The most immersive game you've played.

[sobriquet835]

Final Fantasy X. I found it way too easy to turn this one and lose track of time. I would often look at the clock and wonder where the last 4 hours went, and then continue playing anyway (of course it was the first Final Fantasy I played properly). The only other game that came close to this for me is Uncharted 2.

[Nietzsche]

Fallout 3.
Civ 3 I had a few games where I was locked in.
The first time I played Kotor I was completely sucked in.

Basically all my favourite games are the most immersive.

[Gamesta]

The DKC series.

Brilliant graphics that look good even today.Fun gameplay and incredible music.

If there is one series from the SNES I remember above all, it's the DKC series.I can remember various moments with friends. Whether it be us playing the games or talking about them.



MGS series.

It's series I had no interest in, in the beginning.I remember a friend being so excited about this new stealth game called MGS.He showed me a trailer and at first I just thought "meh." Then I played the demo and boy did my opinion change.

Such a dramatic and sometimes very emotional series.

MGS1 would have to be my most played game ever.I would play the game, finish it then start again immediately after.I must have finished the game at least 30 times.



GTAIII.

Sure now it's not that great when you compare it to VC or SA but at the time it was the most exciting game I have ever played.

I loved it so much that I very much doubt a game will ever be released that excited me as much as GTAIII did.Hell when it had been taken off Aussie shelves, I used to dream about playing it and just thinking about how fun/awesome the game was gave me butterflies no game ever has.



Fallout 3.


During these/those times where I rarely finish a game more than once, I finished Falout 3 I think 5 times.That alone says how much I loved Fallout 3.

It was a game that like Sims games, it never played the same.

For a non horror game, there were some eerie parts in the game.Some of the interior locations were just creepy.



Oh God how could I forget FFX.


My original playthrough alone is over 300 hours.
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[Jahanzeb]

Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3 and 4 - It was like living inside an anime series

Deus Ex - Perhaps the most believable depiction of the future world...ever..and it was just so...liveable!

Shadow of the Collossus- (copy paste what rest you alls said )

Eternal Sonata - A beautiful world based on the life and music of Chopin, incredible

Star Ocean 3- Was really sucked into its massive universe and loved exploring all the planets

Shenmue - Nuff said
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[UWSguy]

I'll agree with Persona 3&4, Deus Ex and Shenmue (II... no dreamcast )

Also I'll chuck in Yakuza 3, in particular Okinawa. That place felt real (aside from actually being real). I would just walk around looking in shop stores, very relaxing. Also the world felt like it was progressing, mainly because most of the mini games (Golf, Bowling etc) would actually have some quests attached.
You'd just be taking a few swings at the batting cage and someone would come in and challenge you for the rights on a tv show or something. Made the mini games feel much more purposeful.

System Shock 2 also felt like it took place on a ship, not a series of levels. Scary as hell but felt very real.

Monster Hunter Tri - After 70 or so hours, the singleplayer one screen village felt real. Each character had a new thing to say about everything that happened in the game. Really served no purpose for the gameplay outside of being awesome.

[mrpookles]

Metal Gear Solid series - yes, "omg it's a movie", but these games bring out some fair emotions for a game. Big Boss and Solid Snake are the most significant fictional characters in my life. Honestly couldn't imagine my life without MGS.

Far Cry 2 - the game set out to aggravate you & make every single trip outside of a safe-zone as annoying as possible. A lot of people found it unbearable, but that's exactly why it won me over. It immersed me by torturing me.

Mass Effect - mainly the lore. The games are great, but the overall package including the novels puts it beyond most series.

Final Fantasy VII - my first real experience with an RPG. I'd never played anything like it and still have fond memories of staying up until about 3am as a kid the night I got it because I was so engrossed.

[Benza]

[mantra79]

I actually really enjoyed Eternal Sonata aswell, I now have a great appreciation of Chopin's music, the game was quite beautiful but i can see how its not everyone's cup of tea.
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[bobboblaw]

I can't go past Metro 2033, by far the most immersive and atmospheric game I've played, and one of my favourites. No game has done a better job at putting you in the shoes of the protagonist, Artyom, and it's an experience like no other. The game is filled with memorable moments througout your journey in such depressing environments, but one of my favourite parts is the trek through The Library.



Opting to stare down The Librarians by lowering your gun, trying to avoid breaking eye contact, and slowly backing away until they grow tired of you.... just f**king intense. Everything about the gameplay is designed to be as immersive as possible, relentless at keeping you on the edge of your seat, and very rarely ever taking you out of the experience. Sure, the stealth sections are poorly designed, and people will bitch about some of the animations (in an otherwise phenomenal looking game). But the way the story, atmosphere, gameplay, visuals and audio combine into such an immersive journey through post-apocalyptic Moscow, is testament to how an interactive experience can be just as much an art form as any other medium. Don't get me started on Cryostasis. The story is fantastic and it's not just sci-fi pulp, but is also a commentary on modern Russian politics. I won't go any more in depth as I don't want to spoil anything, but it's a great story exceptionally well told with an utterly amazing ending.

