Sandboxes: How big is TOO big?

[Horuta]

I am not the brightest crayon in the box. When I read this title HOURS ago I thought that it it was meaning "just how big is to big for those people to be build those stupid sand castles that we see on TV all the time."

Sheesh. I had to go have dinner, drinks with a friend, come back, re-read it (twice) until it clicked in. I call myself a gamer for rainbows sake. I shame myself. I'm going to bed.

 

[lacktheknack]

Daggerfall.

Never played a game with a map so bloody big.

Two times the size of Great Britain, specifically. It holds a nigh-unbeatable world record.

I loved the map size of JC2, actually. Then again, I have an epic computer that lets me play it with maximum settings, so the act of flying a helicopter for twenty minutes is an exercise in containing my graphics whore drool.

Minecraft can load up to 8 times the earth.

It wasn't predesigned. Procedurally generated maps aren't eligible for the world record.

Daggerfall was generated at the start of each game and is therefore not designed consistently, your own definition excludes your own contender.

Incorrect. I claimed that procedural generation was unqualified. "Generated at the start" is not "procedurally generated".

Besides, it wasn't generated at the start of each game, they generated their own map and used it. They did the same thing for Oblivion.

According to wikipedia it was randomly generated.

Yes, as were ALL the Elder Scrolls games.

The difference: Minecraft has no canonical map. Daggerfall does. The end.

Daggerfall has the largest map file, it was generated in-house and used in every single instance of the game. Hence, biggest map.

Try arguing with Guinness World Records, they're the ones that laid out the ground rules and declared Daggerfall the largest.

 

[crudus]

It really depends on how they do it. Grand Theft Auto has done really well in making a big world seem small until the time is right. It's all about how close the missions and mission objectives are to each other and how quickly you can get to them. In San Andreas all of your missions and mission objectives were very close to each other and you could get to them quite easily. At some point you get access to planes which makes traveling from island to island very quick and easy(and fun!).

As long as it's not like Red Dead Redemption's Wastleland, or Fallout 3's Fallout.... You see what I mean?

For some reason I hated Red Dead Redemption's Wasteland, but Fallout 3's was awesome. Maybe it was becausein Fallout you could actually find something interesting on your travels. Goddess, that game got weird.

 

[Gaiseric]

Whenever it becomes a chore to navigate the map then it is too big.

 

[DustyDrB]

I like them smallish, like Bully's. Red Dead Redemption's was great too though, but only because it was so gorgeous.

Actually, it's hard to tell for me. A lot of these games revolve around driving a car around a modern city. I'm hopelessly sick of that gameplay mechanic, so will quickly tire of any game that has much of it. But if the mode of transportation is something different and the environment has a much different flavor, I can be fine with the place being big. Just offer a fast travel mechanic of some sort, though. If I'm gonna get in some game time before work, I really don't want for it to consist of 80% traveling.

 

[Terminate421]

Far Cry 2 was the largest game I've played.

That wasn't a good thing. It was so big I felt like I was doing absolutely nothing to the world.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

The size of the sandbox doesn't matter. It's how you get around it.

THIS.

Just Cause 2 wouldn't be so bad if helicopters were faster. Otherwise you have to raid an airport and get a jet if you want to get anywhere in a sensible amount of time.

But you can get a jet from the black market at almost any point in the game?

Not in the early part of the game, where it's a massive pain in the ass to get around.

I had the jet before I knew it personally, and I certainly never felt like it was a chore to get around, was having too much fun finding creative uses for my grappling hook and/or my parachute. And in the few instances where I found the distance to be too great I just called in a Black Market airlift so... I guess we just experienced the game differently.

 

[SckizoBoy]

I've always felt that it depends on the game. I mean, can you imagine playing InFamous in a Prototype-sized world? If I had to slowly run from one side of that island to the other at Cole-speed, I'd have cried myself to sleep. Likewise, having Prototype-speed in InFamous would just be silly.

I'ma gonna go with this.

Hell even running as Alex on the ground from one end of the island to the other doesn't take that long...

