Video Games- Mess Effect: Andromeda

[House Balstroko]

Slightly off topic, but what is the largest open world game by surface area excluding space sims like Elite and No Mans Sky?

Is it still Daggerfall? I heard that Arena is supposed to be about 8 million square km but I'm not sure if those measurements are accurate. 

[The Anti-Targ]

alrighty then!

Quote

Video games can develop graduate skills in higher education students: A randomised trial

http://www.hindustantimes.com/fitness/it-s-not-a-waste-of-time-playing-video-games-can-make-you-a-better-college-student/story-Vq1v6b3cBjGLbVDmsMDOtN.html

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131517301215 (Abstract only)

Improved communication skills: "Uninstall you fucking noob!" "fuck you, I bet you fuck your grandma you piece of shit!" "I'm gonna find you and shoot you in the balls!" and so on.

[Fez]

10 hours ago, House Balstroko said:

Slightly off topic, but what is the largest open world game by surface area excluding space sims like Elite and No Mans Sky?

Is it still Daggerfall? I heard that Arena is supposed to be about 8 million square km but I'm not sure if those measurements are accurate. 

If we're going to exclude Elite: Dangerous and No Man's Sky, I think Daggerfall also needs to be excluded, since it was mostly procedurally generated as well. It was the only way to make a map as big as it is, 62,394 square miles. Arena is quite a bit smaller and forces the use of fast travel anyway, so most of the map doesn't actually exist.

I believe the largest non-procedurally generated video game map is Test Drive Unlimited 2, which covers to scale the islands of Ibiza and Oahu; making it a bit over 600 square miles. Its a racing game rather than a true open-world game world, and since they were modeling real islands there were fewer design challenges. There are also the various 'Truck Simulator' games, which I don't know the exact size of, but I believe may be smaller due to the condensed scales.

I think the largest open world video game map is Just Cause 3, at 400 square miles; and that the largest open world RPG video game map is The Witcher 3 at 84 square miles.

[Fez]

Kotaku has an extremely long, and interesting, in-depth story on the history of ME:A's development. http://kotaku.com/the-story-behind-mass-effect-andromedas-troubled-five-1795886428

Basically everything that could go wrong did go wrong, mostly from bad/inconsistent leadership it sounds like, and almost all of the final game was developed in only 18 months.

Also, despite all the problems, apparently the mock reviewers agreed the game would end up with a metacritic score in the 80-85 range. The sources for the story think that the animation GIFs shared during the early access period really did influence reviewer perceptions.

[Slurktan]

I cannot quote on here.  So odd, gives me weird code then doesn't actually reply.

Anyways as to largest world, Daggerfall is the biggest.  Lord of the Rings Online without expansions was supposed to be over 30k square miles. (It is enormous, all of Azeroth in WoW could fit in two starter zones basically)

[KiDisaster]

I reinstalled WoW and bought Legion. Why do I do this? 

Leveling a Gnome fury warrior through the new content. (Artifact weapons are pretty cool) 

[akh]

So I'm finally upgrading my PC. Can someone suggest me some better games from the past few years. I've got GTA V and Witcher 3 lined up, anything else big or good I might have missed? 

[Rhom]

40 minutes ago, KiDisaster said:

I reinstalled WoW and bought Legion. Why do I do this? 

Leveling a Gnome fury warrior through the new content. (Artifact weapons are pretty cool) 

I did that for a while too.  Hit level 99 and basically fizzled out.

[Rhom]

I'm not sure who it was a couple threads back that recommended the Tales of Zestiria/Berseria, but now that I've finished Andromeda I've been playing Zestiria and I love it.  I was afraid I was just losing interest in RPGs, but I think I was just burned out with the wide open worlds and lack of focus from FFXV, DA:I, and ME:A.

Some good light hearted JRPG fun was exactly what I needed.  Yes, its cheesy... but its great.

 

[briantw]

1 hour ago, akh said:

So I'm finally upgrading my PC. Can someone suggest me some better games from the past few years. I've got GTA V and Witcher 3 lined up, anything else big or good I might have missed? 

Dishonored 1 & 2.  
Divinity: Original Sin
The Banner Saga 1 & 2
INSIDE
Metal Gear Solid V
Tomb Raider & Rise of the Tomb Raider
Saints Row IV
South Park: Stick of Truth
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Most Telltale games
Deus Ex: Human Revolution & Mankind Divided

Definitely forgetting some stuff but really enjoyed all of the above.

[Werthead]

Lord of the Rings Online, Guild Wars: Nightfall and Fuel have the biggest gaming worlds ever which are not reliant on procedural generation.

2 hours ago, akh said:

So I'm finally upgrading my PC. Can someone suggest me some better games from the past few years. I've got GTA V and Witcher 3 lined up, anything else big or good I might have missed? 

 

Tyranny

Valkyria Chronicles

Divinity: Original Sin

Shadowrun Returns, Dragonfall and Hong Kong

XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Enemy Within and XCOM 2

Wasteland 2

Torment: Tides of Numenera

Homeworld: Enhanced Edition

Prey

[Melphis Amekia]

2 hours ago, Rhom said:

I'm not sure who it was a couple threads back that recommended the Tales of Zestiria/Berseria, but now that I've finished Andromeda I've been playing Zestiria and I love it.  I was afraid I was just losing interest in RPGs, but I think I was just burned out with the wide open worlds and lack of focus from FFXV, DA:I, and ME:A.

Some good light hearted JRPG fun was exactly what I needed.  Yes, its cheesy... but its great.

