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[Buggy Loop]

The reason why open worlds are as big as an ocean, but as deep as a pool is not due to hardware limitations. It's due to developer choices.
Wasting player time with nonsensical trekking is a way to pad play time. Or worse, a way to force the player to waste money in mounts and micro-transactions.
It's not difficult to create a huge open world. Even in the 90s, there were games with huge worlds.
The difficult part is to fill that world with interesting things for the player to do.
That takes a lot of time, talent and effort, to create characters, quests, activities that are fun to play.
But most devs just fill it with repetitive grind.

From memory, Elden Ring and Tears of the Kingdom have been the only open world games this generation that I've found interesting. Most other open world titles have been the same boring shit that I spend a couple of hours playing and then drop them.

It's the difference between making an open world with made by hand points of interests that attract player to go explore and a neat terrain generator with copy paste camps/buildings that serve no purposes

Worst offender being Starfield planets in recent memory

 

[MSduderino]

Worst offender being Starfield planets in recent memory

Add AC Shadows to that list, as SJRB said. It's impressive world recreation, but an absolute snoozefest with nothing interesting to do.

 

[Danjin44]

For me good open world game needs nice interaction and fun traversal.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Add AC Shadows to that list, as SJRB said. It's impressive world recreation, but an absolute snoozefest with nothing interesting to do.

Yea didn't even bother to try it because I already know i would waste my money

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Erdtree does this.
I want that but.....


BIGGER! Sorry OP

 

[IAmRei]

Yakuza or Like a Dragon style maybe? It's not big. But very dense and packed with lot of things.

 

[Hudo]

For me good open world game needs nice interaction and fun traversal.

It's ironic how no bespoke superhero game had the same kind of awesome feeling and just fun traversal Gravity Rush had. Who knows, maybe that fucking Iron Man game EA are wasting their resources on will have something that can come close.

 

[digital_ghost]

Next Gen is going to be more about GAAS, GAAS and more GAAS.

We need peptobismo to save us.

 

[genesisblock]

GTA V which had worse physics than IV? Sure?

Sony games make hand over fist cash with pretty graphics and outclass the Crysis, Refd faction and FEAR of this world. How much you think crysis sold? Hint not that much.

*Ahem? Red Dead Redemption 2? And even if we stick with GTAV alone. It still beats out all the AAA titles and greatly outsold them. So, of the biggest AAA title in the world uses physics, why hasn't the rest of the industry follow suit.

 

[The Cockatrice]

This. BG3 is a huge game with 0 bloat.

Im suprised but not really by the amount of likes this post got. I get it, its cool to like BG3, but this is just not true. ACT 3 is a massive waste of time, with tons of npc's that have cutscenes just for one dialog lmao, among other things. Ofc it's not as bad as an Ubisoft game, but it aint bloat free.

 

[Paasei]

Rather have better A.I. and more interesting quests/missions. The open worlds today are big enough. Would love a better mix between interiors and outdoor, though. The megablock in Night City for example and some giant corpo skyscrapers. Imagine what there is to find if you could explore multiple/all floors of those.

 

[Landr300]

I think you guys are going to get crazy when you finally realize that there won't be any real next gen because moore law is dead and would be too expensive and risky

Will need a lot of shrinks, the level of denial its unimaginable, buzz lightyear like

 

[wafflecioccy]

After GTA6,I hope the entire industry moves on from this hyper realistic hyper detailed ambition because everyone should know nothing will come close to that!

Never going to happen. If anything, its success would compel studios to aim for that level of fidelity.

 

[Kerotan]

Yeah we've been getting extended longer worlds for a few gens now. We want girth, we want to be able to feel the experience.

 

[Buggy Loop]

*Ahem? Red Dead Redemption 2? And even if we stick with GTAV alone. It still beats out all the AAA titles and greatly outsold them. So, of the biggest AAA title in the world uses physics, why hasn't the rest of the industry follow suit.

RDR 2 is the reference of simulation details and living world, not physics.

Peoples nailing a railroad isn't physics, it's OCD animators.

What was special about RDR2 physics, do tell. Rather than just throw titles in the ring, tell us with a detailed post what RDR2 physics did to gaming

 

[RoboFu]

graphics graphics graphics .... what a boring future.

 

[CGNoire]

RDR 2 is the reference of simulation details and living world, not physics.

Peoples nailing a railroad isn't physics, it's OCD animators.

What was special about RDR2 physics, do tell. Rather than just throw titles in the ring, tell us with a detailed post what RDR2 physics did to gaming

I think euphoria makes shooting people vastly more fun.

 

[sloppyjoe_gamer]

I feel like so much of this gen so far has been wasted on GAAS and live service games, that any talk of next gen at this point (while good to have) is pointless. We need (IMO) 2-3 yrs of some solid single player titles still. Astro and Death Stranding 2 should not be the only major ones so far in PS5's life cycle, but here we are. Cuckman's 300 LOU remakes don't count for shit. I can't even potentially think about a PS6 release before 2028.

