Building on the foundation of Bethesda's Fallout 3, New Vegas moved us to the more colorful and diverse western region of the post-nuclear apocalypse United States and put us on a path to intersect with conflicts large and small. Fallout: New VegasĪ fixture in the top open-world game discussion for the past 12 years, Fallout: New Vegas burned itself into our collective memories by dropping us into an amazing story that reacts to our choices and plays out all around us. With its engrossing story, living open-world, and more content than any one person knows what to do with, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim still stands today as one of the greatest open-world RPGs a person can spend their time with. And with the recent upgrade to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, Skyrim still looks and plays fantastic. The PC version houses one of the most bustling modding communities of all time, even having full-length games spawn from it. It set an entirely new standard for what an open-world adventure could be and remains amazing. From its humble beginnings in 2011, launching on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, Skyrim is everywhere, including Amazon Alexa devices, for good reason. It’s been a long-running joke that Skyrim exists on almost every platform imaginable. Horizon Forbidden West is certainly built on the foundation of other open-world games, including Zero Dawn, but it’s an amazing step in pushing the genre forward and creating a captivating adventure in its own right. And to better serve those sidequests, Guerrilla has extended the reach of Aloy’s world to the titular Forbidden West, with a host of memorable locations that offer insight into both the current tribes populating the world and the crumbled remains of our former civilization.Ĭlimbing traversal may not be as free as some other games on this list, but the ability to better search underwater and even take to the skies are welcome, joyous additions to the formula. And it’s a world that feels like it meaningfully lives and even evolves around Aloy and the player. Aloy’s new journey features a dense world full of meaningful sidequests, where each character and their stories offer a unique entry point into the world. Horizon Forbidden West improves on the Zero Dawn experience in just about every way.

Best free open world games for pc