Open-world

The Elder Scrolls – Skyrim

Description

Two hundred years after the events described in Oblivion, the continent of Tamriel is in turmoil. The Emperor’s throne remained without heir; the Blades, Empire’s elite guards, have been disassembled; elven nations began capturing territory from the Empire. The assassination of the King of Skyrim, Tamriel’s Northern-most province and home of the Nord race, led to a civil war between those who wish independence for Skyrim and those who wanted it to remain under the Empire’s control.

A prisoner is brought to a small town, awaiting execution for alleged involvement with the Stormcloaks, a group that was founded by the king’s assassin Ulfric Stormcloak. Just before the executioner’s axe lands on the prisoner’s neck, a dragon attacks the city, forcing most people to flee. The unexpected freedom leads the ex-prisoner into the snowy Skyrim, where the rumors of the dragon begin to circulate. …

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Prototype

Description

Alex Mercer has a problem or a gift – depending on the view. Thanks to a virus in his system he has several deadly powers and can change his appearance into any person he consumes which basically means the same thing as brutally killing the person he wants to be. Of course Alex didn’t voluntarily get this “enhancement”. Instead he was part of a genetic experiment at a company called Gentek. Having lost his memory about what exactly happened, he is now both looking for vengeance as well as his past. The second specimen, Elizabeth Green, on the other hand meanwhile infects more and more parts of Manhattan Island with a transmutation of the virus which converts people either into mindless zombies or brutal monsters.

Prototype is an open-world game similar to Grand Theft Auto IV where the player controls Alex through a 3rd-person-view. He is able to freely roam about Manhattan Island with iconic scenery like Central Park and Times Square. But instead of stealing cars and mugging old ladies, Alex feels more like going the Spider-Man route. By sprinting against a wall, he is able to climb and jump up to the roof fast. Thanks to his supernatural jump ability and his invulnerability to falling damage, he can then traverse the city from above instead of making his way through rush hour. Of course monsters like hunters as well as the military have the means to reach him even up there. To defend himself, Alex has several powers at his disposal. He can lift heavy objects and throw them at enemies, making it easy to take down even a full-blown helicopter. He also has the already mentioned ability to shape shift into any person he manages to grab and consume. When done without being seen, it removes the heat from Alex and will, just as hiding does, eventually put his human pursuers back to sleep. The monsters on the other hand will keep at him. It also enables him to enter areas he couldn’t access before. Other powers include claws, a shield, fists like boulders that make for a good punch and powerful lash. At any time Alex can only use one of those powers and he has to unlock them first. This is done by investing the evolution points he gains for killing enemies and fulfilling objectives into upgrades. …

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Fuel

Description

FUEL is a free-world racing game. Players can explore a 14.000 km² area of Northern America after the effects of global warming took place, rendering it desolate with abandoned cities, broken vehicles and almost no survivors. The goal is to win races, which provides fuel that can be exchanged for new vehicles. The game world is divided in nineteen separate zones that need to be unlocked by collecting stars – provided through winning career races. Up to 75 different types of vehicles can be unlocked during the course of the game. The vehicles can be modified with paint jobs and liveries.

Besides the regular career races, which are restricted to a specific vehicle class like ATV, buggy or motorbike, challenges are another event type in the game. These include for example chasing a helicopter through the terrain or trying to touch other vehicles within a given time limit. Next to the races and challenges that can be accessed right away, the game also offers the ability to drive freely in each of the zones to explore the environment. This is further encouraged by having to locate new liveries, vista points, and doppler trucks that show the locations of all items. The terrain is dense and the appropriate vehicle needs to be selected to explore freely. There are many extreme weather effects, such as pouring rain, snow, thunder storms and even hurricanes. …

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Just Cause 2

Description

Rico Rodriguez is back! After liberating the small Island of San Esperito, the CIA-agent is on his way to the island paradise Panau to find a former colleague: Agent Tom Sheldon. During an undercover-investigation, he vanishes and with him two million dollars. Money, the Agency desperately wants back, especially as they believe that Tom changed sides. So Rico has to infiltrate the criminal organisations of Panau as Scorpio to flush out Tom Sheldon and bring him to justice while plunging the country into chaos – but that’s more of a bonus than a real objective…

Like its predecessor Just Cause, the game drops the player on a huge island. From the start, the whole island is open to be explored by the player in a third-person-shooter-fashion either on foot, by using several dozen different cars or even by using heavily armed helicopters and fast planes. The player is totally free to do what he wants, although that mostly breaks down to wreaking havoc and causing chaos by destroying statues, fuel tanks and other military-owned stuff. This way the player earns points which in turn progresses the story, unlocks missions and gives him access to additional stuff from the black market. In addition all over the island crates are hidden containing both money and upgrade parts. Once the black market helicopter has been called via a beacon, the player can order weapons, vehicles and even request a transfer to another location on the island for free. Weapons and vehicles on the other hand cost money and are dropped right on the spot where Rico called. They can also be improved using the upgrade parts the player collected. …

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Just Cause

Description

You are Rico Rodriguez, a CIA-agent who is sent to the small Island of San Esperito to start a revolution and bring down the current regime under the rule of General Salvador Mendoza.

After you jumped out of the airplane and helped your local contact survive an attack by gang members, you have – much like GTA: San Andreas – the freedom to do what you want. The complete island is accessible from the beginning and you can either follow the main storyline, engage in side-missions, or collect items all over the place. To help the revolution you can also drive the government out of the individual sectors on the island. This is accomplished by a three-stages fight in which you have to go up against a huge army of government forces.

As a fully trained agent, Rico can also perform many stunts. He has always an parachute equipped which he can open whenever he has enough speed. So he often uses cars or bikes as a jump-pad and then sails smoothly into the sunset. …

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Driver – Parallel Lines

Description

Driver: Parallel Lines is the fourth game in the Driver series, following the story of TK. In 1978, TK (who was then an 18-year-old driver-for-hire who had just graduated from high school) was sentenced to 28 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, and is released from prison in 2006. Now, with his driving skills, he seeks revenge against the police department for having to serve time for something someone else should’ve gone to prison for!

Unlike Driv3r, Driver: Parallel Lines mostly takes place behind the wheel, returning back to the formula that made the first game a classic. The game still has a GTA-style open-ended design, though, and you can still exit your vehicle for some on-foot action. However, there’s no reason to exit your vehicle unless it’s damaged and you can no longer drive it, as almost all of the game’s missions involve cop car chases. If that’s the case, then you can either go to the repair shop to repair your vehicle, or just steal someone else’s vehicle! Until then, you can punch the cops with your fists and steal their weapons when they’re dead, so that you can use them for future on-foot combat. …

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