goat simulators 1 and 3 are like, specially made for this.

we don't talk about 2

Untitled goose game. You can play it or dink around. HONK

The saints row series is pretty good. It was kind of a GTA knockoff but was much sillier and let you actually keep and upgrade/paint cars. It really lets you make the game yours. In... Number 3 or 4 the player gets movement abilities that make using a car actually slower so that really killed the vibe, but the ridiculousness was higher than ever so it kind of balanced. I'd recommend playing them in order or at least watching YouTube videos because the story is sort of linear.

Someone else said morrowind which really is the ultimate "do whatever you want" game. You're basically never locked out of anything by not doing the main quest, and nearly every npc is killable, even essential ones (though the game will tell you if you do this so you can reload a save). There's no vehicles really so I don't know if that's the vibe you're going for, but it really is a blast if you can accept the painfully outdated graphics and mediocre combat system.

Valheim is a survival crafter exploration game that can be surprisingly cozy, and sailing around is fun. Also not the vibe I think you're looking for but I love it so I shill it when I can.

Cyberpunk is actually a damn decent game now, and the world has SO MUCH crammed into it you can just wander and do whatever activity you run into for ages without getting bored. Even the smallest side story has lore that illustrates a tiny piece of night city and I find that really cool.

I think saints row probably best matches what you're looking for without being a sequel to a game you already mentioned. Cyberpunk too, probably.

Anything Elder Scrolls kept me busy much longer than the main story, most notably Morrowind. Also, I replayed GTA IV (+ stories) last week, was heaps of fun, especially compared to GTA V which I played a few months back. Read Dead Redemption 2 is a good one for this list as well, I enjoyed that one immensely, but I mainly focused on the main quest during that run-through, so this is a good reminder to myself to pick this up again soon (sadly I fell back into the pull of Satisfactory so it might be some weeks/months/... before I get to it)

Saints Row 2-3-4 are great for this. 2 is the GOAT, but 3 and 4 are arguably better at providing the "screwing around" experience.

Sleeping Dogs is underrated and regularly goes on sale for like $5. There is not as much sandbox-ey stuff to do compared to GTA/Just Cause/Saints Row, but I loved jacking a nice car and cruising the freeway at night, or going on a murder spree and playing survival against waves of cops.

Elder Scrolls isn't necessarily as wacky of an experience out of the box, but between mods and the sheer amount of freedom you have in the game, there is plenty of dumb random stuff you can get up to.

If you have Elden Ring on PS4/5 and know your way around the game, invasions have a ton of potential for shenanigans. Probably not what you're after, and I imagine multiplayer activity is down since Nightreign came out, but it's worth mentioning as such a unique experience.

Honourable indie mention: Mars First Logistics is a game where you build vehicles and use them to transport objects from point A to point B. The challenges are largely physics-based, with the objects often having unusual shapes or odd properties, and your vehicle needs to be able to self-load them in addition to bearing them across varying distances and terrains. It's not really what you're asking for, but I feel like it scratched the same sort of itch for me in terms of open-ended low-stakes gameplay.

I just recently got Spider-Man on sale and I've not once used fast travel except in the tutorial because it's too much fun swinging around the city. And there's like 50 types of collectibles/ side missions to do while you're fucking around.

Also you should definitely try Grand theft Auto v if you had that much fun in San Andreas

Red Dead 2 is a masterpiece of this genre

Games I've enjoyed in terms of shenanigans:

-GTA 3-5

-Just Cause 3 (4 too, but it's not as good)

-Untitled Goose Game

-BOTW

-Read Dead Redemption 2

-Saint's Row 2-4

-Cyberpunk 2077 (driving is kinda meh, motorcycles are a little more fun)

-Watchdogs

-Elder Scrolls

-Teardown

Also, I haven't played it, but I heard the new Indiana Jones game is fun with high shenanigan potential.

If you haven't done GTA 5, that's the one you really need to get.

RDR2 is a very good game, but it's a slower pace that's not for everyone.

