The video game industry has always dominated the market of entertainment, as far as recreational activities are concerned, and is reported by a recent study to Net Worth $91.5 Billion in the industry of Gaming. Amongst youngsters and even some people up to the ages of 60 years, and over have been fascinated, intrigued, engrossed and kept busy for hours and hours on end and has somewhat considerably a great and stimulating social addiction as opposed to youngsters who rather find enjoyment in drugs, alcohol and unprotected sex. As the decades of gaming advanced up until this day, the demand of graphics and new gaming trends are increasing as we speak, sometimes more than the gaming industry can supply. Electronic gaming and 3D graphics have been introduced worldwide as the next best thing on the entertainment markets, since the 1980’s. If you’re a dedicated hardcore stone cold video gamer, such as myself, then you will immediately be able to identify and relate to the 10 best open world video games of all time, listed below.
10 Best Open World Video Games of All Time
10. Sims Castaway
Everybody wants to be a cool sim in this game. The Sims series has been one of the most exciting games to play which is a simulation of a series of real life and people and how they interact with one and other on a daily basis and sort of puts you in a real life situation overall. Everybody who played the Sims game series and collection would have known the enjoyment they’ve found while taking the role of a Sim, customizing their clothing, inviting friends over, hosting pool parties and BBQs etc. These can be done in several Sim Episodes altogether.
Sims Castaway on the other hand is a part of the game series which I as well as many around the world have enjoyed to great lengths. It all begins with a fancy yaught party that turned over to shreds in a storm, scattering different Sim’s all over the shore and all over the lost island. The game gets extremely exciting when the main Sim Character has to venture off into the treacherous unknown in order to re-locate the other Sim’s who were on-board the yaught as well as to put everybody back together in one piece. To take on the responsibility of one man lone wolf survivor is really something that an Alpha Male of a personality would have to handle. In Sim’s Castaway, one can also interact with animals along the way etc. While being up to alerts in order to protect other Sim’s etc.
9. Far Cry 2
Picture Africa, the Serengeti and, a One man army Mercenary who has been deployed to the lost of Africa’s war torn parts who came all the way from America, and has to practically live in the jungle of wild killer stray dogs and ambushing enemies, ready to attack from any point unseen, unheard and from even under your nose under ghillie suits and you wouldn’t even know.
This is purely were the excitement and thrill of the game comes in as the Africans Holding Ak47’s and automatic fire machine guns, are as deadly as they can get as the player advances throughout the game. Far Cry 2 has an IGN rating of 8.9 / 10 within the categories and analysis of gameplay, popularity and graphics etc. The dramatic upbeat African jungle theme and music if enabled will be to an enhanced effect incurring fear, causing the player to be sharp throughout gameplay and extremely vigilant too.
8. SimCity 4
When we speak about 10 of the best open world video games of all time, were talking when it comes to the SimCity game series, specifically about actually building and running an entire city itself. The game itself is ‘built’ upon city simulation. The wonders of the game, if you’re a lover of Simulation games and being in ultimate control lies purely in the wonderfulness of having the chance to choose a map, uproot mountains and scalping out and landscaping the terrain of the entire city, renaming it whatever you wish and taking ultimate control of EVERYTHING that goes on ultimately there too.
Now it is not to be confused with The Sims and SimCity as these two remarkable simulation games are total opposite from each other. Although the people of SimCity are also regarded as ‘Sims’ they are two different games. The graphics of SimCity displays realistic 3D advanced Graphics which shows buildings, fauna and flora, cars, people etc. As realistic as possible from a far and near view point which creates a realistic effect altogether and overall gameplay experience. In SimCity 4 there’s a complete difference in Gameplay, graphics and features as compared to previous editions of the series. All in all is that both is as good as it can get. As a Mayor of the town you create from the buildings, roads, piping underground etc. You have a lot of mobility and control over your city as any demanding player would want.
7. Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories
Grand Theft Auto! Everybody knows this game from the oldest to the youngest. Oldest because of reprimanding their kids from buying it, due to the Pegi 18 Rating of gruesome violence, sexual references and imagery, drugs and alcohol and everything that purely defines the dark criminal underworld. It is notoriously known globally amongst gamers for several reasons however. This has always been a highly anticipated and loved all time favorite open world video games by millions of gamers, ever since Rockstar Games started its franchise and series. Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories is yet another rated IGN 9 / 10 video game.
Liberty City Stories is one of the best 3D open world video games of all time in the new era of where PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable were famous at the time of when it was the best on the gaming market. As far as open world can go GTA Liberty City Stories is as grand as it can get from a starter 3D game with minimal graphics but awesome gameplay. Set in the early 2000’s the game has more of a Sicilian Mafia Theme to it and a Mixture of The Soprano’s as the Main Character , Toni Cipriani who resembles Tony Soprano from HBO seems to dress identical and speak the same way as well. While the cars aren’t so grand, it sure does resemble a classic representation of America and Little Italy to some level, the game player has freedom to roam, hijack cars and bikes on the street, fight with people and do other side missions when not in the main storyline. Player movements are fixed and uncharacteristic yet still a great game to kill time with.
6. Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories
Just like Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories, GTA VCS on the other hand is more favored due to it being a later edition or a sequel to Grand Theft Auto Vice City, which is now set in the early 80’s in terms of soundtracks,dressing,clubs,vehicle models, Radio stations and everything else that typically defined the 80’s. The gameplay is slightly more different from Liberty City Stories and unlocks a larger city to roam around in and explore as well.
For those of you who enjoy nostalgic vibes from visual and sound effects in terms of Video games and appreciate a classic 80’s Miami Vice setup and theme, then this is definitely one for you. The game Centers around the main protagonist Victor Vance and getting unfairly de-badged from the Military by a corrupt Sgt. Jerry Martinez and his road to redemption their after which is somewhat exciting to unfold as he advances through the game, he must fight to build himself up again the moment he leaves the military gates.
Some of the cars have gotten older and more definition has been added to the city, characters, trees, gameplay, music etc. Big improvement from Liberty City Stories!
5. Hitman Absolution
Has an IGN game rating of 9/10.
Can you imagine the life of a few men chosen and trained at birth and put up to thee most deadliest and life threatening levels of training at which IF they pass, the selected few who eventually make it will be balded, barcoded at the back of their heads, erased of all emotional, mental and any normal quality, named and referred to as the barcode numbers throughout the duration of their lifetime by whom ever has trained them into the League of Hitman Assassins and has been born and bred for the sole and ultimate purpose of contract killing on specific targets assigned to each number and each dying at specific time, co-ordinates or possibly all simultaneously as each hitman strategically closes in on their enemy.
Dressed in Sharp suits and a distinctive red tie and carrying around an M1911 pistol most certainly trademarks the easily identifiable appearance of the Main Character in all the Hitman Series. The game ultimately spans into different exciting,thrilling,hard action scenes of requiring the player to switch from stealth to extreme violence using multiple moves to attack and neutralize opponents as well as going ‘Ghost’ in order to avoid being detected by enemy target until breeching and compromising his quiet position and going super Hitman on everybody and everything within the vicinity of his path. The game is absolutely exciting as we advance him throughout the storyline of the game. Nothing will stop this man from accomplishing his mission at hand, and will only rest until the successful annihilation of each target. But the big question is, what happens when each Hitman Agent are contracted to kill each other? Can you imagine what a battle this would be, having all these men trained at birth to follow a code of honor, silence and precision, target sights and fire! It’s up to the main character to dominate, counteract and win.
4. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
The Dominating trend of 10 of the best open world video games of all times is surely Grand Theft Auto but different additions of the series overall. Each are ranked by the advancement in graphics, gameplay and everything that allows more features of the realistic open world. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas on the other hand aren’t like previous ones has been thee most popular amongst gamers especially for PlayStation 2 and in the time where Computer Graphics cards where low end but considered as something top class of that time. Here I’m speaking about 2004 in GTA SA’s world-wide release.
