Hogwarts in the Harry Potter games made by KnowWonder feels like home. I guess as an adult it's not worth it playing them for the first time, since they lack any challenge, but just listen to
this. Everything is so warm and cozy, even the enemies look sympathetic. It really struck as a world of wonder to which I return every winter.
I absolutely agree with Disciples being one of those games, it feels like playing Paradise Lost. I had never tried it until I bought it on a GOG sale last year, and for two months I would spend whole nights of the weekend, til dawn, with single malta in my glass and on the screen a genocidal campaign against demons, dwarves, undead hordes and angels. It's a very particular, very accomplished world: it feels desperate, melancholic and yet a stage for prodigious feats. Outstanding blend of visuals and sound.
Stronghold is remarkably good at this suggestive function as well, with an amazing
soundtrack and the delightful detail of textures and animations, a perfect match with its relaxed pace (nay, I don't play Extreme) which throws you right over a Shakespeare's epic work.
Also, last monday a soft rain gently fell upon the patch of grass I was walking through; it was sunny, though, so the green was really vivid and the pearls of water awoke the fragances of Eden. Suddenly I stopped and realized I was feeling as I do when I play Heroes of Might & Magic IV, the
soundtrack playing in my head.
Indeed, the whole M&M series deserves mention in this regard for things like the mistery of the cthulhian Fortress and the sublimity of the Stronghold in H3, or approaching Free Haven in Mandate of Heaven with
this.
Particularly, it took me a long while to get the hang of the older games, but I would start Isles of Terra again and again just for the amazing feeling of Fountain Head, with the clear sky, the pure marble and the clear waters flowing as I imagine Trophonius' sanctum.
When retarded journos talk shit about games being art, they try to show them as mimicking known forms of art and totally miss this
feeling which is I think absolutely characteristic of video games, unique to them. I don't think it's just the music, but its mixture with peculiar visuals and the pure repetition, a well known Freudian device, of simple actions (even if entangled in a more compelx scheme) with a pleasant outcome. Maybe it's just a glorified form of fort-da, but it feels like heaven and not any other medium can offer that.