Something about this game just resonated with me, and it's an absolute shame it didn't get the recognition it deserved. It's disheartening when a gem like this comes out with very little fanfare, while an overpriced map pack for a certain FPS can sell 20x as much. But at least there's a little justice in the world and a sequel is coming. In the meantime, I think I'll go through the game a 4th time, this time on Ranger Hardcore.
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[Island_Wolf]

Morrowind - Just like what Denny said. That and it's nice relaxing soundtrack by none other than Jeremy Soule. It is easily my most played game of all time where each time I play, I would be so into Morrowind I lost track of time and wasted 5+ hours without feeling like I did. I never finished it but never cared, it's my world!. I must've restarted 20+ times and still loving it.

The not-so-immersive but still just as "I didn't know I played this long" is strategy games like the Civilization series or Pharaoh or Sim City. Things Just keep happening and I just keep on improving just to make people happy, even though I am awful in this genre, I still love it.

The mentionables such as a lot of RPG that brings out a great environment. Over the years I have enjoy the likes of Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect series, Dragon Age, Final Fantasy series, Dragon Quest, Star Ocean 3 but at lot of them at a cost of grinding which makes it more annoying than immersive to me. I don't know about anyone but hanging out in the same area for hours and hours just to kill the same type of monsters, the repetitiveness!
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[Benza]

[Gamesta]

[Marka]

A few that come to mind:

System Shock 2
The Witcher
Metriod series, especially the Prime games
Dues Ex 1
Half Life series
Stalker series
Lost Odyssey
Castlevania: Lord of shadows
Unreal 1

[FalconDude]

I hate to admit it but World of Warcraft is the game I have been most addicted to, immersed in, and played the most. At the time it was super addictive to me.
Looking back on it now, it seem's like i was hypnotised into keeping on playing the game. When I finally stopped. I started playing alot of more different games, and game genres, and actually enjoyed my gaming more.

My next most immersed and addicted game came before WOW. It was NFS High Stakes on PC. I was a huge racing fan at this point in time, and this game was the bomb. EA had a client hosted server, with stats, that included a chat room in the main lobby. For its time, the graphics, physics and feeling of speed, was pretty awesome. Also the online camaraderie between racers was very fierce, and alot of fun.
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[seyismyname]

For myself, the most immersive game I've ever played was Fire Emblem IV Genealogy of the Holy War on the SNES. I was about 19-20 years old at the time and decided to give that game a go after my deep adventure in Shining Force II a few years back. After playing Shining Force, I began developing a love affair for strategic RPGs and had heard some good things about Fire Emblem.

Unfortunately at the time, Fire Emblem was only available in Japanese, but I was lucky enough to find the rom file and a patch which someone had made (though it wasn't 100% complete) which enabled me to play Fire Emblem IV.

Fire Emblem IV was my first time playing a Fire Emblem game and boy oh boy did it totally suck me in. From the very moment the game loaded up, the beautiful Fire Emblem theme music began slowly pulling me in and then the character art and rich storyline of love, betrayal and honour kept me in a tranced-like state.

The map field where all the battles took place, started off in one area but as your small but growing army defeated the respective boss of the stage, the map field would move on and another section would open up.

Two exceptional aspects of Fire Emblem IV at the time was the introduction of "skills" and the idea of the heroes falling in love and having kids and subsequently passing on their skills and weapons to their children.

These skills are what we have come to know and love today in the more recent Fire Emblem titles on the GC and Wii. My favourite skill...and I am sure it was everyone's favourite...was the meteor skill which was only available to the female swordmaster Ayra and her children, Lakche and Skasaher (I remember Lakche became a demon on the battlefield decimating an entire enemy army all on her own without getting a scratch).

The idea of having children was an awesome idea as it allowed you to experiment with different skills from the first generation heroes (Ayra and Rex were my power couple ).

I remember spending several months playing and replaying stages (especially for the first generation characters) just so I could prepare the second generation characters the way I wanted them to be, inheriting not just their parents skills and weapons but their growth stats as well. Tactically, I took what seemed like an eternity moving and placing my characters on the field before ending my turn. However those months were some of my most cherished and enjoyable moments in video games.

Similar to Final Fantasy III, Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana, I felt so upset when I did finally finish Fire Emblem IV. I was so immersed in the game that I stopped talking to my friends and family and when I did talk to them, it was only about Fire Emblem and what tactic I would be using next.

...writing about Fire Emblem IV really makes me miss that game so much. With the release and remakes of the original Fire Emblem game on the DS, I hope that Nintendo will allow me another chance to re-visit and re-live the beautiful game of Fire Emblem IV.
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"It's easy to lose but tough to keep winning" Terry Bogard KOF 2001

[seyismyname]

[KobiLee]

Fallout 3. I felt really drawn into the gameworld playing this. A huge wasteland where you're free to explore things at your own pace. Love it!

