Can anybody Recommend an Open-world RPG?

jakebaker13

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Sorry for opening up two threads in as many days, but after playing the extremely linear Dragon Age: Origins I feel I want to have some fun in a sandbox. I already ordered Mount and Blade because it was dirt cheap, but I was wondering if anybody could steer me in the direction of another good title. (I've previously roamed around stealing stuff in Morrowind and I have played Oblivion already, so that takes those two out of the picture unless somebody can give me a good reason to go and play through Morrowind's story quest.)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
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If your willing to go back in time here are a few of the best ones I've played: Arcanum, Betrayal at Krondor, Fallout 1, 2 and New Vegas(of course) and Gothic 1 - 3 (3 with the CP).
 
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Gothic 2 is a fantastic game, one of the best imo. You might want to start with Gothic 1 first though.

"CP" means community patch.
 
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Gothic 2 with NotR is nigh impeccable for most of its duration.
Playing Gothic 1 beforehand is highly recommended for continuity purposes (bro aspect especially, heh), plus in some areas G1 is better (dungeons, puzzles, tighter and more unique story) than G2.

What does CP mean?
Community patch, downloadable from here. Playing Gothic 3 with it is a must.
Even with it, the game doesn´t touch the two previous titles though, some of its flaws are simply too fundamental (shallow characters, at times tedious combat, repetitive quests). World design/look and faction system are quite admirable, character development rather complex (with CP) and the game is by far the most open ended of the three, so it´s certainly worth a try, but I definitely wouldn´t recommend it as an introduction to the series.
 
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I think there's a thread around here somewhere about running them in Win 7 64bit.

Regarding the expansions, Night of the Raven adds a lot to Gothic 2, but also makes it even more challenging. Some people found G2 to be overly difficult with NotR installed. I personally find G2+NotR to be one of my favorite crpgs.

The expansion for Gothic 3 is a seperate standalone game.
 
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Also with Gothic 2 and 3. would it be advisable to play through the game first without the expansions?
Stay away from G3´s expansion, it´s as abysmal as it gets.

G2´s expansion (add-in actually) is exactly the opposite.
Imo, vanilla G2 is slightly worse than G1 and it´s the expansion which turns the tables and make it really shine.
If you´ll play G1 beforehand, I see no reason why you shouldn´t play G2 with NotR right away. Just don´t play as a mage - this class is quite difficult to utilize effectively if you don´t know the game well and might prove more tedious than fun to play.
 
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Okay the Gothics are fairly cheap. Anybody have any problems running them on 64 bit Windows 7?

Also with Gothic 2 and 3. would it be advisable to play through the game first without the expansions?

Be aware that the Gothics are not really mainstream. The controls have a learning curve, ca. 3 * 5 minutes if you know to ignore the manual and look into JemyM's FAQ right away. Intuition won't help you. ;) Plus the Gothics are hard games. Simply hacking through them is impossible.
Since I remember you're coming from consoles: Several people posted that Gothic's controls work fine if they're mapped to a gamepad. So this might be the way to go.

The safer choice would be to start with Risen. It's very similar to the first two Gothics, just a bit streamlined with better tech and intuitive controls. If you enjoy Risen you can make up your mind if you want the real thing with a bit more depth and are willing to deal with the few obstacles in the way.

The Gothic 3 CP is a must. Pretend the add-on doesn't exist.
G3 is still a flawed game, but with the CP it's quite decent. And it still has its biggest plus: the best world ever built in an RPG.

edit: Yes, play Risen if you already have it. Tweak the visuals, the stuff in the menu is very conservative.
 
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Risen is a fun game, and of course its more advanced, graphics wise than the Gothics. G3 actually also still looks fine today, but its quite a resource hog. G1 and 2 visuals are aging a bit now, but they have the most "soul" of all of Piranha Bytes games, and I can only highly, highly recommend them. Invest that hour to master the controls - its SO worth it (IMHO, of course). I'd recommend playing G1 and G2 two in that order.
 
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My recommendations:
- Might & Magic 6
- Arcanum
- Divine Divinity
- Ultima 7
- Ultima 5: Lazarus and Ultima 6 mods of Dungeon Siege
- Gothic 1-2-3 with latest community patch
- Risen
- Fallout: New Vegas
- Dungeon Lords CE
- Sacred 1 and 2 (but too much hack&slash)
- Two Worlds 1 and 2 (especially the second one)

You said you had played Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 1-2-3. So, I removed them from my list.
 
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If you own Oblivion for pc, then I suggest the total conversion mod made for it, Nehrim. Nehrim takes advantage of the leaps that modders have made with vanilla Oblivion and added them to a new worldspace. This mod is absolutely huge. It's full-game sized and will eat up a 100 hours easily. Best of all, it only costs the bandwidth it takes to download it.
 
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If you own Oblivion for pc, then I suggest the total conversion mod made for it, Nehrim. Nehrim takes advantage of the leaps that modders have made with vanilla Oblivion and added them to a new worldspace. This mod is absolutely huge. It's full-game sized and will eat up a 100 hours easily. Best of all, it only costs the bandwidth it takes to download it.

Is it a reletively easy mod to install/uninstall? I only have a very rudimentary knowledge of how mods work. (I just switched from consoles.)

Edit: I just watched a trailer for it... and I didn't see subtitles. Is that an option? A total conversion of Oblivion has me very intrigued.
 
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I think I will have to give Nehrim a shot. Aside from the monotony of the main quest I quite enjoyed my time spent playing the game. (Oblivion, that is.) I know I am in the minority here at least in that regard but to each his own I guess. The Nehrim Trailer looked pretty epic… even if I don't understand German.
 
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Yes, everything main-quest related has been translated. You will find an occasional note or book that isn't converted yet, but you can finish the game for sure, in English.
 
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Regarding the Gothics and Risen - definitely hard games. If you're having trouble, do NOT shy away from the easy setting. Also, beware of wild pigs. One boar from Pirranha Bytes could take down two grizzly bears in most games!
 
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