Then I played the Wii version MH3 until they shit down the servers.

Is that a typo? Tough telling given the subject.

First there was underwater areas.

I hated these. I was glad to see them go in the next release.

Next was the introduction to open field where you would just go hunt and gather no quest limitations just fill your bags and kill thing.

Yeah, I liked this feature.

As soon as I got into it and lost some interest I later heard of the release coming up for Monster hunter World. Iput the portable game up and waited for the BETA play weekends.

Hah, that's funny, my reaction was to go out and buy the 3DS import Monster Hunter XX so that I would have something to keep me distracted while I waited for MHW.

Holy Cow! the town is huge!

Did you notice you can use those chain lifts to move around faster? They take you right to the areas you use the most, canteen, workshop, gathering place...

Gathering was simplified but required more work searching out where things are located and gathering from across the maps that can expand as you play.

Did you notice they mark the location of gathering points on your map after you gather something the first time?

You left out one of the coolest parts. You don't have to have a web browser open to a fan based wiki while you play. As your character encounters more monsters, you can read more about them in town. The weapon and armor crafting and upgrading works much the same way. If the PS+ network wasn't down, I'd still be playing. I'll have to do a post on this soon!

I've been too busy playing to post anything this weekend, but maybe I'll get to it tonight. This is, by far, my favorite monster hunter game.