I have to agree on Just Cause 2. I remember hearing all the marvellous things about this brilliantly large world but in the end it's just a massive waste. More time should have been focussed on improving the missions rather than trying to get the game as big as possible.
when is a game world too big?
- Thread starter LWS666
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I think it's easy for developers to fall into this trap. I found Fallout 3's world to be vast, but ugly and unengaging. The same goes for Mass Effect's (first one) planets (with the exception of the mission-specific ones) and the original Mercenaries.
Contrast that with Vice City, which had a small (in comparison with some of what we see today) game world, but one that was perfectly designed, with no space wasted. San Andreas I probably liked even more with respect to the layout of the world, though I think it's size adversely affected the unity and feel of the game...
Overall, I think that while fitting a lot of content into a open world is really important, what makes it is creating the impression that it's a real living world with, hypothetically at least, its own culture, politics and economy - not just a big dull hike in the country.
Contrast that with Vice City, which had a small (in comparison with some of what we see today) game world, but one that was perfectly designed, with no space wasted. San Andreas I probably liked even more with respect to the layout of the world, though I think it's size adversely affected the unity and feel of the game...
Overall, I think that while fitting a lot of content into a open world is really important, what makes it is creating the impression that it's a real living world with, hypothetically at least, its own culture, politics and economy - not just a big dull hike in the country.
indeed, that is a fucking retarded complaint, good job tommy!EightGaugeHippo said:
personally, though it needed some friendly npcs who actually did something, borderlands had a good map.
Damn Furburt, you ninj'd what I was going to say >=|
Well yeah, as I was going to say was, it can be as big as it wants, just so long as most of it isn't empty. Just Cause 2 was just a little bit empty, but I have a fair ammount of patience, so it's not a real problem for me.
Well yeah, as I was going to say was, it can be as big as it wants, just so long as most of it isn't empty. Just Cause 2 was just a little bit empty, but I have a fair ammount of patience, so it's not a real problem for me.
I think fallout 3's game world was a good size(maby if bit bigger), but if it had more stuff to fill most of the wilderness becasue most of the intersting things (quests ect) where inside towns. or a unquie way of getting around which I think is a major selling point to a sandbox game since in fallout you can only walk.
Just Cause 2 is way too big, but its pretty to look at in 1080p on high settings, so I forgive it for that. The towns are boring and samey though.
GTA:SA though will always be the game that did a large map best.
6mins of parasailing from a mountain that's not even the largest one.
[http://www.xfire.com/video/26acfc/]
GTA:SA though will always be the game that did a large map best.
6mins of parasailing from a mountain that's not even the largest one.
I didnt mean that in a hateful way, i meant it as "ironic humor". No need to bark at him |=(z(ombie)fan said:
It has already been said, it's not a matter of size, it's a matter of what's put into it. You could have the a game world the virtual equivalent of 5km[sub]2[/sub] so chock full of interesting shit to see and do that it's very nearly bursting at the seems; on the other hand you could have the virtual equivalent of 100km[sub]2[/sub] of copy & pasted landscapes. Now which one would you rather play in?
the world can be as big as it wants, as long as its got a lot to do in every area and getting from area to area is not a pain.
A game world is too big when you have nothing to populate it with. Look at the two True Crime games, the first Just Cause and The Getaway. Sure there was some cool stuff in the,, but most of the world was just empty and when a game world begins to be a slog to get through, then you know you've got a problem.
WoW is a great example, I dont know how much total area it has but would risk 300-400 square kilometers. Mountains, snowed cap mountains, tundra, temperate marshlands, tropical marshlands, volcanic plains, haunted forests, enchanted forests, tainted forests, pine forests, foothills, prairies, deserts, salt deserts, fiords, glaciers, jurassic jungle, alien forests, alien deserts, asteroids field, farmlands, lake areas, alien marshlands, eocene like prairies, ice age tundras, hell desert, savannah, flood plains, rain forest. Not to mention the dungeons and the battlegrounds.Scrumpmonkey said:
It's too big if there's too little variety and there aren't many fast ways of getting around it.
