Desert exploration games

[Fardor]

thanks for the replies, i'll look the recommendations up.

i titled the thread "desert exploration games" but I'm looking for any cool game that's immersive and gives you an explorative feeling.

WoW and Oblivion aren't fun to explore because the environments aren't interesting. Maybe the first time you get into an area you feel a little wowed, but then the rest of the area is the same, and exploring never really gets you anywhere special.

I'm looking for a game that's really interesting and mysterious because you really have no idea what will be inside this cave or deep in that lake or up a huge cliff face that you can climb with grapples and ropes you found at an abandoned village of some sort where you almost got plucked into the air by a gigantic desert pelican's claws. There would also have to be some kind of benefit to exploring too, if I think about it (I'm the gamer that needs that kind of thing to experience maximum gaming fun). Like there are several ultimate goals in the game which all require lots of exploring to achieve. Like maybe there's a mountain in the distance and there's something shining on the top of the mountain every now and then - so you want to reach the mountain to see what it is, and that could lead to something else. Of course you couldn't just walk up the mountain. Maybe you'd have to build a hang glider to reach a certain point and then from there up you could grapple your way up and you'd be finding weird shit along the way. See, I'm kind of going off here but the game wouldn't have to be THAT detailed, that's just my idea of a really entertaining game.

 

[Fardor]

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92
Oblivion with the Dusaar Mod

I think that satisfies what you want.

OOOOH looks kewl from the first minute of the video. Despite asking this question in PC games I have an Inspiron 9300 so I'd need a new comp to play it without it looking like an N64 game, but I've been looking for an excuse to get a new PC for a while, anyways.

Had Oblivion for my 360 though, and didn't like it all that much...

 

[Strebor]

This one is interesting.

 

[Ika]

Too bad Shadow of the Colossus is console-only.

 

[Soundmanred]

I was hoping they would make a game based on the movie Open Water where you're just surrounded by water and you see a shark once in a while but nothing actually ever happens.

 

[Dregas Volar]

Morrowind.

 

[jtvang125]

Tomb Raider: Legend. Haven't finished it yet but I've throughly enjoyed it so far. I hated the earlier ones because the controls were confusing and half the time I didn't know where I was suppose to go. TRL fixes many of these problems and makes more enjoyable. No desert theme that I know of but the locations do vary and are quite open and spacious.

 

[Vidda]

I know it's not PC, but since nothing seems to be available, Jak 3 for the PS2 fit the bill. Sorry again for not PC.

 

[mindcycle]

Someone already mentioned it, but Gothic 3. ..or any of the Gothic games. Gothic 3 is a little buggy, but if you can get it to run it's loads of fun. I recommend Gothic 2 and the expansion, as it's the most stable. ..or get this for all three: http://www.gogamer.com/Gothic-...Id444710VVviewprod.htm

Morrowind, Two Worlds. Already mentioned but along the same lines.

 

[irishScott]

All 5 Myst games. Thing is you'll have about a million WTF moments for every HOLY SHIT moment. I think it's worth it though. Especially the last 3.

Edit: Only other thing I can think of is Planet's Edge, but once again, it's ancient. Still one of the best games I've every played (you need VDMsound or DosBOX to get sound)

Also, if you choose to go for it, RTFM. (Link on page). Also, there's a really annoying bug that will prevent you from orbiting the first planet of every star via the science officer's menu. Just use the hotkey "o" instead.
http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=830

 

[imported_Imp]

Ughh... going to shoot myself after saying this, but Gothic 3 has one of the best exploration/immersive environments. I would have said Oblivion, but once you've seen one area of Oblivion, the rest is roughly the same. Monsters and caves are roughly the same too. In Gothic though, things will start to look similar after a while, but there are 3 clear and different environments: desert, arctic and temperate forest. Even when I got really sick of the crappy gameplay Gothic 3 turned into, stepping into the desert and walking across huge dunes of sand with ruins and brand new monsters was still exhilirating.

 

[Martimus]

I have to disagree about the environments not wowing you on Oblivion. At the highest settings, it still amazes me looking a few miles away at a lake and seeing it glistening, or looking down the mountain at the Tower miles away. The environments are breathtaking. Although it may suck if you don't have a powerful enough video card, which was probably your problem. The characters seem rather ugly, and their aren't that many voice actors, but the enviroments are fantastic in my oppinion.

