#5 - Vice City - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Vice City was, is, and perhaps always will be my favourite GTA game. Others were bigger, others were longer, other had more to do, but none of them were as vivid and well-realised as Vice was. I've always adored the 1980s, from the incredible music to the world changing politics to the abysmal fashion, and it's one of those almost irrational regrets I'm sure we all have that I did not live through them, even a bit (I suppose I was technically a small bundle of cells in December 1989 but that's hardly any real consolation). I'm not going to say Vice City captures the true essence of the decade because I never experienced it first hand and the game is made up of popular imagery of the 80s, providing an all encompassing spoof on the era, that isn't supposed to represent what it was like in a realistic sense. It also focuses a lot more on the 80s in America, as youd imagine of a city based on Miami, so even if it was realistic and I had been alive then it would have been a 'different' 80s I remembered, seeing as I'm from the north west of England (think less hot pink and New Wave, more grey streets and rioting). But for someone who admires the 80s from an outsider perspective, Vice City was a masterpiece through and through. I came to know its streets and its landmarks, its communities and its secrets. I could navigate the entire city without the need of a map and fell in love with the place completely. It'd be higher on the list if it wasn't kinda small compared to other GTA worlds but for what's packed into that space and how it's presented it more than deserves to be recognised.
#4 - Johto - Pokémon Silver
Silver was my first Pokémon game. I had played Red and Blue and even the abysmal Yellow, sure, but only from friends letting me have a go. I didn't own a Game Boy until I was 11 and Silver was the first game I had for it and to this day it remains my favourite Pokémon along with its remake. (and it always will since I won't be getting X or Y). I think maybe because of how I first played Red and Blue before I bought them for myself I always felt like a stranger in Kanto. I know that probably sounds really silly but I only ever got to see it in pieces, never as a whole, and I never knew the names of cities or landmarks or anything for a long time. With Johto it was totally different. I wasn't a tourist there, I was one of its citizens. I got to know the place and because by then the Pokémon craze had passed, it felt even more special because only me and a very small number of other people at my school knew about this place. The fact that Kanto could be accessed in the game helped that feeling immensely, because it was like having the world everyone else had but even more all to myself. Maybe that's a weird reason to love a game world but there it is.
#3 - Planet Zebes - Super Metroid
This is simply one of the most well-designed, well-constructed worlds in video game history. Anyone who's played it (which should be everyone because it's amazing) will know already how great this planet was to explore and traverse. So many secrets that I have never found them all. So many varied areas which all flow and fit together seamlessly. So much atmosphere that you could drown in it. Zebes felt like a real place and there were several things which really helped build that impression in your mind. For starters the vast majority of enemies are not Space Pirates but just the indigenous wildlife, fostering the impression that this is a mostly wild and untamed world. There's little touches in the backgrounds, perhaps the best example being just before you fight Kraid when you see a bunch of bugs crowded on something, they scatter as you approach, and you see they were swarming on a corpse. That adds atmosphere, a little bit of mystery and backstory, and fits in with the idea that Zebes is a living, breathing world with wild creatures all around. Accessing Maridia by destorying a glass bridge that is not suspect in any way at all makes it feels as though the world was built for purpose, not as a 'game', as well as giving you huge satisfaction in solving the little puzzle. Zebes is just a stroke of genius at every turn and absolutely nails what it was it was trying to achieve.
#2 - Raccoon City - Resident Evil franchise
I'm a major Resident Evil fan and there's no way I could not include Raccoon City on a list like this because of that. I enjoyed the original game but it was Resident Evil 2 that made me a fan and it was Resident Evil 3 that made me love it. I spent so much time in the streets of Raccoon City that even now it sometimes feels weird having Resident Evil games which aren't set there. It's just iconic, not only to the franchise itself, but to video games in general. It's one of those classic horror settings alongside Silent Hill and Rapture that even people who've never played one of the games knows about it. I don't really know what to say, it's just the old story of city over-run by zombies but the inclusion of Umbrella makes it all so much more sinister. The way how the new Mayor, Michael Warren, was building the place up to be a city of the 21st century gives this element that the place was on the rise and the future was bright. You then have the idea that Umbrella helped spur on that development, pouring money into the city, even funding the building of the city's hospital, gaining the people's trust. It adds this extra layer of tragedy and deception and when the poop hits the poop-spreading-mechanism Umbrella pretend to help when really they're trying to capitalise on the scenario they are responsible for. It's like Raccoon City was on the up-and-up and then once Umbrella turned it all to crap they just didn't stop and deliberately made things as bad as they could. I just love it.
#1 - Vvardenfell Island - The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
I frudging lived on Vvardenfell Island for about three years. My home was on the edge of the Ascadian Isles, an hour's walk from Balmora, and my egg mine was just on the other side of the river. On the weekends I'd go to Caldera or Pelagiad, enjoy a cold drink in Shenk's Shovel or the Halfway Tavern. I'd listen to the latest gossip, maybe do a little shopping even. On the weekdays I'd go where I darn well pleased since nobody could stop me (except Divayth Fyr) and I'd take all of my loot to Mzanch and then swim out east a little ways until I found my buyer, a mudcrab. It might have been strange to trade with a mudcrab but he always had plenty of gold and paid base value so I was getting the best out of th arrangement. I used to explore the sewers - sorry, underworks - beneath Vivec City and the things I'd find would turn you blue. Vampiric murderers, secret cults, a mad God, even an organisation of assassins! Yes, it sure was great living in the south east of Vvardnfell. Azura's Coast and the Zafirbel Bay were not so pleasant but then that's what you get when you let Telvanni wizards grow giant mushroom towers all over the darn place. The Grazelands were lovely though, just a shame about the filthy Ashlanders. And the ash storms. And the blight disease. And the nightmares. And the cliff racers, oh, the cliff racers. Give me a herd of Kagouti over a single cliff racer any day. But for all the things that bothered me about living there I never could stop loving the place. I long to go back but my work in Cyrodiil and Skyrim has had me far too busy, sadly. The closest I've gotten was Solstheim, but happy day, the eruption of Red Mountain left the southern part of the island looking exactly like the Molag Amur region so it was like being back home. I even saw a Silt Strider for the first time in an age! But still, when allw as said and done the familiarity only made me long for my true home all the more. I don't think I'll ever stop loving Vvardenfell, not even after I die.
