THE BORE
General => Video Game Bored => Topic started by: chronovore on December 16, 2008, 05:40:11 AM
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On 360, I'm taking a brief break from Fable II to play Bully. On my way to work I'm still playing the stuffing out of GTA: Vice City Stories, and stunned how fun it is. This got me thinking, what is my favorite sandbox game?
BULLY > GTA:VCS > GTA: San Andreas > GTA IV
However, when I add Mercenaries into the mix, I get something like this
10. GTA: LCS
9. GTA Vice City
8. GTA San Andreas
7. Dead Rising
6. Saints Row 1
5. GTA III
4. Mercs 2
3. GTA: VCS
2. Mercs 1
1. Bully
Haven't played Saints Row 2, Oblivion, or Fallout 3 yet.
How about you guys? What are the best for you, and why?
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I'm not sure, but I do know that Crackdown is at the very top.
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Mafia > GTA Vice City > GTA IV > the rest.
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I've only played a handful of Sandbox games over the years but here's the ones I've played
6) GTA: IV
5) Dead Rising
4) GTA: III
3) GTA: San Andreas
2) Morrowind
1) Fallout 3
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Very hard to rank, because all the games in my list are really good.
1)Burnout paradise/Fallout 3
2)Oblivion
3)Crackdown
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1. Fallout 3
2. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
3. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
4. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
5. Crackdown
6. Saints Row 2
7. Dead Rising
8. Grand Theft Auto III
9. STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
10. Grand Theft Auto 2
11. Test Drive Unlimited
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#1 dead rising
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1. (http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/patrickula/homeswitchmaf.gif)
2. Saints Row 2
3. Dead Rising
4. GTA:SA
5. Crackdown
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1. Crackdown
2. Burnout Paradise
3. Just Cause
4. GTA Vice City
5. GTAIII
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GTAIV
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Crackdown > Mafia > GTAIII
Those are the only ones I care about enough to list, still haven't gotten around to Saint's Row 2, it's sitting right here on the shelf still wrapped.
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Still havent played Crackdown, its super cheap nowadays so I should get it
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Dead Rising isn't Sandbox, imo
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The only sandbox game I've played this gen that I really enjoyed is Burnout Paradise.
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Meh, sandbox. ::)
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Dead Rising isn't Sandbox, imo
true, still a lot better than most of those games listed.
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1. Saint's Row 2
2. Saint's Row 2 again
3. Crackdown
That's about it for me. Never finished any other sandbox games. GTA always gets boring. Still need to get to Fallout 3 though, that is awesome.
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nm cannot read.
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I don't like any definition that puts GTA and Fallout 3/Oblivion in the same category.
GTA3, Crackdown, and Stalker (or Far Cry 2 for the console-only crowd like me) are the standouts for me since they all brought so much new to the table. Most of the other games are just copycats.
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I don't like sandbox, but stretching the definition a little:
1. Test Drive Unlimited
2. Amped 3
3. Midtown Madness
Crackdown was OK, but I got bored fairly quick. Never played Saints Row enough to have a decent opinion - I'd like to pick up 2 one day and give it a shot.
I don't really think of Fallout 3/Elder Scrolls games as sandbox - they're much too entertaining.
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Very hard to rank, because all the games in my list are really good.
1)Burnout paradise/Fallout 3
2)Oblivion
3)Crackdown
Does not compute.
That's because you're still on an old 486, you trabant riding polack.
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I don't like sandbox, but stretching the definition a little:
1. Test Drive Unlimited
2. Amped 3
3. Midtown Madness
Crackdown was OK, but I got bored fairly quick. Never played Saints Row enough to have a decent opinion - I'd like to pick up 2 one day and give it a shot.
I don't really think of Fallout 3/Elder Scrolls games as sandbox - they're much too entertaining.
Good call on Test Drive Unlimited!!! It was at its core a shitty driving game, but everything else around the shitty driving game was fuck awesome! It was the first "open world" racer to really get the "sandbox" part right, though Burnout Paradise had several key improvements (in addition to the few key steps back, of course).
