this compares some of the larger game worlds. Pretty cool stuff.

Best of all, the largest game world of all time (at least according to this graphic) is Daggerfall at 62,000 square miles.

http://kotaku.com/5533787/its-not-the-s ... you-use-it

That's actually an extremely interesting post. Map size is one of my most important factors in games. Essentially, the bigger the better.

Very interesting... I wonder when OpFlash / ArmA fit in.

It almost makes me sad that I missed out on WoW... almost. FarCry 2 looks like something I could now go spunk some money on, provided it has mods to turn it into something more than a shooter.

Wow, Just Cause 2... *googles to see if he should buy it*... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BOtdFUDdFI ............ maybe not! OMG first minute in and it looks horrendous.

The other larger games are MMO's / drivers, so I don't dig that.

Damn, Daggerfall is MASSIVE. I'm definitely sorry for having missed it. For something that was released in 1996, that is truly epic.

According to Wikipedia, the biggest game world is , with a whopping 160 000 square miles. By the way, there is a project to update Daggerfall to 3d graphics: http://daggerxl.wordpress.com/

I'd never heard of Midwinter before. Interesting...and freakin' huge. I'm amazed.

BTW, Just Cause II isn't too bad. It's also not insanely awesome, but I'm enjoying it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2RuDX5UkaI

Some gameplay from Midwinter. Looks confusing.

I don't understand any of that.

I got bored pretty quick watching that. Looked like just practice levels to practice various skills I imagine you use during the game. Man...those graphics bring back some memories.

Confusing? Nah. That's just how "open worlds" looked back then. It was better in Daggerfall but you still had to use your imagination to think of square slopes as 'hills' etc.

Daggerfall was a miracle in its time. I'll post some vids about it tonight, you'll go 'wow what awesome'. If you take the prduction year into account I mean.

Daggerfall's character creation. Check it out how many options it has. You can edit starting reputations, pick primary, major and minor skills (among them languages of enemies, etiquette, streetwise, climbing, etc etc) and even special advantages and disadvantages like being unable to regenerate mana in sunlight, not being allowed to wear certain types of armor/use certain types of weapons, taking damage on holy ground (temples), being resistant or prone to disease and other effects, etc etc. SO MANY FUCKING OPTIONS. Compare that to the lame ass options you got in Oblivion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I0NO2buEEs

You could contract Lycantrophy or vampirism by fighting with vampires or werewolves/wereboars and taking damage from them. The chance was small but it existed. If you did contract lycantrophy, you'd have this dream upon resting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSBkmlzch6k

After that you're cursed and must occasionally 'hunt the innocent' (attack citizens in your werewolf shape) to keep your strength up, or you'll wither to 1 HP. You do get much stronger, faster and become resistant to anything but silver and very rare metals, though, so it's not without perks. But like I said you'll need to feed on innocents and you'll inevitably turn into a werewolf/boar on full moons. You can research on hints on how to lose your disease, but it's not easy. (oh but if you catch it in its early stages it's still treatable, same with vampirism).

Vampirism is even more interesting really. The process is the same - you'll have a dream about a pretty girl crying tears of blood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flGomkYhsl0

If you don't catch it in time, you will die. And you will wake up in a tomb in some random dungeon. You'll still have all your gear and powers, but your reputations are all reset because for all means and purposes, you are dead. Your appearance will have slightly changed too. You gain bonuses to strength, personality, willpower etc and a few spells that are dependent of your tribe (there are 6 vampire tribes in Daggerfall). Of course, you take damage from sunlight and holy places, and you can only fasttravel by night which significantly lengthens your jouneys (world of Daggerfall is huge as you know). Like with lycantrophy, there is a way to get ride of it, but it isn't easy. You also need to feed, but it don't need to be innocents like for a werewolf - killing an orc in a dungeon will do just fine.


As for the vastness of the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2xa2r-0bTI

This vid has a guy travelling to a dungeon in the same province. All those 'specs' are towns, cities, dungeons and shrines and whatnots. You can walk from one to the other but it'd take hours. THis vid starts with the map of the Illiac bay, and the province (of Daggerfall) in the left top is the one you just saw all the towns from...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjB6OFiD ... playnext=1

That should give you an idea.


This is a vid of a guy emptying his inventory at a shop. Not much to see but that, but gives you a good look at the inventory and avatar picture. All things you equip show up on the avatar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgiXkQ8oKeo

There were bordello-style free love temples too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDJ3Y5XBauQ

(love the crappy porno tune over it)

And of course...you could join many different guilds (fighters' guild, mages' guild, Dark Brotherhood, Thieves' guild, many different knightly orders, etc) that offered you various things like master training and spellmaking services, item enchanting, summoning of gods (you had to look for the correct dates yourself in the library of the guild or you'd just summon a random - hard- demon) and so forth and so forth. Provided you have a high enough rank, of course. At the thieves guild you even had a 'spymaster' who could tell you anything about anyone in terms of rumors.

Enough ranting about how great Daggerfall was - I gotta go take a bus. Peace.