Open-world News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Rockstar has announced plans to add Bully and LA Noire to GTA+ later in 2024.

It looks like another one of Square Enix's age-old JRPGs is being lined up for the remaster treatment, giving heaps of new RPG fans the chance to play Saga Frontier 2 who might not have had the opportunity - or, you know, might not have been alive - in 1999. 

tinyBuild has announced DUCKSIDE, an open-world survival crafting game for PC (Steam). A release date was not announced.

Wuthering Waves, an open-world action RPG title developed by Kuro Games, is reportedly launching on May 22, as revealed in the Special Program livestream by the developers.

When we sat down to chat with Chris Bullock, lead animator on open-world roguelike Hyper Light Breaker at developer Heart Machine, nobody had beaten its GDC demo yet. The show's recent demo was an exciting up-close look at what's quickly become my personal most-anticipated open-world game of the year, and Bullock's comments on some of the game's nitty-gritty details have only deepened my suspicion that it could be the biggest roguelike of 2024 in more ways than one. 

is the latest effort from developer Kuro Games (). It's an action RPG gacha title set to release for iOS, Android, PC, and PlayStation, and borrows heavily from already popular titles within the same space — most obviously, which it will inevitably draw numerous comparisons to. That's certainly not a bad place to start, however, and what innovates is more than enough to separate it as a game worth watching as it moves closer to a global release following another round of closed beta tests.

With the surprise launch of Patch 10.2.6, 17 new mounts were added. Let's recap all new mounts available for collectors.

Publisher Kakehashi Games and developer ooze will release open-world sailing simulation RPG Sagres for Switch, the companies announced. A release date was not announced.

Duet Night Abyss Technical Test sets sail today, i.e., March 27th. The wait is finally over! Applications are closed, but those who signed up can expect to receive test-related information by email.

Europa, the utterly enchanting open-world indie game that looks like the love child of The Legend of Zelda and Studio Ghibli, has been delayed.

Hellgate: London was a game ahead of its time in a lot of ways, introducing open-world looter and roguelike mechanics before those things became a hot trend. As such, the game is still remembered fairly well despite not being a huge seller at the time. Well, it seems the series may be coming back, because the original game’s producer Bill Roper has announced an Unreal Engine 5 sequel, Hellgate: Redemption, will be produced through his new studio Lunacy Games. Roper had the following to say about the revival…

Horizon Forbidden West is among the best looking open-world games available, and the game is looking more gorgeous than ever on PC thanks to mods.

Shortly after the untimely news of Akira Toriyama’s passing, Wccftech was invited to visit Bandai Namco’s California campus for one of the last hands-on opportunities before Sand Land’s launch next April. In a more in-depth experience than last year’s Summer Game Fest, we were invited out to freely explore the first couple of chapters of this open-world adventure.

Outward 2 picks up 50 years after the events of the first open-world survival RPG; developer Nine Dots tells me that “The difference in production value is significant.” Again, you’ll play a nobody of an adventurer, just a regular ol’ human against a world rife with danger.

If you just started Dragon’s Dogma 2, it might have come as a shock that this sprawling open-world, role-playing epic is missing one common feature: fast travel. Well, it’s not quite missing, but it’s extremely limited in ways that run counter to the normal rhythms of this hugely popular genre.

There's a lot to do in Dragon's Dogma 2. As you'd expect from an open-world RPG, there are plenty of side quests and other activities to get stuck into. And if you want that platinum trophy, you'll need to veer away from the main story on more than one occasion.

The PC version of free-to-play open-world adventure game Sky: Children of the Light will launch in Early Access via Steam on April 10, developer thatgamecompany announced.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is a huge game with dozens of different trinkets and resources to collect, with one of the most sought-after being the Jasper jewel.

Publisher Ubisoft and developer Ubisoft Ivory Tower will release the PC version of The Crew Motorfest via Steam on April 18, the companies announced.

is an adventure of substantial size, but whether it's possible to keep playing after the credits roll is one question that's likely to come to mind over the course of the game. As an open-world experience, has plenty of side content that could be passed over while racing toward the story's climax. The game's developer Team Ninja included a variety of optional missions in prior games like , so it's no surprise that this element carries over to the more expansive historical setting of Edo in Japan.

A new report alleges that be bigger than ever asit may incorporate a popular mechanic from another massively popular Capcom game. After the successful revitalization of the survival-horror franchise with 2017's, the series has jumped back and forth between new releases that advance the overall narratives and remakes of older games. Given that the most recent title was the remake, the community is confident that should be announced in the near future.

