Bwahahaha, if they actually say "Look, there's a monster!" I'm going to laugh so hard.

I've personally always been a fan of the possibility of random encounters without any loading required. Like, you're running around and then suddenly a monster jumps out of the forest, or something. None of this "Monsters only ever walk where there is a large open space" nonsense. I mean, realistically, most monsters would smell you if they were downwind... that would be awesome. You just stare downwind and suddenly there's a pack of wolves charging at you from the distance and gaining on you very quickly.