Psychochild has a post up about Knytt Stories (PC), the sucessor of the wonderful Knytt (PC). The latter is an exploration game where you’re required to travel a maze of caves and hills finding pieces for a broken spaceship — but wait, wait, that’s not the point. The music is beautiful, the gameplay is simple and fun, and the whole design is very interesing. The former is a whole game engine including a level editor and friendly installation procedure — anyone can design their own stories and share them online. Very cool stuff.
I love games with a strong exploration side. Myst (PC), Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) and even Freelancer (PC) were great in that aspect — one could dally as much as one wanted, travelling about, seeing sights and listening to the birds and the wind (well, not in Freelancer, of course — in space no one can hear you… never mind). I remember playing Starcraft II (Amiga) in the old days and marvelling at the number of planets and things I could find. Oblivion (PC) shows that nowadays we can still have exploration gameplay as when we played Drakken (Amiga).