you can go everywhere you see in GTA5.

on foot? I think there were a few places I couldn't climb directly on foot. Same with Skyrim, you can go anywhere on a horse, even climb every peak, perhaps its a bug and it does look odd but I had little trouble traveling every spot I could see from a horse. Not so much on foot but really its a very poor argument to use to deign someone else's opinion.

There is no correct opinion on the matter, you are either very weird or have a social disability of some sort.

 

[sze5003]

Shenmue did have a lot of interactive areas. I played that game so much. Although the map was not big at all and it was pretty linear at some points.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Shenmue did have a lot of interactive areas. I played that game so much. Although the map was not big at all and it was pretty linear at some points.

I remember some parts of Shenmue bordered on life simulation. You actually get a job and go to work and all. It was the first game that had every character voiced and not simply a text box.

 

[zerocool84]

Shenmue did have a lot of interactive areas. I played that game so much. Although the map was not big at all and it was pretty linear at some points.

I remember some parts of Shenmue bordered on life simulation. You actually get a job and go to work and all. It was the first game that had every character voiced and not simply a text box.

Shenmue was revolutionary. So sad that we got left hanging on it. Shenmue and Half Life 2, two great stories that have given us no closure.

 

[sze5003]

Shenmue was revolutionary. So sad that we got left hanging on it. Shenmue and Half Life 2, two great stories that have given us no closure.

Yup I don't even think I finished 2 on Xbox. I kept hoping for a redo or an hd remake or a continuation. Nothing ..it's sad because those two games were amazing.

 

[sxr7171]

Shenmue did have a lot of interactive areas. I played that game so much. Although the map was not big at all and it was pretty linear at some points.

Shenmue 2 had a much bigger map. The first time you see Kowloon Walled City it's mind blowing. The history of the actual walled city is amazing too.


Amazing games. Both of them.

 

[Bman123]

How the fuck can you compare FO3 to GTA5 there is a big ass time gap between the games. At least in fallout you can go inside houses and building in GTA 5 if its not a mission you can barely go inside a building unless its a ammo or clothing store

 

[futurefields]

You can also drive cars and fly planes and swim and explore the sea floor and go parachuting etc.. in GTA5. Look at me listing things you can do in GTA5 that you can't do in Fallout 3...

 

[etrigan420]

OP, you need to define "impressive" in whatever sense you mean it.

If it's "making you feel like you're a part of the simulated world", then GTA5 doesn't even break the top 10.

 

[sze5003]

You can also drive cars and fly planes and swim and explore the sea floor and go parachuting etc.. in GTA5. Look at me listing things you can do in GTA5 that you can't do in Fallout 3...

In terms of what you listed those games are completely different play styles. Fallout 3 you can go on and out of places because it fits the mood and style of the atmosphere. Gta 5 you can explore as you states, the sky, sea, parachuting. I see it as two different game style modes.

 

[futurefields]

OP, you need to define "impressive" in whatever sense you mean it.

Basically I mean which game has the combination of the following:

Huge map
Great graphics
Great physics
Variety of landscape
Feels like a real environment

If it's "making you feel like you're a part of the simulated world", then GTA5 doesn't even break the top 10.

Well IMO GTA4 and GTA5 are the only games that take place in city that really feel like a city. You constantly have different kind of aircraft flying around above you, random events happening all around, tons of NPC's. And the architecture is always spot-on. GTA5 really feels like Southern California, believe me, I would know.

In Skyrim or Fallout 3 you are lucky if there is more than 5 NPC's on screen at once. GTA games have dozens of NPC's to interact with, and they are all governed by a much more realistic animation and physics-system than what you have in Skyrim or Fallout 3, where everything is very static in comparison.

 

[ImpulsE69]

So why didn't you just say "I really like GTAV" and save everyone the headache.

 

[futurefields]

You're going off-topic.

 

[John Connor]

GTA has always had a great open world. Would love GTA5 to be ported to PC though. When the hell will that happen?

 

[Rakehellion]

Skyrim has a bunch of geometry you cant even access or climb over. In GTA5 you can touch everything. You can even explore the sea floor!

Except you can't enter 99% of the buildings. That open world has a lot of closed doors.

 

[Rakehellion]

If you upgrade your agility etc you can get on almost every mountain in skyrim. You can't get up every peak in GTA5 no matter what.

You can fly in GTA, so this is false.