The 10th Hour 10.09.09: Top 10 Open World Games

Posted by Adam Larck on 10.09.2009

From GTA to Fallout 3, check out what games Adam Larck likes to wander around in inside.

Hello and welcome to another week of the 10th Hour. I'll be hosting, so let's start it off with a quick update.

- I finished Wet and got a review out of it. It's a decent game, but all the gameplay mechanics have been seen before. Worth a weekend rental, but hard to justify $60 for it.

Also, just finished up my Pinball Hall of Fame review for the 360. I was pretty surprised by the game. Really fun to play and great to tide you over during short breaks you may have during the day.

Reader Feedback

Last week I did my top Mario games. I knew this would get a decent amount of comments (after all, I couldn't name all the good games) but didn't expect as many as it did. However, there are a few I'd like to address.

First up we have JWestmoreland, commenting about the lack of Yoshi's Island.

"No love for Super Mario World 2? Baby Mario and Luigi will grow up to hate you...."

You know, surprisingly enough, I did like Super Mario World 2. Quite a bit, actually. It was on my first draft of the list, but I ended up cutting it for a few games I thought of later on, one of which was Mario Tennis. It would probably come in around 11 or 12. It was an interesting idea to play solely as Yoshi carrying Baby Mario, and the transformation abilities were pretty cool as well.

Next up we have perry (the blacko rican), adding to a comment that Guest#8985 said.

"SMB3 is the best mario game ever. I especially like the tunes of the game, especially all the Bowser Air Ship music...When WWIII happens, I'll be blastin' that out loud.

Posted By: Guest#8985 (Guest) on September 25, 2009 at 12:45 AM

he took the words out of my mouth. but yah that game is amazing that should redo that game with 3d/HD visuals and remix the music."

An updated version of this game would easily be a must have for me. I thought the original one looked good, and the SNES remake they did gave a nice polish to the graphics. However, doing an HD remake of the game with an updated soundtrack would be awesome. What are you waiting for, Nintendo?

Finally, we have a list by Will. I hope more of you submit some lists in the future. I'll start posting some up here when I see some in the comments.

"Haven't played them all but my favs are

Mario RPG SNES
Mario 3
Mario World 2 Yoshi's Island
Mario Superstar Saga GBA,,,Mario 64
Mario Golf 64
Mario 2
Mario Party 2 N64
Paper Mario Thousand Door
Mario Kart SNES"

And now, on with the show.

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The 10th Hour – Open World Games

This week, I started watching quite a few videos on the upcoming Crackdown 2. I was a really big fan of the first game, and it got me thinking. What open world games do I really like? Well, I finally got a list compiled of them and my picks are below. Note that all of the games come from PlayStation 2 and later. This is mainly because I had a hard time trying to think of any open world games before then.

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10. Assassin's Creed - I liked the premise behind this game. Being an assassin and sneaking up on people to murder them before slipping back into the shadows sounded cool. It was still a great game, just got repetitive after a while.

However, wandering around the open cities was also an interesting experience. The best parts for me always came when I was trying to get to new vantage points. Trying to find my way up and take out any guards on the way was something I looked forward to in each city. Also, being able to murder a guard in one end of the city then run away to the other end just to hide with a group of monks was entertaining as well.

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9. Saints Row 2 - I never could get into the first one too much. I don't know what it was, but I would end up running around for a bit before getting bored and turning to something else.

However, I had a great time running around the sequel. The soundtrack had quite a few good songs in it (I still hum "Karma Chameleon" from time to time), and the mini-games, while a bit odd, were fun to play as well. However, the fun for me came in the co-op mode. Mowing down people with a friend made for some fun nights. I still couldn't get into the single player on the game, though. I guess this game will always be co-op for me.

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8. Mercenaries - I wasn't really amazed by the environment, what really got me involved in this game was the interesting weapons that could be bought.

