Weather in Games—best you've seen?

[Brian Boru]

~15 years ago I ran a screen saver for a while which was a weather app and mimicked my local conditions—eg screen would be flashing during thunderstorm. Thought it was cool and have looked forward to more weather effects in games since.

Haven't seen that much, sadly. One mission in Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is in a mountain town during a blizzard. Either Far Cry 4 or its very good DLC Valley of the Yetis has a couple of similar missions in the Himalayas. Some weather in Adventure or Casual games, but that's about it.

What 'atmospheric' weather have you played thru?

 

[Pifanjr]

I think the last game I played with dynamic weather was Skyrim...

 

[WoodenSaucer]

It's not PC, but the worst I've played was Breath of the Wild. It's so annoying when you're climbing a huge mountain range, and it starts raining, and you just slide all the way back down and can't make any progress.

 

[Johnway]

When it comes to snow covered city for some reason the division stands out for me. not sure why, perhaps it was the unsual setting or maybe the snow+thanks giving+ winter seemed to come together to make some sort of american nightware or something.

 

[Frag Maniac]

GRID 2019 has some of the most realistic rain effects I've seen. Lately I'm playing Days Gone again though, and they really did well with weather effects in this game. The snow realistically gathers on corpses, and also builds up in key places on the front of your body when riding the bike in it. When storms come in, you hear a rumbling of thunder, see flashes and strikes of lightning, and the wind whipping through in gusts, whistling at times. The wind also moves trees very realistically.

Mad Max was a bit more intense when it came to lightning storms though due to it being set in a post apocalyptic nuclear ravaged environment, some really epic moments there.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Elden Ring has good rain, twinkly leaves, and also lightning sheep.

 

[Zloth]

Remember when Black & White was going to have the weather reflect the weather outside your own window? I don't think the feature ever happened, but I think some other games might have tried it. (The phase of the moon in NetHack was reflecting the real moon's phase decades ago.)

Best weather, though.... Most games don't even bother with it. They don't want to leave players with nothing to do while waiting for a storm to stop.

The Witcher games were good about having everyone hide under something when it started to rain.

Skyrim had some good weather effects.

Mechwarrior 5 has some good ones, too. They make it harder to fight - and you get a bonus to your pay when they happen. A mod to put raindrops on the cockpit glass helps, too. Just don't move your camera out away from the player, like I did in the silly screenshots thread.

Mad Max had the most epic storms for sure.

Oh, and No One Lives Forever 2's fight in a trailer park while a tornado was hitting was amazing!

 

[Brian Boru]

No One Lives Forever 2's fight in a trailer park while a tornado was hitting was amazing!

Oh yeah, forgot about that one! Never heard of that B&W plan—would've needed an always-on connection.

don't want to leave players with nothing to do while waiting for a storm to stop

Just let it be part of some missions, like I mentioned in OP. Light wind or rain would be fine, doesn't need to be spectacular—just some more environmental variety.

 

[Shodan_]

Best weather, though.... Most games don't even bother with it. They don't want to leave players with nothing to do while waiting for a storm to stop.

Lol The Long Dark could care less you're in the middle of a blizzard. Wait by the fire, sharpen your axe some more.

 

[Zloth]

Oh yeah, forgot about that one! Never heard of that B&W plan—would've needed an always-on connection.

And not-boring weather. In Phoenix, Arizona today it was hot and didn't rain. Tomorrow it will be hot and it won't rain. The day after that it will be hot and won't rain....

 

[Brian Boru]

Arizona today it was hot

But it's a dry heat…

Yellowstone would've taken that today, looks bad up there.

 

[Frag Maniac]

In Phoenix, Arizona today it was hot and didn't rain. Tomorrow it will be hot and it won't rain. The day after that it will be hot and won't rain....

I'll remember this next time I bemoan the weeks we have non stop rain.

 

[Brian Boru]

I'll remember this next time I bemoan the weeks we have non stop rain.

Rain used to really annoy me, until I spent a few years in southern California. Now I like the rain!

 

[Pifanjr]

Remember when Black & White was going to have the weather reflect the weather outside your own window? I don't think the feature ever happened, but I think some other games might have tried it. (The phase of the moon in NetHack was reflecting the real moon's phase decades ago.)

They did implement that, but by the time I played the servers were already offline.

 

[HenrykForkbeard]

Skyrim has some great terrain and weather graphics, even more so with the right mods.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Origins I felt was quite nice.

 

[ZedClampet]

The best looking weather I've seen has been in Forza Horizon games. The best was in the Blizzard Mountain DLC of 3. They had different kinds of snow events, but blizzards were the most impressive. You could barely see where you were going.

Atlas has some great looking storms at sea which are kind of messed up by the massive number of cyclones they spawn.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

And not-boring weather. In Phoenix, Arizona today it was hot and didn't rain. Tomorrow it will be hot and it won't rain. The day after that it will be hot and won't rain....

My sister lives in Phoenix. My wife is actually there with her right now on a day and a half layover. She's getting ready to go to San Francisco on a work trip.

The best looking weather I've seen has been in Forza Horizon games. The best was in the Blizzard Mountain DLC of 3. They had different kinds of snow events, but blizzards were the most impressive. You could barely see where you were going.

Atlas has some great looking storms at sea which are kind of messed up by the massive number of cyclones they spawn.

Yeah, Forza Horizon does have great weather.

 

[Zloth]

Now I like the rain!

Queue The Cult, The Violent Femmes, Garbage, and Gene Kelly

 

[Brian Boru]

Queue

I suppose it's just too contradictory that I now prefer some Sundance?

 

[Frindis]

Metro Exodus had some cool dynamic weather, including snow/desert storms, fog, rain, thunder, nuclear storm/rain, you name it. Probably the best out there is Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. The cool part with the game is that you can also change the weather system to your liking, so if you want it to be the worst weather possible you can do that simply with the click of a button or two. Including an example from Metro Exodus and MFS 2020 to show its beauty:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrAjq-0kE_I

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXAB44dcQlc

 

[Brian Boru]

Including an example from Metro Exodus and MFS 2020 to show its beauty

Oh now, that's what I'm talking about—both of those are exceptional! Thanks

 

[Withywarlock]

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is my choice. The rain and snow are rare but welcome occurances, especially in County Bruma and Leyawiin. The game's graphical fidelity and art style were all the more reason to travel on foot rather than fast travel.

Remember when Black & White was going to have the weather reflect the weather outside your own window? I don't think the feature ever happened, but I think some other games might have tried it. (The phase of the moon in NetHack was reflecting the real moon's phase decades ago.)

I hadn't heard that, but similarly Animal Crossing: Population Growing was supposed to use real-world weather effects based on your area. How, given the GCN's limited internet capabilities, I don't know.

 

[ipman]

I like the idea of the local weather app.

I think the weather and landscape are part of the game in RD2. Watching some of those storms moving across the horizon, lightening, rain, snow in the mountains or the muggy heat of the swamps.

But some games like SofW have this dusk haze which makes seeing difficult.

 

[Slasken]

The weather in Gran Turismo 7 looks really good too.

 

[ipman]

I still enjoy driving around in GTAV and there are times when the weather makes the driving even more fun.
At night in Los Santos, heavy rain, all the neon lights reflecting off the wet roads, and just that extra loss of traction.
Still haven't mastered drifting!