The freedom to do it all.

[Iwata]

Lately I've been playing quite a few free-roaming games, and having a hell of a lot of fun.

Whether it's playing Spider Man in Web of Shadows, or Niko in GTA IV, liberating Mars in Red Faction Guerilla or Paris in The Saboteur, or just saving inocents in InFamous or slaughtering them in Prototype, free-roaming games are my latest drug of choice.

Simply put, what is your favourite free-roaming game and why?

 

[Angry Caterpillar]

Saints Row 2.

Hell yeah.

 

[Armored Prayer]

Fallout 3.

Mainly because it takes place in a nuked DC. I basically lived there, and its interesting to see what it would be if it were nuked.

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

If Garry's Mod counts, that.

If not, I'd probably say Prototype since it was the last sandbox game I've played... And I love being able to do pretty much anything I want.

 

[Omikron009]

Fallout 3. It's also my favourite game, period. It just has the best game world and immersion I've ever seen.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

Saints Row 2 i can round around with my balls flapping in the breeze and no one seems to care and if they did I'd kill them.

 

[iggyus]

inFamous is very close to my heart, as are Oblivion and Fallout 3. But if you are talking just sand-boxing without the RPG I say its inFamous. I also own Guerilla, which has a great destruction system but something was really missing from that game for me. GTA4 was good I guess, but nothing enjoyable for me. inFamous is just plain amazing.

 

[Arcticflame]

GTA San Andreas. None of the games in the series compare to it in my opinion.
Oblivion comes close to it though.

 

[mexicola]

On average I don't like free-roaming games too much. I get bored of doing pointless shit to innocent civilians pretty quickly. That being said a few years back I wasted a LOT of time in San Andreas, so I guess that could qualify as my "favourite free-roming game".

 

[Katana314]

Spiderman the movie game 2. Fucking Fucking epic. Worth it for the hint token voice overs alone, and the swinging mechanics are so win. melee combat + ranged combat + broken things you could do like air combo a unit and use it to climb into the skybox, then air grab it and pile drive it back down to earth to get an insane score on your "farthest fallen without damage" meter.

Wow, I thought I was the only one to play that and love it. I even remember visiting Ellis Island in that game, and remembering the exact dock that I had visited.

 

[Beartrucci]

Grand Theft Auto IV. I've spent countless hours mucking around in that game. Playing online with friends never gets old either.

 

[SK7109]

Fallout3
I think I LOST the main quest I ran around so much LOL.

 

[dbmountain]

San Andreas, they need to go back to that locale in the next GTA

 

[The Night Shade]

Fallout3,there is a lot of things to do and is a very cool place to see

 

[Angus565]

Saints Row 2 because I love round-housing a pimp then watching as 20 red dots appear on my map and suddenly I'm fighting 4 of them at once while 16 others surrounded me and waited their turn to have my shoes in-between their teeth. Good times...

 

[ArcWinter]

Oblivion, because of a couple reasons:
Short List Commence
1. It seemed like such a huge and detailed world. You knew you could never explore the whole thing.
2. You can easily dodge magic, arrows, and traps if you are smart enough to put points into Speed.
3. You can shoot lightning out of your hands.
4. LIGHTNING
5. Sheogorath's Realm, and Sheogorath himself, are so awesome they are almost better than the original Oblivion.

Yeah, actually, Shivering Isles is better than Oblivion. But Oblivion is the main game, so we'll call it that.

 

[Baron Von Evil Satan]

AssCreed 2. I love stabbing innocent people, and then fleeing from the hordes of guards that come after me for it.

 

[Totenkopf]

Prototype. You can do what you want, and if someone tries to show you the consequences of your deeds, you RIP HIM APART.

 

[-Drifter-]

Fallout 3.

Mainly because it takes place in a nuked DC. I basically lived there, and its interesting to see what it would be if it were nuked.

I can see what you mean, though it'd have to be a pretty weak-ass nuke to do that little damage to a city.

 

[Generator]

InFamous: It was tons of fun exploring Empire City as a superhero/villain. I also liked the way that most of the objectives were set in pretty linear environments despite the main game taking place in an open world environment; seemed to give the game a nice sense of balance.

EDIT: Oh, actually, I'm gonna say Jak II. Even though it's mostly a platform game, it does have an open-world. InFamous still comes in a close second though.