I was recently discussing Farcry 2 with some friends and how cool the fire spread system was - And how it essentially was never used again after that title.
Is there a cool feature or mechanic you’ve seen in a game and hope to see more of?
Fun fact: some mechanics never came back cause they got copyrighted and the studio with the copyright went “no, we’re not doing that kind of game anymore” and as soon as anyone goes “okay, can we try?” they sue them into oblivion for copyright infringement
You mean patent. You don’t choose to copyright things or not, all media is inherently copyrighted. This comment is technically copyrighted once I hit send. It sounds like your referring to Shadow of Mordor’s/War’s Nemesis system being patented.
Potato Pohtato
Copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and patent infringement are all very different.
Cool, but the difference doesn’t matter for this context, the result is the same
The difference does matter. Two copyrighted games can have similar mechanics. Just look at literally any pair of games in the same genre. First person shooting isn’t patented, so anybody can make an FPS game. They patented the nemesis system. Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War are copyrighted.
Cool. The result is the same.
To put it simply. I do not care
It’s a common misconception. It’s not a big deal. Why are you being so defensive about me correcting it?
Did you know Shadows of Mordor copyrighted the Nemesis System and then proceeded to never use it in any other games ever again despite people calling out for it?
That’s one I’d like to see
Patented, not copyrighted, but I think you double posted.
deleted by creator
Nah, they’re different comments
Tf2 nemesis System in pvp shooters
Trade Runs from silkroad online.
Nemesis system. But
WankerWarner Bros tossed a patent on it and no one else could use it.The nemesis system patents and Namco’s loading screen mini game patent are two examples of why game mechanics and features should never be granted an exclusive patent.
Of course Namco’s patents expired in 2015 at a time when seamless load screens had become the industry standard.
Who knows what the gaming landscape will look like when people are finally able to get their hands on the nemesis system again?
What’s that?
There’s plenty of better deep dives on YouTube, but basically it’s a system in Shadows of Mordor (and moreso in Shadows of War) that would take a random NPC you were fighting and were joined by (or almost killed,) and elevate them thematically. If one knocked you down there’s a chance they would pick up your sword and break it, smack talk you, and walk away. That guy, of his name was Doug, became Doug the Sword Breaker. Never time you saw him, he’d get a short introduction and a quip or two to remove you of who he was.
If you died, since you were a spirit they’d just mock that they already best you before. But if you were killing them, they might get a scene where they manage to get away to amplify the story. Or maybe you’ll just kill them. It was random and happened with random NPCs, elevating them in the enemy army.
I believe in the second one you could even mind control someone, and take out the people above them, and have a spy in the upper ranks.
Imagine an action game with some Crusader Kings plot drama happening.
Honestly I think there’s probably enough prior art to get away with using whatever you wanted from it. But a) I’m no lawyer and b) I’m not risking millions of dollars making a game.
Basically a pseudo random system that’d generate orcs for you to meet-fight-recruit they’d have very fleshed out intros
I’m currently enjoying a Skyrim playthrough that uses the Nemesis mod. It doesn’t have ALL of the features that the shadow series does of course, but I’m really enjoying it!
Link to the mod?
Ooh, I started a new VR playthrough recently, without a concrete plan (well, beyond joining the Brotherhood, because Music of Life by Young Scrolls is amazing).
This looks like it could spice things up!
It didn’t really take off to begin with but dual screen support like Supreme Commander had with the real-time map overview on the 2nd monitor. It could be a skirmish map or live track map for a racing game, live scoreboard, player status or inventory system.
I think you’re describing the Nintendo DS.
Yeah I guess I am. Just give it to us in a bigger form.
Oh, you mean the WiiU?
Yeah I guess I am. Just give it to us in a bigger form…
Oh you mean a Jumbotron?
I would love if Civilization or Crusader Kings implemented this.
Racing sims typically support telemetry that can be used to display info for the driver or overall race info. E.g. a dashboard on a phone mounted to the wheel stand, or a realtime online display and timing. People even make devices like wind simulator or ass-shaker for immersion.
Check out SimHub for customizable widget software that supports many games.
Yeah I do all that myself with ETS2 but wanted to give another example.
Actually, when I played ‘OpenTTD’, i.e. the remake of ‘Transport Tycoon’, I wanted the game to broadcast telemetry of my enterprise’s economy, so I could dump it into a spreadsheet and gawk at the numbers. This indeed could’ve also been a second-monitor activity (or rather, second computer since I played on a tablet).
Wasn’t there a game 5 years or so ago that you used your phone to play it as well I’m xbox or playstat?
Fun unlockables by doing some cheat.
