Ever feel like you’re trapped in an endless routine, bogged down with too many responsibilities and no way to break free? Who am I kidding, that’s reality for most of us. You’re standing in the train in the peak hour crowd, trying to hold on for dear life and uncomfortably squashed on all sides, wishing you could head straight to the airport and get tickets for the first plane out of the country. Your heart says yes, but your bank account says you should probably just eat bread for dinner tonight until the next payday. Within the triangle of ‘Time, Money, and Energy‘, chances are you’re lacking at least one of them, so you’ll just have to live with that travel-sized hole in your heart for now.

BUT WAIT! If you’ve got a PlayStation or Xbox console, you can still get your wanderlust fix through some downright incredible video games. And with all the Black Friday and year-end holiday sales descending upon us, you can probably score some sweet deals on the following games. Of course, they’re no replacement for really getting out there and traveling, but these video games do a pretty great job of temporarily satisfying your wanderlust at a much lower price point.

1. Red Dead Redemption 2

We are in the golden era of video games, and Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2), with its incredible attention to detail and dynamic, realistic world, proves that beyond a shred of doubt. Released in late October, Rockstar’s much-anticipated RDR2 has already made a name for itself with multiple 10/10 reviews and is well on track to be 2018’s Game Of The Year. Like the most iconic, immersive games the world has seen so far, RDR2 satisfies that wanderlust you never knew you had – not just for another place, but another time.

I jumped straight into the boots of the outlaw Arthur Morgan in the Wild West of America and was hooked for days on end, unwilling to stop until I finished the main storyline. RDR2 shines most when you take the time to slow down and appreciate the little things. It’s true that the controls are a little clunky, that looting a house feels like he’s panning for gold, and that Arthur’s walking speed while in the camp is so excruciatingly slow that chores like moving a bale of hay from one point to the other truly feel like chores. But admittedly, all that adds to the unparalleled immersion of the world.

With a good horse, you can make the long journey across the country and experience the full spectrum of different climates and settings that RDR2 has to offer, stopping to set up camp wherever you like. Up north, in The Grizzlies, a thick blanket of snow covers the ground and the scenic, rocky mountains, and you almost feel the cold through the screen. A massive waterfall awaits at Cumberland Falls, and wild rabbits run recklessly across your path. Down in the swampy Bayou Nwa region, a thick mist covers the muddy land, concealing its secrets. RDR2 gives you the freedom to traverse the Great Outdoors without having to step out of your living room.

More so than any other game, the world of RDR2 is one where NPCs feel like real people. I’ve spent hours in camp sitting by the campfire just listening to the stories of the various van der Linde gang members, singing along to songs, and striking up conversations with everyone. Over time, those interactions develop into feelings of warmth and appreciation (Lenny, Hosea, Sean, little Jack, just to name a few great companions) or anger and annoyance (here’s looking at you, Micah Bell) that add layers of depth to RDR2’s narrative. And so your travels in RDR2 need not always be lonely, for you can always return to camp to be with the gang.

Even now that I’ve completed the main campaign and I’m at 89% total completion (So. Close.), there’s still so much to do, it really almost feels like you’re traveling in the Wild West. I still come across strangers in need of help, and those who try to help themselves to my money. As someone who’s horrible at card games, I’ve discovered that I enjoy playing poker and blackjack in saloons without potentially losing all my savings. I’ve still got plenty of exotic plants to pick and animals to hunt. With a game as immersive and expansive as RDR2, it’s not hard to get your wanderlust fix, though you might eventually end up with an even stronger desire to travel.

Played on: PS4

2. Uncharted Series

Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series is legendary, and definitely one of my favorite video game series. Plaster the ‘Uncharted’ brand on any future releases and you have my money. Treasure hunting in beautiful locations that most of us will probably never get to visit in real life never gets old, and Nathan Drake is a great, witty protagonist to play with.