Whether it is hitting the gym, lifting wieghts,hardcore street African American thug gang banging, visiting strip clubs, defeating other gang members and gaining turf, hijaking cars, vans, bikes, customizing vehicles to some gangster levels, listening to classic 90’s rap music, stealing and derailing trains, flooring the accelerator of a 4×4 on the old country dusty roads from state to state or simply using cheat codes to spawn a helicopter or jetpack and fly off every time police are shooting at you ,Grand Theft Auto San Andreas has it all! Definitely one of the best open world video games of all time and still more than a decade of it’s release today, still popular amongst gamers and will quite frankly never get old. Playing as Carl Johnson (CJ) in Los Santos, who is a Tupac looking nigga that represents territorial values and is extremely Ghetto Gangster in his Demeanor. The storyline unfolds as he comes back to his hometown and reconnects with his old gang as well as recruits newer members on the way as he sees the betrayal of his family by the ‘homies’ he once held dear to him. He also encounters several weirdo’s and corrupt police officers along the way, ends up time and time again in Jail, hospital if you don’t look after him or watch your back. Rival gang members also shoot you unexpectedly just to test your survival skills so be careful. San Andreas is double the size of Liberty City and Vice City put together as the player is able to move through in 3 different states with endless things to do, too many fast cars to steal as well as rare items to collect around the game which is more than enough to keep a player busy even well pass completing main storyline missions. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas never gets old and is still played by many today, with upgraded mods to the game of course, made by dedicated GTA fans and ranks 9.3 / 10 on IGN.
3. Call Of Duty Black Ops 1
There is definitely no other army or first person shooter game other than the army titles out there that can place you as a human character into the plot and storyline of the nail-biting, seat gripping action and realism of Open world Call Of Duty game series in general where you feel ultimately as though you have fought each and every war of every game played and sort of see oneself as a soldier or retired ex-marine afterwards. This is where the advancement of realistic open world gaming comes in. Just like Medal of Honor which is another war video game, Call of Duty on the other hand is of absolute no difference in terms of gameplay, plot, character styles and movements etc.
Call of Duty Black Ops specifically tells the story of a man being interrogated and mimics certain real life historical events and speaks of real countries with realistic human names etc. The game tells the story of where the player is taken back to the 60’s where he is required to fight in Vietnam as well as other wars decades later which brings him to modern day at which the interrogation is taking place. It has been however thee most adventurous, realistic, exciting, thrilling and suspenseful game ever as it surely does take you around the most dangerous places of the world and back. The ability in itself which allows the player to be a respected and sub-commanding soldier who must fight the worst of wars around the globe in the most war torn areas, depicts it better than some war movies, I would say. While playing the game, the experience of being open world in a realistic real world setup ,to perform stealth and loud attacks in different ways is the most greatest feeling any gamer could feel, especially when the game credits appear in the end with the Victory Music playing “Mission Success” ,Magnanimous victory! The main character is able to switch between his guns, use other people’s guns when ammo runs out, run, jump and crawl and do basic things but despite not being able to hijack vehicles etc., the gameplay is extremely mesmerizing and real. Check out Gameplay HERE. You’re one man with the help of your army battalion ,but every man for themselves, every man to defend their own lives, what will you do when placed in the center of world war? Will you emerge victorious or die a man of honor, given a fallen brother’s country funeral? Step it, pick up the pace, command and conqeur,grit the dust, patch those wounds, use every last breath in your body to complete the mission even if it’s the last thing you do!
2. Grand Theft Auto IV – Episodes of Liberty City
This is a sequel to Grand Theft Auto IV and the beauty of it is that it comes with a pack of 2 full games in one. Game one is GTA Lost and dammed and game Two is GTA Ballads of the Gay Tony. If you buy the game, you are getting double the awesomeness from both. Both are utterly different contrasts of each other however. Ballad of the Gay Tony represents the glamorous glittery, star light and party lifestyle while The Lost And Damned centers around a dark, satanic and lost type of theme altogether.
