Ethan learned open world games the slow way: one city at a time, every side street driven, every talk radio station argued with. These days he reviews the genre for Android players, where a big city has to survive small screens, touch controls and twenty minute sessions on a train.
How Ethan tests an open world game
Every game starts the same way: the story, played straight, with notes on driving feel, mission design and where the frame rate dips. Then come the sandbox tests, free roam in every district, the wanted system pushed to six stars, and the social systems most reviewers skip. Touch controls get their own sessions, because a city this size lives or dies on its steering.
Why GTA 4 got a full site
Most open world games are maps with missions pinned to them. GTA 4 is a place with a story happening inside it: the friendships decay if you ignore them, the news reports your crimes, and the ending refuses to let you win clean. That is a game worth documenting properly, borough by borough.