Cunning_Linguist on 13 December 2010
I'd say its down to what links the missions together. Strong stories and characters make open world games work, weak ones leave the games feeling like a bunch of checkpoints.
IMO games that I have played that do it well are GTA: San Andreas, AC2
Games I have played that IMO do it badly are GTA4, Oblivion
and of course there are many that fall in between but to say they are all boring is a very closed minded view.