Each game brings you to a multitude of locations, from the Amazon jungle in Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune to the Istanbul Palace Museum and Tibetan village in the Himalayas in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. We’re thrown into the endless, dry golden sands of the Rub’ al Khali Desert in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, and transported to a ruined château surrounded by lush greenery in France in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. The latest installment, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy sees the kickass pair of Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross in search of the ancient Hoysala Empire in India.

Unlike the massive open world of Red Dead Redemption 2, the Uncharted series is highly structured and linear, so it plays like an interactive movie – great if you want a concentrated dose of action-adventure in a shorter amount of time. It’s easy to play and jump into, the controls are smooth and polished, and the interactions between the characters are well scripted.

If I had to pick a favorite, it would probably be Uncharted 4. You get to join an auction in Italy, sneak around the Scottish Highlands, and explore the pirate utopia Libertalia, all with the Drake brothers. Their dynamic works well – Sam always has your back, and Sully is always a reliable addition. With the stunning graphics, this PlayStation exclusive is an undisputed masterpiece.

Played on: PS4

3. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Few games can reach the standard of Polish studio CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (TW3) – jaw-droppingly stunning landscapes, with hundreds of hours of content that somehow always feels fresh. Based on the novels of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, this massive medieval era fantasy world has everything. As the tough, lightning fast Geralt of Rivia with cat-like reflexes, you roam the land with your faithful horse Roach in search of contracts on monsters and your missing adopted daughter, Ciri.

Interestingly, I never thought that I’d love TW3 as much as I do. It seemed too complicated and overwhelming to get into, since I hadn’t played the previous two games in the series. But I bought the GOTY version anyway because of all the great reviews I’d read online. Also, it was on sale. I then proceeded to pour over 100 hours into TW3, though hardcore fans will say that those are rookie numbers, especially compared to this guy who’s apparently logged over 1,800 hours into TW3.

Maybe it’s not that impossible to do. Inspired by parts of Poland, Amsterdam, France, and Scandinavia, the world of Witcher is almost a gateway to medieval Europe in the midst of a war between two empires, with the addition of wraiths, sirens, trolls, vampires, drowners, and the like. It’s mostly beautiful in a gritty, bloody way.

White Orchard is where you meet your first monsters and see Geralt in action for the first time. Velen is a huge and sprawling No Man’s Land, with the exception of the bustling cities of Novigrad and Oxenfurt. You have the bitterly cold Skellige Isles up, filled with smugglers’ caches, where you get to walk around and feel like you’re a Viking. The icing on top is the vibrantly colorful fairytale-like city of Toussaint from the Blood and Wine DLC, with tall, white castles and brick red rooftops against a brilliantly blue sky.

In a game where your actions and choices have real consequences on the world and the story, TW3 is an all-encompassing experience in a league of its own, offering an immersive journey that kind of feels like a mix of a Lord of the Rings and a Game of Thrones game.

Played on: PS4

4. Assassin’s Creed Series

It would be a crime not to include Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series, which now span 15 games and counting. Which other series lets you scale towers and jump across rooftops of different cities and time periods? At the heart of the series is the conflict between the Assassins and Templars, and their contrasting ideologies of free will versus strict control.

The Assassin’s Creed (AC) series was what made me fall in love with console games when I first played it on the Xbox 360 thanks to a friend who gave me Assassin’s Creed II as a gift, and it was my main motivation to get a PS4. While the series has certainly come a long way in terms of graphics, there are hits and misses, and it has evolved into a completely different game than what it started out with.

The Assassin’s Creed Wiki page does a great job of summarising the games and their respective settings. The first game is set during the Third Crusade, with Ezio’s trilogy of AC II, AC Brotherhood, and AC Revolutions in the Italian Renaissance period. AC III and AC Rogue take place during the Colonial era, with AC IV: Black Flag mainly focusing on the Golden Age of Piracy. AC Unity features the French Revolution, and AC Syndicate is set in Victorian London. AC Origins then jumps all the way back in time to Ptolemaic Egypt, with this year’s AC Odyssey taking it further back to the Peloponnesian War.

