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What game this gen has the most imersive world?

Skyrim

Why? Because i spend hours organizing my house, and already dreading that i have to move to a bigger house, but i'm still going to do it. Hell, i even got people that are going to help me move.
 
Skyrim
I was skeptical if I'll even like it, because I'm not really able to immerse myself in a game. But that game just draws me in and lets me play for hours straight. There are very few games that I can play longer than 2 hours and most of those are because of game mechanics (eg skate, those mechanics just feel so right).
Skyrim is one of few games, that even I can immerse in.
 
So glad to see STALKER getting its dues.

STALKER hands-down has the most convincing world; from that strange lonely tension of passing another Stalker in the zone to watching NPC factions and species deal with each other...it's a forlorn shithole of a place and I cannot for the life of me get enough. No other game has such a palpable sense of rain-drenched physicality than the world of STALKER.

No bullshit, no pretension, no cliches.
 
Skyrim

Why? Because i spend hours organizing my house, and already dreading that i have to move to a bigger house, but i'm still going to do it. Hell, i even got people that are going to help me move.

You should check out a game called the Sims
 
Red Dead was first to mind for me, too. High-five, OP.

Honorable mentions:

Far Cry 2
Dead Space
Fallout 3
Demon's Souls
Dark Souls
Battlefield BC2 & BF3
 
Risen

Hand-crafted, no loading screens at all and you actually get rewarded for exploring unlike Skyrim. It's nowhere near the size of some other games, but it's more intimate and ultimately less of a chore to explore. Piranha Bytes are the masters of world-crafting.
 
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is up there.

One of the few times in a game where I skipped out on talking to every single NPC because there were just so damn many of them. Quite a few times it felt like an actual city, and the world itself was impressively supported by a history, setting, context.
 
Souls games easily, there is very little effort by the games to give you info and the gradual exposition of the story and world is brilliantly done.

I'd also put GTA4 / Liberty City up there, loved it and the expansions built on the original game beautifully.

Honorable mention for Just Cause 2, nothing below the surface but I wish there was, only game that made me want to go on holiday, those godamn beautiful beaches!
 
Deus Ex: HR

I wish some NPCs had a bit more dialogue and personality but something about the atmosphere in this game just really drew me in. One moment in particular was walking into Jensen's apartment for the first time. With the somber/desolate music in the background, looking out the window just invoked the weirdest feeling in me. Looking around his place you could tell the man was very troubled and struggling to get used to his new life and everything around him.

I loved the art design in the game. I dunno, it's weird but I almost wouldn't mind living in a future like that.
 
Minecraft.

It feels natural, and not designed to death like most games. By giving the player the freedom to go in any directions, to climb every mountain, swim every sea and plunge into every cavern, it achieves a level of immersion no other game matches.

That's my opinion.

Couldn't have said it any better. Every part in that game, once you take the blocky graphics for granted, feels like a real world.
 
I dont think I've ever felt more a part of the world as I do in Skyrim.
NPC's react to quests you;ve done, if you look sick, and even if you drop shit in the street.

I can walk forever and never hit the border, the day and night cycles are done very well.

Hell, I was playing with the corpse of some asshole who challneged me to a duel, and some old lady walked by me, and said she hopes the wilds take me. Ofcourse I turned around, threw the corpse at her then hacked her to peices.

A few minutes later, everyone within a mile who wittnessed my vile deeds were dead, and my bounty was lifted.

I constantly get lost doing little things in this game, and I feel like it makes a difference. Clear a cave of creepy necros? The local Jarl lets you buy a house!

It doesnt end!
 
There have been a lot of standouts this gen, and I've yet to play Skyrim, but it has to be Red Dead for me. I think it's the wildlife; I remember riding alongside a cliff once and a cougar jumped out of a bush and ambushed me, sending my horse and me flying down the mountain. I survived, but my horse and the cougar both died. Was such an awesome, random moment only capable in a sandbox environment.

Still, I'm not sure anything this gen has topped Metroid Prime.
 
Risen

Hand-crafted, no loading screens at all and you actually get rewarded for exploring unlike Skyrim. It's nowhere near the size of some other games, but it's more intimate and ultimately less of a chore to explore. Piranha Bytes are the masters of world-crafting.

Wow, quit trolling. Skyrim has plenty of hidden cool stuff with awesome rewards for exploring.

That being said, Risen is pretty damn sweet.
 
Skyrim all the way.

Two-three weeks ago I'd have said Oblivion, but that was before getting sucked in by Bethesda's latest offering.

I'll have to peg in Demon's souls as nr. 3, as this is the game this gen. where I'd have to concentrate the most to progress even the least bit ... that's one BRUTAL game!
 
World of Warcraft was incredible in terms of immersion. I remember those early years as actual places I've visited.

