Your favorite video game town/city/locations?

I have a few that come to mind:

• Hyrule from Legend of Zelda series - One of my favorites was Hyrule Castle. Loved it in Ocarina of Time, when you can switch between times and see the aftermath. Also, Kokori Village and doing the musical puzzle.
• Shadow Moses from Metal Gear Solid 1 & 4 - it's iconic for being the location of the first Metal Gear Solid. It's cool for being a military nuclear arsenal base. And a perfect setting for this game. Also, coming back here in MGS 4 was fun and nostalgic. I really do need to replay this series at some point.
• Yokosuka, Japan from Shenmue - I did not play Shenmue when it first came out. I played it in its entirely in the HD collection. This little town was so remarkable to me. Just seeing the characters going about in the day, with their hilarious lines, and seeing the weather change. It is a fun depiction of Japan and is based on the real life Yokosuka. Maybe I'll go there some day!
• Tokyo and other Japanese locations from Persona and other Japanese games - video games were pretty much my motivation to visit Japan. It's fun seeing how games match the real life locations. The World Ends With You was the main reason I visited Shibuya. Akihabara and Inaba are other cool locations as well.
• New York City in GTA - the GTA games give you a great piece of Americana lol. Love seeing depictions of NYC in games. GTA 4 was something. Am I rite, @R4gn4r0k?

How about you, SW? Your favorite video game town/city/locations?

Australia from Forza Horizon 3.

Walking back up to Shadow Moses in MGS4 is the chills.

It's basically the whole game, but Hyrule in BotW is just awesome.

Also Sephiroth's crater/lair in FF7.

Kakariko Village is always nice.

Guildwars 2 Divinitys Reach is by far the best looking city in any game.

Don't know about my absolute favorite, but i did like Majula from DkS2 a lot. Great song too.

Inaba from Persona 4: It has this distinct rural town vibe of one i used to pass my childhood holidays.

Anor Londo from Dark Souls: Dark souls is a really dark game until you reach this place which is magnificent.

Lindblum from Final Fantasy IX: The game prior to this place is a common medieval setting; then you reach this vibrant steampunk yet colorful city and you know you're on a trip that could take you anywhere.

I'd submit Morrowind, Sigil, and Icewind Dale

These settings are so distinctive, cohesive, and immersive across the visuals, music, and characters. They really really tease your imagination, and encourage you to see and feel more in the world than is simply being shown to you directly.

I'd also give a nod to Fumito Ueda for creating such mysterious and intriguing worlds - although not being RPGs they don't encourage you to inhabit the space in quite the same way

Lastly - holy shit the Myst games. Myst and Riven in particular just drew you into the most bizarre universe and - akin to the effect of role-playing in the RPGs above - the environmental puzzles force you to FEEL the structure and connectedness of the environment around you. It cannot just be eye candy because you will not progress

I liked Zora's Domain it looked really cool in BOTW.

The Milky Way Galaxy... that should include pretty much every game but that Mass Effect Andromeda crap.

Zora's Domain is usually one of the more impressive locations in any Zelda game, and BotW has the best version by far.

City of Glass from Mirror's Edge is a neat place to run round in.

lol, did you find your house in the game?

Love Inaba! How about TV world?

@SolidGame_basic: Nah my mansion was to big to fit in the game they said 🤣🤣🤣

• Sleeping Dogs Hong Kong
• Indigo Prophecy Doc's Diner
• Batman Arkham Origins Royal Hotel
• Spec ops: the line Dubai
• Mirror's Edge The city
• GTA: SA Countryside
• Remember Me Neo Paris 2084
• GTA: VC Ocean Beach
• Resident Evil 4 Village

Midnight Club LA's Los Angeles is great.

My answer always

Zone from STALKER.

• Great Wall Of China - Tomb Raider II
• The Meat King's Party - Hitman: Contracts
• Racoon City - Resident Evil 2 (og)

I'll take the Mushroom Kingdom for $500 :)

@ghosts4ever said:

My answer always

Zone from STALKER.

Didn't knew you were into Call of Duty.

Mostly from Assassin’s Creed. Venice, the Frontier, Havanna, Alexandria and so on. Just being in those places with the typically amazing soundtrack is the best part of that franchise ☺️!

Bullworth and its surrounding areas.

Baldur's Gate
Diablo II - Lut Gholein
New Vegas
Final Fantasy IX - Lindblum, Treno, and Alexandria
Legend of Dragoon - Lohan, Fletz, and Donau
Mass Effect - Citadel

You should've made it paid DLC.

Shout out to Australia in Forza Horizon 3 and Horizon: Zero Dawn's world.

But for me the favourite locations are those from... GTA series. Vice City, San Andreas and especially the well realised city of Liberty City in GTA IV.

The business of the city during the day, the atmospheric lights during the night, taking a helicopter flight over the city... All of it feels and looks great. It looks believable and well realised.

Here's some more I forgot to add

• Tony Hawk -warehouse
• F.E.A.R.- office levels
• Crysis- first island level
• Max Payne- docks
• SSX tricky- snowdream
• Battlefield 2 - Sharqi peninsula
• Medal of Honor Allied Assault- Remagen
• Max Payne 2- million dollar question aka high rise apartment level
• GTAV- Vinewood
• Cyberpunk 2077 -Night city

• Imperial City - Oblivion
• Inaba - Persona 4 Golden
• Night City - Cyberpunk 2077
• Hong Kong - Sleeping Dogs

Max Payne 3 São Paulo Brazil.

@SOedipus: Lut Gholein and the surrounding desert is probably my favorite location in any game.

Not even close, but two other areas I liked were the night elf tree city in WoW and Atlus Park from CoH.

