Freelancer's the one that pushes my nostalgia buttons, stripped down as the final product ended up being. Probably because it's the only real space sim I've ever played. I remember hearing the female Shepard's voice in Mass Effect the first time and going, "Holy shit, it's Juni!". I'd say the first chunk of the plot…
I submit Ankh Morpork. A city made up almost entirely of bad neighborhoods, with a river running through it that's so dirty and polluted "even an agnostic could walk across it".
World of The Witcher is quite gritty. Wars, treasons, battlefields, monsters, racism, spies. And what do we know about the future? Well, there's a prophecy:
"Verily I say unto you, the era of the sword and axe is nigh, the era of the wolf's blizzard. The Time of the White Chill and the White Light is nigh, the Time of…
I certainly agree with a lot of choices made, but this is the one that first came to mind for me.
It's an obvious choice but The World of ASoFaI deserves to be here...but mine is:
I mean, it was like the anti-Trek.
Under the smooth surface of the Terran Federation, it was a Orwellian nightmare that almost made THX look like a utopia. And the show's whole premise was showing us it's teeth.
It's a no brainer that Farscape is my favorite. There was a lot of amazing madness going on during its run (and very little of it was pristine).
I would always have voted for Mega City One for multiple reasons, but I think I'll let Karl Urban sell what an unyeilding shithole it really is.
and Gotham of course
Diary of Ray Muzkya: The locals really like games. I have agreed to have some more flown in and hooked up to portable generator.
Ruiner of everyone's lives!
Does this count? I think it should count.