The release of these games In one go, shocked fans all over the world as just when we thought Grand Theft Auto IV was the real deal in terms of using a more advanced graphic engine as opposed to the other ones that the previous games were created with, GTA IV EFLC (Episodes of Liberty City) jumped into play with a hint of upgraded digital universe than IV did. We have noticed plenty of bug fixes, music updates and city as well as pedestrian and character changes which shot gaming to the realist it could have gotten at that time.
Lost and Dammed is about a biker gang Leader, Johnny Klebitz who is a heavy metal rock listening, Harley Davidson riding, leather jacket, baseball bat carrying and snubby shotgun shooting lunatic who rides dirty and dusty and lives on his own yet tries to be friendly now and then. While ‘The Lost Gang’ lives more of a rough, rugged and biker centered lifestyle, while main character of the total opposite of that life is Luis Fernando Lopez of ‘Ballad of the Gay Tony’ who works for Tony himself but isn’t the gay one. His duty is to manage all the clubs of Tony as well as make a name for himself. Being a Dominican styled character, Luis Lopez can be taken to clubs that are super realistic in terms of European setups and women, booze, music etc. The cars are classier, and the overall graphics has flourished to a moderately fair share of realism this time. A huge jump from the box type, same move all the time type of graphics in Previous GTA games. The city is much much larger than SanAndreas too.
1. Grand Theft Auto V (Five)
Yes! I know, I know that Grand Theft Auto Strikes again but this time with total much more realism which is absolutely as close to reality and High Definition Next Gen gaming as gaming and graphics could ever get. GTA V is THE BEST open world video games of all time if not THE BEST VIDEO GAME as it stands, depending on what genre of games you fancy to play.
The Rockstar games franchise has really went to space and beyond with the release of this specific Grand Theft Auto Title as compared to the rest of the series. Quite frankly when this one came out, the rest sincerely became dead and ultimately didn’t matter as the graphics advancement in real-time this time has trumped every other GTA Game ever created. The world of hardcore GTA fans know this too. GTA V can be considered as thee best game on the planet simply due to the endless features, possibilities and you never run out of things to do, EVER! Which simply means, after you finish your storyline missions, there are also random strangers scattered across the game, all with different sorts of crazy and weird personalities who ultimately become your friend and offer certain services specific to each player.
When you have accomplished that, you may also dive into an ocean which is another world on its own apart from the open world of the City you can roam in which has roads that never seem to end also. In the ocean you can encounter sharks, fish, dolphins, find treasure. To make it even more real life like, GTA V has also for the first time ever included animals to and various different mythical creatures in the game as well! The transport system falls under the categories of Air, Land and Water which includes almost every known vehicle that’s been built for these different terrains. The people actually have personalities, families that you can actually live and interact with, their skin texture is as real as a normal person, clothing is a variety for all 3 Characters, yes 3 different characters (Trevor, Michael, Franklin) can be switched and played with, each with their very own personalities and lives to lead for the FIRST TIME in GTA history!!!
How freaking cool is that?? You’ve sincerely GOT to play the game to understand why it is thee greatest ever created as far as next-gen gaming is concerned. The game’s release saw a staggering $815 Million of sales! in the first day of official release as well as people who have pre-purchased it when they knew it was going to come out on a certain date. GTA 5’s record has never been broken and is still yet to be broken as it’s unconventional, unmatched and unparalleled, dominating every video game in the gaming industry where High Definition Graphics and popularity is concerned. Everything from the Vehicles, City Buildings and roads(overall infrastructure, water reflections, Character definition and detail, storyline, gameplay, sound effects and everything else is a direct and most realistic simulation of real life and modern America as we know it. The verdict, is that nothing as it stands Beats GTA V in terms of realistic graphics. Just to let you know, GTA 6 is set to release in the near future, can you imagine the advancement the world will see after that? GTA V has been given a 10 / 10 Rating by IGN which is really not a surprise as it’s truly earned it and speaks for itself. You may watch a trailer of GTA V HERE.