What is your favorite game world that you just love to explore?

[Randoman01]

I would like to know, what is a game world that you just love to explore for hours and hours if you had the chance?

For me it is the Jak and Daxter universe as well as the Deus Ex Human Revolution universe. These are one of my favorite games. How about you?

 

[Barbas]

The island of Vvardenfell, from the video game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. It never really lost its charm. You started off in a little swampy fishing village on the Bitter Coast, then you were given some hastily-scrawled directions and told what general direction to walk in. From there, you wandered from crossroads to crossroads through ashy canyons and grazelands, coming across all manner of wrecks, tombs, encampments, caves, coves, caverns and cults, lairs, farms, villages and towns. The landscape was grand and mystical, the music was sublime and it all rolled together into one cohesive and compelling world. To this day, I'm still not tired of hearing the heavy footfalls of guards on patrol, or the slapping of feet on flagstones and dirt tracks as you run from town to town.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Oh, are we talking about real life as if we could actually go there? Hm...I'm not really sure. Most game world we be extremely dangerous for an average Joe like myself. However, if I'm given the abilities and skills of the characters then I'd probably say Skyrim, and probably the Elder Scrolls world in general. I would love to explore those underground tunnels and study the ancient lore and stuff. There are a lot of places in the game where I would stand and just look off into the distance and go, "I wonder what's down there?" but couldn't find out because it's not actually part of the game .

If we're talking about video game worlds while playing the actual game, I explored every inch of Final Fantasy VII and VIII because I loved that stuff.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I love the Okami world. I wanna spend forever in it.

 

[briankoontz]

I would like to know, what is a game world that you just love to explore for hours and hours if you had the chance?

For me it is the Jak and Daxter universe as well as the Deus Ex Human Revolution universe. These are one of my favorite games. How about you?

Athkatla, the city from Baldur's Gate 2 was utterly amazing to explore and quest in. I was loving it so much that I became depressed when the game led me away from there - I wanted to stay in the city until the end of the game.

Sigil, the city from Planescape: Torment was excellent also.

I've played many RPGs with good worlds, including Ultima IV, Morrowind, DA:O, and KOTOR, but Black Isle puts them all to shame - every RPG designer should study Athkatla and Sigil.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Bionis/Mechonis from Xenoblade Chronicles

The entire world felt incredibly expansive and constantly found ways to take you past the various breathtaking sights. As a result, I enjoyed seeing how far it expanded while also looking for the next beautiful piece of scenery that may have been hidden from the quests that were given. There was also the drive to find the various Heart-to-Heart moments or the collectible drops to help build up Colony 6 or even just to find the few hidden passages in each of the levels. Also, the soundtrack did an excellent job of helping to bring out the atmosphere.

Ultimately, nothing about it may have been unique from what other games have done in the past, but it certainly brought together all of the enjoyable aspects of exploration better than any other game I've played. It's among the few games that I went out of my way to delay the ending of just because I loved the world, and it is the probably the one that I did that the longest with.

 

[Elfgore]

If I can't be harmed or injured, Nirn. Or as you un-nerds know it as The Elder Scrolls. I mean there is just so much more that those games hide from us. Fucking Ape people, monster girls, and giant ass slugs. I mean, I'm all over that shit.

If I do not have this protection, then I'm choosing the Pokemon world. I mean catching, training, and discovering Pokemon would make life very enjoyable.

 

[bigwhitt]

I think if I had to choose a world to trapse around in in would be Tyria from Guild Wars 2. The world is full of suprises and little things that make you think. It definitely continues to amaze me when I find something that I have never seen before.

 

[Gennadios]

I have a soft spot for Soviet post-apocalyptica. I'd go S.T.A.L.K.E.R or Metro world. Maybe Fallout would be a close second.

 

[FPLOON]

Hmmmm...

-Jak and Daxter (All expect the Spider Caves for some reason...)
-Kingdom Hearts (Hope it comes with a free Gummi Ship starter kit)
-Pokemon (GO TEAM VENTURE MUDKIP!)

Honorable mention to the world of Hyperdimension Neptunia since it would be a close equivalent to going into a [gaming] parody world...

 

[Strelok]

The exclusion zone in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for sure, MMmmmm Pripyat at night, or during a storm, now that is creepy. Love exploring in Morrowind, Skyrim. Would love Metro 2033 or Last Light too if it was a bit more open world.

