Skyrim, The Witcher 3, GTA: San Andreas, GTA V, Red Dead Redemption, Assassin's Creed IV.
Skyrim, The Witcher 3, GTA: San Andreas, GTA V, Red Dead Redemption, Assassin's Creed IV.
Pull my Devil Trigger!
Oh and smurfing Mount & Blade, obvs.
Does FFXI count as open world?
ღმერთის შვილი შეეხო და მითხრა, რომ ანგელოზთა ფეხები მომეხია.
Skyrim's up there, definitely. A large world with some very evocative locations. There are, however, some areas which are a bit on the dull side.
Assassin's Creed has come up a fair bit in this thread, and now I'm going to throw in my contender: Istanbul, from Revelations. Absolutely stunning.
Borderlands 2 is also up there for me. Much more variety of environments than in the first game, and some great vistas. Some areas have a lot more character than others though, it has to be said: some are completely forgettable.
I have played all the way through Borderlands 2 (except DLC) and I would be hard-pressed to definitively remember a single zone in it, personally.
Pretty much every area from Tiny Tina's DLC is great. I wouldn't say Borderlands 2 is the best open-world game for locations (I can generally summarise them as the ice level, the sand level, etc.) but I enjoyed them. Maybe the art style has something to do with it.
Ookami, FFXIV, DA:I, Witcher 3, most Zelda titles.
I wonder if an argument could be made for Gravity Rush. I'm currently enjoying it between sessions of Horizon: Zero Dawn and a replaly of Bloodborne, and every time I touch it, I wonder why I'm not playing more of it. The world may not be open in the normal sense, but it does have large open areas you load into similar to Dragon Age: Inquisition. And it's city life, so it could be compared to running around in GTA or Saints Row in an oblong way, but there aren't a lot of shops and no vehicles or anything to compare to. There's honestly not a lot of interaction at all in the sections. But for some reason they are still damn fun to explore. A floating steam-punk city oozing with style. And there are a lot of fun little activities to enjoy if you like the gameplay mechanics themselves. I just love the characters, story, art style, and world they've created. It'll be fun to dig into the sequel when the time comes
Oblivion
GTA V
Dark Souls (in a kindof different way)
Breath of the Wild
Morrowind, because the world is thick with arcane lore and the gameplay mechanics allow you to do basically whatever you want to break the game and become a god. Wanna enchant your shoes so you're permanently flying? You can do that.
Yeah it's Morrowind.
Have to second Fallout New Vegas. It was an awesome way to loose time just running around doing stuff, and exploring all the nooks and crannies.