Summary
As technology for video games continues to progress and develop, players are experiencing bigger and better technological marvels that have been folded into their games. Open-world games continueto get bigger, more detailed, and more immersive as time goes on, and while some games don’t properly utilize this technology, creating worlds that feel empty and sparse, others do so with aplomb, creating fantastic titles to delve into.
To this end, vehicles are often essential to having animmersive open world. If players can get where they need to go without using fast travel and staring at a loading screen, they’ll be that much more involved with the world. These open-world games in particular take one step further and have customizable vehicles that can be shaped to the player’s tastes.
The Crew 2has just about anything a player could want in an open-world racer title. The graphics are phenomenal, and beautifully rendered cities blur past in a haze as players impel themselves to ridiculous speeds, revving their engines until there’s nothing left in the tank.
Besidessome fantastic street cars, this game also lets players customize and race with vehicles in the air and on water, allowing for an incredibly diverse set of vehicles to customize to the player’s liking.
Need For Speed Heattakes a more focused approach to open-world racing than the aforementionedCrew 2, focusing on perilous street racing in an open world that becomes a completely different realm by night.
Players can take on someridiculously fast cars, choosing the safer and more stable day races or the fast-paced and death-defying night comps to further increase their reputation and put their winnings towards better car customization parts.
Mad Maxis an underrated open-world title, staying true to the same high-octane but narratively driven action amped up to an incredible scale (yes,Mad Maxis about the story as much as the fast cars and explosions).
There are several different bodies that players can use as the base for their cars, and each one can hold a plethora of upgrades, with every upgrade uniquely affecting the appearance of the base car. It’s an incredibly satisfying customization experience.
Grand Theft Auto 5, considered to be one of the greatest titles released by Rockstar Games, offers an unparalleled level of vehicle customization compared to other entries in theGrand Theft Autoseries.
No more will auto-shops simply give players paint jobs to throw off the police. Players can outfit their cars with a variety of customization options based on their preferences in both the single-player andonline game modesofGTA 5.
Starfieldmight be lacking some of the personality of Bethesda’s other game worlds, with the huge space sandbox having little room for soul, but if there’s one area that the game got right it was with itsdeceptively simple ship customization.
Paired with a more focused game, this ship customization mechanic could have helped makeStarfielda classic among its peers. As it stands, there’s still much to appreciate with the efficient, modular design focus that players can put into every ship they wish to build.
Dead Rising 3takes the concept of mowing down zombies in vehicles - something touched upon in older titles but never really highlighted - and makes it one of the core components of the game. Nick’s experience as a mechanic lets him combine two vehicles into one ‘combo vehicle’ that is capable of immense zombie destruction.
Dead Rising 3might be behind its predecessors in terms of overall quality, but it doesn’t stop mowing down zombies in some beastly gasoline guzzler from being a deliciously fun time.
Rumored to be slated for alate 2025 remake,Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flagis one of the most beloved installments in theAssassin’s Creedfranchise. Oddly enough, this is due to its departure, rather than its adherence to the strict stealth mechanics of the previous titles.
Customizing Edward Kenway’s ship is an aesthetic and mechanical affair, as players can do much to make the ship their own while also improving its capacity for defense, cannons, or even ramming into other ships.
Players need nothing more than some salvaged ships, a reactor core, and a Starship fabricator to make the ship of their dreams inNo Man’s Sky. The new orbital update lets players finally engage with a highly requested feature and build their own ships.
Certain ship types can be scraped for the modules players will need to fit around their reactor core to make a new ship, fully customized to their specifications. It’s a simple, engaging system that lets players realize the ship of their dreams.
