Do keep in mind, that though it’s natural to assume that when we talk about big game maps, we might be talking about open world games only- but that’s not the case. Whether its an open world game, or an open ended game that’s not particularly open world, or a huge map that we’ve seen in multiplayer play- it’s all fair game for this list. Also, do keep in mind that randomly generated maps were not considered for this feature.

A final note before we begin- there’s every possibility that we might have missed out on some game you were expecting to see on this list, and if we did, it’s either because the exact sizes of their maps aren’t known to us, or because we simply forgot! If it’s the former, and you know what the sizes are, please tell us! If it’s the latter, please remind us.

So without further ado, let’s jump into it.

#50. ASSASSIN’S CREED UNITY

The open world action by developers Ubisoft has its fair share of issues, sure, but its world is one aspect that can’t be faulted. It’s a joy to explore, and it’s also pretty big. At about 2.4 km2, there’s more than enough space in this virtual world to explore and lose yourself in.

The latest set of weekly deals for Xbox Deals with Gold has been revealed. These deals are available only for Xbox Live Gold members and was announced by Director of Programming Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb. The list of games with discounts include a large number of Xbox One titles and a select few Xbox 360 titles as well.

Some of the interesting offers include Diablo III: Eternal Collection for $30, 101 Ways to Die for $5 and many more such titles such as Furi and Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 Season Pass Edition. The list also include DLC content such as Diablo III: Rise of the Necromancer for $10 and Forza Horizon 3 Blizzard Mountain for $7.99. Xbox 360 titles include Alien Hominid HD for $4.99, Diablo III: Reaper of Souls- Ultimate Evil Edition for $15.99 and Forza Horizon 2 for $9.89.

All of these offers are only available to Xbox Live Gold members and they remain available until January 8. There’s certainly a lot of games and add-ons to choose from to start off the new year.

Of course, we’re not just talking about a single loading screen that stretches for too long. This can also apply to a game that simply bombards you with loading screens at every turn, adding up to an experience that’s more loading than actual gameplay. Let’s take a look at 15 such games that are notorious for this. And remember: They may or may not have been patched since release so beware.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3

One of the most recent examples of horrid loading times is CI Games’ Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3. The game was criticized for taking an inordinate amount of time to even load the first level. Eurogamer showcased how it’s possible to complete one race in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, some speedruns in Gone Home and  casual Pokemon GO in the time it takes to load one level in Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3.

CI Games’ Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 received a heavy amount of criticism when it launched for its long load times, mission design, glitches and so much more. Studio CEO Marek Tyminski has now spoken out about the game’s shortcoming and said that the open world proved to be a big resource drain.

Basically, the developer “spent too much effort trying to catch up with other AAA titles.” It also “made the wrong math considering the size of our team and the originally given timeframe.

“We’ve learned a lot as a team over the course of development for Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, much of which I believe has shaped the talented individuals within CI Games and the entire studio for the better. When we began development of SGW3, we decided on such a relatively large scale of the game with its open world that now we realize it was just too ambitious versus what we could have been able to deliver in any reasonable amount of time.”

Thanks to Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 however, Tyminski said that the studio is already abandoning open world design for its next title. “All of that was a huge lesson for us and we’re now moving forward without any tag attached to our next project.

“We’re planning to make a great tactical shooter where we can focus on exciting gameplay, some key mechanics, and missions that have depth without all of the trappings of a large open-world setting. We want to make this game even more tactical than SGW3, and I believe the last three years have created a wonderful foundation that we can build upon for our next game.”

As for those who purchased Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, you can expect updates throughout the year. What are your thoughts on CI Games’ statement? Let us know below.

Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is a tactical open world shooter from CI games. The game runs on the CryEngine, Crytek’s proprietary set of framework and tools which has powered some of the best-looking games in the past. However, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is a different story all together. Though the game utilizes some of CryEngine’s complex parameters such as dynamic lighting and detailed screen space reflections, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 looks quite last gen in some places. This is perhaps down to the game’s lower resolution textures and some shoddy NPC animations; however, this is not to say that Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is a bad looking game but it’s not a title that is pushing the hardware it’s running on nor the CryEngine.

