gonna pick a recent one on purpose rather than downright the "best" one ive experienced
1) Alan Wake
2) Speaking strictly about setting, the game used many resources to create what felt like a living world to me. A living forest or a living town. Details from the sound design to the breathtaking lighting gave the game a sense of wonder and discovery that actually immersed me to the point where i actually felt the game world was much bigger than it actually was.
It wasnt an open world game, there was a strict path with a very straight direction i had to follow (with a few branching ones), but it felt to me like the forest could go on forever. I never fell into one of those game breaking moments where you find the limitations, the tricks they pulled, and how they are fooling you and trying to make you feel immersed, curious, lost and even scared, this game actually pulled it off in a way i had rarely seen before, maybe in a game like Silent Hill 2.
Everything about it felt really natural. The actual path you had to follow was displayed in a way that actually made you want to follow it, it flowed with the storyline amazingly well and i guess that in words it can just be narrowed to the fact that i was fully immersed by every crafted aspect of it. Its an experience that felt bigger than what i played of it.
It doesnt go that far in terms of what it can be done with games in terms of storytelling or exploration, but it does go far in showing what games can do for immersion, and for making you wonder about that exploration, about what happens there, and give you an experience that rewards you enough to feel satisfied in playing your part, your story, in a bigger world.
3) I think its not really a question of what settings havent been explored but rather what settings havent been properly explored in making you feel like the game is taking advantage of them rather than using them as a simple storytelling tool. I'd argue that you rarely feel in space in Mass Effect (except for some moments), for example.
Alan wake was a big one with the forest for me, and i think another setting i wish would be explored as much was the country. A non-urban tale like Red Dead Redemption or Fallout New Vegas for example only it doesnt have to be set in a specific time pice but rather in a specific place in the (why not) present day.
edit: gaahh you really gave me little time D:
welp its there to read anyway, congrats pikma and Izick
