Modded Skyrim
Red Dead Redemption 2 hands down
This 👆
I’d say Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2). Everything about the atmosphere in that game was immersive - graphics were good enough that I didn’t notice they were graphics. I genuinely felt cold, wet, hot, windblown, or joyful at the various weather/environment situations in the game.
Don’t see it mentioned so I’ll share it, The Last of Us 2. When I think of the game I think of rainfall, and golfing.
BOTW/TOTK is pretty memorable because it has a mechanical effect. Climbing becomes harder due to wet surfaces being slippery, and lightning can strike things killing them, damaging things and setting fires.
I loved the storms in BOTW. The rainy atmosphere and the mechanical effects were really well done.
In a similar vein, Majora’s Mask has a fantastic thunderstorm on day 2 of the cycle.
This is one of the two that jump to mind. Red Dead Redemption 2 had beautiful, atmospheric storms that were a sight to behold at a distance. Breath of the Wild brought the lightning up close and personal.
There’s nothing quite like deciding to take a fight in a thunderstorm while the only gear you have left is metal, or carefully sneaking up on an enemy only to have a bolt of nature’s electric fury crash down two meters behind you and shake the ground you’re standing on. Especially in surround sound.
From an audio perspective, Terraria has great a thunderstorm effect - just something that really stuck as weighty and impactful
For the whole experience, Project Zomboid isn’t a slouch either as it has the audio/visuak effects down and feels better with the some of its parts together as individually there are parts that feel weaker but as a whole makes the for an engaging experience if one decides to wonder during a thunderstorm
From what i have played, sea of thieves has the best storm, great visuals and sound, and having to make sure the ship doesnt sink is the cherry on top
I had such a great, if brief, time in sea of thieves. It fell out because the main reason I enjoyed it was the team aspect and our friends stopped playing it, but damn if it didn’t give that immersive vibe for a little while, kind of like when I first played WoW.
happened once while carrying gunpowder barrels
“watch the lightning strike the gunpowder barrels and we explode” famous last words about 10 seconds before lightning struck our gunpowder barrels and we exploded
I feel like I’m biased and it’s my answer for everything, but RDR2. No other game environment has come close, for me. Screenshot from one moody moment I captured:
Rockstar is no nonsense with their thunderstorms. The ones in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City are particularly wild.
In Valheim it was quite real and comfy at the same time. Weird I know.
I have a tower built off a pine tree. When it thunderstorms, I race up the stairs to go Thor-spotting
I’m going to give you an evil answer and say Final Fantasy X. Are you ready to dodge 200 lightning bolts?
This was my first thought on reading the thread 🙈 I’m so glad I knocked that out when I was like 11, no way my mid-30s ass is staying focused enough for a challenge like that now.
I hate to admit doing it multiple times, including in my 30s, haha. But it’s a long and tedious achievement. The trick to doing it at our age is a good podcast to keep the mind busy!
I’d forgotten that awful bit until you mentioned it. :( iirc my brother got that on my file and I got the chocobo balloons on his.
I really liked the storms in Valheim. Probably not the best looking but they felt so impressive.
This channel has a lot of pretty game ambience, but isn’t limited to storms.
The storm in Life Is Strange was hella intense.
I’ve yet to find a game that properly rolls in a distant storm that eventually grows into an intense one. They tend to come on very quickly and escalate to 10 in about 20 seconds.
Icarus is about the only one that gives me the “ah shit storm comin” vibes
How about the one at the end of Zelda: Ocarina of Time?
Having effects that shatter the framerate is, of course, a very undesirable thing for gamers. But something about it in the context of a sudden final boss fight against Ganon, placing his large figure against the thundering background, made him much more imposing in a way that might not really even be represented when playing the game in 4K on an emulator.
The ganon fights from Wind Waker and Skyward Sword are similarly cinematic!
Ganon has a thing for theatrics
I was talking to a friend the other day and trying to convey how good that fight looks. In some ways it’s kind of cliché (the narrative flips on the “lightning” switch for effect), but it’s so well-done that it doesn’t matter. If you let yourself get swept up in the story, it’s so damn tense and emotional. And the music, oh my god…
Off-topic, but I finally beat TotK the other day and the experience was utterly transcendent. I’m still blown away. They seriously made up for the deflated final fight in BotW, and then some.
Though they’re a mix of sandstorm/thunderstorm (like in the movie), the Mad Max game from Avalanche.
One of the few games where I thought storms were an actual danger.
The way those storms rolled in and turned peace into pure chaos. Driving around avoiding thunderstrikes. Going on foot meant having to dodge pieces of debris or getting yeeted to some unknown part of the map. Actually required to take shelter somewhere. Storms felt actually like it really added something to the game beyond just a different skybox and rain. That was good shit.
