Best game location

[Thirtysomething]

Agree with a poster above and say that the "World" in World of Warcraft was the best thing about that game. Now if only they would update the graphics I might get sucked in again...

Also "The Zone" in and around Chernobyl in Stalker deserves a mention for most atmospheric.

Chozo ruins in Metroid prime. Loved the creepy atmosphere when you first entered there, and then when you get the morphball the music changes to that catchier tune and gives the area a whole new feel.

The Witcher, which I'm playing right now, also has a very nicely designed, authentic feeling world which is helping immensely to bring the story to life. I'm only on chapter two and have gotten as far as the swamp right now though.

 

[Iron Mal]

Silent Hill- While I will admit that getting lost in the fog for the 12th time in a row did get annoying, that still didn't stop me from feeling uneasy when playing this game. What got me most about the location wasn't the near-constant changing of dimentions (which was still pretty disturbing) but the fact that I remembered that I was in a town that was supposed to be a tourist resort yet everything seems abandoned and no-one is there besides a few poor victims/twisted psychopaths/children.

Space (from most sci-fi games)- I find endless views of stars, planets and supernovas to be very thereputic.

Any background from the original Worms- I still find some of them pretty funny given the context.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

- Oddworld

Seconded. Roughly ten times the size of Earth, populated by all kinds of weird species and creatures, a variety of environments, not to mention all the weird stuff created by the Industrialists (robot legs!).

 

[mjhhiv]

City 17. Nothing comes close.

 

[NeedAUserName]

San Andreas
Jerusalem? (were Assassins Creed was set?)

 

[ExileNZ]

Man, some good calls here. A few of my own:

Citadel Station (from System Shock, not KOTOR II tho the reference was nice)
The UNN Van Braun, The UNN Rickenbacker and the Body of the Many
The Cradle
The Cradle
The Cradle

The City from Thief, the Haunted Cathedral and Constantine's manor
Oh and the Woodsie Lord's Domain in Thief II (with the distortion and the tree-beasts) and the Sunken City (specifically from Thief I, much better than the later ones)

Moving on from Looking Glass...

The world from Chrono Trigger. All ages. But yes the Black Omen gets special mention.
The caverns of Exile (there's a reason it's my namesake)
The world of Aqua (best taken from Archimedean Dynasty and right through the series)
Nosgoth (again, all of it, across all games, but special mention for the Eternal Prison)
The Alien level from Turrican II
The Harbinger (complain about the game all you like, that ship drew you in)
The prison colony from Gothic, the temple of Beliar from Gothic II
The sunny beaches of Giants: Citizen Kabuto (and Kabuto's lair at the end)
Babylon from Two Thrones. Hell, all three games had great locations. I'm even tempted to mention a few of the locales from Prince of Persia 3D
The city of Avernus (from Shogo) and the prison complex hanging from the roof
Hillis from Beyond Good and Evil. That whole world was just alive.

And that'll do

 

[Digitalpotato]

Arcadia
A bunch of floating islands harbouring a flourishing civilization despite the obvious flaw of the landscapes.

Eterina
Two worlds. To each other they are upside down and are separated only by a barrier. That's just plain awesome, man.

Shibuya
Finally, a modern RPG that shows urban life properly.

Earth
What can be better than playing an RPG land inside our own world? But with teh addition of monsters, harmonixers, crest magic, and all of the above co-existing with the 20th century world?

 

[Strafe Mcgee]

Did anyone else mention Fallout's world? If they didn't then I'm mentioning it now. Fallout's world.

There. I heartily agree with anyone that said the Looking Glass games and would like to add Black Mesa from the original Half-Life. I still love playing through that hazardous place every now and again.

 

[D2wontdie]

1. rapture
2. tristram (Diablo)
3. underneath the world in god of war 2

 

[imaroboturarobot]

1. RApture
2.Halo
3. Apature science testing center

 

[zoozilla]

Any location from the Myst series.

It would be great if the original was re-made for next-gen consoles.

 

[KapnKerfuffle]

In no particular order:

1) Rapture
2) Shivering Isles - Oblivion
3) Jerusalem
4) San Andreas - especially Mount Chilead and the air base and the Las Venturas Strip
5) Psychonauts - So many great places here. Um, it's a toss up between Lungfishopolis or The Milkman's Neighborhood. Although Waterloo World and Black Velvetopia are really cool too.
6) The City - most notably Karras's Mansion, Constantine's Manor (both before and after you know what), The Haunted Cathedral especially out back (Hammer Haunts!). Got give it up for Shalebridge Cradle.
7) Halo
8) Von Braun
9) Citadel Station
10) Just to be different, I'll say Freelancer. It's version of space was pretty cool and varied

 

[Tattaglia]

Rapture
Black Mesa
& the top of the Cathedral in Acre. THAT was sweet.
The worse one has to be the Desert in God of War. I spent nearly an hour searching for those goddamn sirens.

 

[ExileNZ]

Zoozilla, Myst did get remade, all in a pretty 3D engine. It's not next-gen any more, but it kicked my PC in the balls at the time and it's still remarkably pretty (just don't complain there's no Shader 3 support).

You can look it up, I'm fairly certain it has some really out there name like Myst 3D.

And how did I forget to put Black Mesa on my list?

 

[Graustein]

The Great Sea in Wind Waker, surprisingly. I dunno, there's something so soothing about the sailing. I didn't mind that it took so long at all

 

[Drednought1]

My top 5 have to be:

1. The second Jupiter mining complex in Descent
2. Ultemicia Castle (Final Fantasy VIII)
3. Winhill (Final Fantasy VIII)
4. Halo Ring (The falling road bit at the end of Halo 3)
5. Station Square (Perfect Chaos Battle - Sonic Adventure)

 

[BattlePope]

Oh! One I forgot when I had my first post on this thread was that forbidden land from the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus franchise. It's mainly since I'm an extremely shy guy, but I guess Dormin's voice might get a bit creepy...

 

[Screeling]

Well, some of the locations in WoW are actually pretty nice. Rapture is great. The Shivering Isles, too many locations to count in some FF games. Really too many to mention I think.

 

[Same River New Water]

The Star Control universe, because all the characters you can meet are so entertaining.

Wars World from Advance Wars! War has never been so cute. (Dark Conflict I didn't mind at first, but now I want to go back to the sunny land of cartoon warfare.)

The Lemmings backgrounds were very evocative.