Spot on.

Or just build a city one house at a time before sleep, for every day that you're not drinking. Seriously, I did that and it works!

I know it's real too, and seeing the videos of the previews of how it looks...

I just wish they would basically get the core of it done and then just put it out there. Either it's going to work or not. Though Oblivion's enchanting sucked, Skyrim's seems like a nice middle-ground.

Still miss fly... and jump...

In its current state the first one is very playable. I played it earlier in 2019 and quite enjoyed it - once I figured out how everything worked. Though when you finish the game, it does just cut to black, so you'd have to reload a save game if you wanted to keep running around the continent.

In some ways it's arguably more in line with what OP is looking for than the second. In TW2 the only part that's really "open" is the eastern half of the first island. The western half is very enclosed/linear, and while I haven't finished the 2nd island, so far it's also seeming a bit more on rails.

Yeah, I think most ES fans miss the old levitation and jump spells. Of course, there's always console + TLC. XD

i've seen people compare Outcast to Morrowind

Its a relationship thats kinda like Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil. The modern TES games are pretty much influenced by Outcast. Without it, we wouldn't probably have RPGs in the way we have now.

Same goes for the quest structure of The Witcher games, in which Gothic 1 and especially 2 with its add-on served as inspiration. You can notice it once you go to the city of Novigrad and play the questlines there and of course The Witcher 1, which even felt Gothic 1+2 inspired in terms of gameplay. I wouldn't be suprised if the devs themselves stated this at some point as this specific type of RPG always felt very Gothic-like to me up to a point where you can't not notice the similarities.

So, yay for Outcast or nay?

Also, do others agree that Minecraft fits the list?

Enderal, total conversion mod and free to play (need to own Skyrim though).

I'd agree with Minecraft. It's totally different, though, too.

Instead of learning about the world that is out there, you also have to learn about how the world works while interacting with it. So you could add it, bit don't expect the depth of characters or story.

Thinking I should remove The Witcher series from the list, as it's not a sandbox game. Currently playing 1 and watching a very lengthy review of the 3rd one (will get through all 3 of them this year).

Thoughts?

Edit: and Dying Light.

yes!

@Witcher: 1+2 are linear games. 3 is open world, and huge, and there's a lot to explore and find. Just travelling somewhere - noticing some crows gathered in a spot, taking off when I come near. Investigate: there's a dead body here, and a chest with some goodies. Looks like someone was fleeing the war, wounded. Broke down and died here. No quest, no big story... just being observant - and you find something. Or following some small path through the woods I come across a hut. In it, on the bed a dead body, surrounded by flowers and blossoms. What happened here? Again, no quest, no story, just one lovingly created detail in a world that is riddled with stuff like that. Even deep in the sea, where only the most dedicated players will notice and find it.
But it's still not like Morrowind. For me, Morrowind was about all that little shit you could do. I was a Telvanni mage, with a ring of permanent levitation and another of permanent telekinesis, picking flowers from above in the Grazelands, while the monsters below ran around frustrated... Or boost your INT to the thousands and create a potion that allows to jump across the whole island, or over to Solstheim (crashing the game...).
Witcher 3, however much I love it, can't offer that. You are Geralt, the Geralt from the books (regardless how you develop your character), and thus are limited to what Geralt could and would do.

@Dying Light: This is more like it. While not as insane as the possibilities in MW, the game encourages you to try shit just for fun. I mean you already have all the parkour and fighting challenges, but a chase through the night with 7 deadly Volatiles at your tail and surviving the time until sunrise - that's really something. Or finding the most clever ways to lure the deadliest enemies to their death falling into the ocean... This even rewards you tons of XP, so it's actually encouraged to try completely insane stuff and survive...
The difference is of course that DL is a real action game where most things are decided by your twitch skills, while MW is an RPG where most outcomes depend on your character's stats...

I'm not being sarcastic when saying that was great to read.

So, early Elder Scrolls are rare gems?

It was indeed a pleasure to read. Very informative. I am actually playing Morrowind now on Linux thanks to the OpenMW project and it is a delight. It is weird that I had found Morrowind ugly and hard to play when it first came out but now it looks beautiful and fun to play. Hmmmmm. :)

Just a warning: the open worldness in The Precursors is locked behind a tutorial level that teaches you nothing, features enemies you may never see again, with weapons you won't see for at least a planet or two, and makes zero sense, especially if you are playing using the English translation.

Despite all that, the tutorial is gloriously bizzare, and once you get past it, you can then indulge in passtimes like caching vehicles next to useful stores inside the starting planets town, or see how many notDeathClaws + bandits you can run over before you need to use a repair or run out of gas.