Your top 3 sandbox games ?

Mine:

1 Mafia 1

2 Assassins Creed 2 seires

3 RDR

And no, GTA is not up there for me (played 3, VC, SA and 4) because of the simple reason that rockstar apparently are morons wen It comes to GTA and have no idea what a checkpoint is. Just waste your time driving like an idiot back and forward everysingle time you failed a misson. That sh*t infuriated me wen I was playing those games.Especially GTA 4 since it was "new gen" but still no simple mid mission checkpoints.

1.Minecraft

2.minecraft

3.Minecraft

Skyrim

RDR

San Andreas

Tough choice for me. When done well they are done really well. When they aren't you have an aimless, wandering mess with no sense of structure.

I think Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption have been my favourites.

Although that's because I'm a firm believer that with new technology comes new potential. There are older ones more influential that had a bigger impact. You just can't say they are better.

Elite, Daggerfall, GTA3, Spiderman 2, all had a big impact for me at the time they were released. Also I'd like to qualify AC2 as a sandbox, and the worlds created in that series have been so vivid its really held its head high against the others this gen.

gta SA

saints row

can dark souls count?

1. Mount & Blade: Warband

2. Minecraft

3. GTA: San Andreas

RDR, New Vegas, and...infamous?:P

1. Red Dead Redemption

2. Skyrim

3. Assassins Creed II

1. Morrowind

2. Oblivion

3. Minecraft

Minecraft

GTA:SA

Sim City 4

RDR

GTA IV

Saints row

New Vegas

RDR

Skyrim

DayZ

Minecraft

Just Cause 2

1. Skyrim tied with DayZ
2. Red Dead Redemption
3. Morrowind

In no particular order:

San Andreas

Red Dead Redemption

Assassin's Creed 2

1 Infamous 1&2

2Just Casue 2/Fallout 3

3 L.A. Noire (better than both GTA and RDR)

1. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
2. Saints Row The Third/Saints Row 2
3. Just Cause 2

1- RDR

2- STALKER CoP

3- Just Cause 2

1 saints row 3 /2

2 driver san francisco

3 driver 2

Having played a LOT of sandbox games over the years,I'm too lazy to overanalyze the OP question,so I'm taking the easy route:

1. GTA III
2. GTA Vice City
3. GTA San Andreas

Yep,I consider Rockstar the king of the sandbox genre...