The best virtual city in gaming

[The Madman]

Athkatla from Baldur's Gate 2 and Stormwind from World of Warcraft are the two that stand out to me.

Athkatla because it's actually one of the only examples I can think of where a city in an rpg actually feels like a city. It's huge. There are adventures to be had wanderings its streets, crimes to be solved, journey to be had. I've always loved city adventures in D&D but they're so rarely done right in videogames with the exception of BG2, which not only gets it right but does it brilliantly.

And Stormwind is just really nice looking and fun to wander, plus the music is amazing. Both old and new music alike.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Colony 6 from Xenoblade Chronicles was nice. I liked seeing it evolve over time from essentially just a crater in the ground to a nice little town. It even broke from most of the cities in the game in that it had people from every race there, which sort of made it symbolic in the struggle. Then again, building it up is probably the biggest side quest in the game, spanning a vast majority of the story (I think I got to it after like 20 hours and continued building until I was about 145 hours in). After that investment of collecting materials to build buildings and trying to get people to move to the town, it is sort of hard to not feel a strong connection with it. The nice aesthetics and music helped too.

I guess some others that I remember fondly are:
Empire Bay (Mafia II): Mafia II is a game that I constantly criticize for its wasted potential. Every bit of it screamed that something more was being made but cut for one reason or another. Few areas saw them building something great only never to do anything with as much as the city itself. Still, what was there was captivating. It is just a shame the game never encouraged you to explore what it had to offer.

Colombia (BioShock Infinite: I think if I had to choose between Rapture and Colombia, I'd go with Colombia, simply because I find it more pleasing to look at. It had a great atmosphere dripping with things to say (just like Rapture), and the way it deteriorated over the course of the game was quite interesting to follow and made it feel a little more alive than Rapture did. Overall, both it and Rapture are great, but like I said, I just prefer Colombia.

 

[VondeVon]

Difficult. I'm torn between Rapture, Columbia or Neo Paris from Remember Me.

If I consider all of them in their original optimal environments (paid oxygen in Rapture but no crazy splicers, racism in Columbia but no violent uprising, slums and 'memory poverty' in Neo Paris but no leapers) then I think Columbia would win by a hair simply for being up in the sky and able to move anywhere. If I could have my own floating, flyable house then it'd be awesome. Next would be Neo Paris in a non-slum area and then Rapture.

I considered other cities (Dunwall, Insert Name Here from almost any Final Fantasy, Firenze, GTA cities) but the plagues, racism, unsanitary conditions and/or general unrest and crime disqualified them.

 

[Fox12]

I loved DC in fallout 3, since I've actually been there. I played it before and after visiting the city, and it was incredibly surreal. I also loved the atmosphere of the game.

I have to mention midgar from FF7. The place just felt alive, and it had some of the most memorable game moments I've ever seen.

 

[StormShaun]

Another vote for Haven City, from the Jak and Daxter.
The only free-roaming city that allowed me to fly on hover bikes/cars.

Such a great experience.

 

[SoreWristed]

Hillys without a doubt. Though it's more a *world* than an actual *city* but I don't think I've ever seen something so amazingly real looking, buzzing, sprawling, just about the whole package.

The game of course, if anyone heard of it, is Beyond Good and Evil

Yes! Still my favourite game of all time. But i'd have to say, even though i liked hillys, the town was small and designed more as a background to feature gameplay in.

City i'd like to live in : Lindblum from Final Fantasy 9. The city was large, and bustling with life. And there was so much going on in every screen, even though there weren't a lot of people. The idea that this city was large and bustling was implied quite well through cutscenes and design, rather than the actual amount of people or space. I'd love to have a cosy little house next to the synth guy, working on an airship every day.

City i have played around in the most will probably be San Andreas.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Citadel from Mass Effect.
Rapture from Bioshock
Columbia from Bioshock Infinite(basically my favorite game of all time)
And...Figaro, from FF6...cause it was a castle that could travel under sand! Boosh!

 

[GonzoGamer]

I loved DC in fallout 3, since I've actually been there. I played it before and after visiting the city, and it was incredibly surreal. I also loved the atmosphere of the game.

I have to mention midgar from FF7. The place just felt alive, and it had some of the most memorable game moments I've ever seen.

My wife and I went to DC about a year after we played Fallout 3 and yea, that's quite a trip.
But my favorite Virtual City is Los Santos in GTAV/O. It's so lifelike I'm just glad they dont make our characters do taxes.
It's one of those rare games (like Fallout 3) which I got for the console but will also get for the PC.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Silent Hill. Rapture is also a good contender.

 

[revjor]

Vivec in Morrwind.

 

[endtherapture]

Vivec in Morrwind.

I like Morrowind but ugh that place was a pain to explore.

 

[Elfgore]

The Citadel, for many reasons.

1. It is massive. Like Topaz said "planet size" in the form of a giant space city. If Bioware wanted, and I hope they do, they could put an entire game take place on the Citadel alone.
2. All walks of life are pretty much welcome. Short of Batarians and Vorcha, almost every space-faring race is there.
3. Protection. Minus the Reaper invasion, the Citadel has never been touched previously.
4. It's just awesome.

It's one of the few video game cities that I would actually want to live in.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

All the obvious ones have been said, so I gota be different; Zanarkand. I know we didn't get to see much of it, pre-Sin, but what we did, holy crap it was gorgeous. Even the ruins were kind of stunning, espeically that first time you walk down the mountainside into them.

 

[havoc33]

San Andreas from GTAV, easily. Or Liberty City from GTAIV.

I also have fond memories of Midgar from FFVII and Lindblum from FFVIII. Silent Hill should also probably be mentioned (and in the same breath, Raccon City).

 

[pearcinator]

The Citadel from Mass Effect. Also, Illium. Both of which I would love to live in. I love sci-fi cities in general.

Henshaa Upper City from Deus Ex: Human Revolution also looks like a great place the live (lower city not so much).

 

[Nixou]

It is massive. Like Topaz said "planet size" in the form of a giant space city. If Bioware wanted, and I hope they do, they could put an entire game take place on the Citadel alone.

The Citadel is a puny O'Neil cylinder: give me a McKendree's habitat the size of Eurasia an we'll talk.

Speaking of which, one huge wasted opportunity was Cocoon from FFXIII: it's a hollowed out artificial satellite hanging on in low orbit above a giant planet... and they turned it into a corridor shaped expanded boring tutorial.

When it come to my personal favorite, I have a soft spot for cities you see grow as the game progress: like North Wind(ow) from Suikoden 2, which goes from old desecrated ruin to staunch fortress and de facto (temporary) capital of the fledgling Dunan Republic, or Colony 6, which follows a similar evolution. One of my biggest disappointment in Inquisition was how Skyhold wasn't too well preserved for a ruin when the team arrived and therefore did not change much during the course of the game.

I also have (had: I should restart playing the game at some point) a soft spot for Revenant Toll for exactly the same reason: I liked seeing it as a merely a tiny camp in Realm Reborn vanilla vrsion and slowly building itself up and turning more into a city as time and updates went.