Love that dance club in Vice City

Very 80s

is it cheating if i just put in whole games for some? well im going to cheat.

The bionis and mechonis from xenoblade. just all of it. just wonderful. a pleasure to explore and the views....ooh those views.

the 2 forest areas on Mira in Xenoblade X were also very nice.

the Normandy in the first mass effect. it was nice having a ship in the game. just wondering around it while pooteling around the galaxy at hyper speed....neat. i prefer the first to the second normandy....dont know why. maybe its one of those "there is nothing like your first" things :P.

@hardwenzen said:

@ghosts4ever said:

My answer always

Zone from STALKER.

Didn't knew you were into Call of Duty.

50,000 people used to live here, now it's a ghosts town...

Tokyo - Every Yakuza game.

I can only think of recent games:

Super Mario Odyssey:

Bubble Beach - Seaside Kingdom

New Donk City - Metro Kingdom

Bowser's Castle - Bowser's Kingdom

Mario Kart games:

Rainbow Road courses

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity:

Battle of Hyrule Field

Zora's Domain

Hyrule Castle

Whatever city I am working on in Cities Skylines

The "castle hub" in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Stormwind, Ironforge, Dalaran, and Shattrath from World of Warcraft

Paris and London from the Assassin Creed's games....I do miss when they were a bit smaller and not so open-world'y

@hardwenzen said:

@ghosts4ever said:

My answer always

Zone from STALKER.

Didn't knew you were into Call of Duty.

Watch Dogs Legion's 'dystopian' London is pretty cool. Even though the world is not very interactive, the graphics are sweet. I've never been to London though 😮

Morrowind

Okay I'll go ahead and say it: Night City in CP2077 is by far the most impressive example of a dense city I've ever seen in a game - at least when immersion isn't being broken by various animation glitches. It's very superficial since the game is unfinished. I hope they keep working on it.

@SolidGame_basic: 🤣🤣🤣

Easily the world of Norrath; Faydwer and Kunark in particular. Also the Zone from Stalker.

Cities:

• Tokyo - Shinobi, Ninja Gaiden, Megami Tensei, Persona, Sakura Wars, Machi, Yakuza, 428, Steins Gate, etc.
• New York - Spider-Man, Shinobi, Punch-Out, Ninja Gaiden, Final Fight, Parasite Eve, Metal Gear Solid 2
• Wood Oak City - Streets of Rage series
• Raccoon City - Resident Evil series
• Midgar - Final Fantasy VII series
• Yokosuka - Shenmue

Other:

• Hyrule Kingdom - The Legend of Zelda series
• Egypt - Tomb Raider, Metal Slug, Civilization, Age of Empires, Assassin's Creed Origins, etc.
• Persia - Prince of Persia, Exile, Civilization, Age of Empires, Eternal Darkness, Assassin's Creed
• Torla Island - Alundra
• Spanish Village - Resident Evil 4

@Jag85: I think it's a typo, but Shenmue is set in Yokosuka, not Yokohama. Yokohama is recently used in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Both cities are in the same prefecture and located closely, it's unnecessarily confusing lol.

GTA V Los Santos.

@i_p_daily: Lol, true that.

@st_monica: Thanks for noticing the typo. Fixed it now.

@R4gn4r0k said:

@warmblur said:

• Sleeping Dogs Hong Kong
• Indigo Prophecy Doc's Diner
• Batman Arkham Origins Royal Hotel
• Spec ops: the line Dubai
• Mirror's Edge The city
• GTA: SA Countryside
• Remember Me Neo Paris 2084
• GTA: VC Ocean Beach
• Resident Evil 4 Village

Love that dance club in Vice City

Very 80s

Me too, I also love Northpoint mall if the next GTA is in vice city again they need to bring back these locations.

Yup, still remember that place :D

The mall actually reminded me of a level from State of Emergency.

Funny to think that Rockstar once considered State of Emergency to be a big threat to their GTA sales, as the game had progressed much further in development than their game had. And both were releasing around the same time.

@R4gn4r0k said:

@warmblur said:

Me too, I also love Northpoint mall if the next GTA is in vice city again they need to bring back these locations.

Yup, still remember that place :D

The mall actually reminded me of a level from State of Emergency.

Funny to think that Rockstar once considered State of Emergency to be a big threat to their GTA sales, as the game had progressed much further in development than their game had. And both were releasing around the same time.

Yep, I remember getting that game after GTA 3 in early 2002 I was kinda of disappointed it was different that's for sure.

@SolidGame_basic: Shivering Isles from TES IV: Oblivion expansion of the same name

LEGO City from... well, LEGO City Undercover

LEGO New York City from LEGO Marvel

Hyrule from Ocarina of Time

Arkham City from... well, Batman: Arkham City

Ferelden from Dragon AGE: Origins

Not at all.

I also like Tokyo as the setting for video games because each game represents Tokyo in a very different way. Tokyo in Yakuza, Tokyo in Persona, Tokyo in Sakura Wars, and Tokyo in Steins Gate show completely different aspects of the same city, and don't make me bored.

I personally like other big cities as well, but I feel that in many games they are very stereotypically represented and not see various faces through different games like Tokyo.

Btw, Shinji Mikami's Ghost Wire Tokyo will be released this year, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the game will show Tokyo in a unique way.

Yeah, I think Tokyo is the best setting that's been used in video games. Different games portray different locations within Tokyo, and different aspects of the city, and show it in a different light. It's the same city, yet can feel so different depending on the game.

I think it largely comes down to many of the developers based in Tokyo doing a really good job of representing their city, with a local flavour and their own interpretation of their city. You rarely get that from developers based in other big cities around the world.