Having played everything from AC II to AC Origins except AC Rogue, my favorites are AC II and AC Unity. The general consensus online is that AC IV: Black Flag and the more recent AC Origins and AC Odyssey are some of the best games in the series, while AC Unity is the worst due to its technical glitches (which have long been patched), but I think it’s really a matter of personal preference. Most of the AC games take the same formula and place it in a different context, so it depends on which time periods and countries you’re most interested in. It just happens that I’m more excited about traveling to Europe than the equally beautiful settings of Havana or Ancient Egypt.

AC II follows the story of a young Italian boy Ezio Auditore of Florence, who is suddenly thrust into the word of Assassins and Templars, and over the course of his life eventually becomes so skilled that he recruits and leads a brotherhood of fellow assassins in the later games. As Ezio, you get to meet lots of important historical figures, like Machiavelli, and you even get to befriend Leonardo da Vinci!

The cobbled streets of Florence, Venice, San Gimignano, and the countryside of Tuscany are so accurately recreated in the game that just walking around can transport you to Italy. Even with slightly outdated graphics, it’s so good at curing your wanderlust that it’s one of the few AC games I keep going back to. It’s even better if you play the game in Italian, with English subtitles. I loved AC II so much that it not only inspired me to travel to Florence, it also motivated me to start learning Italian.

For that same reason, I loved AC Unity. Set in one of my favorite cities of Paris in 1789, it’s busy and chaotic. The streets are dirty, the people are on the brink of revolution, and a soft golden light falls over the city. You get to jump from rooftop to rooftop, scale cathedrals, roam the catacombs, check out the Louvre and the Bastille, the Notre Dame Cathedral, and so much more. It’s a beautiful world that Ubisoft has created, with so much history; a world that does so much justice to the real Paris that it’s easy to recognize the landmarks if you’ve been there in real life (some comparisons here). It’s a real shame that this game doesn’t get more credit.

5. Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition

Square Enix and United Front Games’ Sleeping Dogs is a lot less famous than the other games on this list, and this underrated open world game set in Hong Kong deserves so much more credit. Sleeping Dogs is a story about an undercover cop, Wei Shen, who joins the Sun On Yee gang to take the Hong Kong triads down from the inside.

If you’ve ever wished you could go to Hong Kong, this is the game for you. While it’s not without its share of problems (I disliked the melee combat system), Sleeping Dogs really shines with its reproduction of Hong Kong.

My fondest memory of Hong Kong from my last visit years ago was walking through the night market at Mongkok, weaving past the grid of stores and looking upwards to take in all the neon lights. It was late at night, but Hong Kong was alive and buzzing with energy under all the lights.

Sleeping Dogs does a pretty good job of recreating that atmosphere, with the pork bun vendor yelling out bits of wisdom like “a man who never eats pork buns is never a whole man!” The voice acting is also excellent, making it quite funny when pedestrians and other drivers shout and curse at you in Cantonese because of your terrible driving. To top it off, you even get to visit Victoria Peak!

It seems that games set in Asian cities are pretty rare, and I really wish we could get more games in different Asian locations. There’s the Yakuza series set in Japan, which I haven’t played yet and so can’t comment on, but there’s so much more room to explore, and I hope more game developers create stories featuring Asian locations.

Played on: PS4

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In any case, these are five of the most beautiful games for a quick wanderlust fix. Be warned though, you might end up with an even stronger desire to travel after finishing these beautiful games!

Do you have any other immersive console games to recommend? Leave a comment below!

If you’ve already played these games, how about reading some travel stories to satisfy your wanderlust instead? Why not start with Budapest, Hungary: Fresh Perspectives and Childlike Wonder or Stranded in Japan: The Long Walk Back?