PlayStation's Days Gone and Syphon Filter developer Bend Studio is seemingly working on a PlayStation live-service game.

Open-world fantasy games like and invite players to explore landscapes filled with magic, myth, and adventure. With an often tremendous sense of freedom, players can choose where they go, what they do, and how they tackle challenges. The world exploration is filled with fantasy tropes, towering castles, mythical creatures, magic systems, and epic quests, where the joy of discovery is a major appeal. Players can wander through enchanted forests, stumble upon hidden dungeons, or climb mountains; there's always something new to find around the next corner.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a fascinating open-world fantasy role-playing game that gives players great freedom to explore and deep customization options to build their character and party. Dragon’s Dogma 2 is also incredibly restrictive. It doesn’t care much about your expectations of it based on other games you might’ve played (e.g., Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3), nor does it follow many conventions of modern game design.

Open-world RPGs can be anywhere from around a dozen hours long to well over 100. Dragon’s Dogma 2 is very unique, even among others in the genre, for not adhering to a lot of traditional design philosophies, such as how it handles fast travel. If anything, that will only add to your total playtime, plus there are all the optional quests to do, Vocations to try out and level up, and more if you’re a completionist. If you’re wondering if you have the time to fit Dragon’s Dogma 2 into your schedule among all the other games releasing, here’s how long you can expect this adventure to last.

I never had reason to give much thought to fast travel in games before starting Dragon’s Dogma 2. In most open-world games that include the feature, the only requirement for accessing it is reaching points of interest. Once players do so, they are generally free to zip from point to point around the map with little to no inconvenience. That isn’t how Dragon’s Dogma 2 operates — fast travel is based around a limited currency called Ferrystones — and it has completely changed my mindset on the mechanic as a whole.

The new PS5 exclusive from Team Ninja is out now and if you’re on the fence about the open-world action RPG, you’ll want to know what the Rise of the Ronin reviews are saying about the game.

The upcoming Assassin’s Creed mobile game Assassin’s Creed Jade could now be set to be released in 2025 according to a new report.

If you're looking for an open-world survival experience with a space exploration theme, then TerraTech Worlds could be just what you're after. As seen at the Future Games Show Spring Showcase, TerraTech Worlds launches into Steam Early Access on March 22, at which point you can head out solo or join up to five other players to embark on a PvE journey of discovery across a vivid alien planet.

Colorful open-world survival crafting game Omega Crafter is coming to Steam Early Access at the end of this month.

Stalking through the neglected ruins of an empty graveyard, I crouched through a hole in a wall with my katana in hand, ready to strike. I was about a dozen hours into my playthrough of Rise of the Ronin, the latest open-world action RPG from Team Ninja, and I’d already abandoned the beaten path of the game’s main quest to hunt down fugitives terrorizing the countryside.

Hogwarts Legacy is the best Harry Potter game to ever land on consoles and PC, and the title’s open-world setting is one to be reckoned with. You’ll spend hours exploring the fantastical universe, completing an array of inspired side quests and puzzles, all while evolving your character. The Merlin Trials is a particular set of challenges you’ll want to take on, as you’ll earn additional inventory slots when you beat one. And if you’ve ever played an open-world RPG, you’ll know just how vital these extra digital cubbies can be.

It's had plenty of competition over the years, but Grand Theft Auto V remains one of the most popular open-world crime games on the planet. Rockstar has given the game constant updates to keep its thriving community happy, and it even ported the game to PS5 and Xbox Series X. One thing hasn't changed since launch, however, and that's a constant need to fill your virtual pockets with cash. And if you need cash fast, selling a car is a great option.

Ubisoft has changed the way players will be able to interact with NPCs going forward. While serving the purpose of making a game world feel more lived in and immersive, NPCs could sometimes become one of the more annoying parts of an open-world title, spewing the same dialogue time and time again as players interact with them, with one of the most infamous examples being in Bethesda's, where players would hear the like "" many times on their adventures, because archers clearly seem to favor knee-shots in northern Tamriel.

Don’t you know? It’s time to return to Elden Ring to polish your character before the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion drops in June. For those who haven’t played the base game at all (oh, how I wish I could experience this game again with fresh eyes), you have an opportunity to snag a rare discount on Elden Ring, which is required to own if you ever plan to play the upcoming DLC. If you need more convincing, even after it took home Polygon’s game of the year prize in 2022, check out our Elden Ringreview.

