I already have a copy of eternal sonata on the xbox 360 but ever since I heard about the ps3 edition with two new playable characters, improved graphics and other extras iv'e been tempted to buy the ps3 version, even though I already have the original game. By the sounds of it i'm not the only one though.

Ever heard of those huge open world games which are set to be the future of gaming! Of course you have, but should you jump on the bandwagon so fast. Games like Fallout 3, Grand theft Auto, Oblivion, are said to be bursting with so much to do that you can stay immersed in the game world forever. The enemies are meant to offer a balanced challenge and there's meant to be more freedom to approach battles and quests however you want. But are game developers becoming a bit too ambitious.

It's true that there are various groups of enemies in Fallout 3 each with various levels of skill, but how do you know which enemies are so easy they bore you to oblivion and which ones are so hard they'll have you wanting to chuck your controller around the living room. Often i've spotted some mutant in Fallout and attempted to enter battle only to run out of ammo and VATS. But it wouldn't matter because I often die from some one shot kill anyway. It's true that you're meant to level up to acquire better abilities and weapons but if you can't find enemies that are at your level how can you do that. Ambiguous maps that show the game world but pay no homage to what town you're in and where you're meant to go don't help and environmental cues are practically useless. For example in Fallout 3 there are literally kilometers of brown deserters, brown and gray houses, brown mountains. It gets hard to tell one place from the other.

Oblivion on the other hand gets so repetitive that you don't even want to fight anymore, spot enemy, strike, block, strike block heal, kill crabs for fun, steal good gear, wander endless terrain looking for enemies repeat. Far Cry 2 iterates on this theme by giving you the vast continent of Africa to explore and then placing objectives on the opposite sides of the game worlds. Before you end up even approaching the objective you end up contending with up to three patrols, times that by around 40 objectives and you're facing a lot of patrols.

In conclusion if somebody, tells you linear level design has no appeal and every game should exist in a massive game world perhaps you shouldn't agree with them so quickly. Towns are only fun towns if you have something fun to do in them and that does not include fighting the same enemies in maze like streets using the same weapons and the tactics to kill them.