Coolest effect in a game...

A2597

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We've all had them, those moments that just make you pause and go "wow".
(usually just before your hacked apart and have to restart...)

For me:

NFS:U - The blur effect that starts at about 100mph, and gets better the faster you go...sweeeeet.

COD: I really hated the demo, but when a grenade went off right next to me, the audio effect made the download worth it. Really awesome.

Wheel of Time: the first unreal powered game I played, It was dark and stormy, I was outside hunting trollocs...I rounded a corner and CRACK-BOOM, an insanely loud thunder, with lightning that illuminated the dead city of shadar logoth...left me speechless, and then the "Oh shoot, I gotta go in there..."

Unreal 2: The story needed work, but you have to admit, the flame thrower, incindaray shotgun, and incinderary grenades = WOW.

XIII: Using the crossbow, and having the three cartoon panels showing how it hit...
 
:naughty: I like the physics in FarCry and in Max Payne 2. Rainbow Six 3: Ravenshield and it's flashbang effects, it actually blinds you and screeches like it's real.
 
The first time Mario jumped through a painting in Mario 64. Magical :)

A close runner up was using the Cannon Bros. in Secret of Mana - that was very cool.
 
Warbie said:
The first time Mario jumped through a painting in Mario 64. Magical :)

Dood, how could I forget that! Man...I remember running around the castle, then jumping into an underwater level...SWEEET.
 
The flame effects in Return to Castle Wolfenstein were really nice in it's time. Unreal 2's flame effects as well.

Soldier of Fortune's GHOUL engine.
 
The RTCW flamethrower has to be the prettiest weapon effect yet. Seeing some of the Far Cry vistas were great too. I'm trying like hell to remember my first ragdoll enemy death... rrg dunno.
 
The rain effects in Metal Gear Solid 2 were awesome.

Wolfenstein flame effects

Dynamic lighting is always cool
 
The slatted window in the treehouse pen compound in FarCry. I would have said 'wow', but I was too busy shitting myself and keeping my crosshair trained on the door. All of FarCry was great.
 
Any time a game makes good use of my subwolfer... great effect. :D
 
Oh yeah, the lighting in Doom3 and Riddick. It really goes a long way in making a game look better.
 
Warbie said:
The first time Mario jumped through a painting in Mario 64. Magical :)

A close runner up was using the Cannon Bros. in Secret of Mana - that was very cool.
Cannon travel *Gets all giddy with memories of SoM*
 
That effect in Castlevania IV with the rotating rooms blew me away back when it first came out.
 
Slow-motion in Max Payne, and the lethal hum of the lightsaber in Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight.
 
bullet time is overdone i think. Still cool noetheless.

THE COOLEST effect i think in a game would be Specific Hit Location Damage. You've all seen the Doom 3 trailer. When that imp started clawing away at your face the view reeled left and right as you were being pummeled.

Call of Duty did an alright job at it with the head reeling whenever you got shot or the "shell shock" effect after almost getting hit by a motar or tank shell.
 
Colored Lighting - I remember I had Quake 2 before my TNT and there was no colored lighting. Then I bought a TNT, put in my computer and played Quake 2 with colored lighting. It absolutely blew my mind how different it looked.

Dynamic Lighting - Who doesn't love dynamic lights?

Shaders - Love them all, from the water effects to the cool steam effects that are in Far Cry
 
encountering the dopefish in commander keen for the first time..
 
i really liked the physics of max payne 2 and i also loved that room in far cry that was blue and had two bad guys at the bottom with a little pool and a piece of wood floating in it... taht area was so cool with all the blue lighting and water and reflections!

