best open world games?

• The STALKER series
• The Elder Scrolls series
• Just Cause 2
• GTA Vice City
• The Fallout series

Is Minecraft an open world game... spawning nukes, blowing them up and seeing the engine choke is pretty fun.

Saints Row IV

I'm surprised to see Minecraft only listed once. I think its totally an open world game due to all the different mods available, and its just ridiculously fun to get lost in(especially with my son: virtual legos!).

I've been considering going back to that. I skipped it for some reason. Seems like it'd be my cup of coffee.

Zelda Majora's Mask, GTA V, Fallout 3, Shadow of the Collusus, Pokemon (kind of open-world), Skyrim, Jak 1 & 3, Just Cause 1, Minecraft, Scarface, Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition Remix, Far Cry 2, Stalker, Saints Row 1, AC2/AC4, Terraria in space probably, Star Wars Battlefront, Digimon PSX RPG (not kidding), Sir you are being hunted.

Shout-out to metroidvanias and linear games that have large areas like Banjo:NB (hater's gonna hate), Conker's Bad Fur Day, Crysis 1, Final Fantasy X, Half Life 2, Spyro (all of them), Mario64, Metroid DS, Stranger's Wrath and Uncharted 3.

My personal favorites are Skyrim (because of the amount of content in the world and being encouraged to explore it without feeling artificially set to a path), and Saints Rows 3/4 because of their focus in being fun to play first and foremost.

I don't really like the Rockstar kind of open world games, mainly because I feel the main missions to be boring and the side missions to be, mostly, inconsequential. The only one of those games I completed was RDR, and it was mostly because I found the setting far more interesting than "referential gangster story in generic american city"

Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout 3, GTA in general and Assassins Creed 1, though I don't really consider that *open world*. Fable is more open world than any of the AC games.I really really wanted to love Assassins Creed IV. I've been waiting for a true open world pirate game since Sid Meyer's Pirates! update in 2004. I just can't abide the constant repetitive cutscenes and jerking the player out of fun pirate awesomeness to go walk around in an office building though. The Aliens and illuminati back story was pretty much cliche when AC 1did it in 2007 and Ubisoft just refuses to quit tearing you out of the gameplay to beat that dead horse some more. Layer on the wind mechanics that let you sail straight into the wind (sid meter's pirates had great wind mechanics that forced you to tack and strategize based on the weather a decade ago!) generic chests with generic rewards,f**king pirate maps that tell you what the treasure is right on the stupid map, and the pseudo-open-world-ness in general (there's a big giant map full of islands, but you can only actually walk around on a hand full of locations on those islands, many of which are copied and pasted..) Black Flag is a fun game and could easily be on my top open world list if it weren't for the Assassins Creed aspects and the fact that it's not really an "open world" game. It's an "open ocean with bits on land"game.

Does Deadly Premonition count? Even if it is pretty much just Twin Peaks, Greenvale has some strong personality and the other characters populating the world actually do more than just walk back and forth or are just there to be killed. I'd also throw in Shenmue for having a similar "people work to schedules" idea.

I've really been enjoying AC 4.

Red dead redemption - Really felt like a western

Brutal legend - Really felt like you're in a Heavy Metal album cover

Skyrim - Really felt like your in a medievel fantasy

STALKER, namely Shadow of Chernobyl. Loved exploring that world, and still contemplate going back to it with new mods every year.

Fallout 1&2 have the worlds that felt alive with people and characters the most, even if it was relatively sparse between the "main" areas of those games. I mean how can you argue with New Reno and the Hub?

Sleeping Dogs was the most fun I had in an open world game in a long time. I half wanted to play Wei as the straight cop but then I succumbed to the path of the Vinny and the streets were a nightmare corridor of corpses and the wreckage of cars. Shit was so fun.

I tried to get into this late, like way after the 360 had launched, and the gulf in graphics and control between it and everything else I was playing at the time became too jarring. I'm not usually like that. I can go back and play old games and still enjoy them, but I had a hard time with Mercenaries for some reason. I probably would have really liked it if I played it back when it came out though.

As for the question, it's hard for me to see anything topping Red Dead Redemption. It's the only Rockstar game I've gotten 100% completion on, and I've done it twice. I say this not having played any of the Saints Row games or Far Cry 3. ACIV gets a nod because there's nothing like sailing the open seas singing sea shanties looking for adventure (especially on next gen).

What he said.

What, no Privateer or Freelancer love? Is it still open world if there are multiple worlds?

I cannot believe that nobody has mentioned Crackdown. That game was unbelievably fun, and I'm not sure any game since has had such enjoyable collectibles (agility orbs!).

prototype was pretty fun, first one more so then the second

Never played the second one, but I do remember having a good time with the first one. The only issue with it was that some of the later campaign missions can be ridiculously hard, and I remember the final boss in particular was especially anger-inducing.

Probably CRACKDOWN and Far Cry 2

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I'm not really one for open world games and I know these are imperfect games but they've been my favorites for some reason. I've played plenty of really good open world games but few have caught me in that certain, special way.

edit: Red Dead Redemption gets an honorable mention because that game's terrific.

Red Dead was beautiful. GTAV is so much fun but why can't I have a no-swearing-or-evil-dbs version so my kids can run around and skydive and fly planes and stuff...

Skyrim, yeah. But Fallout 3 kept me playing for so long. It was like Cormac McCarthy's The Road, what a journey.

Red Dead Redemption.

Got 100% on that baby, what, three times now? Kinda been thinking about doing it again soon.

Skyrim is the best game ever made... enough said.