Some advice for open-ended games.

[Excalibur Bane]

Well, after logging nearly 600 hours playing Oblivion, I find the other games in my collection are sorely lacking in freeform play. I've got a distinct craving for games with open ended gameplay. Can any of you recommend any games? Past or present are fine. As long as they can still be bought somewhere. I found an old favorite that has been remade. Star Control 2 was an excellent game for it's day. The source code has been released and it's now fully functional under the title Ur-Quan masters. Not sure if any of you have played it, but this new version is easily as good as the old and you should check it out if your a fan. A pity nobody did the same for Starflight.

Anyway, I'd appreciate some good recommendations. I have no particular preference for genre. I tend to like any game, aside from sports or hunting ones. I would load up SH3 but it's not really freeform per say. No matter how many ships you sink, it has no effect on the war effort. It's simply an illusion of freeform. Maybe the fourth entry will remedy that problem. Anyway, thanks in advance! :)

[Deathblow]

I used to play Eve-online. Its a MMOPG out of Iceland based on Scifi space warfare and corporation building. Not really a twitched based, but more tatical strategy warfare. It was pretty "open-ended" with about 5000 different starsystems, 75 thousand+ subscribers and around 15-20 thousand online at anytime.

Problem is that like most MMOs, no matter how deep and rich a background/environment they create 99% of the playerbased don't roleplay. Most of the player to player interaction is via chatrooms where the topics are usually OT spam like beer, jobs, wives, etc. The battlescenes are rarely epic, but instead are more like rapid/instant obliteration of one side or the other, and most player "guilds" insist on communication via TeamSpeak at all times with pretty much yanks anyone out of character/immersion no matter how hard you try.

eve-online.com is the website if you want to no more. I quit because the game wasn't worth the subscription cost, though I might play it if it were free.

[GreyOctober]

Knights Of the Old Republic (I and II) if you like the Star Wars universe. Good gameplay and 2 endings.

Cheers!

[August]

I second the recommendation for Eve. One of the things i like about it is that there are literally hundreds of ways to play and there is no one "uber" ship/setup. No matter how you fit out whatever ship you operate there is always a way to defeat it with the proper combination of modules, therefore thought and tactics are important.

[Excalibur Bane]

Well, I already have both KOTOR games. Played them to death, with and without mods. I tried the EVE trial awhile back, I got invited. I didn't find the game all that great. There is a great deal of timesinks. Not to mention the fact that the presence of people always make things unpleasant.

I've definately had my fill of MMOGs for some time. Be nice if they had some more sci-fi roleplaying games around. They seem to be in short supply. I can't figure out why for the life of me. The Mechwarrior series is a good example, contrary to the PC games released thus far, they are not true Mechwarrior games as Mechwarrior is a rules system for a fairly robust RPG pen and paper game that's been around for awhile. Infocom made a couple games back in the 80s around them but nobody has bothered since. I suppose with the stellar failure of bad games like Restricted Area, publishers aren't quick to accept sci-fi RPGs. :(

Oh, well. Maybe I'll try to squeeze a few hundred more hours out of X3.

[TLAM Strike]

Simple, expandable, addictive:Escape Velocity: Nova (http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn)

[kiwi_2005]

World of Warcraft MMORG
Silent hunter 3 :P well its practically freeform

[bradclark1]

I don't understand "Freeform". :doh:

[kiwi_2005]

I don't understand "Freeform".

It means you can do or go practically anywhere in the game or another way of putting it, Its not too scripted: eg Starwars Repubic Commando just finsihed it today and it was very scripted: Move to point A clear out enemies, move to point B and repeat. but a hell of a tense shooter - command 3 other elite clones like yourself, save the wookkies, infiltrate enemy structures. Reminded me of Halo. I actually brought it for my son, but i couldn't get away from it. :-j

[blue3golf]

I'm still playing hearts of Iron II. I like the idea of being able to do anything, from allying with anyone to what I'm goin to produce and research. Only script is the random historical events, and those only happen if you follow history.

[TteFAboB]

X-com/X-com:Terror from the Deep if you can run them on XP, with the edit-everything editors.