The land was interesting to walk around in and explore, but I felt that I had more fun exploring Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto III. However, what Mercenaries had that made it special was the ability to call in vehicles and artillery. The vehicles were nice to call in, but I always loved calling in a nuclear strike to level an area. My game would normally deteriorate into doing a few missions, saving and then blowing up the headquarters in various ways. It was always great fun.

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7. Red Faction: Guerrilla - I know it's a fairly new game on my list (one of two that are), but I have fun exploring Mars with a sledgehammer.

While all of Mars isn't destructible (I was really hoping to be able to carve my own holes into the planet), having all the buildings be more than made up for this. Going up to various building or pipes and just wailing away on them is a great stress reliever, plus it gives you extra scrap to get more items. The world is fun, it just doesn't give as much freedom as I expected from the game.

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6. Prototype - The other new game on my list, this game allows me to do one of my favorite things in games: wanton destruction.

Unlike Crackdown, which is coming up in the list, I couldn't get into collecting the orbs throughout the game. I collected the Web of Intrigue, but this was just to get the full backstory. The thing that attracted me to this world, though, was the powers that were able to be used, along with the freedom to run and jump (most) anywhere. The variety of weapons he could use was great fun for mowing down waves of infected in the streets. Also, being able to reach one side of the city to another with a few bounds was great. Often, I would spend quite a bit of time with the Blade and Shield charging through enemies to destroy them, or at least knock them back. Was there any reason for it? No, it was just entertaining.

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5. Oblivion - When I first played this game, I had liked it but never really got into it a huge amount. I ended up playing it twice before putting it down for the summer.

However, after picking it up and starting to explore, the game took on a new feel to me. The various sidequests that could be found in the land were great time wasters, and the world just had so much to see. Plus, seeing the various cults that had formed around the gods in the game and secrets were a nice touch as well. I still remember spending hours just trying to find huge variations of enemies in the world just to see what they looked like.

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4. Grand Theft Auto IV - The true sequel to GTA III, I've had quite a bit of fun with this game.

It isn't as over-the-top as Crackdown is, but gives a more realistic feel to Liberty City. Road rage can be heard from the streets, and pedestrians carry on with normal, everyday activities. However, you can make the city erupt into chaos with just a few deaths along a busy intersection. I always like to just see how much damage I can rack up from time to time before being caught or killed. Plus, even if I don't feel like a rampage, I can always relax with a simple game of bowling or darts in the game.

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3. Grand Theft Auto III - I put this as two separate games because I just had so much more fun with this game than with GTA IV.

This was one of my first forays into an open world game. I wasn't sure what to expect besides the missions. However, finding out that you can try and make different scenarios or hostage situations by blocking off streets was awesome. I spent hours in that game just driving around the city seeing different sites or trying to find hidden eggs. This was a great to start to the popular open world gameplay.

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2. Crackdown - Until my No. 1 game came out, this was top game when it came to exploring.

I used to know every inch of the city. I really liked maxing out my Agent and then just bounding around the city. I had all the orbs collected (a monumental task in itself), and was driven insane by them for a while. Being just one orb away from the achievement in such a huge city was maddening, as was trying to find the last thing. I still remember that dinging sound now. Plus, I had a ton of fun with the Agency building. Climbing up to the top of that to dive into the small pond below is still a fond memory in that game.

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1. Fallout 3 - I never thought exploring a post-nuclear world could be so fun. I was wrong.

Fallout 3 offered some of the most interesting areas I have seen in a while to explore. Whether it was Tenpenny Tower or Rivet City or standing at the steps of the White House, it was amazing to take in the sights and sounds. If that wasn't enough though, it's just as interesting seeing some of the people that walked the land. They usually had something interesting to say, and most of them had a pretty interesting look as well. My two favorite moments, though, were finding the downed spaceship and blowing up Megaton. I'll always remember seeing the bomb go up from Tenpenny Tower. Great times.

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Well, that's all I have for this week. Like or hate what I said? Shoot me an email at [e-mail] or leave a comment below. Any feedback is appreciated.

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