Features you would like to see more of

BlitzKrieg

Ever find yourself playing a game, maybe not a good one/popular title or a relatively old one and you find it has some feature, maybe something simple and irrelevent or something that makes things a bit more entertaining etc and you think

*Wish more games would have a feature like that*

Some features that started off small have now become standard (regenerating health) and others are growing popular, the visual guide line that titles like Prince of Persia (next gen) had.


Well lets hear what forgotten features you'd wish we saw more of.


One I'd use as an example and I wanted it to be as irrelevent as possible but a nice touch would be the story recaps from Sonic Adventure 1.

You rarely see story recaps in games, but sonic adventure 1 to try and maximise its *cartoon appeal* had it everytime you restarted a game a brief scroll would pass narrated by the character your playing reminding the player what had happened and where they are meant to head to next.

IT was corny and not well acted.

But it was a feature that I thought was a nice touch and I would personnally like to have included in titles like GTA or final fantasy where they would be games that I would have quite substantial gaps in playtime and have had times where I came back and went *wtf am I doing again?* Course it should be skippable if you know what your doing At the moment I wish they had it for Empire Total War, I've forgotten who I was fighting with

SO for my forgotten feature of gaming I nominate the ingame recap of the events so far. Much needed for RPG's and other long ass games.

Star Lord

Last time, on GTA IV...

I can remember playing a game that had this, but not which one it was... *facepalm*

BlitzKrieg

I think alone in the dark (new version) had something similar aswell as the ability to skip to later levels if the current one is too hard.

Retr0gamer

I've seen the recap thing in loads of games but can't think of any other than the awful new alone in the dark.

I'd also like to see recharging health taken out of realistic shooters, there has to be a better way.

Also don't know why nobody has copied Gears of Wars active reload yet.

BlitzKrieg

or even having reload as the right bumper, its strangely comfortable having it so close to the trigger

humanji

I actually kind of liked the recap thing they had in Alone In The Dark. It made the game a lot more accessible to casual gamers, and I thought making it feel like a DVD was implemented fairly well.

I love the cover system in Call of Juarez 2. It's brilliant. It's really intuitive and seemless. It does have the odd problem of trying to put you in cover whenever you walk near something, but I say the pro's far outway the cons. I'd love if FPS's would build on this (I hate pushing a button to go into cover).

L31mr0d

I'd actually like to see games breaking all coventions for a change. For instance, I think FPS's are stagnating because of conventions.

I'd like to see:
No exploding red barrels
No littering of empty crates throughout the levels
No regenerating health
No dark corridors that lead into a weapon restock room which leads into an arena to fight a boss
2 way dialogue for a change

and for Gods sake, mix up the plot for a change. Have something other than the usual:

* 1 man fighting the system who has no family and a mysterious past
* Everyone introduced in the first 10 minutes will either die/betray you or mutate before the game has ended
* The only people who will actually survive will be anyone who's a complete dick to you at the start so that they can turn to you and say "well done" and show you respect at the end of the game
* Space Marines... f**k off!!! I'm sick of being an American killing aliens/mutants on earth/in space.

Also, something I'd like to see a lot more of is mandatory co-op play. L4D shows just how well this can be done. A game like L4D, that's 8+ hours long but with character development, cut scenes and a defined storyline.

Redlion

the pokemon games on the ds have the recap feature and if i remember, don't metal gear solid games have some feature similar when you load your save file?

L31mr0d

Something also I'd like to see more of is the game breaking the 4th wall. I enjoyed it in MGS1 against Psycho Mantis and thought it was good, not great, in MGS4, but it still added to it.

humanji

Redlion wrote: »

the pokemon games on the ds have the recap feature and if i remember, don't metal gear solid games have some feature similar when you load your save file?

No, with Metal Gear Solid it was your life flashing before your eyes to remind you that you've got something to live for instead of playing that rubbish! :P

Retr0gamer

L31mr0d wrote: »

Something also I'd like to see more of is the game breaking the 4th wall. I enjoyed it in MGS1 against Psycho Mantis and thought it was good, not great, in MGS4, but it still added to it.

I didn't notice any of it in MGS 4, the mantis fight in that was pretty bog standard as i recall but yeah some fourth wall breaking stuff would be good. They actually used it to finish the story off in Panzer Dragoon Saga and it was one of the most effective uses I've seen of it and a big surprise.

ProjectColossus

Story recap was implemented well in Professor Layton. Arguably quick time events should stop (at least many people seem to think so, but I don't mind them too bad, they worked well in God of War I thought)

I'd like to see more of (in FPS) your character having a body, like in FEAR, and the shadows that go with it. In FEAR, one of the most memorable scares for me was one time where my own shadow was cast across a wall in such a way that I jumped to turn and shoot ... nobody

Mirrors Edge had a similar full body experience, and the other thing I thought worked well was how your route was always clear with the red vision, but it wasn't like a big neon flashing arrow. Actually, Big flashing arrows in games are pretty stupid.

rizzla

I love intergrated HUD's similar to Dead Space and Ghostbusters, where it's actually present in the game world, really adds to immersion. Any other games that do it?

