Depends on the game

I love a game with a good story or clear direction, if that happens to be in an open world all the better.
SotC, Dark Souls are the best examples.

The more senseless repetitive side quests the sooner I start to check out. They can still be very entertaining and temporarily addictive but in the end they leave me with an empty feeling, for example Just Cause 2, Skyrim, Kingdoms of Amalur.

Hybrids or hub based open world games are great too, Deus ex: HR and The Witcher 2, great games. As long as the balance between side quests and main story favors the latter.

There are always exceptions of course, loved FC3, got the platinum for it.

The only purpose of Just Cause 2 is to destroy things and thats it.  There no other other activity "worth" doing in that game.....you just do "Chaos". At first it kind be fun but after the first hour it becomes soooo damn boring and pointless.  The story is a piece of shit and the voice acting is even shittier, the side missions are destroy this, capture this (killing those other people), there is no other purpose in the game.   It is like playing a competitive multiplayer game offline.   This game for me is gigantic piece of crap, not even worth the disk it is on.  Thank God I did not had to buy it to realize that.

GTAIV on the other hand is much more solid game, more story driven game, and I like that a lot, and still you have other things to do outside the main story.   I need to have compelling purpose in order to have fun in the games and that is a good story for the most part.  GTAIV per-se is really good, but I still think it needs to do some things better, and get rid of other things. I enjoyed Sleeping Dogs more.

I dont like to do pointless things in games unless they have a great reason to do it within the game. 

Literally doing the exact same thing as both of you. Going outpost by outpost clearing them quietly with snipers and stealth kills then doing everything in the area. Pretty awesome shit. 

Yes I do, I think I played all of them and own all open world games (that are worth it)..

I am going to put also this one up:



It is a very good game with some nice stuff going on,  driving out of Germany into France and see Germany is invading France gave me goosebumps, turning it into a dark grey game that can be colourfull if you liberate a quarter of the city...   Much to do,  many fun things and enjoyable story missions.  I really recommend this game for who loves openworld games and don't mind blowing up Germans..

Yes, but heres the twist... I hate Rockstar games. I've had more fun playing Red Faction, Just caused, The Saboteur, Mercenaries, crackdown, Sleeping Dogs, Saints Row III and Infamous 2 than any rockstar open world game this gen.

they are right up there with JRPG'S for my favorite genre

Dead island, far cry, fallout, grand thief auto are the best!

Yeah some are great but they can easily turn out bad imo.

I liked GTA 3-VC-SA but not GTA 4
I liked Elder scrolls 3-4 but not 5
I liked Borderlands but not Borderlands 2
Fallout 3 and NV
Did not really like AC 1-2-Brotherhood
Enjoyed Infamous 1 and 2
WoW
Demon souls, Dark souls
Might try Sleeping Dogs and Just Cause 2 soon.

Do it. I thought that, for a GTA without guns not a lot could offer me, but it did. It was a great experience, between 15-30 hours of gameplay.

Sleeping dogs, GTA IV, Saints row 3, Red dead remption, infamous 2
Agree with Wright sleeping dogs was pretty good (especially when you pick up the special edition for cheaper on day one)