Favourite Game Environments

This post may border on the poetic: just so you're warned of how much I was immersed in some of these game environments. I'm sure you have your own favourites: these were some that just popped into my head.

Westfall, WoW.

Certainly my favourite game environment ever. The golden colours of the crops and soil extending down cliffs into sand before being broken up by the sea, and the blue, cloudless sky with vultures soaring overhead really captured my imagination. The lazy music, the farmhouses, the haunted goldmine giving the title to the first dungeon in the game (for me), the fact when I was playing it was summer and the fact it started to feel like I was progressing in the World of Warcraft really all added up to a stunning environment to play inn. Azeroth beats Outland hands down in every game area, and to me Westfall is its highlight.

Arcadia, Bioshock.

I can sympathise with criticism of Bioshock on anything but atmosphere. I locked myself away from the world for two days playing this game and I was hooked. Rapture was such a tragic place: like the lives of the people who once lived there, it was falling apart. The fact nature took over in Arcadia, overgrowing the human objects such as benches and stairs, really made me think about the idiocy of Ryan's attempts to defy nature. There were parts in the game that made me stop and think: the part when the couple dance in Cohen's apartment, the audiotape labelled "The Iceman Cometh" and the scene where the mad doctor talks to Aphrodite and the waves. But stepping into Arcadia for the first time...that was really something. An explosion of colour hid the fact this was a place where the citizens of Rapture would at one time relax, and now haunt, clinging to memories and it's beauty.

The Bitter Coast, Morrowind.

There's a haunting beauty about the coastal scenery in Morrowind. Huge mushrooms towering into the sky, swamps with beautiful flowers rising out of the depths. Turn a corner and an ancestral tomb could stand before you, torches burning. I chose the Bitter Coast because as it's the first region you enter. Imagine stepping out of the registration offices into the game world for the first time, and seeing the sea, the marsh, the trees...Seyda Neen, the first village in Morrowind, is truly inspirational as is the geography that surrounds it.

Greatwood, Fable.

What is a fable? To me it's a genre of a story: a fairytale. And no other game captures this quite as brilliantly as Fable. Greatwood, with its music, its bright colours and its artistic charm captures what to me made fable great: the atmosphere. I hadn't felt this immersed in a game since Morrowind (Xbox didn't have masses of RPG's) and I liked other elements of the game less, throughout the game Lionhead Studios always made me feel like I was playing inside a fairytale. Hope the same goes for the sequel.

The Galaxy Map, Mass Effect

Not a playable environment as such, but OH GOD loading up the map for the first time and hearing that music, and realising I could go off and explore the galaxy: it all felt so Sci Fi. Brilliant.

Route Kanal, Half Life 2

Not so sure what makes me pick this one really. Perhaps the originality of using a canal system as a level, but I think it's more the fact it captured city 17 so brilliantly. It felt familiar to a city in 2008, yet with the subtle twist that an alternate reality needs. I just have to recommend playing this one really: it's hard for me to explain for admiration for its artistic design and atmosphere.

Langhuishan, Guilin, Shenmue 2

After the ports and bustle of the city of Hong Kong, and the apartment blocks and dirt of Kowloon, this place was a great contrast. Walking through the woods, sitting by the river, heading over mountains and under waterfalls...escapism. I remember feeling a burning need to visit the place in real life: maybe some day I will.