Imagine telling a FIFA player that you used to be able to have a dog as referee by doing the Konami code. And it was not behind a fucking paywall.
International Super Star Soccer for SNES had this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYaHPm-yDl8&t=63
Dude I miss unlocking fighting game characters. Now they’re all purchaseable… Like you literally can’t just earn them from beating the arcade mode - that is if the game has an arcade mode to begin with these days
I think the last game I played that did it was Smash Bros Ultimate, and that’s barely a fighting game imo
It’s a platform fighter.
I miss cheats too, I remember my friend at school had cheat codes for gta vice city and I copied them down and took it home.
The number of “cheat codes” that were actually just bonus content. Like I remember there were codes in Diddy Kong Racing where you could change all the power-up balloons to any color, like all red or all blue. I also remember there were codes in Mechwarrior II that unlocked a few mechs. Like, there were NPCs in a few missions that were a Tarantula, a Battlemaster, and there were elementals in one level. You could cheat to play as them, but the Battlemaster crashed the game.
Good times.
Split screen coop/multiplayer
Way too many games only let you do multiplayer with one player and have online only coop campaigns
Used to be pretty standard that a guest could play with you online
The thing new games don’t have that I miss from old games is friends to play the game with 😭
I want to see puzzles that are implemented using the physics engine. And I don’t mean “toss the axe in the proper arc to trigger the gate” physics. I mean “stack the bricks on one end of the seesaw to balance it long enough to make the jump to the next platform”. Or “use the blue barrels’ buoyancy to raise the platform out of the water”.
Yesss and more destruction physics. I miss watching cars crumple and get torn apart like in the burnout games. There was a really old ww2 dogfighting game where the plane wings could get sawn off and you’d see this smoking plane spiralling into the ground while the wing flew off in the opposite direction before the plane exploded on the ground.
Red Faction was great for that. You could go around, sure. Or just bust through the damn wall.
Check out Wreckfest. It’s mostly basically rallycross with plenty of damage. The physics is better than in Burnout, afaik. The sequel game was just recently either released or announced.
Ohh I totally forgot about that one, thanks!
I think those were mind blowing when I first played hl2, just because real time physics and destruction was novel, but now I think they grind the pacing to a halt. I think they just don’t work in an action shooter IMO.
My opinion is the exact opposite. Narrative games, even action shooters, need to have high action and low action parts in balance. If high action segments are excessive, it can lead to combat fatigue. If low action parts are excessive, the player gets bored and the pacing dies.
Half-Life 2 E1, the “Low Lives” chapter, has probably the most stressful combat in the game because the player has to balance so many things. Shooting the zombies attacking Gordon versus helping Alyx fight. Helping Alyx versus keeping the flashlight charged. Firearms versus explosive props. All of that in oppressive darkness. Combat fatigue sets in. The short puzzle segments, even as simple as crawling through a vent to flip a switch, are opportunities to take a breath, absorb the environment, and prepare for the next segment – especially at the end of that particular chapter, when the player escapes the zombies and has a chance to wind down.
At the same time, puzzles, by their slower nature, are excellent for delivering narrative and player training, and to let the player absorb the atmosphere. Alyx’s first encounter with the stalkers in “Undue Alarm” wouldn’t have had the same emotional impact if the player could just pop them in the head and move on.
In contrast, most of “Highway 17” is just a prolonged vehicle-based puzzle. By the time the player reaches the large railway bridge, they might be sick of driving. I know I was. It’s a relief to finally engage in some platforming and long-range combat while traversing the bridge.
So what are the narrative values of my two examples? The cinderblock seesaw in “Route Kanal” is just player training. A show, don’t tell method to let the player know that physics puzzles will be a factor. It’s also a short break after the on-foot chase, before the encounter with the hunter chopper. In “Water Hazard”, the contraptions serve a larger narrative purpose: they’re the tools of the rebels’ refugee evacuation effort. The player utilizes them like one of the refugees would have.
The best bits of the Half-Life games are the more slow parts. Just taking in the environmental storytelling, solving simple puzzles, etc. Helps to make the more action sequences feel more impactful and intense.
When I was replaying ‘HL2’ around ten years ago, I ran around the whole map looking for where I can get outside of the plot course, especially in the slower parts of the levels. This culminated in me driving the hoverboat up a three-meter-high wooden platform, falling from that platform myself, and not being able to climb up again to get the boat. After which I had to run from the attack helicopter on foot, and swim by myself later on that level.
I use about the same approach in the original ‘Deus Ex’, which I’ve been replaying recently: investigating every nook and cranny, being 100% stealthy, trying to go where the game shouldn’t allow me to be. I actually found an exit from a scripted part of a level where only one path is normally possible — though there was nothing to do outside of that part. The game also gives experience points for getting into some remote or secret places.
