Open ended games - any suggestions?

[Adam]

Another nod torwards Elder Scrolls: Oblivion from me. It's a pretty serious role playing game and can be considered a bit too much by people not too familiar with the series, but it's so bloody rewarding and fun to sink some time into the games specifics; be it joining a guild, getting into the lore or just dungeon crawling.

[nietzschedancing]

Try Oblivion and sod the main quest. Just run about in your armour killing bears - enchanting stuff and at least a 100 hours of actual quests, precluding all the fannying about in forests just for the hell of it.

[Champloo]

Aye, Oblivion is the ultimate sandbox game. Morrowind is good as well (havn't gone back to Elder Scrolls 1 or 2 myself) but i'd just stick with Oblivion - there's more than enough game there.

Metal Saga on the PS2 is a good open-ended game that i've been playing recently - Steambot Chronicles should be worth a look as well.