There's a game called Far Cry. It's for PlayStation 3. The concept of an open world, which I've been hearing about for quite a while. Anyone who's played games before would understand, but normally, when a game transitions from one place to another, there's a loading screen, right? In an open world, all the worlds are connected as one, and there's no loading whatsoever. That's the kind of world it is.

I had never really experienced an open world game before, but since I want to explore various aspects of games from now on, I decided to try out what an open world is all about. And when I looked into it, Far Cry was the game that came up.

It's basically an FPS genre. A type where the protagonist's point of view is the play screen itself. It was my first time playing an FPS, so I was wondering how it would be, but I got used to it completely. My first impression was that it's incredibly free! The story has quite good content prepared, which is also interesting, but being able to move freely around the world is what's great.

Initially, there are several outposts, and these outposts are occupied by enemies. When you fight and liberate an occupied outpost, it becomes your own outpost. There's also an element called radio towers; to be able to view the map that was initially hidden, you need to repair these radio towers. You repair the radio towers and then capture enemy outposts. And even after capturing them, there are various sub-events, allowing you to play for a long time.

And the elements mentioned above are merely sub-elements; there is, of course, the main story. However, liberating outposts and wandering around was so much fun that I ended up neglecting the main story and dedicating myself to the game of liberating outposts.

Also, there are many vehicles. Cars, boats, gliders, and so on. Personally, I enjoyed driving cars to get around so much that I would needlessly find cars and drive them. The story content was quite good, but even more than that, you can enjoy the entire world. I think that's the good thing about open-world games.

Long, long ago, there was an open-world game on PlayStation 1, do you all know about it? It's that legendary (personally) B-grade game, 'Tail of the Sun'. Most people probably don't know it anymore. lol

It's completely a joke, but as far as I know, it's the oldest open-world game. The content allows you to experience the Stone Age. The goal is to hunt many mammoths, collect their tusks? horns? and build a tower. And then catch the tail of the sun! That's the game. In between, you hunt various animals, bring them back to the village, and develop the village. When the first generation protagonist dies of old age, the second generation takes over. The world is vast, with interesting objects hidden in various places, and I remember getting needlessly engrossed in it.

And the jokes don't stop. First, there's an item like a Japanese confection (wagashi), and when the protagonist eats this wagashi, they become stronger. A novel setting where you eat something like wagashi in the Stone Age to become stronger. And then, sleeping. At night, while sprinting across the field, you suddenly fall asleep. And then you get attacked. It's just, well, it's such a wild and fantastical Stone Age. Personally, it's my #1 game I want to see remade on PS4.

If you're interested, you might want to give it a try. That is, if you own a PS1. It might be fun to play old games for nostalgia's sake. So, connecting open-world games, from Far Cry to Tail of the Sun.

By the way, getting back to the topic, Far Cry is now out up to Far Cry 4 on PS4. I don't have 4 yet, but I'm sure it's absolutely fun. This time it's Tibet, isn't it? I love the sea and resorts, so I really liked the world of 3. By the way, the field in 2 seems to be Africa, quite different from 3.

However, I wish they could have added more weather changes, world variations, and more random events. There are probably various issues like hardware specs, but if you could encounter more realistic and random events in an open world, it would be even more fun. It was a game that made me definitely want to play the next installment once I buy a PS4.

Well then, next, I think I'll try my hand at the 'Assassin's Creed series,' also made by Ubisoft Montreal Studio. It's quite a popular series with many titles released. It seems that 2 is a popular title, so I think I'll start by playing 2.

However, recently, foreign developers are strong, aren't they? A while ago, foreign games often had poor controls and didn't motivate me, but now, foreign-made games are pushing aside Japanese ones in terms of fun. PS4 titles and hardware are also increasingly being released overseas, so I guess their main base and target have long since shifted abroad.

Lately, even cultures that developed on Japanese soil seem to be prioritizing overseas markets, which is quite sad. I really hope sales pick up in Japan and they can make a comeback. I can't help but feel that Japanese manufacturers are somewhat fading into the background compared to overseas games. Go, Japanese teams!

Even so, before buying a PS4, there are so many titles to play on PS3. PS3 is still hot! Or maybe I just started playing again too late!