Games

I'm going to give you an evil answer and say Final Fantasy X. Are you ready to dodge 200 lightning bolts?

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.

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.

https://youtu.be/pOaioqq8J6o?t=3377&si=h09hTh8mmTbDb-bo

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.

Stalker ~ Stalker gamma but those storms are a little more than a thunderstorm..

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.

Witcher 3 and Skyrim are pretty good. RDR2 is great, particularly because you can see it coming.

In Valheim it was quite real and comfy at the same time. Weird I know.

I feel like I'm biased and it's my answer for everything, but RDR2. No other game environment has come close, for me. Screenshot from one moody moment I captured:

A Link to the Past was the first thing to come to mind. Of course many games since have done storms much better, but that one had the biggest impact on me personally. The jump from 8 to 16 bits was a hell of a thing!

I think that "best" is open to various interpretations.

The most-emotionally-impactful in the context of the game?

The most-graphically-impressive?

The best-integrated with the game?

I often don't try and play the latest-and-greatest games, and while I'm sure that I've played games with thunderstorms in them, I can't immediately recall any recent first-person 3D games...and I've kind of shifted way from FPSes in recent years. Probably the newest 3D game that I can immediately recall playing that I distinctly recall having thunderstorms -- though I think that they were rain is modded Fallout 4; I was using one of the weather mods.

I think it was one of:

• Natural and Atmospheric Commonwealth

• True Storms

There are radstorms that impact gameplay by dosing the player with radiation, and I suppose could be considered to a different form of thunderstorm. These are separate from normal storms. Fallout 76 also has radstorms, but they are less-frequent and far-less-damaging than in (modded, don't recall base game) Fallout 4.

I guess that that'd probably be the most-graphically-impressive that I personally can recall off-the-cuff. I'm sure that there must be some newer, fancier thunderstorms out there.

For impact...I can't recall for certain whether-or-not there was actual thunder and lighting other than in cutscenes, though there's certainly rain.. But The Saboteur is an Assassin's Creed-style game (I understand; I've never played more than a very small amount of those games) set in World War II Paris. The areas that are occupied by Nazi forces are mostly black and white, with a small amount of color, mostly red, and at least some of the time, it's raining. The areas where forces have been pushed back look kind of like spring. I think that it added to the game's atmosphere a lot.

Sailing games like black flag, valheim, and sea of thieves had pretty fun weather iirc

Best chill weather: FFXIV

Turn off the music and sit in a zone listening to the rain and thunder while talking to friends. A+.

This game has excellent ambient sounds. I turn the music off often and just listen. Sometimes it's fun to just wander or find a little nook to craft in nature.

Super Metroid.

Surface of Crateria has a thunderstorm for the entire length of the game.

@games Battlefield Bad Company 2 has a sniping mission in a thunderstorm. You use the thunder to hide your shots and that one was memorable to me.

And I think Far Cry 3 or Blood Dragon had thunderstorms somewhere? But of that i'm not sure anymore

Though they're a mix of sandstorm/thunderstorm (like in the movie), the Mad Max game from Avalanche.

As much as the rest of the game is an exercise in tedium and complete disrespect of the player's time and intelligence, the thunderstorm event in Spiritfarer is pretty rad, and definitely one of its high points.

At least the first time. The charm wears off after the 9th or 10th time you do it just because you need to grind for the one material you can get from it, and only from it.

Sea of Thieves overall best. Hunt: Showdown a close second

Thunderstorms in Baldur's Gate (the old ones) could outright kill you. Scary stuff.

For atmosphere, I was floored by Kingdom Come: Deliverance's storms. They really did a good job of capturing the deep rumble of an approaching storm out on the plains.

I swear I've come across an indie game that had great thunderstorms, but I can't remember what it was for the life of me.

That said, imo The Sims as a series has had good thunderstorms. Being outside can result in your Sim being hit by lightning, and iirc there are things that'll increase the chance of getting hit, like being wet, being in a pool, holding an umbrella, etc. I'm not sure which game has the best thunderstorms though.

VRchat has some worlds with really good ambience, and typically they include rain and/or thunderstorms to some extent. You don't actually need VR, you can play VRC on a normal monitor.

I've just realized that one of the things that Risk of Rain 2 is missing, is a persistent thunderstorm that gets stronger as the difficulty gets higher, lowering your visibility over time.

Mafia's "A Trip to the Country" mission has to be up there for best thunderstorm. The atmosphere in the Remake was even better.