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6 Amazing, Open World Sandbox Games That Aren’t Grand Theft Auto

Do you remember the way you felt when you first started playing Grand Theft Auto 3? It was as if, suddenly, any insane fantasy you ever had about how a game could play out was suddenly coming true. Suddenly, I didn't HAVE to go in any direction I didn't want to. Suddenly, I wasn't forced, as a gamer, to make the game play out the way the programmers MADE ME with other games. For the first time, I was free to play a game ANY WAY I wanted to.

Batman: Arkham City

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What do you say about a perfect game? Really, like, what can I say that has not already been said, ten times over, about this amazing game? To not only let the player don the cowl, but to them give them pretty much the entirety of Gotham City to patrol and protect was one of the most amazing gaming experiences ever for a comic nerd like me. And quick question, also, because I know all of you are heated about this topic right now, how come the movies never get it THIS right? How come the movies never let it get THIS dark? We are all adults, we could handle it, right?

Well, judging from how you all reacted to that list of my Batman recommendations, I don’t think “handling it” is an option for some of you.

Anyway, Arkham City is the kind of game that has the ability to not only put you into the shoes of the person you are playing as, but makes you truly feel like them. But it doesn’t do it in a conventional way. Instead, the game drops you into the city as Batman, and pretty much lets you dictate how to story goes, all in the simple choices of the directions you go. And by the end of that game, as you stand on one of the building edges, watching the snow falling like ash over a sleeping, dirty city, it hits you. This game takes us about as close to what it would be like to be Batman as we will ever know.

I wonder if Ben Affleck played this game?