What ONE feature would you add to every game?

[CptStern]

WHat feature would you like to see in games? within reason of course

I'd add character customization like that found in Oblivion ..helps me immerse myself

 

[Sheepo]

Commentary.

 

[Gray Fox]

save anywhere, any time.

 

[Dekstar]

The ability to punch someone in the face over the internet.

 

[knut]

Whislt carrying around a arsenel of weapons such as grenades, RPG's/rocket launchers and other automatic weapons, the ability to actually open doors without needing a key, because nothing ruins immersion more than ''This Frail Wooden Door Needs A Key''

Character customization is a good one. I like games that let me do that.

 

[Dynasty]

Realism

STALKER is an awesome example of realism in a game. You get shot, you bleed to death. Guns actually MISS for once. Atmosphere etc.

I hate playing games with medipacks, basically unlimited ammo, grenades going off next to you taking 3/4 of your health only (i mean wtf?!). Think these kind of unrealistic things can only be implemented in MMPGs like DoD, CS, UT etc, only because its more fun playing against other people, as then skill is more useful, instead of taking down the god of gaming with a dead nade.

 

[Lucid]

Voice chat.

 

[AmishSlayer]

Co-op

 

[Tagaziel]

Commentaries for the win. I absolutely <3 it.

 

[Qonfused]

The ability to punch someone in the face over the internet.

QFE.

 

[Warbie]

save anywhere, any time.

Heathen!


I'd like unlockables in every game - new weapons, skins, models, cheats etc

 

[CyberPitz]

Co-Op would be nifty.

 

[CR0M]

Integrity.

edit - and nekked laydees.

 

[Noobulon]

save and quit anywhere, any time.

Edited for accurracy.

It should be possible to suspend a game at any point, and resume play later.
However, this is not the same thing as a 'quicksave' which allows players to place a restart point every five seconds. That just kills all the challenge and suspense.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Coop.

That or titties.

 

[Hazar]

zoomable interface (think supcom)

 

[Icarusintel]

Innovation.


It seems pretty hard to come by these days.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

co-op online.

 

[Seth064]

Am on the Co-Op band wagon tbh... it is definately something that you dont see enuf of these days.

I also like that technology that is in some of the Flight Sims and also in ARMA... whats it called.. TRACK IR? I thought it was awesome and would love it in every FPS and any game that has some sort of Person View.

 

[leib10]

I like commentary and unlockable items, maps, characters, etc.

I'd like a game where you can't kill somebody outright by shooting them in the limbs.

 

[Asknoone]

like unlockables in every game - new weapons, skins, models, cheats etc

Co-op

Realism

STALKER is an awesome example of realism in a game. You get shot, you bleed to death. Guns actually MISS for once. Atmosphere etc.

WHat feature would you like to see in games? within reason of course

I'd add character customization like that found in Oblivion ..helps me immerse myself

All of these, in my opinion, are shit.

Things like commentary, save anywhere anytime are acceptable, because they don't infringe on the game and its design philosophy, but this lot just take the biscuit off the kid and throw it down the toilet, laughing manically. Why would you want to add these to every game when essentially, it might just bring down the very basis of the game itself? Who would want unlockables in the likes of Deus ex, or Half-life? Who would want to 'customize' a character, who has a pre-defined role in the world? Who would want to play through Timesplitters 3 - by all accounts a 'fun' game - and worry about 'bleeding to death' and 'limping'.

These are not within reason. They are retarded. I've nothing against these things themselves, because in their respective game they are fine. But I'd never want every game to build itself with an exact, specific feature others do, at the cost of going against everything the game is.

 

[CptStern]

All of these, in my opinion, are shit.

Things like commentary, save anywhere anytime are acceptable, because they don't infringe on the game and its design philosophy, but this lot just take the biscuit off the kid and throw it down the toilet, laughing manically. Why would you want to add these to every game when essentially, it might just bring down the very basis of the game itself? Who would want unlockables in the likes of Deus ex, or Half-life? Who would want to 'customize' a character, who has a pre-defined role in the world? Who would want to play through Timesplitters 3 - by all accounts a 'fun' game - and worry about 'bleeding to death' and 'limping'.

These are not within reason. They are retarded. But I've nothing against these things themselves, because in their respective game they are fine. I'd never want every game to build itself with an exact, specific feature others do, at the cost of going against everything the game is.

why obviously HL2 is a bad example because you play as gordon ..but that's the exception to the rule ..most are generic joe everyman type chracters so they could easily incorporate a character building thingy

 

[Asknoone]

Actually, I wasn't thinking about Half-life Stern, or anything specific...more in terms of games with a 'fixed' narrative or what have you. Still, I don't think incorporating a character customization feature into a game simply because the character you are playing is as bland as British weather is a good excuse or an acceptable middle-ground.

