Poll: Your favorite open world/sandbox game of this gen ?

[Nantucket_v1legacy]

Red Dead Redemption!
At last a Western game which is genuinely open-world and with an interesting story. Plus, as everyone knows I have an obsession with the old west so yeah... it's a no brainer for me.

Just curious did you ever play Gun it too was a pretty good open world western game?


OT: Saints row 2 playing GTA 4 right now im so missing the cart handling and the wacky fun from that game.

I have played Gun (too many times...)
I used to purposely chase down Buckskins and ensured it was my main horse everytime. Even when I broke out of prison I needed a buckskin.
I miss that game... I may have to find it out now and give it another playthrough.

 

[Bostur]

I don't know really. Pirates!, Freespace 2, Eve Online, Terraria would be candidates. Most games listed didn't feel particularly open world'ish to me, due to gameplay limitations.

Can someone enlighten me and tell me when this 'gen' started. I don't measure time in generations ;-)

 

[hermes]

Assassins Creed, particularly 2 and Brotherhood.

 

[Get_A_Grip_]

Just Cause 2 or Arkham City.

JC 2 has the better sandbox of the two, but Arkham City is probably my favourite game of this generation.

 

[tehroc]

RDR. It was probably the best game of the last decade.

 

[KissmahArceus]

Skyrim is my number one open world game, 500+ hours pumped in to it and expansions, I love the Elder Scrolls
Minecraft is my number two, the randomly generated aspect of it means I can (and have) just seed a new world and wander for hours, if I don't like it so much... I start a new world!

Sleeping Dogs was good but I couldn't get in to an Open City, GTA style game last year, I tried but I wasn't in the mood last year. I hope to complete Sleeping Dogs before GTA V comes out though

 

[thesilentman]

Just Cause 2 on your poll, while I'd like to give Minecraft a mention for not being on there. And you guys have a mighty funny way of saying Morrowind.

[sub]I play on PC, so shush! Lemme have my good games...[/sub]

 

[cerebus23]

jc2 just had so many ways to do stuff and so much space to do stuff in, it is never boring no mater what you are trying to do even it its just stand around shooting random people. grappling hook bonus.

loved mount and blade warband and a bunch of mods, but game was far too hardcore to be fun fun.

red dead is close for me to jc2 because the setting is so great, from the bobcats that tear your face off randomly and horribly to the grizzly bears that tear your face off, to the random events that make the whole area more alive feeling, just a great world to go play in and feel like a cowboy and capturing how the west was wild in our minds from all those cowboy films of old.

real close call though between jc2 and rdr.

bethesda worlds do not even need mentioned because without mods bethesda worlds are mediocre at best. not enough life in any beth game i have played even skyrim is lacking to say the witcher how people react to things, act, take shelter have routines etc. and their animations are generally so horrible as to be unnerving or just immersion breaking period.

fonv had some great characters and captured more of that old fallout feel, but still the world is just not interesting and alive enough unmodded to make it really great.

 

[Grivahri]

Definitely Far Cry 3. One of my favorite games evar

 

[The Heik]

ok fellow escapists let us know what is your favourite open world/sandbox game of this gen is and why ?
as for me ive been playing sleeping dogs recently and its such an amazing game. though i really cant decide which i liked more sleeping dogs or GTA IV. then there's also AC2 which i really loved a lot. so vote for your favourite game in this genre and tell us why do you love that game so much

Ok, I have to ask: how is it that you managed to not have Skyrim and Minecraft on the list?

Seriously, both of those games are considered to be among the top games of any genre for this gen, and yet they don't even make the cut on the list for best sandbox games?

OT: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The measure of a good sandbox game is how much long term play it offers. Well, it's been a full year since Skyrim's release and I'm still playing it and finding new things to love. I'd consider that to be one helluva success.

 

[L33tzombie]

Red Dead Redemption

No other game has captivated The Wild West so much without sacrificing gameplay features, overworld size and storytelling.

 

[Tyelcapilu]

Dwarf Fortress is kind of a blatant choice, but if you're only considering full releases, I'm inclined to say Far Cry 3 for its outstanding combat system that compliments the world outstandingly.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Whilst I like Skyrim, it has to go with Fallout: New Vegas. How you couldn't have put at least one bethesda game in there, I have no clue.

 

[MammothBlade]

My instinctive response is Fallout: New Vegas. I have played it more than any other open world RPG.

Y'all need two polls: one for theme and one for style.

Style:
GTA (linear missions in open world)
Just Cause (Missions barely there; world/emergent fun is the point)
Elder Scrolls (Freeform RPG in open world.)
Batman (World is chock full of stuff to do, lists to check off, etc. A big toybox.)
Minecraft (Creative/crafting/building game in open world)
DayZ (Survival in an open world)

Theme:
Modern (GTA, Saints Row, Sleeping Dogs, etc.)
Postmodern/Apocalyptic (Fallout, STALKER, arguably DayZ)
Future Earth (Cyberpunk? Maybe?)
Sci-fi (No really good examples yet, although arguably the X series is close)
Renaissance/premodern (Assassin's Creed, Red Dead Redemption)
Medieval (None yet, really)
Fantasy Medieval (Elder Scrolls.)
Prehistory/BC (Minecraft?)

Well said.

And in response to the above, a very good deduction. I've got one for the medieval category, Mount and Blade. It's a mash up of strategy and sandbox RPG, from what I hear.

Personally, I want a true steampunk sandbox. Not so much like any of the above, more first-person RPG with a long story and plenty of sidequests.

 

[StashAugustine]

Probably a toss-up between Fallout: New Vegas and Mount & Blade Warband. On the list, I'd have to say Just Cause.

 

[mohit9206]

i should have made a separate poll for rpg games specifically for all those you complaining about not including skyim, fallout, etc. the poll is definately unbalanced but i expected more people to vote for sleeping dogs considering its being considered the best game in its genre of this gen. also expected more votes for Assasins creed . am surprised how many people said skyrim is their favourite open world game of this gen considering how much fans of the series bitched and moaned how skyrim was inferior to previous games and it was shit. i cwertainly wasnt none too impressed with skyrim being overwhelmed by how big it was and how little of any interest was there was to do

 

[lunavixen]

The Batman Arkham games, inFAMOUS series, Assassin's Creed and Minecraft (which i feel is only tentatively a sandbox game because it is endless with no direct storyline at all)

 

[skywolfblue]

Skyrim would technically be the one I enjoyed most.

But I'm voting for Red Dead Redemption, because the story was fantastic, it had way less bugs, and it's combat was pretty neat. It's such a well done game that I like it even when I typically hate westerns.