Favourite Kind of Environment?

[Nicos Amblecrown]

Deserts, either sandy or snowy. There's just something about them that I find incredibly thrilling. I think it's the challenge for survival and the opportunity to test your (character's) mettle.

Also, they are apt to be the most "blank" looking areas, so it seems devs take special precaution to make sure that isn't the case.

 

[Eumersian]

I would take a dense, deciduous forest, or something close to it, over most other places.

-Green is my favorite color
-It reminds me of home
-It is always very lifelike, yet not dangerous, like a rainforest would be.

 

[Pifflestick]

Post-apocalyptic ruins that are overgrown with vegetation. I don't think I've ever seen it in a game, but in every show or movie I've seen it in I loved it. There seriously needs to be more games set in a post-apocalypse like that.

 

[Andrew_Mac]

destructible. need i say more?

 

[Baneling Aspect]

Despite the game's numerous faults, Modern Warfare 2 had some beautiful environments, especially during the Russian invasion.

World of WarCraft, too. Outland in particular; the entire thing is just jawdropping. The actual quest design and layout left a lot to be desired, sure, but the visuals were just so gorgeous and creative that I almost wished I'd never have to leave.

Half Life 2's bridge level was simply magnificent as well.

And, departing from individual examples, I second liking rain a lot. Rain is just great in general.

 

[BoredPixel]

I love mindscrewy, alternate dimension, mc escher type areas.

See TVtropes's "alien geometries", "bizzachitecture", "eldritch location", "sinster geometry", and "world of chaos" articles for what I mean.

Those are wonderful. I remember playing Max Payne and being completely blown away by The drug induced dream thing, although there was a fair bit of breaking fourth walls there so you really couldn't take it very seriously, still awesome though.

Some of Devil May Cry 3's demon world levels were also pretty mindscrewy.
Can't find any good images though...

destructible. need i say more?

Aha . Well I guess that works too.

 

[lee1287]

Ice plains, deserted places.

COD4 with that sniper mission, Pripyat i think.

Borderlands will sand for miles with only afew pockets of life, awesome.

 

[Bobbovski]

* Extremely cold places with lots of snow and winds.

* Abandoned, but not destroyed towns/cities. The buildings are intact but all the people are just gone (or dead).

* Battlefields/post apocalyptic eviorments.

* Cyberpunkish futuristic cities (like the city in Blade runner for example)

 

[FalloutJack]

You know what I like? SPACE! Okay, isn't really an environment, but that's my answer.

 

[Doctor What]

There are not enough games that take place in the desert.

Patrolling the Mojave kinda makes me wish for more games in the desert.

It's serene, peaceful, mother nature at her most magnificent and her most deadly.

 

[Mr Thin]

I hate desert maps, probably because it reminds me of hot weather. Anything above +20C(that's 68F for you American people and your strange temperature scales) makes me wan't to spend the day in a freezer.

Tell me that's a typo. I used to set my aircon to 26C and bask in its coolness, before it broke. Now I just put up with the 30-32C it is right now.

OT: I loved Rapture from Bioshock. It was so rich and detailed and colourful, and although I don't think they used the whole 'underwater' thing as much as they could or should have, it was still an incredible place to be in.

 

[conflictofinterests]

I like green. Like, just-after-rain-still-pretty-cloudy-mid-day-grass-glow-green. Also Bioshock.

 

[Kopikatsu]

I like cityscapes at night. Especially for firefights. (I don't mean in the middle of a war where the city has been shot to hell and back. I mean this attack came out of nowhere and civilians are still running all over the place. I like having a crowd to display my extreme awesomeness to, yanno?)

Edit: That goes for 'horror' games as well. Like Dead Space's first few chapters where you find a BUNCH of survivors, but they're all in the process of running for their life or being murderized. (I don't really count DS as horror, but thats neither here nor there.)

 

[Gitty101]

I just love the Desert environment, especially at night ^^ I spent a long long time on Far Cry 2's desert maps...

Failing that, a nice jungle environment never goes amiss, but those seem to be everywhere these days.

 

[Psycho Cat Industries]

I like any environment so long as context and reasoning for it and why you are there are well enough.

 

[AlternatePFG]

I really like snowy, mountainous areas. In fact, as long as it looks good, any kind of snowy area is interesting for me.

 

[ryo02]

lots of rain or cover it in snow and Ill be happy in it

 

[BoredPixel]

I hate desert maps, probably because it reminds me of hot weather. Anything above +20C(that's 68F for you American people and your strange temperature scales) makes me wan't to spend the day in a freezer.

Tell me that's a typo. I used to set my aircon to 26C and bask in its coolness, before it broke. Now I just put up with the 30-32C it is right now.

OT: I loved Rapture from Bioshock. It was so rich and detailed and colourful, and although I don't think they used the whole 'underwater' thing as much as they could or should have, it was still an incredible place to be in.

Its fairly cool here (-23C right now, outside that is, although the radiator doesn't seem to be working very well), unless its summer anyway. Temperatures generally go down to -25C here in winter. So I'm more used to temperatures below +20C. +32C sounds horrible to me. In summers temperatures go up to +30C though.

Rapture was great. And I agree that they really didn't do that much with the water. It was more of a pretty environment than a gameplay element. But it looked amazing.

 

[Bobbity]

I hate Steampunk settings, but that's about it. I love forests, medieval villages and modern cities, and so on and so forth.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Moving parts. You know, machinery and so on. Cogs turning, hydraulic hisses and the like. I was blown away by that segment of footage from Portal 2 that showed various components flying around in vacuum-tubes. It was probably the most beautiful thing I have seen in a game.