>>15606247
>What makes a city feel alive in a game?
>What is/was the best city ever introduced into a game?
You're asking two sets of questions here. And right now, I think the two are still mutually exclusive to each other. We're getting there, but we're not there just yet.
I think the closest that an in-game city felt to being alive, was GTA V, but only due to hardware capabilities. If GTA IV was made today without predefined console limitations, it would probably be the closest thing to feeling alive that games can offer right now. I think we're still a way off before we in a truly living, breathing vidya city, but we're getting closer every year.
What makes a city feel alive is nuance. It's not how many vehicles clutter the streets or how many pedestrians walk on the sidewalk. Any game city can have those, but quantity doesn't equate to quality. Instead, it's the little things. GTA touches on it a little bit, and comes damn close, but it tries too hard to ape an aesthetic without really delivering the feeling of why they feel alive in the first place. And it's reaction. To make a city seem alive, you need to make its people seem alive, and they need to react in a realistic way that's true for a city instead of being predefined actors for the movie-game that you're playing. People need to not give a shit about you, see you for what you are, just another person, and determine accordingly how you fit into their own businesses and priorities. But that's a social stata that's an entirely different topic, I think. I might post more when I think about this stuff more. Good opening questions, OP.
>What is/was the best city ever introduced into a game?
It's a tie between the City of Zeal, and Rapture. In my opinion.
Rapture. In my opinion.
Even though I hated how consolized System Shock had become with BioShock, the concept of Rapture is something that appealed to me in a big way. And Zeal, was like the embodiment of a fairytale, in this weirdly fantastical way that I'm still yet to see recreated in another game. It's not how Zeal looked, but it's how it made me feel, while I was there. No other city has brought me that feeling, like Zeal did.