Honorable Mentions:

Heavy Rain
Uncharted 2
GTAIV
The Darkness
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[Cavedog]

-- Future Shock --
Kick'in old skool here, This game was by FAR the most immersive game ive ever played, and i swear its shaped me as a child, with imagination and things like that.

-- Why was this game so dam friggin awesome? --
1) One of the first to use x,y axis on mouse
2) OPEN WORLD (Back then, that didnt exist)
3) Driveable vehicles (even a hunter?)
4) Walk into ANY BUILDING
5) Broken future setting, with a tiny ammount of humans (So..awesome story)
6) This game made me feel, scared, excited, worried, catious...scared (again)

Pretty much, Future shock, the game was like this...
Youre a resistance fighter to the terminators in the future (Btw, even the movies werent as good as this game), And youre in a bunker of afew other survivers (5?), and you go up to the surface to do missions, by yourself, you walk around this (mostly) open-world, going from sewers to the surface, every corner and every step you take, or even every noise you hear, your heart stops alittle, because you think a terminator or robot will appear, And these guys werent like 'Oh ill just pop 10 caps in his ass' no no no, these terminators were practically impossible to destroy, and there was an ARMY of them, EVERYWHERE.

Not only are you low on ammo and the world is open, you can also walk into just about ANY building, you might run into a drone (little hovering terminator ball thing), you might find some medpacks to heal you, or ammo (precious precious ammo), i even remember seeing a whole terminator army camp, with patrols going everywhere, i knew i couldnt take them on, so i would hide and plan out my routes to try sneak past them.

I could go on, but this game was AMAZING!

Edit: Games now-a-days, are wayyy to balanced and with the mindset "Everyone wins! ", This terminator game...seemed to take MONTHS to finish, every step help your breath, ammo was definetly not balanced, terminators were real terminators..in the sense that they were tough sons of bitches to destroy and you wouldnt want to get into a fight with even one of them, no sucking your thumb behind a wall to recover (You got hurt? then you got hurt until you finish the friggin mission), This game made you become the player, put you into the game, as it was the only way to actually beat the game, otherwise your screwed.


Also... Gothic 1, but im to tired to talk about it

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[myzz]

GT3 (when it first cameout)
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[Grom]

Has anybody said Amnesia: The Dark Descent yet? Because, goddamn. Terrifying.

[Ramblerun]

Barrow Hill-

A creepy first-person adventure game. Excellent atmosphere, great sound work and music, tough puzzles and great settings. One of the better games I played last year.
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Most Anticipated: Deponia - Kaptain Brawe

[Frozencry]

[Furianshi]

I think also, other factors come in to how immersive a game can be. A game can have amazing graphics, detailed environmental interaction and be oozing atmosphere out the wazoo, but it won't mean shit if your gaming area is a mess, you haven't had a shower for 3 days, you're currently putting off going for a poo and you have a 5 metre distance between you and a 10yr old fishbowl CRT TV that you're playing the game through, with it's crackly little speakers that make it difficult to tell the difference between a military issue .45 ACP and a wet fart.

I have an unwritten (until now) checklist of conditions that must be met before I can fully immerse myself into a game. It's a good little preparation guide that helps with better gaming immersion...

Furianshi's Gaming Immersion Preparation Guide


• Gaming area must be tidy and clear of any empty coke bottles, empty chip packets and other rubbish and debris. If that sort of thing distracts you, you could take it a step further and give the area a vacuum as well.
  
  
• Prepare physically. Make sure you're not hungry or thirsty, and you don't need to go to the toilet. Keep something to snack on and some cold bottled water or something else to drink handy (you don't want to be getting up and walking all the way out to the kitchen whenever you're feeling peckish). Have a nice refreshing shower, and wear comfortable, clean clothing. This can assist with relaxation and getting yourself into the right state of mind.
  
  
• Ambiance. Gaming area should have minimalistic lighting. A little light is good, like a lamp with a shade that is off to the side of the screen. Other than that, draw the shades and get the room nice and dark, with no glare on the screen. Room temperature is also important. You don't want to be distracted by things that will remind you of your physical body, like being too hot or cold.
  
  
• Positioning in relation to the screen. 1-2mtrs is ideal imo. Face the screen directly towards you, don't be off to the side.
  
  Bonus Elements:
  
  
• A large screen with a good response time and decent sound system. If you want to take the sound element further, a quality set of comfortable headphones add considerably to the immersion factor.
  
  Optional:
  
  
• If you're of the legal age, get yourself a light alcoholic beverage, or something like that, to have before you get started. Just to relax a bit. It's not necessary if you have everything else covered, but it can help your brain become even more receptive towards what is happening on the screen, adding to the immersion.

[Benza]

[Sin Ogaris]

I think distance to the screen is more important than size of screen, I'm always far more immersed in my PC games than on my console, simply because I'm right there, in front of it with sound blaring at me, especially in the dark it's like I'm there.

It was the same when I used to have my 360 in my bedroom, I'd be about a meter from the screen and it just helped me to zone everything else out, add headphones and you're literally in a World of your own.