 

[Buggy Loop]

I think euphoria makes shooting people vastly more fun.

It is for sure

Like I'm not trying to say either that there's no modern games that don't focus more on what OP posted, but its pretty much all been done before on vastly slower machines so when devs are neglecting it, its not a processing power thing, its a studio decision.

Euphoria is a nice animation toolkit so physics is a bit of a stretch, but previous iteration of euphoria used in GTA IV and the first RDR too on PS3/360 level hardware.

Hardware has little to do with it, most devs just don't give a shit.

 

[thismeinteil]

Completely agree. It seems like with open world games are in a competition for who has the biggest world. But who cares who has the biggest world if that world is just empty and not very interesting? And the larger you make your world, the harder it is to make it interesting and filled with compelling characters and non-repetitive things to do.

There's also the fact that when you get into the open world in those games it can just be daunting. A lot of times people are like "Jesus do I really have to explore this all of this world and remember where everything is?"

Honestly, I would prefer for open worlds to shrink a little and become more dense with more world building activities and characters. A lot of times it just stops me from completing a game whose world is just that big. I really enjoyed the hour or so I was playing a Kingdoms of Amalur, but when I started looking up a playthrough and just seeing how vast the world was, I ended up not playing much more of it.

I mean one of these maps would have been enough, especially when you realize how big they are because you're not moving that much on the map as you traverse. And if memory serves me right, there's more than just these three areas.

 

[diffusionx]

You don't need better hardware to make a game like this. This is why people like immersive sims. A game like Mankind Divided had one tiny map but was very in-depth. Hell, Ultima 7 came out in 1991 and basically followed this model.

The giant iconshit map plays well to the market and it seems like that is waht certain devs know.

 

[samoilaaa]

You don't need better hardware to make a game like this. This is why people like immersive sims. A game like Mankind Divided had one tiny map but was very in-depth. Hell, Ultima 7 came out in 1991 and basically followed this model.

The giant iconshit map plays well to the market and it seems like that is waht certain devs know.

mankind divided has so many worthy secrets scattered around the map

 

[Zacfoldor]

I want more worlds like Fable 1 and less open worlds.

I want more rpgs to be like Fable 1 and less to be like Skyrim or Assassin's Creed.

This man is an underappreciated genius. This man is the western Kojima. We hate and try to destroy each other in the west when we see someone else do good, so this man never got the legacy he deserved. He should be running Microsoft right now.

I'm tired of pretending this man wasn't a gaming genius. I loved every second of every game of his I've ever played and remember them fondly. If I had a home in gaming I think I would choose Fable 1. It's one of the few rpgs I've played thru multiple times and for no good reason and never got tired of it.

 

[wafflecioccy]

A game like Mankind Divided had one tiny map but was very in-depth.

Pretty sure it had a lot more than a tiny map

 

[GymWolf]

For me good open world game needs nice interaction and fun traversal.

Yep, fun, skill based traversal should be a must in every open world where you don't use real veichles.

But very few do.

 

[wafflecioccy]

Yep, fun, skill based traversal should be a must in every open world where you don't use real veichles.

But very few do.

because too many games try to be realistic

 

[GymWolf]

because too many games try to be realistic

Even the non-realistic one fail miserably, and they are really the majority.
And when we get a fun traversal systems sometimes the game is mediocre like forspoken, atlas fallen, dying light 2 or attack on titan 2 (although i had some fun with all of them because of the traversal).

Fun traversal is straigh up one of the reason why i love open worlds.

 

[wafflecioccy]

Even the non-realistic one fail miserably, and they are really the majority.
And when we get a fun traversal systems sometimes the game is mediocre like forspoken, atlas fallen, dying light 2 or attack on titan 2 (although i had some fun with all of them because of the traversal).

Yeah i'm not jumping out of my chair to play those and probably wouldn't even play them for $5

 

[GymWolf]

Yeah i'm not jumping out of my chair to play those and probably wouldn't even play them for $5

Titan 2 is pretty fun if you like the anime, combat and traversal are 1:1 and controls are great, honestly there is no reason to not play the game if you like the manga, and on hard it offer a decent challenge.

Maybe i was a bit too severe calling these games mediocre, they are all on the 6-7\10 realm, they all have some redeeming qualities.

 

[wafflecioccy]

Titan 2 is pretty fun if you like the anime, combat and traversal are 1:1 and controls are great, honestly there is no reason to not play the game if you like the manga, and on hard it offer a decent challenge.

Maybe i was a bit too severe calling these games mediocre, they are all on the 6-7\10 realm, they all have some redeeming qualities.

I never watched Attack on Titan so.