We recently got our hands on the PC and PS4 Pro versions of Sniper Ghost Warrior so we decided to compare how the two stack up against each other. Note that we are using a pretty high end PC which includes a GTX 1080Ti, 16GB of DDR4 memory and a Ryzen 7 1700 processor. So, in a way, we have ensured that the game faces no bottlenecks at all and is running at its highest possible graphical setting at 1080p.

The PC version of Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 doesn’t feature a ton of graphical settings. You can play around with parameters such as In-Game Effects, Particles, Object Detail, Physics, Post Processing, Shader Quality, Shading and Shadow Quality. However, the game does not come with any options for Anti-Aliasing…a glaring omission if you are looking try out different AA options., although the game is possibly using SMAA by default.

So how does the PC build compare against the PS4 Pro version? To begin with, the PC version allows the game to run at well above 60 frames per second. Being a first person shooter, many players will prefer to play the game at this frame rate and should you have the hardware, you shouldn’t face any problems achieving the same. On the other hand, the PS4 Pro version is quite bare bones. The game has no specific Pro mode, no resolution benefit and neither a performance mode for better frame rates. Although, we haven’t tried this game out on the PS4, we doubt the Pro features any significant improvements in other graphical assets over the PS4. In short, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is a disappointing affair on the PS4 Pro. The game simply runs at 1080p and 30 frames per second with settings seemingly equivalent to the PC’s high setting.

The PC version, as expected, benefits from improved object detail, better drawn distance and faster assets streaming specially on those objects which are far from the player’s view. Shadow Quality and screen space reflections are also higher on the PC, so overall PC is the best place to play Sniper Ghost Warrior 3.

Also, it’s impossible to conclude this technical review without mentioning the game’s loading times. It’s atrocious…sitting 5 minutes as the next level loads is unacceptable in this generation. Granted there is a fantastic musical score going on in the background when the loading kicks in but waiting so many minutes doing absolutely nothing is disappointing. On the PC version, the wait is a bit less compared to the PS4 Pro but again not so less that it becomes an acceptable feature.

From the Best Weapon Locations to some cheats for unlocking unlimited skills and gaining infinite experience points (XP), from Primary, Sidearms, And Secondary Weapon Locations to Customization, Making Ammo And Crafting, to, of course, some Achievements and Trophies, this guide has it all. Let’s get right into it.

Best Weapon Locations:

The odds are stacked against you in Sniper Ghost Warrior 3– but you can make things a little bit easier on yourself simply by trying to find some of the better weapons in the game. The guide below will walk you through where the best weapons in the game are located.

Primary, Sidearms And Secondary Weapon Locations:

Of course, there are some other weapons and items you can find in the game too, all of which, if found, can help make your life a wee bit easier than it would be otherwise. If you want to deck yourself out beyond just the main weapons in the game, this section of the guide will help you.

Unlimited XP / Skill Points Cheat:

Please be advised that the following methods are to be used at the sole discretion of the system owner. GamingBolt or its staff members take no responsibility for problems that may arise or issues that may occur from trying the below.

On the PC version of Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, you can get around to manipulating the game in some really interesting ways. You can unlock unlimited XP and infinite skill points using the method below.

Customization, Crafting And Making Ammo:

Customization is, of course, a thing now in just about every game that there is. Crafting as well- so it should come as no surprise to anyone who has paid attention that Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 will have both of those mechanics as well. In this section of the guide, we try to share some tips for you so you can hit the ground running in these regards.

Achievements And Trophies Guide:

Scout Sniper Basic Course
Complete Prologue. Refer walkthrough here.

Ghost Hunt 
Complete First Act.Refer walkthrough here.

Enemy of my Enemy
Complete Second Act.Refer walkthrough here.

The Castling 
Complete Third Act.Refer walkthrough here.

Endgame 
Complete Fourth Act.Refer walkthrough here.

