now people always talk about the main character of a game or its success but large amount of it is down to its location. the location is want catches the players attetion, so here are my top game locations in no particular order:

1. Mushroom Kingdom
2. Hyrule
3. Rapture
4. Liberty City
5. Vice City

The Von Braun.

Whatever the alternate universe in Thief is called.

Vice city and san andreas

Silent Cartographer

Rapture is my favorite

The Golden Saucer from Final Fantasy VII. Tons of fun little distractions, a generally pleasant atmosphere, and the Battle Square can net you some of the best gear in the game.

Hill Top Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I don't know why... There's just something I liked about it.

Isle Delphino from Super Mario Sunshine. Bright colors, an interesting tropical atmosphere, and secrets aplenty, it was essentially Princess Toadstool's Castle from Super Mario 64 given a fresh coat of graphical paint and a hefty set of upgrades. To this day, it's one of my favorite places to just run around and explore in gaming.

L.B. Jeffries:
GUN was a gorgeous recreation of Montana. Does King's Quest V count?

whatever you want

San Espirito in Just Cause. Unfortunately there's not much to do there. I spent well over half a day just flying around visiting all the little islands with a single seater airplane, landing wherever I could, getting out and thinking 'this looks like a nice spot, shame that there's nothing to do here' before getting back in and flying off to the next one.
The most awesome thing about it was the size (something like 1012 square kilometres).

I loved Silent Hill and the Toluca Lake area because I'd love to visit the normal version of the town that most of the characters remember...

Those movie worlds from the Viewtiful Joe Universe.

the persian city in prince of persia.

No order:

1. The Universe (in any space game with free roam)
2. Rapture
3. The Open Sea (Sid Meier's Pirates)

City 17, Rapture, and Fallout USA. Just because one or more of those games didn't do those locations justice, doesn't mean they're really cool settings.

The Ark in Halo 3
The Citadel in Mass Effect

I live in one of the most beautiful places on earth, so I can't really say... ooh wait I know, the earth from Flight Sim X! It was awesome!

bread golem:
I live in one of the most beautiful places on earth, so I can't really say... ooh wait I know, the earth from Flight Sim X! It was awesome!

When I first read this I thought "who the hell does he think he is? I'll bet he lives in detroit or something" but Canada... Canada is pretty sweet. I would say Norway looks a bit more beautiful in places though (like the fjords)

The Iron Ninja:

bread golem:
I live in one of the most beautiful places on earth, so I can't really say... ooh wait I know, the earth from Flight Sim X! It was awesome!

When I first read this I thought "who the hell does he think he is? I'll bet he lives in detroit or something" but Canada... Canada is pretty sweet. I would say Norway looks a bit more beautiful in places though (like the fjords)

yes, I do love Fjords, but where I live, I never goes below freezing, and a little over room temerature, and it has all the landscapes on could want!

god of war the titans back

Zeal Kingdom, Undersea Palace, Black Omen. God those places where just gorgeous.

The best location for a game would be in my console.

Best? I dunno, but if I have to look at another game based on a remote tropical island covered in trees and too many effing hills I will go totally bikini atoll on the thing.

Mordavia

Autonomous City Billion from Gungrave. It's a huge metropolis centred around this HUGE building that may or may not be the remains of an alien civilization. The whole city resembles New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Chicago rolled into one, it's a visual feast to look at.

Simon_TR:
Whatever the alternate universe in Thief is called.

Mix of old London and crazy people who can do magic.
Love it, specially how you get to rob people.

Wish they made another one of those:(

The City in Thief.

Good topic. Here are some of my favorites:

Post-apocalyptic USA (Fallout)
Silent Hill
The world in GTA: San Andreas. So many fun spots to find and do crazy stunts in. GTA IV is more urban, right? Haven't played it.
The planet in Albion (ye olde medieval england + tropic alien world)
the year 12.000 BC (Zeal) in Chrono Trigger
Tarant in Arcanum (imagine that in full gorgeous 3D... holy crap!)
The Cradle from Thief 3 (*whimper*)
The ghost ship from Thief 3
Vvardenfell - particularly Telvanni settlements
The Ocean House Hotel (Vampire: Bloodlines)
Silvermoon City in WoW. Just beautifully done.
PoP: Sands of time - all of it! But the outdoors garden-like areas in particular.
Another vote for Isle Delphino. Those sunsets brought a tear to my eye.
Elona and Cantha from Guild Wars

And of course, Monkey Island!

No particular order here, just top 5 as they come to mind.

1: Rapture. (Bioshock)
2: Elona. (Guild Wars: Nightfall)
3: Jerusalem. (Assassin's Creed)
4: Albion. (Fable)
5: Wherever Lost Odyssey was set...

poleboy:

The Cradle from Thief 3 (*whimper*)
The ghost ship from Thief 3

You liked those?!? They scared the crap out of me, the whimpering and sneaking around mental patients scared the living crap out of me. Almost had a heart attack when one of the patients attacked me from behind...then got back up. *shudder*

Shadow Moses from MGS4 because I was immediately overwhelmed by nostalgia and I began exploring everything in sight.

Teldrassil from World of Warcraft. Even though I don't like WoW, I do love the Warcraft story line and when I saw my brother running around Darnassus and the forests around it, I was almost sucked in.

TCS Concordia from Wing Commander II. This is old school but man I used to love wandering around that ship. Watching people work in the fighter bays, talking to fellow pilots in the rec room, and just knowing that I was a crew member of the best ship in the Confederation fleet was such an awesome experience.

Reaperman Wompa:

poleboy:

The Cradle from Thief 3 (*whimper*)
The ghost ship from Thief 3

You liked those?!? They scared the crap out of me, the whimpering and sneaking around mental patients scared the living crap out of me. Almost had a heart attack when one of the patients attacked me from behind...then got back up. *shudder*

That's why I liked them! They were well done. The Ocean House Hotel is much much worse though... I get so freaked by that place because I watched the Shining as a kid and it scared me so much. And the OHH is basically just the Shining hotel with ghosts. Someone made a great post about it here once, how stupid it is to be scared there because you're a half-immortal vampire with superpowers but still, you go: "Shit... there's a vase there.. why is it just standing there? Is it going to fly at me!? Oh God, I'm fucked!" :D

Good times.