I really love the look of MYST but the game itself is very dull. It's probably safe to say that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. will have some of the coolest looking in-game environments ever. Same with Far Cry, DOOM 3 and HL2. I’ve been playing through TRON 2.0 as fast as I can because I can’t wait to see the next level. The levels are brilliant!! For anyone who hasn’t played it, I highly recommend the gold demo (http://www.tron20.net). Morrowind, Mafia, and Vice City also all have remarkable in-game worlds for sheer size and things to explore. Max Payne 2 has a lot of interactivity with environmental objects which lends realism to the experience. Call Of Duty takes the cake for most incredible atmospheres and environments for a WWII shooter. What do you think makes a gaming environment great and which games do you think set the standard?

How about this little beauty ...

Schizm 2

TRON 2.0, Neocron, and yes, I'll even mention it... ANARCHY ONLINE!!! too bad the game wasnt good tho

I checked out Schizm 2 and it looks beautiful. But in looking at it, I also happened across an ad for a game by LucasArts called Armed and Dangerous which looks wonderful, so your link led me to two new discoveries. Thanks!

BTW, I like the reference to the movie "Sleeper" in your sig... I rarely encounter anyone who would know that movie.

Do you have a lot of PC games? Have you played Max Payne 2, Call Of Duty, TRON 2.0 or Mafia?

BHD

I love the game Black Hawk Down, and think the worlds are pretty cool, but the game has the best looking water I've ever seen anywhere.
Just played DeusEx: Invisiable War, and this has the WORST enviroments i've ever seen.

You should see it moving. Its full 3D and utterly amazing. Almost like art. URU - Ages Beyond Myst is also pretty good.

I do have quite a few games, but sadly I don't seem to get much time to play them. I've got all the ones you mention, and I'll hopefully get around to giving them a go soon. I only buy games that get excellent reviews and it doesn't bother me much whether I manage to finish them or not. Maybe I can play them for nostalgic reasons when I retire. I'll bet many of these will become collectors items at some point in the future.

For me Silent Hill 3, damn this game really good at creating disturbing environment and very scary!
And The LOngest Journey, this game really hit me hard at that time! Beautiful graphic and clever puzzle, great game.

WHA~?? You have TRON 2.0, Mafia, Call of Duty and Max Payne 2, but you HAVEN'T PLAYED ANY OF THEM?? I think I would have gone completely insane by now... seeing them in their shiny boxes sitting on my computer shelf... calling to me to play them... and me passing them by, wondering what fantastic virtual worlds wait within... reading online about what great games they are and all the while they're right there within my grasp...

Just don't think I could stand it.

:dead:

Yes, but I'm still playing Halo.

Half life2 looks to have some damn nice enviroments, out of all games that are out now I'd say CoD enviroments are amazing, so realistic.

Aaah, well that explains it. :grinthumb

can ne one say Half-life? its old but it will always be a classic
FF11 online has very nice enviorments for a MMoRPg its almost worth it watching the sun rise on the beach in-game the sounds arent 1/2 bad either

I hear that, Half life is and always will be a classic. I loved it. And will be purchasing HL2 to show my support to valve for their excellent work.
I beat Deus Ex, and want to play Deus Ex 2, im a little dissheartend to hear that its environment got a bad mark. but Ill probably still check it out.
I think my all time favorite game, the game that brought me the most fun for the longest amount of time was counter-strike. Im an old school CS player, but not very good
I love RPGs and as far as they go my favs are FF7, chrono trigger, Lunar Silver star story complete for the PSX (excellent!!!)

uhh thats all off the top of my head, im sure Ill think of more later.

I think Ill check out that shizm 2 deal...

As far as environments go, I'd have to give Gothic props for creating some truly alive locations. Some visually atmospheric games that deserve honorable mention would be Silent Hill 1, System Shock 2 and Clive Barker's Undying. In terms of audio atmosphere, Planescape : Torment fully immersed me in another world.

My 2 cents

battlefield 1942

I only played the demo, but yeah System shock 2 really scared the pants off me. Anyone remember the animated giff we had on here of the ghost coming at a camera mounted in an alley?

BTW Tron 2.0 does have a very cool look. Unfortuneatly it crashed on us during light cycle circuit play and we lost all our saved games. Almost to the end and do I really want to start over?

if you like games to explore on the basis of sheer size, check out true crime streets of la, which contains 240 square miles of genuine los angeles mapping, which is reasonably convincing i'm told...quite a few landmarks as well... similar to this is the getaway, which contained 50 or so square miles of genuine london streets, much of which is true to life, or so i'm told... i used to be impressed with the 3d gta games, until i played true crime, and particularly mafia, which someone already mentioned, which was an absolutely brilliant game, great atmosphere, sound, music, fun gameplay, brilliant story, realistic looking world, everyone should have a look at mafia if they haven't already..

There are a lot of games with well done worlds but not many really stand out. I mean games like Call of Duty depict a realistic world & even though it's well done, it doesn't realyl take a lot of imagination. I'm much more of a fan of sci-fi worlds in that aspect.

The worlds I've really come to like are in the following games :

1. Thief Dark project : nice mix of medieval & futuristic eras.

2. Elder Scrolls especially Morrowind has a very impressive & extended world.

3. Soul Reaver with its vampire apocalyptic world is very well done too.

4. Omikron ( Noamd Soul ) incredible world with a very artistic side & it has David Bowie singing in it. What more do you want ???

5. I'm a huge Terry Pratchett fan so Discworld Noir gets to be here too.

6. Grim Fandango. I'd love to go to a Mexican afterlife.

I'll rumage through my games boxes & add some more.

Grim Fandango was awesome.
don't treat me as a crazy men, but I think the best 'world', in this case enviroment, was in the space simulator game Freespace 2.

you really felt like you were fighting between that huge capital wars, and the laser cannons were so cool... the feeling was very immersive and you really felt like in a movie.

Half Life 2, by the screens I've seen, already has a merit for original scenarios