Jagged Alliance 2 with the v1.13 mod.

Sid Meyer's Pirates! 2 whatever it's called, or Pirates of the Caribbean with the major improvement mod which turns the game into Pirates! with a small map.

Mount&Blade, not much gameplay yet because it's still in Beta.

Rome: Total War with the mod of your choice, but never vanilla, I suggest EB or wait for RTR7.

Fable: The Lost Chapters, it's plenty scripted, the world is tiny, and you will finish it very quickly if you don't stop, take it nice and slow and enjoy yourself, but there are freedoms here and there, and like KOTOR, there's always a choice between Good and Evil.

X3 you already tried. HoI-II was already suggested, for a "son's game" that can get you addicted, you can try Worms 4, though it's a multiplayer game, you need to play with "the son" or convince him to let you play with him and his friends. :D

Did you ever played F4? If not, go buy and play F4:AF, or any other installment of F4, just to check the campaign. It has the best campaign engine by all standards I have ever tried, in many years. It's worth it just to see it if you never touched it before, though be warned, the experience will dumb down and minimize every other campaign system out there.

We are lacking games of this kind, too many gamers simply want a quick fun session instead of diving deep into a game, gladly, I hope Mount&Blade will prove a game can be deep and freeform and still entertain the quick action gang. I suppose if Worms 4 had a strategic map it would suit them too for massive sales and potentially add some sort of freeform RTS game.

Keep your eyes on the Silent Storm franchise, it is said the next version will feature and open-ended campaign map much like that of Jagged Alliance 2 in concept.

[Sulikate]

Knights Of the Old Republic (I and II) if you like the Star Wars universe. Good gameplay and 2 endings.

Cheers!
I like these :up:

[Godalmighty83]

iam currently playing a lot of x3:reunion. if you do get it install the latest patches before playing. its a space sim a little akin to eve but single player.

currently playing with the xtended m7 mod.

[Wim Libaers]

I would also recommend Jagged Alliance 2, and Fallout if you can find it.

Other flightsims with a dynamic campaign are the Enemy Engaged series (both are worth having, the maps of the first can be imported into the second), and MiG Alley. Both also have a community of modders, and source code available, but they're not as complex as F4 (which could be an advantage or a disadvantage).

There is also Vegastrike, and a few Privateer remakes based on the Vegastrike engine. (Privateer Gemini Gold and Privateer remake). They're space shooter games where you choose your own path. All three are free.

[kiwi_2005]

Dont know if your into stratedgy games but i just brought 'LOTR Battle for Middle Earth II' and its brilliant! A much improvement to No1, now ya can build walls! :D 3 campaigns the 3rd being a type of Total war gameplay, skirmish missions an easy to use editor and of course, online which i haven't tried yet.

[Excalibur Bane]

I would also recommend Jagged Alliance 2, and Fallout if you can find it.

Other flightsims with a dynamic campaign are the Enemy Engaged series (both are worth having, the maps of the first can be imported into the second), and MiG Alley. Both also have a community of modders, and source code available, but they're not as complex as F4 (which could be an advantage or a disadvantage).

There is also Vegastrike, and a few Privateer remakes based on the Vegastrike engine. (Privateer Gemini Gold and Privateer remake). They're space shooter games where you choose your own path. All three are free.

Are you kidding me? I own both Fallout games. Those are the best RPGs ever, bar none. They simply kick ass. Now that Bethesda has the license it will be interesting to see what they intend to do with it. The graphics engine from Oblivion would make a good starting point.

I tried some of the Privateer remakes but they are still pretty rough around the edges. I'm going to wait for them to mature a bit. Not sure about the flight sims. I generally like them entertaining vs realistic and complex. Thanks for the advice though.

I appreciate everyone's recommendations. Thanks all! :)

[OneShot]

Well the KoTOR are not really freeform/openended but are nevertheless great to play and give you many hours of playing. Along this line I can heartily recommend Vampire - The Masquerade : Bloodlines, which is a RPG based on the HL2 engine and has a great story. 3 different endings and some interesting clans you can belong to ... for example the Malkavians.