Retr0gamer

ProjectColossus wrote: »

Story recap was implemented well in Professor Layton. Arguably quick time events should stop (at least many people seem to think so, but I don't mind them too bad, they worked well in God of War I thought)

QTE's shouldn't stop, they were excellent in Resi 4 and GoW. Developers that can't do them should stop.

Mr E

Geometry Wars 2. Competitive friend leaderboards - as a feature, not an afterthought. The high score is your nearest friend's high score...

uberpixie

+1 on more co op. Co op for the win.

What I would really like to see more off in fps games would be context sensitive controls.

Resi 4 had a simple effective system of the "green button does everything" i.e. vault a wall, knock over a ladder with a zombie climbing up it, kick a door open a smack and zombie in the chops on the other side of it with it, hide behing cover, etc... was all done by pressing the green button depending on the context....

Most fps games seem to think a low wall or fence should result in an epic level of jump attemps before you can get over it... that and you usually cannot take cover very well or have about 5 different keys to do 5 different things which all could be handled by one context sensitve button.

TBH recently Arma2 does add a V key to hop over low fences which is nice much needed feature for the game, but why can't you just use the use button? Why have an extra key when you don't really need it? Why do devs insist on making controls too complicated sometimes?

Resi 4 while the controls were a little awkward in a lot of ways: quickly hopping a fence, climbing up the top of a ladder and then kicking the ladder over knocking the zombie climbing up after you back onto the ground followed up by you jumping back down off the platform and start gutting the zombie with your knife while he was still on the ground was pretty fluid Vs trying something similar in a traditional PC fps.

Stephen

More racing games need the rewind feature from GRID. There's nothing like crashing on the last corner of the Le Mans 24 hours and feeling like killing someone, only to realise that you can rewind back a few seconds and un-fúck it up

BlitzKrieg

TBH recently Arma2 does add a V key to hop over low fences which is nice much needed feature for the game,

holy sh*t Arma 2 adds new letters to my keyboard?

now i got 2 V keys!

Redlion

humanji wrote: »

No, with Metal Gear Solid it was your life flashing before your eyes to remind you that you've got something to live for instead of playing that rubbish! :P

blasphemy, have him hanged!!!!! :eek:

Redlion

another feature i'd like to see more of is: dropping in and out of a friend's single player game, like the feature that was used in fable 2 and mercs 2. adds a good co-op element and both players gain from the completion of missions/quests. Plus, who doesnt like co-op?

ballybay_eh

The ability to vote someone out of an online game like in Left 4 Dead.

Also, like in L4D and COD4 the ability for other players to join your team mid game. That way you're not down a player or two just because you were unfortunately teamed up with a bunch of quitters (or team killing w*nkers who had to be booted).

Gunmonkey

ballybay_eh wrote: »

Also, like in L4D and COD4 the ability for other players to join your team mid game. That way you're not down a player or two just because you were unfortunately teamed up with a bunch of quitters (or team killing w*nkers who had to be booted).

Kinda related to that but have bots take over for players who leave/dc, or stop games starting with unbalanced sides. My second game of GTAIV online was great when it was 3vs11 on a king of the hill game and one of my team left 5 seconds in....still held them to $17000 vs $20000 by the end.

Overheal

Mr E wrote: »

Geometry Wars 2. Competitive friend leaderboards - as a feature, not an afterthought. The high score is your nearest friend's high score...

I think it showed up in Audiosurf first - and they additionally send you an email when one of your friend's beats your score on a song. love it.

One thing I would like to see is real weather a bit more. I think there were some games that simulated weather by your location/zip code. I'd like some more improvement there. Kinda in the same way the old pokemon gold and silver let you catch different monsters depending on what kind of day you played; you'd have different mission parameters in a war game based on wether it was fog or rain or a full moon.

Redlion

another cool feature would be that live and psn were connected so you could play your friends that own different consoles, sorta like the connectivity between xbox and pc in shadowrun

tman

Overheal wrote: »

I think it showed up in Audiosurf first - and they additionally send you an email when one of your friend's beats your score on a song. love it.

It was in the first Geometry Wars too, but GW2 improved on things a bit.

I personally think there can never be enough zombies in games... They make everything seem so much better! (even pride and prejudice!)

Sand

Non static threats/enemies - when playing Aliens vs Predator, one of the challenges as Colonial Marine was that the game spawned more and more Aliens to hunt you over time. You had to resist the urge to slow down and creep forward carefully - more time wasted, more distant screams of Aliens drawing closer...move, move, move - It was quite conducive to a proper Aliens feel.

IIRC System Shock 2 had a similar random spawning of enemies, even in levels you had already cleared which again forced expenditure of precious resources and kept you on your guard.

