Unfortunately, Lionhead closed down, taking many hearts along with it. However, prior to the culmination of business, the cancellation of the asymmetrical multiplayer title Fable Legends saw to the loss of popularity to some degree. Last year, rumors of Forza devs Playground Games taking over surfaced, possibly leading to the loss of lots of sleep ahead of E3.

Microsoft still stole the show with its briefing, though. The Halo and Gears announcements were well received, among others, but none as much as the upcoming console now going by the name Project Scarlett.

An ambitious, inventive genre that traces its origins to the early days of text-based adventures like Zork and Microsoft Adventure , open-world gaming has become one of the most prevalent genres in all of gaming. Covering all sorts of genres and niches and giving birth to some of the most important games of this generation, open-world gaming usually allows for dozens—if not hundreds—of hours of playt

First-party games may be the main focus of Microsoft's E3 2018 press conference, but the company is also expected to give a proper introduction to Rocksteady's rumored Superman game . Apparently, Superman: World's Finest will be announced during Microsoft's press conference, where it will be revealed that Brainiac is the game's main vill

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 barely counts as an open-world game. Though players are technically free to explore a portion of New York City as the wall-crawler, missions are all linear and repetitive, and the whole thing wraps up somewhere after the six-hour mark, and that's taking into account some seriously boring padded sequences and link web site the atrocious Peter Parker investigation segme

As Xbox rose to dominance in the Xbox 360 console generation, the console received so much third-party support that the number of first-party exclusives started a decline with Xbox having fewer of its own unique IP. By the time the current Xbox One generation came along, the lack of first-party support only seemed to increase. But in recent years, under the leadership of Phil Spencer, Xbox has acquired multiple studios to build out its exclusive game portfolio. This should start paying off in the next Series X generat

It's also worth noting that Playground is still in the process of hiring more staff and building a team so a close launch date is certainly out of the question, lest another studio is secretly working on the project. It's also very possible that Fable 4 is being held back so it could launch for the company's next-gen console.

Playable on: PS3, Xbox 360, PC

When it debuted in 2010, Just Cause 2 featured one of the largest open worlds of any video game, and it retains that title to this day. The scope of the island of Panau is amazing, and the feeling of being let loose in such a large sandbox remains as breathtaking as e

During Bethesda's E3 presentation last year, The Evil Within and The Evil Within 2 developer Tango Gameworks revealed that it was working on a new survival-horror game, Ghostwire: Tokyo. Not a lot is currently known about Ghostwire: Tokyo , only that it's not a traditional horror game, but an action-adventure where players will need to rid the city of Tokyo of paranormal enemies and supernatural evil. Given that no release window or platforms were announced, it seems safe to say Ghostwire: Tokyo is eyeing the next-generation consoles, although this is currently speculat

While there are only rumors to go on, the place a next-gen Fable would likely be announced is at Xbox's virtual Series X event planned for July that will include games from its first-party studios. While many people were disappointed with the recent Series X showcase event, it seems that the July event is what fans were hoping for. Xbox is expected to roll out Halo Infinite , plus a rumored Perfect Dark game, as well as Fab

Playable on: PS2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, PC

2004's Driv3r , the third release in an action-packed open-world driving series which originated on the PS1, was a barely-functioning mess which somehow garnered a cult appeal despite its many shortcomings. An obvious riff on the Grand Theft Auto formula, Driv3r felt like the Fisher-Price version of the chaotically-fun sandbox ser

So, maybe Fable is being kept under wraps for now but a mere comment from Spencer would have been enough to calm concerns over whether or not the game is in development. Of course, enough reputable sources have reported that it is, which is enough to go on, but hearing confirmation from the man himself would have left fans of the franchise more than pleased.

Updated on August 22nd, 2021 by Ritwik Mitra: When the topic of open-world games is brought up, most people think of games that take hundreds of hours to complete. After all, the very concept of open-world gaming has been attached to lengthy titles for the longest time; however that isn't necessarily the case. In fact, there are several games that adopt the open-world formula, but craft titles that serve as short and concise experiences. Keeping this in mind, here are some of the shortest open-world video games ever m