''           Cool. We need more open world gameplay fans on this site. (and more WRPG lovers too) ^^

What's your personal defintions of 'freeroaming' and open world then?

And what do you think about Lafiel's idea above that open world and sandbox should be used as different terms?                    ''

Freeroaming: Being able to do different things at once within a certain area. For example The Witcher,KOTOR and Fable let you do both the main quest, side quests, mini games and other 'stuff' within their gameworld (even if it isn't an openworld).

Openworld: a huge open space where your able to go in atleast 8 different directions all the time (unless your at the end of the map ofcourse). So Sacred 2 is an openworld even if there is a mountain to the north and a river to the south since there are still enough locations to go to.

Sandbox: an area where your given a set of tools to do whatever you want. So KOTOR isn't a sandbox since everything that happens during the quests is in the script. Fable is a sandbox game since your able to kill, marry or buy whatever your want.

Just for comparison:

KOTOR: Not an openworld RPG with average freeroaming and no sandbox.

Fable: Below average openworld RPG with great freeroaming and sandbox elements.

Oblivion: Fantastic openworld RPG with lots of freeroaming but little sandbox elements.

So yes, sandbox and openworld are two different terms.

1.  I understand when some people can't write "Infinite Undiscovery", but c'mon Risen is not that hard.

2. No it's not

I thought by ty the titlte it was metal gear risen.

It seems you have put some thought into this.

Those are great definitions. I seldom see game being analyzed from this perspective even in reviews, more than briefly hinting it (like 'the game is very linear' or 'it's a huge open world where you can go whereever you want'). Sadly it even seems like people, gamers, don't think very much about it these aspects that I find very important. They just react if a game is super linear and scripted (like Call of Duty), but they don't give the credit that the developers earn for making games with lots of freedom. Well, they don't give enough credit.

I'm not saying Im totally against linear gameplay, because obviously it often works and sometimes it's even needed in a game, or part of a game. It's just that developers seem to get away too easily by choosing the easy route by designing heavily scripted corridoors, compared to the devs who put so much hard work into freedom gameplay elements.

You want to be punished don't you ? xD

I like your description of Oblivion.

On the Elder Scrolls forum there's a lot of talk going on about the sandbox aspect for the next Elder Scrolls. Seems like many fans are asking for and suggesting many sandbox elements, such as the ability to marry. There's hundreds and hundreds of suggestions over there. It's my wish too, that the next Elder Scrolls would become the ultimate sandbox RPG (while still having huge landmass, open world and freeroaming of course).

Hmm... bummer. I want them to try to be Oblivion even if it's very hard on a studio's resources. But Im a big fan of Fable too, and a good story is often a good game. And so far graphicswise Risen looks really good. Hopefully it's a big and long game.

That's what I'm hoping for too, but I know it won't the the ultimate sandbox since it hardly is one right now but maybe they can slowly add more sandbox elements to the serie. The best part fo sandbox elements is that you don't have to do them. Being able to actually buy houses in Oblivion was a step in the right direction but for TES5 I'm hoping for more houses and that your able to buy/trade people out of their houses (unless they are still part of an active or upcomming quest) similiar like in Fable. Being able to go to back to a house of your choice after an adventure would be great. And to add to their living and breathing world concept they could add mini games to play in bars and have repeatable jobs such as hunting deer. You wouldn't have to do them but the fact that they are there (and done by the NPCs aswell) helps make the world more believable.

Rising as in MGS : Rising?

or Rising as in Risen ?

MGS is on PS3 but Risen is not. i don't think these guys have the money to start developing on the PS3.

the Xbox is like the PC so , if one developed on PC then he can freely port it on Xbox , but PS3. no.

The character models look last gen