A grapple hook
dying light (1, 2, the beast)
Just cause 2 with infinite distance grapple hook and chuck Norris character model. Too fun
there’s a grappling hook in ARC Raiders (called the snap hook) and I have one but have never bothered using it. I should change that some day.
Palworld has craftable grapple guns that make for easier exploring… Unless you prefer your fire-breathing flying mount.
The grappling hook was a common mod in the original QuakeWorld scene and was included in the official Quake II CTF game mod. I’m surprised it didn’t become a mainstay in games afterwards, it was so fun to use. Shogo: Mobile Armor Division had it built in and was one of the most fun FPS games I had ever played until cheaters took over.
Sekiro
I played on a Half Life (the first one) deathmatch server that had a grappling hook mod. It was awesome.
Just cause 2 with infinite distance grapple hook and chuck Norris character model. Too fun
Mods and self hosted servers
This seems fairly common among the survival games genre.
mind sharing a few titles?
I stopped looking into much new stuff beyond word of mouth, last I played was Neither, I think, and it was very disappointing that that didn’t go anywhere. neat that you can still run a server, though
V-Rising, Valheim, No Man’s Sky, Palworld, Enshrouded, Conan Exiles.
Minecraft is probably the quintessential survival game and has a significant modding community.
Minecraft is one of the only constants in my life lol
Destructible buildings like in Red Faction: Guerilla.
That’s the thing I miss the most. We have such insanely powerful hardware now and yet we never exceeded 2009 in destruction tech.
Teardown scratched that itch a little bit but it lacks proper building physics.
Arcade racers that aren’t just… Bad.
Burnout Revenge was a beloved game of my childhood. You had bonuses from wrecking your foes, got bonuses for creating wrecks, and for near death experiences. And there was an awesome mode where you would launch your car into a scene to cause as much damage as possible.
Midnight Club 2 where you could customize your cars and race them on fun tracks, but could also just beep around the open world.
Maybe it’s nostalgia, but I would love a fun racing game that doesn’t have a GTA attached to it.
This is literally why people spend $500 on a switch 2; it has the only arcade racer on the market worth playing. If you don’t want a single-game console or Mark Kart isn’t whst you’re looking for, tough luck.
SuperTuxKart is alright, from what I understand. They’re also making a new version apparently. Though I’m not into karting arcades, so dunno for sure how it compares.
Check out Trail Out.
Try ‘Wreckfest’: it’s similar to ‘Burnout’, but with better physics. Also ‘Circuit Superstars’ for a top-down racer with decent physics, pit stops, and multiplayer.
There are also ‘The Crew 2’ and ‘The Crew Motorfest’, ‘Tokyo Xtreme Racer’, ‘Asphalt Legends’, ‘Formula Legends’, ‘iRacing Arcade’, and of course ‘Forza Horizon’ 4/5 — but I haven’t played any of these, so ymmv.
I was recently discussing Farcry 2 with some friends and how cool the fire spread system was - And how it essentially was never used again after that title.
In case you didn’t know, Zelda Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have a very similar fire spread system.
Oh that’s true, I did forget about that one.
Future far cry titles did also have the same fire spreading system, just toned down since they’re not set in very dry places.
It was toned down in FC2 too, because otherwise the whole map burnt down completely all the time.
What is said fire spread system?
When a fire breaks out on grass, it spreads like it would in real life. In FC2 you could watch a small flame spread and become an inferno. It was awesome. Games don’t have anything like that these days.
It’s 2D, but the fire mechanic is pretty fun - Wildfire
Mechanics from the Mercenaries series. Destructible buildings, getting weapons and vehicles dropped to you anywhere at any time. Being able to ally with different factions. Oh, and the ability to call in airstrikes. Bunker busters, cluster bombs, artillery barrages, etc. Just Cause and Metal Gear Solid V are the closest things to that. But they just aren’t the same.
And the ability to just fly like Superman. I’d like that in more games.
whyd you write my comment for me
I want to see more modular building for vehicles and bases and fun traversal options. So many open world walking sims, it gets old. Or fun mounts that are more than just faster walking. (Rdr horses but fantasy beasts that ride differently)
No one brings planes into sht, why don’t mmos have magic planes, idk if seeing it in random anime as a kid changed my expectations but we should have ww2 magic based planes. Bothers me so much that fantasy societies are supposedly so smart, have such advanced magic, but couldn’t come up with magic cars. Like suspension, engines, etc. are just too complicated for them.
they’re just a really nice person
