Best PC game GUI

Kadayi

Kadayi

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I'm doing a little research for a personal project regarding GUIs in 3rd and 1st person games RPG/FPS and I'm curious as to what PC game interfaces people have been impressed with. Personally blasphemous as it may seem I quite liked the interface in DX:IW, though unfortunately the game itself left a great deal to be desired. Still thoughts, opinions appreciated.

Kadayi
 
Doom's picture of the character was pretty awesome, I think that should be pretty high.
 
i think HL2's HUD was best... especially the crosshair HUD....

Halo 3's hud looks to be pretty good too(from what i've seen in videos)
 
WoW with all the raid addons. It's like reading a ****ing spreadsheet with a live stream of data.
 
I don't tihnk I've ever played a game and was like "Wow, this is some sweet GUI". I kind of like Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes. Metroid Prime is alright.
 
System Shock 2 has an awesome GUI, at least i always thought so. It might also be worth checking out games that provide multiple gui layouts, like Supreme Commander. SC has layouts ranging from the overly intricate that they take up almost have the screen, to incredibly simple.

There's always the alternative of having no GUI if its a straight up FPS. King Kong did this really well and just had the protagonist count how much ammo he had out loud so if you weren't glancing at numbers all the time. Halo's Assault Rifle has a counter on its gun that stands out really well. Same with Escape From Butcher Bay's Assault Rifle.

I hate HL2's gui layout. Too generic. Halo 3 looks to have a pretty good one, but i haven't played it yet.

The style your going for really depends on the type of game you want to make, obviously.
 
I think you only notice GUI's if they are bad - otherwise they are simply doing their job. Although I always liked how clean HL2's HUD is - for example when Suit power drops to zero the suit power HUD disappears rather than taking up space.
 
Vegeta897 said:
Tons of data =/= a sweet gui.
Click to expand...

that's the beauty of it, you can organize or download any type of addon so you could have a minimalist ui with only health/group bars or have every single battle statistic you could think of organized in pie charts and line graphs. They wrote the entire interface in LUA so it opened up the community to create infinite features/addons.
 
Metroid Prime. Seriously, the GUI, combined with the visor effects, made it SO immersive.

EDIT: shit, didn't notice the PC part... in that case, I dunno.
 
I actually love the system Doom 3 uses, where you use your finger on the actual screens you encounter and operate a PDA for all the menu/story elements. This way it doesn't feel entirely out of place when you pause the game or use some kind of context menu.
 
System Shock 2 - elegant and tied into the game's story (R-Grade military implant with goggles grafted over your eyes that provide the HUD).

Gothic II - simple, elegant and easy to use.

Operation Flashpoint - doesn't detract from the game, provides all the necessary information in a minimal form, with maximum communicativity.

Half-Life 2 - masterpiece of FPS HUDs.

Fallout - stylised, but overall communicative and easy to use.

Beyond Good & Evil - fits in with the aesthetic, appears only when necessary and automatically provides hotkeys should you need them.

Deus Ex - all the necessary information in an elegant, aesthetically coherent way. Plus, it really looks like a PDA.
 
I have to go with good ol' Half-Life 2 and company.

And Deus Ex 2 interface was absolutely horrible... it was made for consoles and was extremely awkward with a mouse.
 
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem - It (and everything else in the game) will mess with your head.
F.E.A.R - Minimal, but elegant.
the Lego Star Wars series - Very well designed GUI in traditional arcade style.
Okami - Fairly traditional for an action/adventure, but many small innovations. And of course the brush interface is awesome, if you include that.
Deus Ex - I agree with what's been mentioned. That game has a lot of data to show you, and the GUI handles it well.
 
I agree with Nightshade and Ryuken, Metroid has an awesome HUD. It was worked well into the game.
 
Cool. A few games I've not played so will investigate. Thank you for your feedback, much appreciated.

Kadayi
 
On the flipside of the coin, checkout Ico for an example of a game that works brilliantly without any kind of HUD at all.
 
dekstar said:
I agree with Nightshade and Ryuken, Metroid has an awesome HUD. It was worked well into the game.
Click to expand...

Yeah i totally forgot about Metroid's HUD, and the fact that for its time it was pretty much the only game that's HUD had an actual reason or purpose in the games world, you know what i mean?
 
Sparta said:
Yeah i totally forgot about Metroid's HUD, and the fact that for its time it was pretty much the only game that's HUD had an actual reason or purpose in the games world, you know what i mean?
Click to expand...
Yeah I can't think of another game where the HUD was based in the game world, and could be interacted with.
 
The new Halo HUD is quite nice, with all the icons stretched to give the effect of the visor and all. Theres a nice gridding/mapping effect that flashes over everytime you respawn, too, which is quite cool.

I like HL2's because it's so minimal and basic, telling you everything you need to know there and then without being an eyesore.
 
Half-life's HUD is good, Deus Ex's wasnt that great, Fears was good.

I dont usually bother about the HUD though, unless its in the way. One game that has a perfect HUD though is Rome: Total War. I can navigate through that thing like nothing else. But its a strategy game, so it doesnt count for your list.
 
Deus Ex: Invisible War, Half-Life 2, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2.
 
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