Bounty Hunter 
Neutralize 25% the Most Wanted list in one playthrough

Deputy 
Neutralize 50% targets from the Most Wanted list in one playthrough

Sheriff 
Neutralize 75% targets from the Most Wanted list in one playthrough

Marshall 
Neutralize 100% from the Most Wanted list in one playthrough

Local Hero: Dam 
Complete all Side-Ops on Dam in one playthrough

Local Hero: Mining Town 
Complete all Side-Ops on Mining Town in one playthrough

Local Hero: Village 
Complete all Side-Ops on Village in one playthrough

Sharpshooter 
Own all Primary Weapons

Trooper
Own all Secondary Weapons

Gunslinger 
Own all Sidearms

Manual Labor 
Use Crafting for the first time

DIY Enthusiast 
Craft item from each category at least once

Hiker 
Complete 5 Point of Interest in one playthrough

Trouble Seeker 
Complete 10 Point of Interest in one playthrough

You Can Run But You Can’t Hide
Kill an Enemy with a Sniper Rifle shooting through a wall

The White Death 
Kill 20 Enemy Snipers in one playthrough

Mark the Prey 
Tag 30 Enemies with Tagging Bullets in one playthrough

Assassin 
Do 25 Stealth kills in one playthrough

Third Degree 
Do 15 Interrogations in one playthrough

Drone Warfare 
Unlock all Drone modules

Voyeur 
Tag 10 Enemies with the CCTV in one playthrough

Bullet Sponge 
Survive 500 hits in one playthrough

Death From Above
Kill 20 Enemies from above in one playthrough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzSrI0yW3mA

Death From Below 
Kill 5 Enemies from below in one playthrough

Turn On the Wipers 
Kill 25 Enemies while driving in one playthrough

Marksman 
Do a headshot from 500 meters using scope 10x

Aerial Recon 
Fly 5 km with your Drone in one playthrough

Crab Walk 
Move 1 km while crouched in one playthrough

Pheidippides 
Run 10 km in one playthrough

Environmentally Unfriendly 
Drive 100 km in one playthrough

Long Shot 
Kill an Enemy from a 500 meters distance.

Triple Kill 
Kill 3 Enemies with 1 bullet

Point Blank 
Do a short distance Sniper Rifle kill

Shot Down 
Drone destroyed by Enemies

Blown Up 
Drone destroyed by Traps

Treasure Island
Open the Loot Box on the Island

Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, the newest game in the cult hit shooter series by CI Games, is now out. The game has a load of technical issues plaguing it, such as long loading times, but for fans of its brand of shooting, there is nothing else quite like it, that’s for sure.

If you play the game, you may find yourself wanting help, or just stuck and unable to progress. Alternately, you simply may not want to play the game, and just want to watch someone else’s playthrough of it. Whatever brought you here, the end result is that you want a walkthrough- and that’s what we’re here to help you with.

This walkthrough for Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is an entire start to finish run of it. Bear in mind that it obviously has spoilers- but if you’re here, you probably don’t care about that anyway. Still, try not to jump too far ahead of where you are supposed to be in the game if you’re playing it.

Nintendo’s Mario Kart 8 Deluxe saw a strong critical reception for the Switch and it’s doing well commercially as well – as per Gfk Chart-Track, it was the top-selling game in the UK for the week across all platforms. This was also the first boxed Nintendo title to hit the number 1 spot since Pokemon White as per Games Industry International.

Another new released was Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 which earned second place in the top ten. It was followed by Grand Theft Auto 5, Little Nightmares and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, whose sales are up 68 percent week-on-week.

Lego Worlds, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, FIFA 17 and Horizon: Zero Dawn make up the rest of the top ten. With Prey coming this Friday and Injustice 2 coming in the next weeks, it should be interesting to see how the charts pan out. Stay tuned for more information and let us know what you think below.

You play as Jon North, a moderately cliched video game hero that will do whatever it takes to see the mission through. With his Marine Captain’s training and sniping skills, Jon is dropped into the war-torn country of Georgia to help break up a new terror – a separatist movement that is quickly turning into a bloody civil war. The atmosphere is daunting with rocky terrain, dense forests, and grey skies. Spread throughout four acts, you will move onto new lands with similar but different aesthetics as the game progresses. As Jon traverses the rocky roads by foot or vehicles, he soon realizes there’s something more behind this growing war that could lead back to his past. Most of the time the story is forgettable and bland, but it has to be there or you’d just be going from mission to mission shooting people. Through much of the journey, Jon will travel to small villages, drive along winding roads, and see the people of this country live their every day lives as they normally would. But the NPCs aren’t much to talk about. Their practically lifeless selves don’t interact much with Jon or take any interest in his presence as he stomps through villages with snipers and assault rifles in hand. I even ran one over one during the heat of the battle. The villager wasn’t happy, but there was no repercussion for doing so. They’re bland fillers in a mostly lifeless open world.