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I don't like sandbox, but stretching the definition a little:
1. Test Drive Unlimited
2. Amped 3
3. Midtown Madness
Crackdown was OK, but I got bored fairly quick. Never played Saints Row enough to have a decent opinion - I'd like to pick up 2 one day and give it a shot.
I don't really think of Fallout 3/Elder Scrolls games as sandbox - they're much too entertaining.
:bow Amped 3 :bow2
(not really sandbox imo, but whatever)
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I agree Amped 3 isn't really sandbox, but I'll take any excuse to put it in a list!
Good call on Test Drive Unlimited!!! It was at its core a shitty driving game, but everything else around the shitty driving game was fuck awesome! It was the first "open world" racer to really get the "sandbox" part right, though Burnout Paradise had several key improvements (in addition to the few key steps back, of course).
I'm a pretty much over Burnout, but have often been a little tempted by Paradise. Have to look into it one day. I hope for the next TDU the driving is nicer and they use a place with a bit more variety in the scenery.
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I'm so close to getting 1000 on that game. Just a couple more golds to go. The kitty pick-up missions frustrate the living hell out of me, though. :maf
I picked up Paradise for $40 from cdwow.com.au. Seems worth it.
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Anyone else play the Kenka Banchou games? Very fun sandbox games.
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I can't believe I forgot about Morrowind... I'll place that at number 2.
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Shenmue II > Shenmue > *
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Earth Defense Force is not a sandbox game...
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and shenmue isn't a game
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and shenmue isn't a game
okay
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oh, it has the basics that might lead someone who hasn't played it to consider it a game -- you play it on your tv or monitor using a console
10 minutes later, you are subjected to a multimedia assault on your core values as a gamer and you realize that of your hobby has yu suzuki a toilet made
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I'm so close to getting 1000 on that game. Just a couple more golds to go. The kitty pick-up missions frustrate the living hell out of me, though. :maf
I picked up Paradise for $40 from cdwow.com.au. Seems worth it.
I'm slowly working through it over time and would like to get 1000 eventually. The kitty litter missions are definitely the biggest pain in the ass. :lol
Hmmm, $40 for Paradise eh?
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Far Cry 2 is neat sandbox stuff, only the stuff that would have made for the best sandbox material, like the combat, isn't so great. Still, the world is might awesome, and facilitates, theoretically, great choice in how to approach objectives. It would be nice had there been more variety in objectives, but hey.
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10 minutes later, you are subjected to a multimedia assault on your core values as a gamer and you realize that of your hobby has yu suzuki a toilet made
I'll get back to you, I'm too busy opening drawers and knocking on every door.
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Dead Rising isn't Sandbox, imo
yeah neither are the Bethesda games imo
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I'm really bad at lists, but I have a question: why you put Vice City Stories above Vice City? Any particular reason?
Crackdown was mad fun I must agree, just jumping around looking for orbs. Loved that. If they added some story and quests it would have been even better.
I can't believe I forgot Crackdown. It's like the most purely sandbox-y game around. There's no story to speak of, just combat, driving, and exploration. Wow. What a miss.
I put GTA:VCS before VC for a couple reasons: Firstly, it has iterative controls over Vice City's, so it's a bit better to actually play. But more importantly, Rockstar Leeds upped the ante by bringing the "Empire" missions to the game. I think it's the first time in a sandbox game a player is able to actively, at will, redesign the landscape in which they play. Not only does it change the appearance and behavior of the landscape, it changes the way in which the related missions can be completed, because though they initiate from player-chosen locations, the completion points are predetermined, so a player may even have to realign their empire holdings to more easily complete a mission.
And the music's better. :-/
Meh, sandbox. ::)
Is there a point to posting shit like this in a thread about sandbox games? I mean, other than trolling?