-merc
 
mario is missing at the end when bowser gets launched from the cannon

god I enjoyed that so much
 
I'd have to say Morrowind's Weather effects. Need good speakers and to play it in the dark though for best effect. Wandering along and begin to notice the clouds slowly building up overhead and a very overcast effect going on and then a drop of rain, starting slow and gradually building up. Sometimes just a small shower that goes away after a few minutes, sometimes a huge downpour. Sometimes the thunder comes in and the lightning which scared me half silly the first time with the sound way up. A little too much on the realistic side for me and I shut it off lol. Granted Daggerfall had the same thing but morrowind did a grand job of making it more believable. Even down to the ash or snow storms forcing people to cover their faces if they face into the storm. Not seen that in any game before. And I think just down to the general day/night cycles, doesn't flick from one to the other, its just a slow progression and seamless. Very nicely done, hmm gonna go play it some more :)
 
Also pretty nice are the shader effects of Joint Ops. The warm air out of a helicopter engine, or the air above a burning wreck leaves a very pretty 'distorted hot air' effect. Even rockets have this effect at the end of their tail.
 
There is a UT2k4 user made level where these bridges build under you as you walk over them. Sweet effect.

Besides that, the thing that wowed me the most in a game was Freespace 2's beam cannons. Awesome sounds and sights.
 
Ch1cKeN said:
bullet time is overdone i think. Still cool noetheless.

THE COOLEST effect i think in a game would be Specific Hit Location Damage. You've all seen the Doom 3 trailer. When that imp started clawing away at your face the view reeled left and right as you were being pummeled.

Call of Duty did an alright job at it with the head reeling whenever you got shot or the "shell shock" effect after almost getting hit by a motar or tank shell.

Personally i've only played 2 games that've used it... Max Payne 1 & 2. There are obviously other games... but i bet they're all ****.
 
The bullet time in max payne is the best - in other games it doesn't seem just good enough. The whole effect with the heart beat, the shapening of noise, bullets whizzing past and the noise of firing with the new brownish twinge that was introduced in MP2 - it's very well put together. I'd have to say that's the best effect IMO.

Shellshock in COD is equally good. Love the shader heat effect in far cry. Does HL2 have that effect?
 
ShadowFox said:
There is a UT2k4 user made level where these bridges build under you as you walk over them. Sweet effect.

I'd love to see that. Anybody have a link?
 
the map is "DM-Reconstruct" by Angel Mapper. Get it in the CBP2 or sepertly from UT2k4hq, unrealplayground, or the atari forums.
and yes, that is one of the coolest effects in UT2k4 I have ever seen
 
bullet time's in another game as well. guess what it is

*Answer
enter the matrix
(pretty bad game)

merc said:
i really liked the physics of max payne 2

Oh yeah, the phyics were fun, but they never really did affect the gameplay. Too bad the character physics only came into play AFTER they're dead.
 
How about the tornado in NOLf 2?

Or many of the gravity defying moments of Serious Sam 2?

Or the climactic battle with LeChuck in Monkey Island? (good for its time)

It'll take me a while to remember many of these unique moments.
 
The "disruptor cannon" at the very end of Unreal 2. It just so happens to be one of the coolest guns ever created. The technicalities behind it's design is near-impossible, but shooting a black-hole and watching the models warp and shrink as they fly around and into the black hole is the coolest thing. Ever. Or the fact that anything living that started getting sucked in made hilarious screaming noises.
 
Hell...the coolest effect in a game would have to be in Astroids.You shoot the astroid and it breaks apart.Now that was revoultionary!
 
Ch1cKeN said:
bullet time's in another game as well. guess what it is

*Answer
enter the matrix
(pretty bad game)



Oh yeah, the phyics were fun, but they never really did affect the gameplay. Too bad the character physics only came into play AFTER they're dead.

Bullet time (while not exactly that but slow mo) is in a bunch of games, almost all games have a feature like that.

Examples: Spiderman 2, hitman contracts, PoP sands of time, F.e.a.r, e.t.c.

Anyway, The physics in max payne 2 were fun - even though they didn't do anything to the gameplay it was fun to knock of chairs and bins - and it was the first game to debut with havok's new version 2.0 engine.
 
The effect behind the sword on Devil May Cry
edit: Also the heat-haze effect

/me picks up his console and runs!
 
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