Biggger isn't always better.

Two things happened in the past two months of particular note. One - Dead Rising 2 and Case Zero were released on marketplace for free for gold members. Two - GTA5's map were leaked online. Now these two things had no connection, except they were both amazing and made me salivate, but both made me think how bigger isn't always better.

GTA5's map is huge, massive, even epic. Word on the gamevine is that if you put Vice City, San Andreas and Liberty City next to each, it would fit inside this new world. This could only be good news, with a bigger map it means more places to explore, get lost in and blow things up. Every time a new GTA comes out we think about how much fun we had on the previous one and then multiply that fun by 10. The new map gives our imagination a platform, combine the trailers and our mind is racing with possibilities with what we are going to do when we get our hands on the game.

However huge maps don't make a great sandbox game. I've found the bigger the sandbox the harder it is to be immersed into the world. When I was playing DR2 and Case Zero this month I found myself putting in so many more hours into CZ then DR2. Why? Because DR2 is too big, there is too much in it. It is a great game and hours of fun can be had, but as replayability and exploration go Case Zero wins. It is small enough to be immersed into the game. As you go through every alley way and doorway you know that every secret is at your fingertips. Were as DR2 you can easily get lost with too many doorways and weapon combinations.

Ask most GTA players and they'll tell you their favourite is Vice City, even though it has the smallest map in the game's history. The game was possible to master, you could seen everything and anything obviously you had to put in a lot of time but it was digestible.  San Andreas and GTA4 were huge, it had so much depth that exploration seemed endless. Mastery of the game was so far away and hard to achieve that who could be bothered searching every nook and cranny. It's the equivalent of playing in your local park and playing in a national park. You have been over every inch of that park and know every little hideaway and every secret little garden. Try doing that in a national park, all that childlike exploration would have grown up by the time you finish.

Ask yourself how many times have you re-played Vice City. Including story-line, side missions, races and personal adventures of course. Now ask yourself how many times did you replay GTA4 and San Andreas. It's a good guess that Vice City hold more replays then GTA4 and San Andreas.

GTA5 will be massive and fun. It will stir so many conversations between work mates, colleagues and friends. Mondays won't be boring because we'll be busy telling each others adventures that spanned the weekend. Personally my favourite was San Andreas but even I had completed Vice City more times then GTA4, San Andreas and possibly GTA5 combined...