Same. This seems to be getting more common with various media and products. Too many choices which is a good thing for consumers but not good for publishers.
Pacific Drive had one of the most atmospheric intros I’ve seen since Half Life. It loses a little once you start scavenging and crafting and get your HUD, but still a unique game. Like a cross between My Summer Car and STALKER.
I had a game watch around 5th grade. It was LCD and had a tiny little joystick at the bottom of the screen. It would play imitations of games like Pac Man and Space Invaders. Apparently I wasn’t ghosty enough because it got confiscated pretty quickly.
You don’t have to do any of that, but just walking around you will get attacked by all manner of creatures so I would take Witcher 3 off the list on that basis.
I don’t know, I used to let my young niece play GTA 4 at least, supervised the whole time of course. The rule was you could drive around until you crashed or hit someone, then we switched players. Generally there is no trouble unless you make trouble. The pedestrians can make rude comments but having the volume low solves most of that.
Minecraft, if you play online and enter a server like Cubecraft the default lobby is very kid friendly and has a large interesting map to explore. And of course the game itself has tons of single player content and you can build your own stuff in survival or creative modes.
Try Grand Theft Auto 5 and see what you think. If you don’t actually do any missions it’s really a very nice and alive world to explore. The pedestrians make some rude comments though.
Also Arma 3, the base map is a sandbox of a real life island with most buildings enterable, and no people or traffic or anything offensive by default. You can enter the editor, place a civilian player and some vehicles, and explore the island completely peacefully. There are also lots of mod maps some are very good.
If only driving around is acceptable then the Forza Horiizon games are great for driving around.