GTA3
Minecraft, it’s just relaxes me every time it storms.
You’re all wrong. It’s DriveClub. They put so much detail in the simulation of air pressure, angle of light coming from the sun, dynamic volumetric clouds, and so much more. On top of that, they simulate their weather on the conditions 100 miles out from the actual racetrack to make things as realistic as possible. It’s absolutely gorgeous.
Death Stranding for me. Especially at the beginning of the game when you encounter your first storm, and you clear it. That feeling of relief is truly spectacular.
My vote has to go to the super storms in Horizon Forbidden West. They’re pretty incredible as they pass over. It’s just a shame they’re so rare and stop after a certain point in the game.
I’m pretty sure the lead on clouds is the industry leader on cloud rendering. He has some great gdc talks and paper write-ups of his work.
No Man’s Sky has some impressive storms. They change depending on the planet, and a recent update (still updated for free since 2016, btw) added a bunch of new atmospheric effects. Some storms have winds strong enough to throw around and, in some cases, off the planet.
Most recent time I was awestruck by a thunderstorm in a game? Forza Horizon 5. One of the early missions involved heading out in the jungle during a massive thunderstorm and it was just legendary. Visuals, audio, everything.
The opening act of Little Big Adventure 2 gets my vote.
There was something magical about Little Big Adventures.
I only played through the second one but the thing that got me was just how ambitious it was. It ruined many other games for me as I was left thinking “Where’s the rest of the game?”.
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.
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.
Uru and Mabinogi has surprisingly good audio with theirs.
I’m going to give you an evil answer and say Final Fantasy X. Are you ready to dodge 200 lightning bolts?
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.
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’ve always liked the storm in the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC from Mass Effect 2. It takes place on a ship chasing the sunset on a planet with a really slow rotation, and there’s a massive storm at the terminator. It looks amazing.
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.
