GamerNode's Mike Murphy writes:
"When Grand Theft Auto III arrived back in 2001, an unspoken rule appeared in the world of videogames. A rule that made it mandatory for every open-world game to have as much varied content and things for players to do throughout the environment as possible. It has become a formula for these types of games to feature several different types of jobs, tasks, and side-missions in addition to the story and give the player a sense of freedom. But having a ton of content to explore can actually prove to be a massive distraction from the story in these games. They have the potential to lose their focus and fail to fully engage players in a strong narrative. With this in mind, perhaps it's time to re-imagine the open world and have the focus put on immersion instead of content."
With E3 starting next week, 2K Games revealed the biggest E3 line up they have for the year
Only game iam waiting for is for mafia 2 nothing else intrest me well only Metal gear solid peace walkers but ill get that soon
nice. waiting to see what mafia 2 and spec ops the line has too offer. not into rts games, so civ 5 not for me, and not too familiar with x-com series.
GF365: "There are some games with extraordinary visuals that impress us to this day. Here are old games with outstanding graphics."
Same as Killzone 2 and 3, uncharted 2 and 3, Infamous 2, Heavy Rain, Resistance 3
I wish this was entirely true, but you might want to load up Killzone 2 and Resistance 3 again.
@jason I watched some gameplay videos of KZ2 and R3 on my full screen. They are on par or succeed graphically to the first person shooters mentioned in the article that also launched on the seventh generation of consoles. Try the same and see what you think
Killzone 3 was super impressive! I could not believe the graphics back then as I was regularly pausing the game to stand in awe looking at the surroundings! Resistance however did not impress me that much. Heavy rain is also another amazing graphically speaking game. It almost felt next gen
I always thought the first 3 Gears of War games looked great and still hold up for today.
They did for their day. I recently played gears judgement with on the 360 and the draw distance was so blurry. The characters up close look great though
Far Cry 2 was awesome. In addition to having demonstrably better physics and AI than later games in the series, it had a lot of design decisions that, criticized at the time, have since been praised in games like BOTW and Dark Souls.
It might not be super amazing by today's standard but I thought Mgs3 looked really good
Originally released back in 2010 for last-gen (PS3, Xbox 360) consoles, 2K Games has re-released Mafia 2 as part of the Mafia Trilogy, and has called it the “Definitive Edition.” Now, the question is, does this mafia go for the kill, or does it run out of bullets? Read on for our Mafia 2 Definitive Edition review.
Great perspective here.
I feel the same way about Mafia II and Empire Bay. The game's narrative is so focused, even within a world that allows exploratory freedom. That exploration isn't actually necessary, but the player gets a sense that it is absolutely possible. Additionally, the game's missions do a good job of escorting the player throughout a great portion of the city, so it still doesn't feel underutilized.
I wasn't the biggest fan of Mafia II but it certainly nailed that sense of place because of its open world. I was perfectly fine not having to do side missions and other small tasks because it focused on a strong narrative set in an interesting place. Having a lot to do is great but it was refreshing to play a more straightforward game like Mafia II. And I really like the idea of having side missions opening up once you complete a game.
As evidenced by my review of Mafia 2, I absolutely agree. However, I think that 2K is trying to respond to some concerns about the limited breadth of the missions by putting side quests in DLC. I think.
The term "open-world" sort of implies a game with a ton of things to see and do, as does the other term "sandbox." However, Mafia proves that narrative can be just as effective in sending a player around a big area as content can. I wouldn't mind seeing more stuff like it...