You’ll be quick to realize that Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is far from anything that looks like a high-end current gen game. With textures looking no better than an Xbox 360/PS3 game, character models are an eye sore looking cooky and incomplete — and in most cases very generic. The land and atmosphere aren’t the worst I’ve seen, but it”s not by any means an eye catcher.

All of the game’s activities are carried out from the safe house assigned within each location of the game. Each safe house has a Weapons Cache that allows you to purchase and unlock new weapons; a Work Bench that allows you to build ammo, gadgets and more; a Bed for sleeping, and a Laptop station that gives you all of your new missions and assignments.

"The developer claims that sniping in this game is more realistic than ever before, and with the adjustments that must be made to ensure accuracy — such as adjusting the scope elevation to adjust for wind and distance — I was forced to believe them."

With dozens of weapons to choose from, unlock, and earn, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 can be transformed into something other than a sniping simulator, namely an action game as well. Taking place in a open-world, there are few limits on how to tackle each new objective. Of course, sniping is the logical way to go about eliminating the enemies quickly; and with several variations of sniper rifles to choose from, there’s definitely a lot of good equipment. Each rifle looks and feels unique with beautiful accuracy in model design. Depending on how you like your rifle to feel, there are several variations in which to find a rifle that is suitable for your own playstyle. With counters on damage, fire rate, stability, recoil absorption, ammo capacity, mobility, and noise reduction, each rifle can vastly differ from any other. Then you can slightly modify each rifle to give it that extra juice it needs to carry out the particular mission you’ve been assigned.

Upon arriving at any safe house the game provides, modifications can then be made in the Weapon Cache station. Each rifle includes adding or removing a scope, magazine, silencer, bipod, camo, and vision. Not every sniper rifle is entitled to every category and each category must be unlocked and/or purchased as the game progresses. The recoil and intensity of each rifle felt slightly different than the other depending on which model I had, but I found myself enjoying the game’s opening sniper, the XM-2015 more than any others I was able to further unlock. It was an all-around great rifle to use in the open terrain and was very versatile.

The developer claims that sniping in this game is more realistic than ever before, and with the adjustments that must be made to ensure accuracy — such as adjusting the scope elevation to adjust for wind and distance — I was forced to believe them. You’ll quickly learn that taking care of your equipment, crafting bullets and gadgets, and maintaining your rifles will become common practice. If equipment and rifles aren’t maintained regularly at the safe house, you may find yourself in the middle of the field with a broken silencer or no bullets, forcing you to go in with your assault rifle or melee weapons.

"The controls for the weapons are a totally separate story. Controls are often slow to react or unrefined. For instance, if you preemptively hold R2 to raise your drone to a higher altitude, you’ll have to release the button once the drone comes out and press R2 again or it won’t react if you’re holding the trigger."

With a vast variation of rifles to choose from, the developers didn’t stop there. They added an extensive cache of assault rifles for a secondary weapon, pistols for sidearms, and a small selection of knives. Each of which (excluding the knives) are also modifiable to lesser degrees. Oh, and don’t forget the drone. It’s a little robot that does reconnaissance which allows you to tag out each enemy, ideal sniping points, mortars, and more.

The weapons cache that can be unlocked and taken into each mission is indeed impressive and well thought out. Along with all of those weapons, Jon also has an animal-like sense called Scout that allows him to analyse and track clues spread out in various locations. It’s interesting to use it in a particular “missing body” side mission, but not necessary until the game forces it on you — which isn’t often.

The controls for the weapons are a totally separate story. Controls are often slow to react or unrefined. For instance, if you preemptively hold R2 to raise your drone to a higher altitude, you’ll have to release the button once the drone comes out and press R2 again or it won’t react if you’re holding the trigger.

"Sniper Ghost Warrior 3‘s extensive side missions can be a lot of fun. Spread generously throughout the open world, side missions include several Point of Interest locations that vary between hostage situations, loot gathering, collectible hunting, drone obstacle courses, killing or interrogating men, and much more."

