Probably Elden Ring. I don’t like many AAA games, so that wins by default. I am a big fan of Armored Core though, and the upcoming sequel is definitely in AAA territory. I’ll probably change my answer after I get a chance to play it.

The Mass Effect series, specifically Mass Effect 2. The atmosphere, the scale, the characters. It’s the kind of thing where a AAA budget really bring to life things that AA or indie would have had to cut down.

Fallout 4. I have a lot of problems with the story, worldbuilding, and endless minor nitpicky complaints about this game. However it is an amazing accomplishment and when it does something right, it does it very right. The game is the foundation of mods that make it amazing, and while the game didn’t create the mods, they wouldn’t exist without the game. To me Fallout 4 is “I played this game for 800 hours and there’s nothing to do!” kind of complaining.

DOOM (2016). Wow. What a game. It took the mantle of the most iconic FPS in history and made it’s mark. DOOM (2016) is to the original DOOM what Fury Road is to Road Warrior. It distilled what everybody liked and remembered (or thought they remembered) from the original and pumped it up to 11 with insane confidence.

I sadly don’t have the time nor energy to play open world games anymore so I like games with pretty linear narrative and progression but great story, like Uncharted, The Last of Us, and Bioshock.

Red Dead Redemption 2 actually uses it’s AAA budget to fill out an open world with stuff

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The Mass Effect trilogy

Mass Effect series for me. Great story where choices matter. And the characters are just so wonderful, ending the game felt like saying goodbye to friends.

The Witcher is a masterpiece, I also love Dragon Age and Mass Effect, these 2 are not really openworld but beautiful nonetheless and Bioware is amazing at storytelling.