What is the best sandbox game for this generation so far?

[joshin69]

rocketpig said:

Bethesda games are NOT sandbox games. They're clearly RPGs. Sandbox=action game with open world roaming abilities.

You start tossing RPGs in there and then you have to start arguing the merits of Fable, every BioWare game (which are actually more sandbox-y than Bethesda), and most WRPGs.

Anyway, my vote would probably go to Crackdown. An immensely fun game to wreak havoc. I just played The Saboteur, which I think I preferred to GTA IV. I'll have to mull that over for a bit.

From Wikipedia

(Redirected from Sandbox (video games))

 video game level and design concept where players can freely roam a virtual world. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with "sandbox" and "free-roaming". Terms such as open world, sandbox and free-roaming allude to the absence of artificial barriers, in contrast to the invisible walls and "loading..." screens that are common in more linear level designs. As with a physical sandbox, the user is entertained by their ability to play creatively, boundless of artificial structural constraints, and with there being "no right way" of playing the game. However, many open world games still enforce restrictions at some points in the game environment, either due to absolute game design limitations or temporary limitations imposed by a game's linearity."

With in this page Oblivion is mentioned by name. But even if I were to concede that sandbox games are only action games with open world roaming abilities, Oblivion and fallout 3 are exactly that with elements of an RPG tacked on