There is some decent variety in mission types but most come down to sneaking into a guarded location and taking down the man behind it all, or recovering important intel. Missions may garner a new piece of information that carries into the overarching story, but they’re all practically the same. Though this is an open world game and you can go about each mission from different fronts, they all tend to be relatively the same substance. As long as you stay back and hidden, it should be pretty easy to finish most, but not all, missions. Luckily, it’s impossible to quick scope in this game, so using stealth is a must if you decide to go in as a sniper and not guns blazing.

Anyway you decide to head into the mission, AI enemies are consistently dimwitted and only notice danger if it happens right in their faces. If you shoot someone next to another enemy or behind them, you’re in the clear. AI’s perception and focus of danger is stuck in a vortex of tunnel vision and unless they walk into a dead body, you’ll likely clear many missions unscathed and unnoticed.

Sniper Ghost Warrior 3‘s extensive side missions can be a lot of fun. Spread generously throughout the open world, side missions include several Point of Interest locations that vary between hostage situations, loot gathering, collectible hunting, drone obstacle courses, killing or interrogating men, and much more. You’ll often find many parts needed for weapon upgrades and bullet ingredients at these locations. Side missions are not very very long or more than a few minutes each — which is great and helps you to focus on the main story instead of getting swamped in huge side story arcs.

As in many games of this style, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 has a small skill tree that allows you to upgrade your character’s abilities. The skills tree consists of three categories: Sniper, Ghost and Warrior. Each skill allows you to upgrade Jon in those three classes from points gathered by accomplishing tasks. The Sniper category allows you to become a better sniper, Ghost for quick actions and stealth, and Warrior for added health perks and different rifle improvements. The skill tree isn’t extensive and doesn’t take much work to unlock many of the more important abilities it holds.

"Overall, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 has some decent gameplay features in terms of customizing and building up your weapons, an open world where going about the mission is up to you, and a fun drone to pilot around. However, a bland story, bugs and glitches, and lazy design choices make Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 a rather bland experience at times."

For a game centered around realism and stealth, and becoming the master of invisibility, I went in expecting the physics and the world to be somewhat interactive. Jon has the ability to climb and shimmy his way around cliffs and buildings, but only if the game has a preset set piece for him to do so. If there’s a rock in the way and it’s only chest-high but not designed to be climbed on, Jon can either try and jump over or walk around it…which doesn’t make much sense. Also, walking sounds the same everywhere,  there is no distinction between walking effects in the game, be it dirt, mud, snow or bushes. There is no distinction of sound effects with anything except water — which is very, very minimal. But that won’t be a big deal if you crouch-walk — you then become completely silent in any terrain which is a bit odd.

Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 also suffers from terrible pop-in effects that garner many of the important moments through the scope’s point of view to be lackluster. Rendering is often slow and unsatisfying when you look up close through the scope.

I’ll ignore the fact that Jon can drive around in his truck going forward and reverse without taking his hands off of the steering wheel and chalk that up to lazy development. But the game is riddled with bugs and glitches which I experienced more than my fair share throughout Sniper Ghost Warrior 3. Some moments, however, aren’t even glitches or bugs but bad design choices or just plain laziness. For instance, I can sneak around in crouch mode (remember, Jon is dead silent in crouch mode no matter the terrain) and interrogate groups of enemies. As long as the others have their backs turned, I can literally have a conversation with one of my enemies and discuss his evil plans right in the middle of the fray through intimidation tactics. I’m not sure why moments such as these weren’t fixed but it just makes for a mediocre experience that feels very lazily designed.

Overall, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 has some decent gameplay features in terms of customizing and building up your weapons, an open world where going about the mission is up to you, and a fun drone to pilot around. However, a bland story, bugs and glitches, and lazy design choices make Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 a rather bland experience at times.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

As if the long loading times on PlayStation 4 weren’t bad enough, CI Games’ Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 has released without multiplayer.

Regarding the delay of multiplayer, CI Games explained that this was in order to “provide the best possible single player experience in our most ambitious game [in the series] to date.” It’s also busy working on post-launch updates and other content in the coming months.

“Therefore, we have chosen to release the multiplayer update (that will be free for our players) after launch (the third quarter of 2017) for precisely the above reasons, that is not to dilute any potential from the single player experience.”

It isn’t that big of a deal but between justifying the long initial loading times (albeit on PS4 only but still) and multiplayer’s delay, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3’s release is definitely not without its quirks. What are your thoughts on the game? Let us know in the comments below.