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What Open World Games Did Right in 2012

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  • Jan 15, 2013

2012 had some open world games that brought some great new game mechanics to the table. Here's what we would like to see more of.

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279 comments
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sochio
sochio

im playing sleepingo dogs a it has a incredible world , but no one cant win the map of just cause 2 that is a biiiiiiiiggggg wolrd to explore

DeroxKING
DeroxKING

YOU FORGOT ASSASSINS CREED 3!!!!!! WTF MAYNE!!!!!!!


It had way better hunting that farcry 3 and more realistic animal encounters

example, you shoot an animal with a pistol/musket or whatever, and when you go to skin the animal the hide is ruined, but if you use a blade to properly kill an animal the animal hide is not ruined.

in farcry you shoot a pig with a shotgun and you can still skin it and somehow get a perfectly skinned useable hide from it.


westsiderz28
westsiderz28

farcry 3 is awesome its got a huge world filled with tons of stuff to do besides the main story and the quick travel system makes it perfect this game defo got it right

slainta
slainta

Honestly, a first person view open world can't be seen. It totally loses the  sense of immersion...

xtiansk8
xtiansk8

I'd love to check out FarCry 3.

asnelenkas
asnelenkas

In far cry 3 you can do anything . It's very very good game ;)

chocomatrix
chocomatrix

@asnelenkas Hotdogs.. can u do hotdogs ??? tx for ur comment man... amazing.. Anything???? omg, i am going to do everything in that game.


daniel1998dude
daniel1998dude like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 3 Like

YES!!! Farcry 3 is an amazing game, when you get a little tired of doing missions, run around, air glide or drive a buggy and kill some animals. They did everything right in farcry 3

This comment has been deleted

vannacut
vannacut

@lionheart66 @daniel1998dude and you siggest how it should have been done? 

Lash540
Lash540

@vannacut @lionheart66 @daniel1998dude 

I don't know, maybe put a little more shooting and a little less running around jumping on rocks opening boxes.

Also it's spelled suggest not siggest.

AdaptorLive
AdaptorLive like.author.displayName 1 Like

What I like most about open world games is always having something to do. In many games I can feel intimidated by having to start yet another huge mission or level but when I feel I can pick a bitesized chunk of gameplay I tend to play a game more often. The funny thing is that I end up playing a *lot* longer as well. It's almost insidious game design. Pointing at you, Far Cry 3!

WeWerePirates
WeWerePirates

Bows! or at least far cry 3 nearly did except for lack of visual feed back and making it slightly to awkward to use. Skyrim had bows in 2011 but at the very least continuing the trend of potential badass archery should be applauded.

FlankerDFMax
FlankerDFMax like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

I don't buy FC3 as an open world game.  Yes it's a beautiful game world with, lot's of baddies, and hostile wild life, great game play......................'but" in the end the main story line is a cut scene, tightly scripted, linear corridor shooter with two endings.  How about half the gameworld being off limits without a mod to open it up for you; or you have to hit all the main story check boxes in the canned missions to get there.  Then there's the sophomoric plot taken from someone's 8th grade writing class, that in conjunction with the scripted linear main missions leaves you no choices on how to accomplish them.  Wouldn't being able to handle the two main antagonists at times and places, and in your own manner have been the bomb?  Not to mention a branching story line to go with that scenario.   

lionheart66
lionheart66

@FlankerDFMax You are spot on. Great! I am going back to FC2 now and then but FC3, I wont play it twice.

AdaptorLive
AdaptorLive like.author.displayName 1 Like

@FlankerDFMax 

Didn't Far Cry 2 try this in a way? 

I agree with you on the linearity of the story missions. It's like two types of games combined. Personally I don't mind the story missions, though. They're pretty well done and serve as a nice distraction from the open world gameplay. The story being a distraction is probably not what the designers intended but it works for me. The plot may be thin but the individual cutscenes and, mostly, well written dialogue, accompanied by great musical cues, were pretty good. What I still don't get is why Jason keeps acting like a wimp in cutscenes and dialogue while his actions in game are that of a killing machine. I guess that's one of the difficulties of trying to combine open world gameplay with a linear story.

I don't really have a point to make. Just my opinions on the game.

riff_farmer
riff_farmer

Cart Life deserves some recognition me thinks

JediLegacy
JediLegacy

Also, while I enjoyed Far Cry 3 and its gaming, it doesn't hold a candle to those advertisements that keep saying "It's Skyrim with guns!" The reason I'll go back and play Skyrim 10 times, then throw 50 mods on it and do it again, is because the open-world environment is memorable. Far Cry 3, while large and populated, had no set-pieces that wowed me, or stunning visual croppings that made me want to play for ages. It had fun gameplay and story, but I'd be much more interested if they hadn't used the ctrl-c / ctrl-v method for their world.

JediLegacy
JediLegacy

"Sleeping Dogs has this crazy idea about combat in an open-world action game. The idea goes something like this: what if you made hand-to-hand combat not...suck."

So...Arkham City? 

shaunmc
shaunmc moderator

@JediLegacy I was more referring to GTA-style games in that case. Arkham City, while indeed open world, is kind of its own beast. 