Dead Rising isn't Sandbox, imo
At any time you can go to anyplace you want on an open map, and are able to choose from a number of available tasks to complete, or just ignore them and explore. Sounds like a sandbox to me. Why do you think it isn't?
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The scope of things, and while you CAN ignore things, the ultimate goal is to get the best possible ending, which causes the game to be straightforward and loses its free-roam. Not to mention the game itself is timed, survivors to save, etc. That is not very sandbox, to me. In Saints Row, or GTA, you wind up at the very end regardless, and ignoring that gives zero penalty. If that makes sense.
EVEN THEN, when you beat GTA, Saints Row, etc, you are still given the option to fuck around. Dead Rising just gives you a NewGame+ and you're back to square one.
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Chronovore, what did you like about Mercs 1 over Mercs 2?
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Chronovore, what did you like about Mercs 1 over Mercs 2?
The missions in the original were much more challenging. If I didn't know better, I'd say EA's involvement dumbed down the missions to where anyone could finish most of them. The AI... now don't take me to be one of those chumps that says "the 360 version looks like PS2 graphics! PS1 even!"... but the AI in the first one seemed better, tougher, or maybe the spawn points, approach vectors, etc. were just more well-considered in the original.
I am not a fan of the Mercs 2 tattletale system they implemented for reporting faction transgressions. I played Mercs 1 like a stealthy little squirrel, and most of the time the factions didn't know where they were being hit from, much less who was doing it. In Mercs 2, I'll be at low health, and suddenly some guy on the other side of the battlefield calls in my transgression. And then another guy, 10 seconds later. And another. In short, it's basically impossible to manage my own rep through my actions, because the AI knows who is attacking it automatically.
Oh, also: BUGS. I've been reported in Friendly camps for doing nothing other than walking through them. The other day I was driving across a bridge, and I think a nuke went off nearby. Fiona bitched me out for civilian losses, and I lost a hunk of money. Only problem is, I hadn't called in an airstrike. :-]
The scope of things, and while you CAN ignore things, the ultimate goal is to get the best possible ending, which causes the game to be straightforward and loses its free-roam. Not to mention the game itself is timed, survivors to save, etc. That is not very sandbox, to me. In Saints Row, or GTA, you wind up at the very end regardless, and ignoring that gives zero penalty. If that makes sense.
EVEN THEN, when you beat GTA, Saints Row, etc, you are still given the option to fuck around. Dead Rising just gives you a NewGame+ and you're back to square one.
What you say makes sense, but I think Dead Rising has that too. Two endings? That's not much difference. (It's only two, right?)
It's splitting hairs, but SR1 pretty much shuts you down when you finish the game, but you're free to re-load anything prior to that mission and continue. If a sandbox game is determined by its beginning and endpoints or lack of them, Dead Rising qualifies; IIRC when you fail a story mission by anything other than player-character death, it gives you the choice to re-load from save, or continue playing outside the story.
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Seems like people are using a pretty loose definition of 'sandbox' in here... because I always thought it referred to GTA and its clones. I guess my favorite would be Sim City, isn't that technically a sandbox game?
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Seems like people are using a pretty loose definition of 'sandbox' in here... because I always thought it referred to GTA and its clones. I guess my favorite would be Sim City, isn't that technically a sandbox game?
Sim City was one of the first sandbox games.
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I'd agree with that evaluation; wouldn't most of Will Wright's games can be described as having open conditions for success, and don't some of them even lack an endpoint?
I haven't played SimCity since the 2nd one, and never touched The Sims, nor Spore... so I'm kind of talking out of my buttocks by only referencing what I know from Friends Who Were Hooked.
BULLY continues to impress. It would be a shame if there were no sequel ever, but I was told the team that developed it (the original, not the 360/Wii port) left Rockstar to make their own 4X space sim.
*pauses to research, briefly* Looking through wikipedia, that info may not be accurate: R* Vancouver has had several departures, and it may have been Ironclad or Kerberos that made the 4X, but it doesn't mean the people who made BULLY great are no longer at the studio. Man, I want more BULLY.