Hardly.
Morrowind started the more modern interpretation of the open world. AC even predates skyrim.
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Witcher 3 is out, MGSV is out. Xenoblade Chronicles X is next.
- Thread starter Original Man
- Start date
Hardly.
Morrowind started the more modern interpretation of the open world. AC even predates skyrim.
I'm not talking about the trend of having open worlds. I meant the general craze and what the press compared every big game to. It's the standard and it set new expectations.
Ah yes. It is indeed the baseline unit. One Skyrim, two Skyrims, three Skyrims. It is just an arbitrary value that a lot of people recognise.
You don't. You drop $200 for several great games on Wii U.
Seriosuly, this joke is getting old.
Blood Diamonds
Banned
i can't at excluding Fallout 4 and Just Cause 3 but including Xenoblade Chronicles. Yikes.
What do you have against Xenoblade Chronicles? Lmao
Oh-oh. The music doesn't do the game any favors, either, imo. Damn.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
MGSV isn't really a conventional open world as people have come to expect from standards set by Bethesda, Rockstar, and now CDPR. A lot of my early disappointment was satiated by realising this and treating the "open worlds" as simply a large playspace to be utilised in structured missions, which is where it excels. When you're working towards a goal or objective it's simply like playing Metal Gear Solid only in a very large play space, but unlike the other titles it doesn't really offer much in content or emergent factors to justify exploring it aimlessly.
I kinda consider Afghanistan and Africa as places to visit when you're working towards an objective, versus Witcher/Fallout where you exist within the open world continuously for your entire experience.
I kinda consider Afghanistan and Africa as places to visit when you're working towards an objective, versus Witcher/Fallout where you exist within the open world continuously for your entire experience.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
There's a huge difference in those games and saying that we can give one shtick because it shares similar elements to others is overly simplistic.
The POIs and their repetition would be a huge issue, but that's generally mitigated by the incredible sidequest design. I never really pursued POIs and I still ended up with a 100+ hour save file. In other games, it seems like that junk is there to pad out the game, and in some ways needs to exist because of how sparse the game might otherwise be. In TW3, it too pads out the game unnecessarily, but you can ignore it and still get an incredible, lengthy experience.
Picking plants is a problem, but probably not for the reason you think. My problem was that after the first twenty hours I had so much money I almost never picked a plant again. It ended up being a superfluous mechanic that probably should have been more meaningful.
Combat is somewhere between decent and mediocre. It still ended up being more fun for me to create my crit build than I've had in many other open world games. Which just tells me that the bar is low as crap.
I saw no "huh ending." I walked away immensely satisfied with my choices.
Most of those things that Ubi and others get crap for are not actually inherently bad game design in my mind. In the context of their actual implementation, they feel poor to me sure. But it doesn't need to be that way.
Anyways, I digress. This is a conversation probably for another thread.
Somewhat more on topic, count me in the "MGSV isn't really open world in the sense we're thinking, and it kind of sucks anyways" crowd.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
This is what I was trying to tell you, and I agree with the sentiments that "but it's like Ubisoft!", a complaint I admittedly have used before, really rings hollow. All games, all of them, can be very easily distilled down to the base formula of repetitive tasks because that's the underlying component of game design. Shoot the guy, visit the landmark, tick the box, open the chest, grind the level, click the screen, etc.
What matters is context and/or simple enjoyment of the underlying mechanics. Both of which are entirely subjective, mind you. MGSV, for example, has fairly boring narrative context to me but I enjoy the core game systems so fucking much I feel compelled to complete all the side ops and objectives. Wild Hunt, in my opinion, succeeds in giving narrative or world building context and purpose to almost all facets of the quest designs no matter how simple they are. Monster nests, for example, are literally just "go to area, beat the bad dudes, click on hole and kablammo. Rinse/repeat". But if you look at where these monster nests are placed the visual world building context is almost if not always relevant; burned down villages and abandoned sites of battle. It's world building in the sense that the game has established monsters tend to show up and breed/nest where there's sources of food, aka corpses. So when I wander out of a fairly lush forest into an area of scorched earth, a field of burned down trees, grass burned away, nothing but dust, and there's a monster nest there the visual context is compelling and believable. It immerses me in the world despite the simplistic game design because it assists the world building in a believable way.
Which is, again, totally subjective. But also why I think people enjoy the world of Wild Hunt so much, as this consistency in world building and context is very impressive.
Let us never forget...
Planned to not watch this trailer but I couldn't resist anymore now that you made me watch some of the best parts with this gif anyway. Yeah, that's just amazing.