The thing required for a good sandbox is sufficient variation from one end to the other. In JC2 it was just a cluster of tropical islands with a few mountains and no real visual difference as you drove/flew about. On the other hand, Morrowind wasn't that large, but it sure as hell felt like it because of the change in scenery, architecture and even climate! It has to feel large, not necessarily be large.

 

[Kevon Huggins]

Daggerfall
cry my self to sleep every night remembering the mega-seconds of wondering throught that that THAT ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF FUCKEN RUSSIA'S SIZE

time you wasted reading this part : approximately 3 sec

 

[Jandau]

They can't be too big, but they can be too empty or too boring. It's one of the main reasons I dislike Oblivion - You see everything in the game in the first few hours and then it's basically on repeat...

 

[Raioken18]

Well if you include fast travel, and unique and interesting areas and sub-storylines... then I don't think they could ever make it too big...

I do think that online co-op would add a lot to most sandbox games, but coordinating it would be difficult...

 

[Gibboniser]

I quote ... someone. "There is no such thing as too much sandbox,only too little sand.

 

[DanielBrown]

There's no perfect size for me, really, as long as they keep the world intresting. In huge games like Just Cause 2 and Oblivion there was tons of filler areas that didn't contain anything special, and in Prototype it felt like you ran up the same building over and over. It gets dull really quickly.

Replayed The Saboteur during the past couple of days and had a blast with the sandbox. Not only because Paris is a beautiful city, but because there was a great mix of countryside and inner city.

 

[JesterRaiin]

So, what in your opinion is the perfect size for a sandbox?

It's not about size but complexity.
Daggerfall's map size was pretty ok but all landmass was generic and repetitive.

 

[Hojou]

Just Cause 2 is a bit massive but a while in you do unlock a quick travel thing.
Also if traveling is boring then just steal a jet and crash it into your destination, jumping out at the last moment.

Exactly this. When I first started playing, I was like "OMG I can't even save my location, and I have to travel back from the same starting base everytime! THIS SUCKS! What a stupid game!"

But then I did a search about game save locations and travel, read a bit about the game, and saw a lot of people complaining about this same thing were answered with "don't worry, that all changes after a few missions..."

If you had played it for another few hours, and completed some missions, you would've unlocked the fast travel option. You can call in a chopper that will instantly take you anywhere on the map you've already visited. All you have to do is fly around in a jet discovering locations (which is pretty fun in itself) and you will quickly find getting anywhere on the map pretty quick and painless. The first places you'll want to discover are airports, so you can steal planes and get around local areas easily.

This is one of the best games I've played in a long time, simply because there is so much to see and do, and although the storyline is pretty light, it's pretty entertaining. And some of the stuff your character says sometimes is pretty hilarious...

anything that will get you lost is too big.

Getting lost is part of the fun, which makes a game feel like a world...

...find out what you were supposed to do.

Rather than following a linear storyline along, a walled in path, doing what you are "supposed" to do...

 

[LilithSlave]

I don't think it can be too big.

But priority should go to creating content, things to do with those areas, than just create more area. A tiny game where every object can be interacted with is better than a big game where few objects can be interacted with.

I'm not a huge sandbox person myself, though.

 

[Buizel91]

Far Cry 2 was the largest game I've played.

That wasn't a good thing. It was so big I felt like I was doing absolutely nothing to the world.

You should try Jut Cause 2, that world is absolutely huge! Biggest game world i have played.

 

[Mrmac23]

I'm not bothered if your sandbox is the size of Asia with a bit of Europe tagged on, just make sure the amount of content is equal to it. All that space is useless and boring if there's nothing in it to play with.

 

[Rblade]

I don't think it can be too large if there is the option of some kind of fast travel. Either the flight point way like WoW, or things like silt striders like Morrowind.

that means you can play a game the way you want. you can roam endlessly and never feel like your in the proverbial fishing bowl, but you can also zoom from one side of the map to the other if you want to complete missions without all that boring travel, and everything in between.