Favourite Kind of Environment?

[BoredPixel]

An important part of any game, in my opinion at least, is for it to have varied environments. Seeing the same scenery for hours gets pretty old. But there are some settings that really stand out for me.

I really like urban and industrial looking maps, preferably with the sun setting somewhere. But any time of day works too.

An example of this would be at the end of the Water Hazard chapter in Half-Life 2. I think I even died once because I stared at the pretty skyscape for too long.

http://i52.tinypic.com/1zmnpjq.jpg
Wow, those clouds look awesOHCRAPOHCRAPOHCRAP

So, escapists, what kind of maps/levels/worlds do you like? And are there any kind you dislike?

I hate desert maps, probably because it reminds me of hot weather. Anything above +20C(that's 68F for you American people and your strange temperature scales) makes me wan't to spend the day in a freezer.

Oh and my captcha was ullopery private... I think that's supposed to be relevant somehow.

 

[AetherWolf]

Final Fantasy and Assassin's Creed always seem to provide the kind of scenery I spend hours looking at... In fact, I can appreciate a shitty game if their environments are nice enough.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

I cannot describe how much I hate post-apocalyptic wastelands. Everything from the scavenged guns to the tin buildings to the blasted landscape and repurposed buildings makes me just want to turn the game off. I'm not interested in playing a game where victory means taking home a pile of trash to hold on for just one more day.

In general, I like places with fog and rain. I like places which have lots of places to explore. I like the ocean and islands. I like the dark. Cities are cool, but only if they impress upon me a feeling of size.

WoW has some of my favorite places in any game. Special mention goes to the Elven areas, especially Darkshore and Ashenvale, and Duskwood and Silverpine.

Burmecia is one of my favorite places of any Final Fantasy. I also liked Besaid and Zanerkand.

I loved the Manor of Sleep in Fatal Frame 3 and the Ocean Hotel in Bloodlines.

My favorite level of Left 4 Dead was the Sugermill level. Especially when returning.

Homeworld does a better job of making space beautiful than any game ever.

 

[BoredPixel]

Final Fantasy and Assassin's Creed always seem to provide the kind of scenery I spend hours looking at... In fact, I can appreciate a shitty game if their environments are nice enough.

I have a few games like that. I mean, flOw's gameplay is pretty boring on its own, but it looks so damn pretty I like it anyway.

EDIT: Although that's kind of a bad example... it's not so much the environment but the whole design. But still!

 

[flagship]

Tropical Paradise, especially those with massive waterfalls, dense jungles and sandy beaches.

 

[JochemDude]

A tundra would be my thing, low temperature (freezing cold for pansies), plains as far as the eye can see and zen like silences. since I have yet seen a game which has them. I'll just spend my holidays there, Norway, Iceland, Siberia, Alaska and such

 

[AroLombardi]

The Desert in Zelda: Twilight Princess was fun. Same for it's snow Mountain.

 

[Ashcrexl]

I looooove rain. anything in rain becomes automatically amazing. scenery of choice would be a nice detailed and colorful jungle. uncharted, among others, has done rain and it has done jungle, so if they would just combine the two already...

 

[Catalyst6]

Foggy/dark places, especially with schools/hospitals/malls. I love creepy stuff, and those sets are always some of the best places for it. Silent Hill almost gave me a set-gasm over such things. Plus, I don't really mind corridors as long as they're varied. Big, majestic views are grand and all, but I always feel kind of detached from them since I'm playing through an avatar, if that makes any sense.

 

[random_bars]

I did love Half-Life 2's environments. Especially the bleak coastal areas of Highway 17. Walking across the underside of the huge bridge with trains thundering ahead and nothing but the empty cliffs and water below was one of my favourite moments in the game.

 

[BoredPixel]

A tundra would be my thing, low temperature (freezing cold for pansies), plains as far as the eye can see and zen like silences. since I have yet seen a game which has them. I'll just spend my holidays there, Norway, Iceland, Siberia, Alaska and such

That sounds great. Sadly haven't seen any games with areas like that either. Actually I think Minecraft has a tundra biome, although the biomes don't seem to be fleshed out quite yet.

I did love Half-Life 2's environments. Especially the bleak coastal areas of Highway 17. Walking across the underside of the huge bridge with trains thundering ahead and nothing but the empty cliffs and water below was one of my favourite moments in the game.

The bridge was an awesome area indeed. It was a great break from the driving too.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

I love mindscrewy, alternate dimension, mc escher type areas.

See TVtropes's "alien geometries", "bizzachitecture", "eldritch location", "sinster geometry", and "world of chaos" articles for what I mean.

 

[Daedalus1942]

An important part of any game, in my opinion at least, is for it to have varied environments. Seeing the same scenery for hours gets pretty old. But there are some settings that really stand out for me.

I really like urban and industrial looking maps, preferably with the sun setting somewhere. But any time of day works too.

An example of this would be at the end of the Water Hazard chapter in Half-Life 2. I think I even died once because I stared at the pretty skyscape for too long.

http://i52.tinypic.com/1zmnpjq.jpg
Wow, those clouds look awesOHCRAPOHCRAPOHCRAP

So, escapists, what kind of maps/levels/worlds do you like? And are there any kind you dislike?

I hate desert maps, probably because it reminds me of hot weather. Anything above +20C(that's 68F for you American people and your strange temperature scales) makes me wan't to spend the day in a freezer.

Oh and my captcha was ullopery private... I think that's supposed to be relevant somehow.

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, hands down. Ever looked up at the sky during night time or during sunset?
Simply breathtakingly beautiful.
-Tabs<3-

 

[Stammer]

Hands-down my favourite is ancient ruins. It's weird how I've never played through a Tomb Raider game or anything like that. But seriously, I just love games with ancient ruins: mind-bogglingly huge entrances, pillars that reach to the sky, an ancient city that holds great wonders. Grasses, mosses, vines, and trees growing on their old buildings.

Something about it just always makes me wonder things like "what did this society live like?" "what made them leave?". Lots of Final Fantasy games do this, and God of War I tickled my ruins fancy, but I also remember White Knight Chronicles, and there was even one level in Super Mario 64. The list goes on.

 

[Calcium]

I can like any environment that's had a lot of effort spent on it.

If I had a preference though, tempted to say temple ruins.

 

[teh_Canape]

for some reason, I have 2 favorites

one would be huge megalopolises overgrown with plants and shit

the other one would be like, uh, a combination of Waterworld's floating cities and Bioshock Infinite's flying city

you know, a whole world without land where there's cities floating on the oceans and flying cities

 

[Terminate421]

Dead Space (2) and Fallout 3/New Vegas had their environments down for me.

Beautiful

 

[SonicKaos]

I have always had this fascination with islands for some reason... like nice tropical type islands with pretty greenery and the like. I will always build my base on one if possible.

That said, I absolutely hate jungles in games. Being slightly colourblind as I am, I can appreciate the incredible detail and whatnot in them... and I do like looking at them in games for sure. However, I find it much, much harder for me to notice anything going on when it's just all different shades of green (which my eyes don't distinguish so well). Therefore I die a LOT when I play forrest levels online. However I am completely fine with deserts both sand and snow. White, yellowish and black are easy for me to see, so I have a much easier time picking out targets lol.

 

[teebeeohh]

i like well done jungles. like in far cry. or crysis.