 

[putowtin]

Nirn... I'd go to a tea party with Sheogorath
The Galaxy... As seen in Mass Effect, gotta team up with a Turrian and a Biotic God
Riverview... A sims 3 world, so easy to manipulate... muhahahahaha!

 

[KINGBeerZ]

The Pokémon world, specifically Hoenn (my personal favourite region), one of the few game worlds where it's not horrible stuff constantly going on (ignoring the occasional megalomaniac team, but a ten year old can stop them so not too big a deal), also I wanna have a real flygon, that would be great.

 

[Wilco86]

Sooo many from which to choose from, but if I have to give a quick answer they would probably be Fallout's West Coast (PC) and FFXII's Ivalice (consoles). The latter one even has almost believable ecosystems and climate changes, and was the first FF I really didn't mind lacking overworld. It also had the anti-corridor thing with multiple connecting routes and one could strut all the way through from the farthest south to the farthest north, passing mountain ranges, jungles, coastal areas, and having a blast doing it.

The island of Vvardenfell, from the video game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. It never really lost its charm. You started off in a little swampy fishing village on the Bitter Coast, then you were given some hastily-scrawled directions and told what general direction to walk in. From there, you wandered from crossroads to crossroads through ashy canyons and grazelands, coming across all manner of wrecks, tombs, encampments, caves, coves, caverns and cults, lairs, farms, villages and towns. The landscape was grand and mystical, the music was sublime and it all rolled together into one cohesive and compelling world. To this day, I'm still not tired of hearing the heavy footfalls of guards on patrol, or the slapping of feet on flagstones and dirt tracks as you run from town to town.

Great choice, Vvardenfell is a beautiful and I love the contrast of ruins and nature that's mixed with great effects:

Ashland Ruins [https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/65966610/DwemerRuin.jpg]
Island Ruins [https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/65966610/IslandRuins.jpg]

And the locations of Red Mountain, hidden inside the sand storm were chilling first time seeing them.

Sigil, the city from Planescape: Torment was excellent also.

Sigil is also a great place, but pales in comparison of the source material. I can only imagine how great places like the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo (or even constantly re-shaping town of Xaos with buildings growing legs and walking away would be) could be. Now we have more processing power in our hardware, but that's only occasionally used to give great and unique experiences and more to filler stuff like un-jagged shadows and more realistic grass and water reflection. (That's why I have high hopes with thing like Project Eternity and Torment.)

 

[Casual Shinji]

Hmm, that's kind of an impossible question to answer for me, since my favoutite gameworlds tend to be of the oppressive kind. Like Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, God of War, The Last of Us, and Shadow of the Colossus. It's fun experiencing worlds that you know in real life would chew you up and spit you out, without having them chew you up and spit you out.

As for gameworlds I'd actually want to walk around in... Probably Spira from Final Fantasy 10 and the Mass Effect universe. Spira is like a big magical, tropical paradise, and the ME universe is a hyper advanced space society filled with sexy people.

 

[Kyrian007]

Watch Dogs has jumped pretty high on the list recently. I was finding all sorts of things. The first time I found 2 guys playing NVGN... well at first I couldn't figure out what they were doing. When it finally did dawn on me... I found it really funny.

Skyrim remains up there, but the best (to me) has to be Fallout 3. New Vegas would beat it, but it has to be heavily modded to put enough interesting stuff in there to find in all that big empty desert. But just walking through the DC wasteland, you always find something interesting or bizarre.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

I'll throw in another vote for Vvardenfell from Morrowind. The gameworld is just so well put together, with distinct geographical regions and fleshed out with a staggering array of settlements, ruins, tombs etc.

Another thing which adds to the depth of the world are the many texts throughout the game which will inform and hint at local treasures and hidden secrets without doing anything so crass as slapping a quest marker over the location, so the world itself is one which reveals itself to careful and detailed exploration rather than the heedless compass-following that has been a hallmark of later games in the series. /grumble

 

[happyninja42]

Probably Fallout 3 and the Mass Effect verse. ME would be tied with Star Wars though, basically any game that's got a galaxy sized society to explore at FTL speed is just peachy keen with me.

 

[wooty]

Probably the Mass Effect universe (hopefully minus the Reapers). The ability for rapid space travel, your own ship and able to piss off wherever you wanted when you got bored.

Sounds like heaven right now.