 

[MrWizzard]

Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
Only game I can think of that comes anywhere near close to exploration in a desert is the original dune game. It's incredibly oldschool, but I can't think of any other games that's both set in a desert and involves exploration.

I remember exploring in the desert and almost dying several times.

I would go exploring... then one time I made the mistake of taking that one girl. Here I am happily exploring and she starts saying, ?I want to be close to you??

I am like, ?Quiet you! I am trying to explore for treasure.?

She is all, ?Stay out here with me.?

Me, ?I said SHHH!?

She, ?Hold me?

Me, ?So help me I will use a thumper and have a sand worm eat you!?

I was quite young back then and didn?t know what she was talking about. All I knew is she was slowing my progress down.

 

[Fardor]

Originally posted by: Martimus
I have to disagree about the environments not wowing you on Oblivion.

It really isn't up to you what wows me and what doesn't

 

[Atomic Playboy]

You're complaining about the environments in WoW and Oblivion lacking variation.... so you want an exploration game set in a desert? Maybe you're thinking of a different desert than me, but I imagine a landscape covered in sand with endless dunes in all directions... A desert is fundamentally the least varied landscape on Earth, simply because the conditions are so difficult to survive in that not many species can survive (consequently, you see the same 10 cactuses, the same 5 lizards, the same tumbleweeds, and not a whole lot more). Now if you want a diverse environment, seems the jungle would be your best bet. Sure, everything looks the same (much like the desert), but when you can find 200 different species of trees in a single acre, you're looking at a remarkably diverse ecosystem.

But I agree, an adventure game that is epic in scale and fun to explore would be a hoot. Maybe something with several different ecosystems/climates built into the world. Like you have a desert, and then you climb over some mountains and descend into the jungle, go through the jungle and you get to a coastline where you can go out and explore the coral reefs. That shit would be the mad note.

 

[MrWizzard]

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
You're complaining about the environments in WoW and Oblivion lacking variation.... so you want an exploration game set in a desert? Maybe you're thinking of a different desert than me, but I imagine a landscape covered in sand with endless dunes in all directions... A desert is fundamentally the least varied landscape on Earth, simply because the conditions are so difficult to survive in that not many species can survive (consequently, you see the same 10 cactuses, the same 5 lizards, the same tumbleweeds, and not a whole lot more). Now if you want a diverse environment, seems the jungle would be your best bet. Sure, everything looks the same (much like the desert), but when you can find 200 different species of trees in a single acre, you're looking at a remarkably diverse ecosystem.

But I agree, an adventure game that is epic in scale and fun to explore would be a hoot. Maybe something with several different ecosystems/climates built into the world. Like you have a desert, and then you climb over some mountains and descend into the jungle, go through the jungle and you get to a coastline where you can go out and explore the coral reefs. That shit would be the mad note.

You forgot to mention.

The Desert has belly dancer women.

Jungle has Amazon women.

Ocean has beautiful mermaid women.

All with different variations of course.....

 

[DangerAardvark]

Originally posted by: MrWizzard

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
You're complaining about the environments in WoW and Oblivion lacking variation.... so you want an exploration game set in a desert? Maybe you're thinking of a different desert than me, but I imagine a landscape covered in sand with endless dunes in all directions... A desert is fundamentally the least varied landscape on Earth, simply because the conditions are so difficult to survive in that not many species can survive (consequently, you see the same 10 cactuses, the same 5 lizards, the same tumbleweeds, and not a whole lot more). Now if you want a diverse environment, seems the jungle would be your best bet. Sure, everything looks the same (much like the desert), but when you can find 200 different species of trees in a single acre, you're looking at a remarkably diverse ecosystem.

But I agree, an adventure game that is epic in scale and fun to explore would be a hoot. Maybe something with several different ecosystems/climates built into the world. Like you have a desert, and then you climb over some mountains and descend into the jungle, go through the jungle and you get to a coastline where you can go out and explore the coral reefs. That shit would be the mad note.

You forgot to mention.

The Desert has belly dancer women.

Jungle has Amazon women.

Ocean has beautiful mermaid women.

All with different variations of course.....

And the Moon level has space sluts.