Shadow of the Collosus is the big one for me. The atmosphere is incredible and the world is huge with tons of mysteries. It's lonely and awe inspiring.
I'd have to say GTA does a decent job since they cover far more content, which very few game attempts. GTA has a whole city or cities and towns. The geographical areas have all sorts of people and services running and functioning all the time There are radio and TV stations with actual programming and commercials, and all of that links to billboards and even websites in teh world.
The other choice is of course Shenmue. Not as vast as GTA, but miles beyond what games like Mass Effect, Red Dead or Dragon Age attempt. The village and town of the first Shenmue game is very tightly packed with a well realized game world.
I like the worlds we see in Bioware games and other RockStar games....but come on...we all know GTA is in a class by itself and that Shenmue despite being a few generations back blows even modern games away.
For me it's definitely the Mass Effect series. It's the only series that I've bought and read the novels for (and the anime movie about one of its characters).
Honorable mentions to Dragon Age: Origins and Deus Ex (the original and HR).
I'll put on a good word for Bioshock Infinite and Dishonored. Great particular and consistence ambiance, and detailed enviroments on both, and a good deal of lore spread along the locales.
I really enjoy a world that makes you feel like people/animals/nature lived their and changed the environment long before you got there. So Bioshock has always felt great of course, lots of little and big details that make you feel as though you crashed into someones home while shit had already gone down.
The Fallouts are great, especially the 1st for me, it just crams so much detail into every town and tribe and character.
I'm also going to say parts of the world of Dead Space are really good, the USG Ishimura feels like a fully realized ship to me, almost like they designed the ship and then they designed the story and where it would happen around the ship design, I really enjoyed it.
"Realized game world" is too broad a concept which makes it kind of meaningless. Do you mean like which open world game is the most interesting to explore? Or is this a story/lore question?
The Fallout, Ultima and Everquest (including Champions of Norrath) series come to mind. But, yeah, Morrowind felt like a real place too.
I guess I've gotta say the Wing Commander series (especially as the world was fleshed out in Privateer) too, and Frontier: Elite II, I think they made the universe in there pretty believable with the thousands of star systems, space stations and seeing the cities on the planets.
The Souls series would be my pick. As I say, the Souls games have one of the best story/lore of all the games I've ever played, and one of the worst storytelling of all the games I've ever played. But the lore itself, the richness of the world, the meaning of every placement of every item tells a story on its own.
Bioshock Infinite I think has the most jawdropping and grand design I've seen.
Red Dead, Bioshock, Fallout 3, Demons' Souls, Far Cry 2 and 3, and World of Warcraft are the first handful that come to mind but there are A LOT that I think are amazing.
I also have a personal bias towards The Saboteur, Don't Starve and Just Cause.
"Realized game world" is too broad a concept which makes it kind of meaningless. Do you mean like which open world game is the most interesting to explore? Or is this a story/lore question?
Which games have the most detailed and beautiful worlds to explore?
Bastion, The Witcher games, Limbo, every Souls game, Bioshock had Rapture and Colombia, Xenoblade Chronicles, The Legend of Zelda games, Red Dead Redemption, GTA V, and TES: Skyrim. I thought they all executed very well realized worlds.
Final Fantasy XII is probably the best straight up. Vagrant Story and Dark Souls are up there, World of Warcraft is up there, Starcraft II's is pretty good (Brood War's isn't really not that it matters for RTS). San Andreas, Morrowind, Witcher 2.
Another World/Out of this World. Just loved the style and its ability to create a truly alien looking world. Shame it doesn't really hold up as a game imo.
final Fantasy VII, Fable 2, Elder Scrolls, and Fallout are all among my favorites. As I get older, I realize more and more how cliched Quest for Glory's settings were, but I'd still list that among my favorites too. Oooh, and so many other adventure games - Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Space Quest, Sam and Max...
"Realized game world" is too broad a concept which makes it kind of meaningless. Do you mean like which open world game is the most interesting to explore? Or is this a story/lore question?
Which games have the most detailed and beautiful worlds to explore?
on a smaller scale than most of the stuff mentioned so far, two joints by Creative Assembly in particular, Alien: Isolation and Viking: Battle for Asgard, which is still my fav medieval aesthetic in games.
To me, a well realized game world is one that I can imagine existing without the players presence, so sometimes it's a matter of level design, other times it's a matter of back story. The Stalker series is pretty much number one for me, since everything about that game reinforces it's world and atmosphere, but I'm going to rep a game I'm 90% sure no one else will mention and say Kane and Lynch 2. I don't think there's been a better rendition of a gritty, sleazy, crime ridden city since then.
"Realized game world" is too broad a concept which makes it kind of meaningless. Do you mean like which open world game is the most interesting to explore? Or is this a story/lore question?
Which games have the most detailed and beautiful worlds to explore?
on a smaller scale than most of the stuff mentioned so far, two joints by Creative Assembly in particular, Alien: Isolation and Viking: Battle for Asgard, which is still my fav medieval aesthetic in games.
Well see if its detail I probably would not put Shadow of the Colosus up there, its got a nice open world but it doesn't really have much detail. On one hand I want to say skyrim because you want to explore every corner in that world and there are some beautiful environments, but on the other the buildings rocks/trees don't have much variation.
Probably where they give individual attention to rooms and truly give something to admire is Bioshock infinite. That's the kind of world I explored without even needing a carrot(reward), I would just sit there and gaze at paintings/pictures/rooms/scenery. Of course sometimes the environment is conveniently made for combat but I would say that most of the time its not.
I know we are talking "best" here, but can I just note how poorly realized Mordor is in Shadow of Mordor? I'm I the only one who thought that games world was incredibly bland?
Nier. Everything about that game from the art design to the (INCREDIBLE) soundtrack feels incredible cohesive and believable. If that game had better combat, it would be one of the best games I've ever played.
Kinda sad no one mentioned Planescape: Torment yet. Granted it was based off of an existing IP but Black Isle made Sigil and that entire setting come to life.
Fallout 3. Never before had I become so immersed in a game world until playing this game. The world is quite believable, and all the small details just make it seem that much more full of depth.
@mach_go_go_go: I don't hate you. Just wish there would be more of that world for players to explore. Remember me sucked me in, I played through the game in one session.
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