 

[CptStern]

agreed however I play less and less railed games anyways so narrative isnt at all important ..I mean they could deliver the story on a cocktail napkin and it would have the same impact overall: next to none ..and it's not so much about adding a character with detail because the devs forgot to ..but rather about personalising your gameplay ..take a few cues from rpgs where you fine tune your character to play the way you want to play

 

[Asknoone]

agreed however I play less and less railed games anyways

I'm the other way round.

..but rather about personalising your gameplay ..take a few cues from rpgs where you fine tune your character to play the way you want to play

I disagree. Personalizing gameplay is for open-ended RPG type games, or games such as Halo where the combat is very excessive and you have to adapt to these things with a kind of 'skill' (Warbs is the expert, not me ). Or, put simply, for when the majority of your game is direction less, and the gameplay lacking in polish and finely-tuned control; when you require your player to make these decisions. There's room for playing the way you want to play without adding these kinds of character/player customization.

 

[-Psy-]

Having the Quick Save and Quick Load keys as far away from each other as possible. >_<

 

[CptStern]

admittedly it works best in rpgs but GTA has proven it can work for other genres


If a mission had you chasing down a suspect through the street and you happened to drive by a store that sold ..umm jetpacks (ok silly but for the sake of argument) ..wouldnt it be great if you can duck in buy your jetpack, put it on and resume your chase? ...or you have to break into a government building ..so you head down to the nearest surplus store and pick up a set of night googles ..or say you to infiltrate a dance club owned by the local kingpin but wont make it in wearing military fatigues and a shotgun ..so you visit a clothing store and gets some clubbin clothes ...and a razorwire to do you dirty work when you finnally get in and find your target


it would be useless in a game like Halo which is a game on rails that lets you deviate somewhat ..but essentially it's a game on rails

 

[Asknoone]

If a mission had you chasing down a suspect through the street and you happened to drive by a store that sold ..umm jetpacks (ok silly but for the sake of argument) ..wouldnt it be great if you can duck in buy your jetpack, put it on and resume your chase? ...or you have to break into a government building ..so you head down to the nearest surplus store and pick up a set of night googles ..or say you to infiltrate a dance club owned by the local kingpin but wont make it in wearing military fatigues and a shotgun ..so you visit a clothing store and gets some clubbin clothes ...and a razorwire to do you dirty work when you finnally get in and find your target

Right, right, that works. But, it only works for the sandbox game, does it not? RPG's? I'm not saying this is bad, it's all good, but it couldn't/wouldn't/won't work for every game, as you implied originally.

it would be useless in a game like Halo which is a game on rails that lets you deviate somewhat ..but essentially it's a game on rails

Absolutely, but I'd never knock it for being on a rails, because it works to the games cinematic approach. I know we've done this argument before, Stern.

 

[Lucid]

What's wrong with adding co-op to everything, Samon?

 

[CptStern]

Right, right, that works. But, it only works for the sandbox game, does it not? RPG's? I'm not saying this is bad, it's all good, but it couldn't/wouldn't/won't work for every game, as you implied originally.

ya but I see games on rails as a dying breed ..I mean sandbox games allow for devs to add new content meaning continued revenue for publishers which makes everyone hapy ..and if they can add some online component they nip piracy in the bud because players will have to be connected to their servers if they want to play ......linear games will always have a place but as the years go by a lack of anything innovative or new will force it to the sidelines

Absolutely, but I'd never knock it for being on a rails, because it works to the games cinematic approach. I know we've done this argument before, Stern.

yes we have ..and I think I left it by saying "less filling" and you said "tastes great" ...I think good games on rails will become rare ...I mean there's only so much they can take it to a cinematic approach ..sooner or later they will hit a plateau (which they have imo with HL2)

 

[Asknoone]

What's wrong with adding co-op to everything, Samon?

Because it isn't feasible. One of the best examples of coop in recent times is Halo; great, energetic fun. However, with a game such as Halo it is very easy to implement the coop feature - there's startlingly little work that goes into the kind of coop Halo has. So the first problem is that first person shooters are moving (gradually) away from the dazzling mediocrity of the likes of Halo, and are investing perhaps more effort into their gameplay. They can't, then, easily implement a coop feature. If they do, it would look pretty mundane and cheap. There for the sake of it, if you like, and would you want that? A game not designed for two people to go through, instead playing out as it would oblivious to your mate? Probably not. Unless the game is designed simultaneously for both sp and coop, then it isn't worth the effort. And the argument that they should be built with these both in mind is crock as well.