GTA 5 is a masterpiece for dicking around. I've spent entire evenings just stealing a waverunner and racing through the canals, or the scuba boat and scuba diving, or stealing a bike and biking up and down the mountain, or taking a helicopter up to interesting places and jumping out and parachuting.

In particular, you're going to want to check out "Director's Mode."

This is a mode where you can toggle things like turning off police reactions or giving access to guns or having a super-jump that lets you fly through the air to the roofs of buildings with one leap.

You can really enjoy some of the finer details in this mode, like shooting up cars to see the deformation physics and how the tires get flat or the specific gas tank locations for different cars where they start leaking and shooting the gas trail to blow it up.

Infinite ammo for the mini gun is also quite worth it.

Teleporting around the map is extremely convenient too for things like getting back to the top of the mountain to bike down it over and over.

And oh man — controlling the weather and time of day, and being able to freeze the time of day to exactly when you want? Keeping it at nighttime and rain for an entire play session? Hit the golden hour with an overcast sky and keep it there? Makes a huge difference too.

(The only negative of Director's Mode is you can't explore stealth mechanics and certain types of special NPCs like the mime don't show up.)

There's so much detail to the world. Get into the military base and see if you can find where one of the landing strip lights is on the fritz because the drain next to it is overflowing. Or some of the graffiti in the tunnels underneath the city.

For your specific ask, I really can't think of a better game in existence.

(I've also spent hundreds of hours messing around in Cyberpunk 2077, which is an outstanding game and open world, but not quite at the level of polish and variability as GTA 5.)

Just Cause 3 is great for shenanigans. The bases are fun to blow up, but you can just shoot a couple of bad guys, anywhere, and the AI will fairly quickly start sending helicopters & tanks, which you can just grapple & steal for even more mayhem. JC4 adds a bunch of powers to the grappler and mines that seem like they'd make for fun adventures, but I could never get into it...maybe the pacing of skirmishes was wrong for me or something - it just wasn't as fun as JC3

Saint's Row - SR 4 adds superpowers which are just the right combination (for me) of ridiculous & overpowered. And the 'store vehicle' system basically lets you respawn any vehicle you've ever stolen at will. SR3 is more conventional but still fun.

Far Cry 5, especially coop.

Just Cause 3 definitely.

I quite liked Watchdogs. Dicking about a city causing traffic problems and steaming cash from people's accounts.

• A Short Hike
• Lil Gator Game

These two indie games, both set in a nature park, are more about enjoying their worlds than actually completing quests. With no quest tracker or map, you're free to roam around and talk to characters. Or just pick up sticks and swing them.

I dunno how well crafting/building games fit what you’re looking for, but I can jump into Valheim and just screw around for hours collecting and making stuff. The world isn’t populated like a grand theft auto, but it’s fun to just explore and mess around/build stuff in!

BotW was a great exploration and movement game. I think the things that help are fun transportation methods and a big open world to use them in. So Tony hawk might be a lot of fun to just ride around but the levels are too small for any real exploration. Or daggerfall is a huge open world, but traveling feels pretty tedious. MMOs are kinda fun for this but the leveled regions means some places are very dangerous to move around in without a group or higher levels. Forza 4/5 were a lot of fun for this if you ignore the loot box casino garbage. The last couple Spider-Mans were really good for this & Burnout paradise was a good one too.

Have you played Subnautica yet?

What I took away from your writing is that you like the freeworld aspect, and Subnautica has plenty to fuck around with. It has a main story line, but the game is so good, you can kinda forget about it and just build your underwater palace. No stealibg cars or planes, but you can craft pretty amazing vehicles and 'fly around' underwater with them.

I think you'd enjoy it.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is too slow paced imho for what you're looking for.

Both GTA5 and Just Cause 3 (or 4) are genuinely good picks for what you're after.

Definitely Cyberpunk is a great choice as its built in systems try to pull you into stuff all the time. Don't sleep on Just Cause 3&4 too.