It needs to be peppered with excuses to keep exploring excuses other than 10,000 collectibles. It needs to keep you on your toes, curious about what’s in that one shed you haven’t raided yet, or fearful of an untimely attack from one of the townsfolk. It needs to be jam-packed with engaging lore and memorable characters. With 20 years of experience roaming the wastelands, punching it down a Los Santos highway and wayfaring across the cosmos, we’ve learned a thing or two about what makes an open world successful. Since GTA III’s wild success, every developer under the sun has tried their hand at creating rich, open worlds. There were plenty of games with 'open worlds' before GTA III came tearing onto our screens but none of them let you flog a speed boat or small aircraft with the fuzz hot on your tail. Ever since Grand Theft Auto III released back in 2001, we’ve been utterly obsessed with games that don’t punish us for totally shirking our responsibilities to explore the worlds they are set in.

Best free open world games 2017