Ever since Grand Theft Auto III up and created a genre, there has been no shortage of run-around-pulverizing-civilians-for-kicks entires into the gaming world.

There have been plenty of flaccid examples and a handful of winners, but the important question is this: what is up with Venezuela these days?!

Anywho, here then is a selection of our favorite open world games.

Dave:  I don’t like open world games.  I need a clear, linear path in my console misadventures.  Whenever reviewers drag out the tired criticism of a game being “too linear” I say good!  I don’t have the attention span to drive around a digital city for ten minutes to answer a payphone and embark on yet another prostitute escort session.

Thankfully, way back in the least generation, Sierra crafted an open world experience specifically designed to appeal to ADHD plebes like myself: the hugely fun Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

Screw Bruce Banner–the glory here was running around as Hulk in two huge levels, a city and the badlands, just tearing @#$% up.  You want to beat down a helicopter in mid-air?  Have at it!  Grab a bystander, bring him to the top of a skyscraper and drop the poor bastard off the edge?  He had it coming!

"Hulk hate smog-producing public transit. Hulk green!"

This game was big and loud and arguably one of the greatest endeavors ever based on a comic book hero.  In fact I’m trying to think of what has eclipsed it and I’m coming up short, and that includes the massively entertaining Wolverine game that’s been consuming my life these past few weeks.

Too bad Sega couldn’t get the next-gen Hulk version right.   Just slap a new coat of paint on the perfect gameplay!

Steve: For me it’s all about Assassin’s Creed. I know it wasn’t the critical darling most expected, splitting the major review sources right in two, but it was easily my personal choice for game of the year in 2007, and what some may have cited as flaws were usually a case of reviewers just not digging enough into the game. It’s just NOT the kind of game you can play in checklist fashion, rushing from one objective to the next. AC’s world is deep, beautiful, and immersive, it’s an exercise in art design coupled with game design, and is the type of game you play when there are no other distractions.

A View from the top. Those streets are about to get a lot closer...

Each of the three HUGE cities feels more “lived in” than any other game i’ve ever played, with hundreds of pedestrians milling about, all with some amazing AI routines and reactions to the events around them. The fact that the cities all have their own distinct look, from the Euro feel of French-ruled Acre to the Islam dominated minarets and spires of Damascus and the multi-racial metropolis of Jersualem. There are other towns as well, and there’s the spit of land called “The Kingdom” which seperates each city and is traversed on horseback. All of it is gorgeous, like a Ridley Scott film brought to life, with low hanging mist, incredible lighting, and perfect animations. The fact that your main character, Altair, makes the parkour guy at the beginning of Casino Royale look like a total scrub makes the cities a ton of fun to explore to boot.

Forget the complaints about shallow combat, it’s an out and out lie. The game provides you with an incredibly deep control system and combat options, but you can choose to ignore most of it if you wish. So if the pre-summer draught has got you down, maybe you need to immerse yourself in some 2nd-Crusades era open world goodness. 

The gates of Damascus. Yes, the game does look this good!