ThePowerOfHAT
ThePowerOfHAT

Been playing NFS: Most Wanted, personally.  I loved Burnout Paradise, so playing another Criterion game in the same sort of fashion felt great.  Admittedly, I don't think it ever achieves the sort of ingenious freedom that Paradise did, but it's still a good amount of fun, and it looks fantastic.

kalgert123
kalgert123

Well for an open world game i am waiting around for Grand Theft Auto 5, Hopefully it won't be GTA4 2.0 because if it will be like that well...San Andreas, i shall re-install you and play you for the whacky stuff that you do
 

Also not sure if this counts but I've seen some watch dogs and well...Seeing as there are cars in it and a bunch of crazy stuff i hope there's an open world to it too, if not well...I will be rather annoyed because i was hoping to muck around with people's devices with my phone from the year 4000


marvelx3
marvelx3

i cant wait for San Andreas.

ooblah
ooblah

@marvelx3  

If you're referring to GTA V, then ... Goddamn it, I wish people would stop saying that!  It's just Los Santos, not the entire state of San Andreas.  If you're not, I'll just shut the hell up.

Kabooshon21
Kabooshon21 like.author.displayName 1 Like

@ooblah @marvelx3 still they said that GTA V will be their biggest map yet and seeing as GTA IV was pretty big I'd say that's still pretty awesome! I've always had fun with GTA even when the graphics werent so good. If GTA V looks the same as GTA IV i wouldn't be dissapointed since theirs a different world and new characters. I find that having 3 different characters was a great idea and I cant wait for GTA V

LukeWesty
LukeWesty

@Kabooshon21 @ooblah @marvelx3 GTA's graphics have always been great for the date they have released the game, best GTA i ever played in my late teens was san andreas so im a lil excited jus like everyone else for this one, infact i replayed san andreas about 3 months ago and its still a great game to play now.

BlazeKingz
BlazeKingz

@ooblah @marvelx3 who said that it wouldnt involve the rest of the place in san andreas? its been confirmed that parts shown in the trailer are Los Santos but that doesnt mean that the whole game is gonna be in Los Santos. come one its GTA we are talking bout

jpnelson82
jpnelson82 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

Best thing Far Cry 3 did was first person driving. In a lot of other Sandbox games players go into third person view as soon as they get into a vehicle. I find it hurts the immersion in games like Borderlands 2 that do this.

petez34
petez34 like.author.displayName 1 Like

@jpnelson82 yep. too bad the driving was so terrible. Personally, I'd like to see an expansion where there's a third island, hopefully with a bigger town or city, full of quests. Badtown was just a waste imo.

LukeWesty
LukeWesty

@jpnelson82 Well how hard would Borderlands 2 be trying to kill other bandits in there vehicles only in first person view mode, and in sleeping dogs 3rd person view mode is needed to know when to ram other vehicles which would be much harder in 1st person view, so even tho i get where ya coming from it jus wouldnt work for other open world games i dont think.

This comment has been deleted

guerragr
guerragr

me too...

(how to put fire on the island just to kill a leopard)

youtube.com/watch?v=0RNEgCCXWAw

lt_kiji
lt_kiji like.author.displayName 1 Like

Sandbox gaming, my favorite!

Codester_41
Codester_41 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

I liked how, in Sleeping Dogs, Wei Shen pulled a helmet out of his ass everytime he hopped on a motorcycle. Safety first!

SixersPG1
SixersPG1

Haven't played FarCry 3 yet. Waiting for it to come in from Gamefly. But I DID play Sleeping Dogs. LOVED IT! The fighting on the streets was the best type of fighting by far. You can practically do anything you want in the streets. Is is better than GTA? Yeah and no. There is no martial arts system in GTA and in Sleeping Dogs there is not enough weapon use. You cant really just pull out an AK 47 and shoot up everyone withing 100 feet of you. Sleeping Dogs had a great story line; cant complain at all. Only thing I didn't like is that it was too short. I want a game like Sleeping Dogs or Saints Row to have over 100 main missions plus side missions. The only game that had this many missions was San Andreas. 

LukeWesty
LukeWesty like.author.displayName 1 Like

@SixersPG1 Got both saints the third and sleeping dogs en i honeslty thought sleeping dogs blew saints the third away, found it hard to really sink into saints personaly, i think sleeping dogs should have had a higher review on gamespot.

g1rldraco7
g1rldraco7 like.author.displayName 1 Like

For me I liked Sleeping Dogs the most. The fact that you feel like you're actually in Hong Kong and the combat system is impressive.

Krinnium
Krinnium

what if they took elements from games like farcry, day z, and minecraft and mixed them all together? fortnight seems to be pretty close, but its lacking that pvp aspect. make a game like that (one thats not really glitchy or unpolished) and i bet you'd have the most immersive game to date. or at least the most unique.  

blitzinD
blitzinD

@Krinnium I would like too see the open world elements of a farcry or GTA mixed with the world building elements of a minecraft. Sandbox games have been great at giving you a world to play in but I often find what I am able to do in and especially what I am able to do to that world lacking.

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