Immersion in video games

It's not nostalgia for me but I can understand that response. I would agree with you that sound is a big part. I find games with ambient sounds and space between the big set piece melodies really works for me. Breath of the Wild is a good example. If you were to recommend one super immersive modern game what would you pick?

The time jump in Half-Life 2 killed the immersion for me. I don't think I even finished it

Sound is really important for immersion; your imagination can fill in the gaps if graphics aren't the best but bad sound is just bad. It's why games like the original Thief games and System Shock 2 are still so good

Hi mate
Very subjective depending on genre. If you are going to pin me down, maybe EGttR. I am a child of the eighties (born in 72 and in Hampshire) so I can totally identify with the fear (for us it was Nuclear war being mentioned every day almost!) of loss, isolation and the world that TCR created. "my" BMX was even in it,  also that soundtrack by Jessica Curry is amazing.

thats a game I've been meaning to get around to. It's also reminded me that What Remains of Edith Finch would be a more modern pick for me.

I remember thinking "The Way" was pretty good if only the game underneath wasn't so maddening.

I think the harder a world tries to be realistic, the easier it is for it to break my immersion.

If I look at a sky box, or a vista, and feel like I'm box, then it really breaks the illusion.

I like worlds that establish their own sense of place and their own rules, and feel lived in. It also helps if their geography and layout makes sense, so Hollow Knight works for me, as the connections between location work. Equally, the world felt lived in, even though it is a city destroyed, with infrastructure and things the people - bugs - would have used in their day-to-day lives.

The SoulsBourne games are the same, they are clearly fantastical, but how the connect between areas and the sense of world and geography work really well. Ofc, the lore and world building through environmental storytelling or items helps too!

Games like the Division 1, which looked great at a glance were broken for me with doors placed on external walls that clearly didn't go anywhere and wouldn't be used.

The only time that the Souls games almost broke the rule for me, was revisiting Anor Londo in DS3. I get the fan service angle, but DS1s world didn't fit with the wider geography hinted at in the series, with the new link to DS3.

Anyway, tl;Dr if a world breaks its own rules or if I can see past the illusion of being in a massive world, then it breaks immersion and I find it very hard to push through it.

Yep, VR currently can't match the detail and resolutions of standard gaming but even on my psvr with a basic look g game like ultra wings, the sense of immersion is way higher than the most detailed non VR game to me.
The sense of scale, depth, height and feeling of actually being in the game world simply can't be replicated on a flat screen no matter how good graphics become.

From Software games as well, whatever they do with sound design is voodoo, sense of place and melancholy it induces in me is palpable (or it might just be I died on a boss for the 50th time)

The Zone is probably a good way to put it. AA's was a good example, Bethesda's games get you in that Zone, or did anyway.

Football Manager is that game for me, its basically a spreadsheet but I have lost years of my life in that zone.

I think this sums it up perfectly for me too

The original Deus Ex.

realistic graphics are definitely not important to immersion. Nor is realism necessarily a detriment to immersion.

But whether or not it's aiming for realism, I think the art direction is more important.

It's easier for "realistic" games to do break that immersion. NPCs or whatever getting caught on walls and scenery, or bugs here and there can pull you out of the moment very easily. The closer to realism a game is, the easier it becomes for those kind of bugs to really become noticeable.

*actually* there are a handful of games where I find less realistic graphics more immersive. If I think back to older RPGS, for example, the SNES and PS1 Final Fantasy games. I'm thinking text dialogue rather than fully voiced; vague animations used to imply characters are doing stuff rather than being able to explicitly see what they're doing; exaggerated poses to convey key emotions of characters rather than facial animations.

I think those approaches actually draw me in as I'm having to engage my imagination to fill the gaps that the technological restraints created. Because I'm having to use my imagination I sometimes feel closer to what's going on.

or maybe it's just because I grew up in that era.

I've found it harder to get immersed since the days where every bit of dialogue has to be voice acted. It should be the opposite, but I find there's a lot of "George, you can write this shit, but you can't say it" stuff going on. So when NPCs say stuff out aloud, it sounds really fucking dumb, with only a few exceptions. Witcher 3, basically, or maybe Mass Effect.

Which doesn't have much to do with graphics, but hey ho. Immersion is a tricksy thing.

You don't speak for all female blacksmiths pal