The latest Team Ninja game is showing a lot of potential, and its late 19th century open-world Japan setting and hard-hitting action gameplay is turning a lot of heads.

The next game from Team Ninja is very nearly here as we rush towards the Rise of the Ronin release date.

Arriving twenty years after the original Outcast, a sequel, Outcast - A New Beginning is out now, and to herald its launch, publisher THQ Nordic and IGN partnered up to send the Adelpha Edition of the game to space. To make this stellar outing even better, one lucky fan will win the Adelpha Edition that actually went to space, plus another sealed version for their collection. Read on for details on how to enter for your chance to win.

The first big video game hit of 2024 was Palworld, a game everybody thought would be “Pokémon with guns” but turned out to be an open-world crafting game where you capture monsters — called “Pals” — and put them to work on your base, creating resources and tending to various areas. People came for Pokémon and stayed for the gameplay, to the tune of 19 million players reached during its initial January release period.

Outcast: A New Beginning is the sequel to one of the very first open-world games ever made, simply called Outcast, but it's also taking cues from games that have come out in that two-decade gap by letting players explore an entire alien world "without any restrictions."

The developers behind Outcast: A New Beginning are billing the sequel, launching today some 25 years after the trailblazing original, as a ray of sunshine amidst a trend toward games with dark, dystopian visions of the future.

A university class using Red Dead Redemption 2 to learn about American history recently got a visit from two very familiar cowboys.

Ghost of Tsushima's success encouraged developers at Team Ninja to create the upcoming open-world game Rise of the Ronin.

Star Wars Outlaws will apparently be the "most detailed Star Wars experience you've ever seen," at least according to Nvidia.

One of the most iconic elements of the Harry Potter universe is the flying broomstick. These flying cleaning tools were an obvious fit for an open-world game like Hogwarts Legacy, and sure enough, they are one of your primary methods of traversing the wide wizarding world, at least until you unlock all thefast travel points. If you're itching to get your very own broom and upgrade it to be as fast as possible, we've swept up all the details.

Bellwright, an open-world survival game set in a medieval realm ruled by a brutal ruler, will hit

Most of the time, a game as sprawling and time-consuming as an open-world RPG usually lets you stop to smell the roses and take your time, giving you ample opportunity to solve the worries of every bystander with a slightly furrowed brow. However, there are times when developers like to put pressure on the player by giving your actions consequences, and Dragon's Dogma 2 is one such title that won't tolerate you dillydallying with certain quests.

Team Ninja has become synonymous with best-in-class action gameplay. From Ninja Gaiden to Nioh 2, the fundamental act of swinging a sword or spear (or any number of deadly weapons) is reliably complex and satisfying, often with a challenging-yet-rewarding learning curve.

When I grappled to the roof of a building using my hook, I felt like I’d played Rise of the Ronin before. That’s not a bad thing; I’ve played many of Team Ninja’s previous games, but it felt oddly familiar, in a bloody comforting way.

Arlecchino, one of the Fatui Harbingers introduced in Genshin Impact's July 2022 story trailer, is coming to the open-world RPG in update 4.6, due April 23. 

Dragon's Dogma 2's enormous open world might be several times larger than its predecessor's, but according to its director and producer, we shouldn't feel the need to skip through it as fast as possible. 

Dragon's Dogma 2 is right around the corner, and with the original currently on sale for $5, there's never been a better time to play the cult classic. 

Outcast: A New Beginning, the sequel to one of the very first open-world games ever made, is actually hugely inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. 

The original three Stalker games made a surprise appearance at today's third-party Xbox showcase – surprising to those who hadn't seen the leaks, anyway – with a "refined" trilogy bringing the games to consoles for the first time.

Ghost of Tsushima, the open-world game released a couple of years back on PlayStation 4 developed by Sucker Punch, will launch on PC on May 16th, complete with some PC-exclusive features.

Dragon's Dogma 2's release is right around the corner, and given that it's launching over a decade after its predecessor, there's no doubt that plenty of us are excited to see what the sequel has in store. 

Dragon's Dogma 2's vast open world has a very surprising source of inspiration: Rockstar's GTA 5.

I was only 90 minutes intoDragon’s Dogma 2 when I accidentally let a child die.

