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Assassin's Creed And the Future of Sandbox Games
Wired's Game|Life blog, and the site of gaming academic Henry Jenkins, discuss sandbox games and the impact of Assassin's Creed . The relevant discussion on Jenkins' site is actually written by GAMBIT lab supervisor Matthew Weise. He argues that open-ended worlds, by their very nature, require some restraints on the player's avatar. Otherwise, the game's meaning is diluted. Likewise, if you're going for a 'sandbox' world, allow that limited character unlimited opportunities. "When I think of open-ended world design I tend to think of worlds that don't involve such limitations. Call it the result of a childhood playing Ultima. I think of worlds in which, if you need to kill the dragon in the cave and you happen to have a drill, there's no reason you can't just drill straight down, bypassing all his little traps, and kill the bastard. That's open-ended to me. That's sandbox. The pleasure of such incredible agency is much more satisfying than any forced narrative structure."
It works well if there are a lot of fun distractions and "sidequests" to do. Just look at GTA: San Andreas... "I'm taking my towtruck to the do...AIRPLANES! LETS GO FLY AIRPLANES!"
My UID is prime... is yours?
I just use it once in a while to tow the random unsuspecting person at the stop light and drive them into the water.
My UID is prime... is yours?
But, naturally, they would never follow you into a spray shop, nor would they realize that the same model car coming out, but repainted, is you.
;)
I have always found it pretty funny how the cops are perfectly capable of tracking you when you get out of your current get-away car and steal a new one, but are completely baffled by you driving the exact same car in a different color.
Especially when the car in question is a tank.
Okay you can't drive a tank into the pay-and-spray, but you can leave the tank running right outside, drive another car in, and then drive off in the tank without the police minding one bit.
The enemies of Democracy are
It's been done - it's called "Living in New York City".
Your mother. The real question is: who's the developer?
You can also use the GTA:SA towtrucks to tow other towtrucks! I managed to get a train of 6 going for a few miles. Corners and traffic were a pain though.
GTA:SA was quite simply one of the best games I have ever played for pretty much allowing you to do whatever looks feasible.
Your optimism strikes me like junkmail addressed to the dead.