First few moments of RDR felt rather spectacular as well. Getting off that train and having an entire desert to explore. Haven't seen enough of Skyrim yet, but Bethesda's cities and towns tend to annoy me. I just want to leave as soon as possible whenever I enter one. Not sure what the problem is there.
 
minecraft and Dark Souls/Demon Souls for me.

Clearly I like being dropped in the middle of nowhere with no clue what to do next. But both games create an atmosphere unlike any other IMO.

Minecraft, from the first night you're racing to dig yourself into a mud hole to escape zombies, through to massive spelunking sessions in endless caves, its completely organic and involving.

Souls just permeates dread like no other game I've played. It seeps through you as you creep through the levels, not knowing whats around the next corner, other than it'll be bad
 
Definitely Skyrim. It's so easy to lose myself for hours in aimless exploration. Sometimes when I'm about to end a long session I realize I didn't actually do anything apart from drinking in the world. I'll start with a plan to clear a certain dungeon or sell all my junk at a certain town and find myself tromping through snow halfway across the map. It's magic.
 
Dark Souls. The enviroments are not only breathttaking and haunting, they are actually telling you a story. You descent into blighttown and you start to think... what is this place? for what purpose and how did they built this? why was this enclosed behind a fence in the sewers? who are these people... are these pariahs that were banished from the undead burg? why is it called blighttown? and then by paying attention to your surroundings, you start gathering clues... then a couple of lines of dialogue by NPCs (that don't give a fuck about you), make everything click. And then, every area is like a jigsaw piece, and when you're over you can take a step back and look at the resulting world, which is intrincately beautiful and awesome. Absolutely immersive and believable, dark high fantasy done right.
Demon's Souls was great too, but for obvious reason(nexus) it felt less cohesive. Still, it may be even more immersive, even with each area having a written description before. I felt I was there in fucking Latria hiding behind my shield looking around every corner, hearing those eerie bells in the distance and looking at the endless floors of cells descending into a bottomless pit...
The game trying to be realistic in terms of controls, blood, danger... etc in a non realistic setting goes a very long way to make the world feel 1000x as immersive. You're not double jumping around flapping your sword carelessly at shiny dumb monsters, and that helps.

Honorable mention to Etrian Odyssey III, which made so much for me with so little.
 
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

I know, kind of cheating to include this because the main strength of the game is really reused content from last gen. That being said, I think Riddick can compete with simulation games like Minecraft, Skyrim and S.T.A.L.K.E.R in this category by providing its own unique selling points. No, the game doesn't offer the same freedom or possibility to make your own mark on the world. What it does offer is a deeper immersion within a more limited scope of gameplay. It uses minimal UI, strong characters and the hint of freedom in what is basically a linear game to make you immersed in the experience. The freedom doesn't hold up if you explore it, for example you can kill most of the guards that you see, but doing so is not really a viable choice of you want to continue with the game. If you play with quickload/quicksave the "cheating" doesn't really matter as I see it. I am still fully immersed in the game because of the suggestion of freedom and I get that in a game that is beautifully designed to feel good to play, with great characters and good pacing.
 
Xenoblade Chronicles for me.

It is really impressive, everything feels alive, monsters make damned sense, everything is connected to the world, it's very impressive.

Oh noes, he said Xenoblade, he has an agenda!!!
 
Skyrim.

The environments, cities, towns and dungeons are pretty much the reason it got my GOTY. The game has a lot of issues that break immersion (animation is probably at the top of them) but walking through those frigid regions and exploring northern Tamriel is just too amazing.
 
Risen

Hand-crafted, no loading screens at all and you actually get rewarded for exploring unlike Skyrim. It's nowhere near the size of some other games, but it's more intimate and ultimately less of a chore to explore. Piranha Bytes are the masters of world-crafting.
I agree. I liked it much better than Oblivion.
 
Xenoblade Chronicles - I could run around those areas all day/night. From an ugly swamp which turns into a beautiful scene at night, to walking around a beautiful forest surrounded by huge waterfalls with shooting stars in the sky, nothing comes close.

this

most HD ppl don't even know this gem, so they don't know what they are missing.
otherwise it would be on (almost) everyones top of the list

as ajim said: nothing comes even close
 
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

I know, kind of cheating to include this because the main strength of the game is really reused content from last gen. That being said, I think Riddick can compete with simulation games like Minecraft, Skyrim and S.T.A.L.K.E.R in this category by providing its own unique selling points. No, the game doesn't offer the same freedom or possibility to make your own mark on the world. What it does offer is a deeper immersion within a more limited scope of gameplay. It uses minimal UI, strong characters and the hint of freedom in what is basically a linear game to make you immersed in the experience. The freedom doesn't hold up if you explore it, for example you can kill most of the guards that you see, but doing so is not really a viable choice of you want to continue with the game. If you play with quickload/quicksave the "cheating" doesn't really matter as I see it. I am still fully immersed in the game because of the suggestion of freedom and I get that in a game that is beautifully designed to feel good to play, with great characters and good pacing.

A good choice. Good stuff.
 
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