One of the most appealing elements of an open-world role-playing game is the volume of side quests that you can keep yourself occupied with. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is no different. There are locations to discover, a dog to escort, Chocobos to lasso and a crown to steal from the Tonberry King.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is the most successful reinvention of the classic Ubisoft franchise since 2003’s Sands of Time, reframing the platforming prince as a vivid Metroidvania. If you haven’t had the chance to play The Lost Crown on Xbox, PlayStation, or Switch, you can currently pick up a physical copy from Best Buy for $29.99 (was $49.99). This is the best price we’ve seen so far, and it’s an impressive discount considering the game debuted in January 2024.

Game Pass subscribers will get another chance to revisit Remedy Entertainment’s 2019 masterpiece Control in March, and this time, they’re getting the game’s Ultimate Edition. That version includes the main game and two expansions, The Foundation and AWE, which are worth returning to before or after you play Alan Wake 2.

Hogwarts Legacy 2 will likely be powered by the Unreal Engine 5, judging from a job ad from developer Avalanche Software.

By expanding the Midgar section of Final Fantasy 7 into an entire game, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth finally takes us beyond the walls into the world beyond. This much larger swath of land to explore begs the question of just how big this game will be. Between all the open-world tasks, sidequests, and minigames awaiting in the Gold Saucer, could this game really be a 100-hour experience as was claimed? What if you just tried to focus on the main story to see what has or hasn’t changed? We’ve played through the entirety of Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth and can give you a good idea of just how long it will take you to reach this chapter’s conclusion.

Roger Clark, who plays Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, is set to narrate an audiobook that looks at American history through the lens of Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption games.

New week, new videogames, new newsblog. It's another relatively quiet week for big name PC releases - no mega-sequels or adaptations, unless you're seriously into the Moomins - but if 2024 has taught me anything it's that a breakout hit can come from anywhere, and I will accordingly be watching this week's new games with deep suspicion and barely constrained panic.

A new Terminator game called Terminator: Survivors is on the way and is set to launch as an early access title on Steam on October 24, 2024.

A new Cyberpunk 2077 4K texture pack was released online, further improving the visual quality of the open-world role-playing game by CD Projekt Red.

Developers from the Sonic Frontiers team have shed some light on the project's road to release, revealing that in many ways, it was a make-or-break moment for the series.

Star Wars Outlaws is billed as the franchise’s first-ever open-world game. From the makers of The Division and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Outlaws tells a scoundrel story that explores the depths of Star Wars’ underworld between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

I’m normally a completionist when it comes to games, but I wish I had told myself to push that mindset to the side before I startedFinal Fantasy VII Rebirth.

Do you remember Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora? The open-world ARPG by Ubisoft saw its last update in early December. Now, after more than two months of radio silence, Avatar’s got a new update that includes some surprising improvements. Some aren’t anything to write home about, but other bits from the latest patch notes are worth your attention.

After breaking out of the confined spaces of Midgar in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, a lot of new opportunities and mechanics have been introduced. Along with some standard open-world activities, collecting tons of resources as you travel will be a constant. Icons for all sorts of rocks, plants, and beast parts are needed to transmute new items. Zinc Ore is no different, but it is required for some great accessories you probably want to make early. If you need this precious rock but don’t know where to start looking, hop on your chocobo, and we’ll lead you right to it.

A new Terminator game has been in development for some time, and you’ll be able to play it later this year. Well, in Early Access at least, as Terminator: Survivor will be hitting Steam on October 24. Check out the “Aftermath” trailer below.

Dragon Raja, the stunning open-world cyberpunk MMORPG powered by Unreal Engine, is turning four this month.

Nacon and its Milan studio have revealed their open-world survival game, Terminator: Survivors, along with a Steam Early Access release date of October 24, 2024.

The open-world Terminator survival game is called, quite aptly, Terminator: Survivors, and it hits Steam Early Access in October.

Terminator: Survivors, a new open-world survival game set in the Terminator franchise, will launch in early access on Steam this fall, publisher Nacon announced Thursday at its Nacon Connect 2024 event.

From the dawn of Pong to the present day, thousands of video game titles have captured our hearts and our imaginations – and occupied countless hours of our leisure time – but which is truly the best ever?

If you’re getting ready to start your Final Fantasy VII Rebirth adventure, let me offer you fair warning: it is a long game. If you’re planning to do every sidequest, minigame, and Chadley combat battle, you’ll be wandering around Gaia for 100 hours. That’s not an exaggeration; I hit credits in 73 hours and I still had a massive checklist of side content to complete.