The game I'm working on would be great for coop, it really would. However, we'd never implement it into the singleplayer for the sake of, because we'd be ignoring the opportunity of building a separate coop game, built solely for coop, and because the SP in general isn't made for coop.

ya but I see games on rails as a dying breed ..I mean sandbox games allow for devs to add new content meaning continued revenue for publishers which makes everyone hapy ..and if they can add some online component they nip piracy in the bud because players will have to be connected to their servers if they want to play ......linear games will always have a place but as the years go by a lack of anything innovative or new will force it to the sidelines

On a rails, as you might put it, is far, far from death. Like a good movie, they can be tuned and polished and there's so many innovative gameplay avenues left un-squuezed.

yes we have ..and I think I left it by saying "less filling" and you said "tastes great" ...I think good games on rails will become rare ...I mean there's only so much they can take it to a cinematic approach ..sooner or later they will hit a plateau (which they have imo with HL2)

HL2 pretty much opened the door for on the rails to really sparkle, to really bring a qualty narrative to gaming alongside polished, well-tuned and innovative gameplay. Just like movies the 'cinematic experience' will go on, and there's so, so much for developers to work on to really flesh titles such as these out. Infact, if anything, there's more scope in there than open-ended titles. That might sound hard to believe, but it's actually quite true.

 

[Sheepo]

I thought of another one: a level of difficulty above hard.

 

[CptStern]

On a rails, as you might put it, is far, far from death. Like a good movie, they can be tuned and polished and there's so many innovative gameplay avenues left un-squuezed.

I want to believe you but besides a few stellar examples there's not much innovation to be had ..my problem isnt that a few games will take it to the next level or it's fullest potential but rather that the far more abundant poor imitations to these games will take the easiest route possible to creating a game ..therefore we see cookie cutter linear games that hardly seem all that different from each other ..it's what happened to the ww2 genre and will continue to happen ...I mean gears of war was hailed as a great game and people overlooked it's faults. ..by gears of war 3 they wont be so forgiving. That whole thing about lifting the curtain and seeing the the underlying puppet master gets less and less harder to see in each iteration of the linear fps

HL2 pretty much opened the door for on the rails to really sparkle, to really bring a qualty narrative to gaming alongside polished, well-tuned and innovative gameplay. Just like movies the 'cinematic experience' will go on, and there's so, so much for developers to work on to really flesh titles such as these out. Infact, if anything, there's more scope in there than open-ended titles. That might sound hard to believe, but it's actually quite true.

agreed, there is more scope in that the devs can plan/implement epic set pieces because they can predict gameplay, much harder to do in a sandbox game where there's more variables to keep track of ......however HL2 is a bad example in that its by far an exception to the rule ..no fps has come close to it's gameplay/plot since ..even bungie cant touch valve in that department ..and they're Bungie

 

[clarky003]

The one thing for me would be a really interesting plot, because if it's entertaining and has you on your seat.. like say the TV show Lost, then in itself that provides great scope for your gameplay mechanic to be built around.

 

[The Brick]

I agree with coop. I was thinking of things like dynamic (destructible) physics. I had a few more ideas, but every idea changes some games in the wrong direction, so I'm going for a simple but good one.

The ability to alt tab out of the game without the game crashing, freezing, windows getting slow or messing up the graphics when you switch back.

Otherwise maybe native support for AA and AF. Games look so much better with them.

 

[Gray Fox]

I forgot cheats. So much can happen, you're save file may get corrupt, your whole hard drive might **** up. So I want to have cheats so I can return to any part of the game I want.

To go more in depth on my save anywhere comment.
I know there are a lot of games(especially japanese) that generate suspense exactly because they do not have the ability to save anywhere. I would even like those games to have a save anywhere ability. I still enjoy having the game save automaticly on checkpoints though.

The way they could solve this is by adding extras for folks that play without saving, and only suing checkpoints, like extra guns or costumes when you finish the game.
Hell for games that have multilayer they could even add honors to your name if you managed to play the sp without saving.
Just ****ing let me save anywhere, any time.

 

[Glo-Boy]

Procedural animation

 

[The Brick]

Procedural animation

No. Time Splitters two would not be anything left without the brilliant goofy animations. Same for psychonauts.

 

[VirusType2]

WHat feature would you like to see in games?

Interactive sex.

Lesbians with strap-ons

 

[Warbie]

Whats wrong with unlockables? They are an extra, an aside to the main game that doesn't have to detract from the experience in any way.

In terms of HL2, i'd quite like an extra difficutly setting to be unlocked once you've finished the game on hard. Perhaps some rewards for finishing chapters without dying or needing to save, or if you meet a certain time limit. Doesn't have to be game breaking, just some incentive to keep playing.

I do agree about coop though. While i'd like more games that feature coop, some just aren't suited.