 

[Team Skoda]

I agree OP. I felt that Dragon's Dogma 2 was a step in that direction, but wasn't the full step it needed. (It was a big step in comparison to the first one). It felt that every little book and cranny had something of interest, but still could've been executed better.

And as a lover of open world games, "bigger is better" mentality is now more a turn off with what little time I have to game.

And going to go ahead and be devils advocate and say, Elden Ring was too damn big and sapped the fun of exploration half the time due to girth. I would probably even decline playing a sequel that would be even larger. Lol

 

[tr1p1ex]

It would take more development time which costs more $$$ and needs to be made up with higher games prices given the market for these games isn't growing.

 

[Abysse]

Why not both?

 

[Walliwallipaloo]

All the companies gonna be broke AF by "next-gen," man. Games are gonna get worse, not better. Bank on it.

You're going to get more of what they want to make: endless kill-die-respawn "multiplayer" slop buoyed with a skins marketplace. That's the future you helped them to build. The bed is made, now sleep.

 

[The Fartist]

Wanna see rich, living futuristic worlds like this that are also dense, explorable and interactive:

 

[Kronark]

I can't disagree more with the OP and it's this kind of thinking that's killing the industry.

Density might be technically impressive but what aspect of that makes games more fun or engaging? Content alone means nothing unless there's reasons to engage with it. What's the point of being able to explore every inch of a city map if there's just apartment after apartment full of couches, tvs, and beds? Do you need to see what every kitchen looks like? Is going into 100 apartments to find the 1 special easter egg apartment worth it? Do you need to role play walking into a fast food joint and buying a hamburger? Do we need convenience stores to be functional in game? Is having more side quests better if none of those side quests are telling interesting stories?

You could maybe argue immersion but it gets to the point where it's just diminishing returns on dev time. There are much better ways to set tone / atmosphere and make you feel like part of the world. I don't think Cyberpunk 2077 would be a better game if you could go inside every building, unless there was hand crafted relevant content to find in most of those buildings. I'd argue the whole problem with large scale worlds today is that they feel soulless at times because it just takes so much work to flesh them out. They feel big for the sake of being big. I don't think more detail helps create that context. The gaming industry has been ruined by this consistent push for more, more, more! More graphics, more collectibles, more map, more stuff.. Does any of this make most of these games significantly better? No. It just lets me hit a point where I get bored 75% of the way in and drop the game and these games already take 7-8 years to develop.

Imagine if the movie industry operated this way. Hey we made a sequel to your favourite movie and it's got 80% more scenes / screen time! Sure there's a chance that maybe every new minute of footage is amazing... But it's more likely your movie is now full of an hour of bullshit. Get an editor, cut it down, cut the bloat, and focus your product into the best version of itself. Game devs can't do this when they're struggling to fill the world with stuff as is. There's no budget to cut the bad content when you're struggling to even fill the world to begin with. AAA developers need to scale back into more reasonable budgets / timelines, focus more on core gameplay loops, experiment more to set themselves apart, set aside budget for failures / flops, and stop trying to be other games. This cold war arms race to market that your game has '40% more stuff' means fuck all when I get bored and stop playing your game 40% of the way through.

 

[Kenpachii]

Biggest problem next gen will face is development times. U will be lucky to have 1 native PS6 game from every studio in that generation. And that will happen most likely at the complete end of the generation.

 

[Quantum253]

"Faster loading times and streaming:
While the SSD in current-generation consoles already helps with loading times, the next generation's advancements will further optimize the streaming of assets, allowing for even larger and more seamless open worlds."

The PS5 advanced NVMe speeds were sold, not only as virtually eliminating load times, but advancing game development and mechanics that have never been possible until now. Still waiting for this, unless someone has a good example of how the ultra-fast ssd has changed mechanics/development ( i realize there are some architectural bottle-necks for datastreaming, but it is still significantly faster than hybrid/mechanical throughput)

 

[Tg89]

Next gen needs to have less open worlds.

It won't though because it's an effective buzz phrase and saying "there's 3000 hours of gameplay and it's the biggest map ever" pushes copies, even if those 3000 hours are Ubisoft trash.

 

[SILKYSMOOTH30FPS]

A much denser geometry detail is the one thing that i'd like most for next gen. Followed by proper physics because i am tired of shooting at something as basic as a bottle, and not see it blow up. Lastly, massive improvement in ai, especially in slower paced games. But this won't sell games. What will is to tell everyone that your new game is 5 times bigger than the previous one, so i don't expect anything to change for next gen. Quality devs like Larian will continue creating worlds packed with the good shit, while the worthless ones will keep delivering the "our game is 10 times bigger. Please applaud".

 

[Polygonal_Sprite]

The ultra hand abilities in Tears of the Kingdom and animal transformation abilities in Donkey Kong Bonanza along with the physics systems in TotK and world destruction in DKB have more new ideas and innovation than the entire PS4+5 generations combined.