Desert, sand environments in games?

[Drhankey]

Okey, hear me out. I'm just a fan of games in these settings, shining sun.. dry dry sand, beautiful to explore. I've been looking for a game that place like this, no matter what kind of game necessarily (although I would prefer somewhat open world).

I feel people might not get me exactly, so let me show you this short gameplay video:
http://youtu.be/1Zfx8fCmhK4

Now ofcourse in general I'm talking about beautiful games like this, those games that are so immersive you could get lost in it. Ofcourse my heart sank upon realizing that the above mentioned game (Uncharted 3) is an PS3 exclusive.. DOH! So I went ahead and start my search...

Two Worlds 2 - this game has really nice graphics aswell, it's a somewhat underrated RPG that should have deserved better scoring then it did (it was such a big improvement from the first game). Shortly after the start there's this whole desert area that's quite awesome. Also, and this is a very important factor for immersive-ness .. the music, it's so beautiful. I'm kinda annoyed by the terrible voice acting and worse.. terrible animations, that I can barely get into this game. :/

http://youtu.be/_mF8KkDiIdk
The Journey - a beautiful game set in the desert, simply awesome. Again a PS3 exclusive.. WTF Sony?!

http://youtu.be/ioEV_337Erc
Serious Sam 3 - This is set in Egypt, I just love this game. However I feel it's just too much of a linear action game, I love it though and it's simply amazing but it's not the kind of game I'm looking for atm. You can't really explore and it's more of an arcade shooter.

Spec Ops: The Line - So I heard of this before, saw some reviews I think from Gamespot and a video from Angry Joe.. they were all ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on the game and I assumed it was terrible. Infact, both Gamespot and AngryJoe were terrible (and wrong), this seemingly has one of the best stories. I only played the demo, but I enjoyed it alot .. and the graphics are amazing. But I fear this is like Serious Sam just another linear shooter, and though while the graphics are stunning.. without exploration (and awesome music) it might not be the game I'm looking for.

So IDK, am I alone in this that I feel these environments just awesomely immersive? I can't really seem to find the best game for it though, and while Two Worlds 2 comes close the voice acting, animations and boring story just put me off. I know there's an indie game called Kenshi.. but in general I don't like indie games, and this game is in such an early alpha there's not even sound. So I can't even call it a game yet.

Anyways, has anyone got an idea of what I'm talking about and if there are more such games that I missed? I probably might just get Spec Ops, but likely only on a Steam sale ($30 is a bit expensive for me), just because of the amazing graphics and environment. But I'm still looking out for that perfect game.. heck, Uncharted 3 is probably that game but I doubt they ever release it for PC!

[Foxhole Sniffer]

Go buy Spec Ops. It's honestly worth it for everything you're talking about.

[Ailes]

Uncharted 3 has impressive sand scenes, but they are not "open" - the whole game leads you straightfoward - and relatively short. Same goes for Journey, it's areas are slightly more open but you'll basically still end up going from point X to point Z via point Y.

The Secret World has areas in Egypt. They don't look bad but they are not as visually gorgeous as Uncharted 3 or Journey.

Uncharted will never be released for PC. No Naughty Dog game was ever ported to PC as far as I know. They have good reason not to. It's a Sony-owned studio making Sony-/PS-exclusive games. There are people who buy consoles for such exclusive titles only, and I can't exactly blame them for what immersive and impressive games these often are.

Journey may appear on PC someday along with the other PS-exclusives made by thatgamecompany but I guess that's entirely up to Sony. They don't own that studio and so it may get a deal of sorts on that with Sony.

You could probably look at other MMORPGs just like The Secret World. But I'm afraid even if you find more that have sand areas they'll be nowhere near as good as in Uncharted or Journey.

[Drhankey]

Yea, feeling it less with The Secret World. I mean I rather play World of Warcraft over it which has desert areas aswell. In general though I'm more looking at a graphically nice game too, like Spec Ops.

I know Uncharted isn't as "open world" and still fairly linear, but that's fine.. I don't always like open world because I wander off to a different direction and usually lose the story and end up skipping it altogether. What I like is a game that is linear in story (somewhat, that keeps me with a sense of moving forward through it) but also has a feeling of freedom almost as an open world game. Alan Wake is a perfect example of one of those games (though it's not related to desert environments), but it was just such an awesome story and even though there was only one linear path to take it felt I had the freedom to explore all the corners of the world... it was amazing.

So again Uncharted probably fits this the best, but this might never come to PC. So for now I'll definitely check out Spec Ops (I think I'll wait with buying, since the summer sale starts this week) since the demo got me hooked (amazing graphics and I love how you can change the "color filter" at start).

[Ailes]

Red Dead Redemption has deserts. Well, at least brownish stony ones.

[Drhankey]

Originally posted by Enoah:

Red Dead Redemption has deserts. Well, at least brownish stony ones.

PS3 exclusive.. :')

Or atleast (since IDK, maybe its for Xbox too), it's not on the PC.

[Lunacinda]

Fallout: New Vegas has a lot of barren desert-like open world to roam around in. And it's a very non-linear, choice-and-consequence heavy RPG to boot. It's win/win!

[Cametron5000]

Originally posted by Vampyre:

Fallout: New Vegas has a lot of barren desert-like open world to roam around in. And it's a very non-linear, choice-and-consequence heavy RPG to boot. It's win/win!

One of my favorite games. It's a shame the graphics are kind of terrible

[Drhankey]

I liked Fallout 3, haven't played New Vegas but graphics wise I think it's a bit outdated now.

[Cametron5000]

Originally posted by Drhank:

I liked Fallout 3, haven't played New Vegas but graphics wise I think it's a bit outdated now.

Still has a great story and some cool DLC. Makes me think that the next Fallout game should be written by Obsidian, but the world created by Bethesda

[Drhankey]

New Vegas is by Obsidian?

[Ailes]

Originally posted by Drhank:

New Vegas is by Obsidian?

Obviously: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas

[Drhankey]

Not so obvious tbh, I thought it was from Bethesda, like Fallout 3.

[Ailes]

The first Assassin's Creed should be having some desert-ish areas. And the Prince of Persia series too.

[Zoxphyl]

An old retro example; world 2 of Super Mario Bros. 3 is a lot of fun.

I remember getting so mad at that damn sun thing xD


Oh, and theres also certain maps in TF2; such as Goldrush.

[Drhankey]

Just finished Spec Ops, definitely one of those awesome games. Also I remember Assassins Creed and Prince of Persia, they're great games, I should probably finish PoP (2008) when I get the chance. Just wishing for Uncharted 3 PC release now.. :/