What open world game made the biggest advances over its predecessors?

[Crazycrab]

9 hours ago, The Blackangel said:

Remember I'm a classic gamer here people.

I would say the biggest advance would be Zelda OoT after Link To The Past. Link To The Past was so small and confined. Then OoT comes out, and it's enormous. Especially the dungeons. And there are so many tricks and hidden treats you can find through out the game. It was the first one with a horse you can ride, it introduced gold skulltulas, gorons, gerudos, friendly zoras, and a whole cast of new items. And above all else it introduced THAT MOTHERFUCKING OWL. Damn you Shigeru Miyamoto!

 

I'm with you there.  Coming of a back of console genrastion that mostly produced side scrollers and overheard RPGs and the only 3D titles were moslty FPS's and a handful of flying games, Zelda OoT was a giant leap forward.

[AI_Impaired]

Transition to 3D was huge, both Zelda OoT and GTA 3 were the best examples of gigantic evolutionary advances that worked.
I gotta say though, each game in the Witcher franchise slayed the previous one in advancement.
Technology and Scale pulled out of seemingly nowhere. How even?
 

[skyfire]

I think more is yet to come in the new year. I am guessing we will let know in E3 on that.