The best "exploration" games?

[noobish hat]

What do I mean by "exploration" games? I mean games where you're pretty much left to your own devices with a whole world to explore. I'm thinking stuff like the original Zelda. I'm playing the Famicom now, so that's what's got me thinking about such games and wanting to play them. Dragon Warrior and Ultima etc. are like, that right? Any other recommendations?

[Lebowski]

oblivion and skyrim come to mind first. I enjoyed exploring in oblivion more as there was always so much to see and do and the world seemed so much more varied and alive, loading times where a killer on the 360 though, i don't think I could stomach them these days, but I bet they run pretty well on a decent pc.

[noobish hat]

I really don't play modern games, but if I had my 360 with me, I'd probably be playing one of those now. I did have Oblivion, but I think I gave up because I wanted to murder everybody I met, but I was weak so I usually ended getting murdered myself.

[hudson]

One that sticks out in my mind is Hunter for Amiga.

Maybe it's because I had an illegal copy, but I had no idea what the aim of the game was. All I know is that there were islands that seemed uninhabited, but here were military tents and buildings around. Best thing was that there were a range of vehicles you could use.

My adventure usually came to an end when I went into a house for umpteenth time, but only this time to actually come face to face with an armed man. Bang dead. Or I drowned at sea.

It was like GTA but with less people and more greenery.

[Deuteros]

Since you mentioned Ultima and Dragon Warrior, I take it RPGs are a possibility in which case I'll recommend Wizardry VII. It's a very non-linear RPG where you're left to explore lots of dungeons, caves, cities and even the wilderness between them. It features an automap which is also a character skill. The more points you invest in that skill, the more detailed your map will be.

GOG.com sells it for ?3.69 bundled with Wizardry VI, which is also awesome if a bit more dated. There are japanese ports of it for the PlayStation and the Saturn, if you have any of those consoles at hand and the language isn't a barrier.

[The Moleman]

Exploring DC after escaping the vault in Fallout 3 was mind blowing. I've never been so drawn into a game...

[noobish hat]

Oh what about Elite? Forgot about that. Wish I had my NES version with me..

[Asura]

I would give Fuel a go, for the PS3/360/PC.

[eastyy]

X3 series space sim games are pretty good for that (though give x-rebirth a miss) though you have to have a lot of patience and time

Though i think elite and star citizen will give a better feeling of a open universe the x series feels like its made up of sectors

[Mayhem]

Mercenary is probably one of the grand-daddys of them all here

[QualityChimp]

I would give Fuel a go, for the PS3/360/PC.

I'd not really heard much about this because I'm not generally into racers, I prefer something to do like Stuntman: Ignition or Driver: San Francisco, but this looks really interesting.

I'm another one who loved the Fallout and Oblivion series, but was happier pootling about, discovering new places on the map rather than going off on another quest for an inept villager whose brother went missing somewhere near that mine with the strange noises emanating from it...

Instead of racing in Fuel, I'd probably just go mooching about to see what there is to see.
I'm going to investigate this game further. I wonder if the free-roaming aspect was talked about more if it would have gained more interest? Yet another game to add to the list! It's looking even less likely I'm ever going to need a current-gen system!

It's interesting to see just how big the map is. That was a great video, Asura, thanks, although it did make me late for work by watching it!

[acidbearboy]

I enjoyed exploring the land of Shadow of the Colossus as much as finding the Colossi themselves.

[Guts]

Do you mean games without any narrative per se and no "go there, do this to progress" at all? Just exploring a map with no story so to speak? Or games where you can explore while following the main story/mission?

I'd say Sid Meier's Pirates! is a good representative of the genre. There are loads of exploration games out there but worryingly that's the only one that comes to my mind at the moment.

[QualityChimp]

What's Just Cause 2 like for exploration?

[egparadigm]

Excile http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exile_(1988_video_game)