Issue #62: Wide Open Spaces – November/December 2022

Train tickets. Cruise vacations. Even just the gas to refuel your own car can bankrupt you if you drive too far! Traveling in the real world isn’t financially feasible for the vast majority of people around the planet.

Luckily, there’s countless ways to explore all- new worlds for the low, low price of $59.99! Video games have offered escapes to new landscapes for decades now, and in recent years the open world genre of games has prioritized players’ feelings of freedom and exploration above all other aspects of design.

And you know what? It works! Sure, I’d love to have the time and the cash to be able to jet off to exotic lands on Earth whenever I wanted, but getting lost in an immersive world like Hyrule is so much more convenient.

For this edition of our fine publication, we’re turning our attention to the rise of this category of go-anywhere gaming. Why now? Because the end of 2022 is about to be marked by two series taking a bigger leap into open world design than ever before! Sonic the Hedgehog will finally get to stretch his legs in the vast expanse of the Starfall Islands in the new Sonic Frontiers, and the Pokémon series is building on the open world momentum of Sword & Shield’s Wild Area and the Hisui region from Legends: Arceus earlier this year with the fully free Paldea region in the new Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. Not to mention that Nintendo’s biggest open world game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, is getting closer to seeing its sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, finally arrive. With an even open-er world than before!

All that and more lie ahead for you in this NF issue! Happy exploring!