 

That was me that recommended it, and if you loved Zestiria like I did(we can talk in more detail in PM's if you want, I played through it twice) you'll love Berseria even more since it's actually waaaaay better. Berseria is actually a lot more edgy and dark, but the way it was done is amazing.

[Werthead]

Rock Paper Shotgun take a look at the Cyberpunk universe to what the appetite for CDPR's Cyberpunk 2077 video game.

Seeing what the makers of The Witcher 3 make of this stuff will be fascinating.

[Guy Kilmore]

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[briantw]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

Tyranny

Valkyria Chronicles

Divinity: Original Sin

Shadowrun Returns, Dragonfall and Hong Kong

XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Enemy Within and XCOM 2

Wasteland 2

Torment: Tides of Numenera

Homeworld: Enhanced Edition

Prey

^^

And there are another handful of great games that I didn't list (aside from Divinity).  Shadowrun Returns isn't great, but Dragonfall and Hong Kong were both excellent and really did some great work in addressing the biggest issues that hurt Returns (the biggest being the totally uninteresting squad mates in Returns).

I'd also recommend Shadow Tactics.  I meant to list that one in my previous post and forgot.  That game is great.

[House Balstroko]

17 hours ago, Fez said:

If we're going to exclude Elite: Dangerous and No Man's Sky, I think Daggerfall also needs to be excluded, since it was mostly procedurally generated as well. It was the only way to make a map as big as it is, 62,394 square miles. Arena is quite a bit smaller and forces the use of fast travel anyway, so most of the map doesn't actually exist.

I believe the largest non-procedurally generated video game map is Test Drive Unlimited 2, which covers to scale the islands of Ibiza and Oahu; making it a bit over 600 square miles. Its a racing game rather than a true open-world game world, and since they were modeling real islands there were fewer design challenges. There are also the various 'Truck Simulator' games, which I don't know the exact size of, but I believe may be smaller due to the condensed scales.

I think the largest open world video game map is Just Cause 3, at 400 square miles; and that the largest open world RPG video game map is The Witcher 3 at 84 square miles.

I asked about Arena because the back of the box says it's 8 million square km. I've only seen it online so I'm not sure how credible that is. When you say that you have to use fast travel, does it mean you can't free roam in between the cities and explore the countryside?

TDU 2 is still a true open world it's just part of the racing sub genre. Open world is a stylistic choice rather than a genre itself, so any game can be open world. That being said TDU 2 is not the largest open world racing game as both Fuel and the Crew are larger.

As to your last point, Xenoblade Chronicles X is the largest open world rpg. 

[Fez]

4 hours ago, House Balstroko said:

I asked about Arena because the back of the box says it's 8 million square km. I've only seen it online so I'm not sure how credible that is. When you say that you have to use fast travel, does it mean you can't free roam in between the cities and explore the countryside?

TDU 2 is still a true open world it's just part of the racing sub genre. Open world is a stylistic choice rather than a genre itself, so any game can be open world. That being said TDU 2 is not the largest open world racing game as both Fuel and the Crew are larger.

As to your last point, Xenoblade Chronicles X is the largest open world rpg. 

With Arena yeah, the world map loops if you go long enough in any direction so you can't travel between points of interest unless you fast travel. And the 8 million square km was the original lore size of Tamriel (at some point that increased to 12 million square km), not the gameplay size of the map; 1994 was a simpler time when it came to making claims.

Fuel used a procedural generation system as well so I don't count it. I don't know about the Crew, never played it.

And yeah, looks like that Xenoblade game surpassed The Witcher 3.

[House Balstroko]

19 hours ago, Fez said:

With Arena yeah, the world map loops if you go long enough in any direction so you can't travel between points of interest unless you fast travel. And the 8 million square km was the original lore size of Tamriel (at some point that increased to 12 million square km), not the gameplay size of the map; 1994 was a simpler time when it came to making claims.

Fuel used a procedural generation system as well so I don't count it. I don't know about the Crew, never played it.

And yeah, looks like that Xenoblade game surpassed The Witcher 3.

Interesting that the game box would state the size of the world in terms of lore rather than the playable area present in the game. 

I wasn't aware that Fuel used procedural technology, I always thought it was handcrafted. Either ways, that still leaves the Crew which gives you  a 5000 square km rendition of the continental US. 

I'm actually not entirely sure if Xenoblade is the largest open world RPG excluding games like Daggerfall and some mmo's but it is considerably larger than Witcher 3.

 

[Centrist Simon Steele]

On 6/7/2017 at 0:20 PM, akh said:

So I'm finally upgrading my PC. Can someone suggest me some better games from the past few years. I've got GTA V and Witcher 3 lined up, anything else big or good I might have missed? 

I played all of the following on PC: While I was waiting for the Witcher 3 to come out, I got Shadows of Mordor (if you haven't played it) and I really liked it. My son, who hadn't beat a game before (other than Ducktales remastered) loved and played through the new Wolfenstein twice. Farcry 3 was amazing, and my son got Farcry 4 and loved it--either of those would be good--though he may have had Far Cry 4 on the PS4. 

I liked the Forest--it's still in Beta, I think, but it's kind of an open world, building game--with cannibals. Similar to the Forest is ARK--a survival sim with dinosaurs. A lot of fun, but also in beta/whatever it is before they release it but let you buy it. 

Metal Gear Solid V if you haven't played it was amazing. 

If you like side scrollers (I have a ton of these if you want more recommendations), you've got to play Ori and Blind Forest--really beautiful game. Hard as hell. Oh, speaking of hard, might as well get some Dark Souls while you're at it. 1 or 3 would be good. I didn't like 2 as much. 

[GallowKnight]

Teaser for Bioware's new IP Anthem