Crankshaft
Member
"Open world" doesn't do anything to excite me about a game, but the open world in Xenoblade X... now that excites me. That looks like something I want to explore.
Teuoxton
Member
Witcher 3 and MGSV lock off portions of the world until story conditions are met. If you are lucky and stealthy you can go pretty much anywhere in X, save for a few areas only accessible by dolls.
I believe that some sections of MGSV and W3 maps were procedurally generated yes? We know that the entirety of Mira was "hand-crafted", so hopefully that means even the emptiest of locations will have some unique visual aspects to them.
I think all three games are great open worlds, and I'd add Mad Max, AC and Fallout 4 on the good list too.
I believe that some sections of MGSV and W3 maps were procedurally generated yes? We know that the entirety of Mira was "hand-crafted", so hopefully that means even the emptiest of locations will have some unique visual aspects to them.
I think all three games are great open worlds, and I'd add Mad Max, AC and Fallout 4 on the good list too.
Don't know about MGSV (though I very much doubt it as the maps aren't large). The witcher 3 certainly wasn't procedurally generated.
Is it witcher because it wasn't made in japan?
Absolutely, since Fallout 4 is taking everything I loved since Fallout 1 and throwing it in the trash.
Well, I am optimistic. All the previews point out that they have learnt from their mistakes and are trying to bring it closer to the old formula. The fact that they didn't show bullshots and didn't overpromise anything shows that they are trying.
Octavianus
Banned
Of course, Fallout 4 is Bethesda trash.
Opinions and all that, but most don't find Bethesda games to be an unplayable mess. It's the vocal minority that repeat over and over how Bethesda games are unplayable on consoles and only PC modders make it playable. It stupid, juvenile and just plain wrong. I loved The Witcher 3 but I had more bugs/issues with it day 1 than I did Skyrim day 1. The Witcher is still full of unfixed bugs not to mention the performance issues on PS4.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
If import impressions are to be believed, Xenoblade Chronicles X is taking everything I loved since Xenogears and throwing it in the trash.
Magic Mushroom
Member
It has astonishing gameplay systems though, the stuff you can do is unparallelled. Open world or not, it's a brilliant sandbox.
Fallout though, I really dislike Bethesda's combat systems, art direction and writing and I doubt Fallout 4 will be a huge improvement.
Spukc
always chasing the next thrill
as an older gamer with not enough time.
can please someone in this thread relate to me?
and tell me how on earth they managed to beat witcher 3
and mgsV ?
(i just bought mgsV and i didnt had 1 moment for it yet
so little time i have left for playing games.
makes me feel jealous of my younger self that 100% ocarina of time.
oh well /oldguy
can please someone in this thread relate to me?
and tell me how on earth they managed to beat witcher 3
and mgsV ?
(i just bought mgsV and i didnt had 1 moment for it yet
so little time i have left for playing games.
makes me feel jealous of my younger self that 100% ocarina of time.
oh well /oldguy
It's how you interact with it that makes it special.
I mean take something like Unity, that has the right idea in principle (giving you open, sandbox missions) it's kind of shit, because the controls are garbage and nothing works as it should.
So even if the world is more "alive" at a first glance, the way you interact with it is never really satisfactory.
The world in MGSV is pretty damn simple, but the elements in place work wonderfully with one another.
Count of Monte Sawed-Off
un33dab@dpu$$y
Yeah, I've found Bethesda games to run great considering all the things going on in them. Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Skyrim all ran great for me. Although PS3 Skyrim owners did get fucked over.
fluffydelusions
Member
The stuff from the import thread didn't seem so hot though.
Time management. You either live the salaryman life and leave zero time for anything but working, or you actually set aside time for your hobbies. Or you have 6 kids, and well....Good luck with that.
The problem i see with Bethesda game, is that they usually have:
Bad writing and bland quests.
Shallow RPG elements (especially as their series go on)
Shitty combat.
Shitty graphics and tech side in general.
So now that the open world element is more and more ubiquitous, and that games like Witcher 3 exist and are popularized, their unique selling point becomes more and more trivial.
That said, i'm sure FO4 will sell ton of copies and be critically acclaimed all the same.
Personally they kind of lost me with Skyrim.
Bad writing and bland quests.
Shallow RPG elements (especially as their series go on)
Shitty combat.
Shitty graphics and tech side in general.
So now that the open world element is more and more ubiquitous, and that games like Witcher 3 exist and are popularized, their unique selling point becomes more and more trivial.
That said, i'm sure FO4 will sell ton of copies and be critically acclaimed all the same.
Personally they kind of lost me with Skyrim.