Left 4 Dead has something fairly similar - apart from the crescendo events it is difficult to plan too far ahead. The game is better for it.

Resi 4 had a simple effective system of the "green button does everything" i.e. vault a wall, knock over a ladder with a zombie climbing up it, kick a door open a smack and zombie in the chops on the other side of it with it, hide behing cover, etc... was all done by pressing the green button depending on the context....

Hit green button to complete level/game...

I'd also like to see recharging health taken out of realistic shooters, there has to be a better way.

Realism in shooters is not a lot of fun. Recharging of health is a recognition it is a game and players dont want to dwell on the bits where some guy who steps on a mine learns to walk with a prosthesis. I dont think there is any getting away from it.

Retr0gamer

Sand wrote: »

Hit green button to complete level/game...

It's not like that at all and it's a bloody tough game. It's basically the same as the context sensitive button in Ocarina of Time where instead of having multiple buttons to do mundane things the function of just one button changes depending on the situation.

ProjectColossus

More sweet remakes of games with the old game engine running underneath for hot swapping a la Curse of Monkey Island Special Addition. Available relatively cheaply and all!

pablomakaveli

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I've seen the recap thing in loads of games but can't think of any other than the awful new alone in the dark.

The Professor Layton game on the DS has that as well.

Its handy if you haven't played a game for a while and are coming back to it later.

EDIT: I see this was already mentioned. I should read through the whole thread before posting in future.

Jazzy

co-op rpg's that arent an mmo

Fnz

MMOs that aren't RPGs.

I'd like more control over cut scenes, to pause if necessary, and have them saved so that I can watch them again at my leisure. It's annoying if I accidental press a button and skip the scene.

More Co-op.

The ability to vote off whomsoever is being a d1ck.

Being able to move and shoot at the same time. :P

Retr0gamer wrote: »

QTE's shouldn't stop, they were excellent in Resi 4 and GoW. Developers that can't do them should stop.

QTEs during cut scenes can p1ss right off. Hated it in Resi 4 when a boulder chases you down a narrow path. Hated its pointless inclusion (as an entire, short, level) in the later stages of Fahrenheit.

I don't enjoy being on edge during times I've grown accustomed to relaxing and enjoying the video/story.

Krieg

Fnz wrote: »

I'd like more control over cut scenes, to pause if necessary, and have them saved so that I can watch them again at my leisure. It's annoying if I accidental press a button and skip the scene.

+1 It should be standard for cutscenes to include both a pause feature and a skip feature. DOW2 was a recent one for this, every mission concluded with a 1/2min chat (not an fmv but basically the same thing) that was unskipable. doesnt sound so bad, but it fecked me right off as I found the story boring but the gameplay fun

rizzla wrote: »

I love intergrated HUD's similar to Dead Space and Ghostbusters, where it's actually present in the game world, really adds to immersion.

+1, great feature. Obviously it would be difficult for some games to implement. OPF:dragon rising will have something similar, where squad members will only carry what you see. That said they are also implementing the standard fps hud into the game

A feature I want to see come as standard for FPS is the killcam. COD4 multiplayer did this perfectly. Where you get killed and the game immediately plays back who killed you, from where and how. Im not one to scream "OMG HAXX!" in a game, but there are times when you get killed and leave you wondering "How the f***? did that happen", planting the seeds of paranoia. Killcam removed (most) hacking accusations which are also a great pain in the ass if your on the receiving end. Some may argue that the feature gives away a position, but the only reason you wouldn't want your position given away is if your camping/pussy sniper.

Overheal

Redlion wrote: »

another feature i'd like to see more of is: dropping in and out of a friend's single player game, like the feature that was used in fable 2 and mercs 2. adds a good co-op element and both players gain from the completion of missions/quests. Plus, who doesnt like co-op?

http://kotaku.com/5318881/microsoft-patents-drop+in-co+op-in-shooters

Redlion

Overheal wrote: »

http://kotaku.com/5318881/microsoft-patents-drop+in-co+op-in-shooters

oh cool, thanks for the link mate

komodosp

Not sure if this counts because I haven't seen it done properly at all yet

In sports games, forget about commentary, replaced with what the team members and referees would be shouting at each other. It's supposed to simulate playing the game, not watching it on telly!

EA Rugby did this a little, but the comments from the players and referee were just random and fairly poor...

Star Lord

Fnz wrote: »

QTEs during cut scenes can p1ss right off. Hated it in Resi 4 when a boulder chases you down a narrow path. Hated its pointless inclusion (as an entire, short, level) in the later stages of Fahrenheit.

I don't enjoy being on edge during times I've grown accustomed to relaxing and enjoying the video/story.

I actually really liked how RE4 incorporated them into the cut scenes, it did so very well, like the knife fight. Parts like the boulder rolling after you aren't counted as cut scenes, they simply use the QTE mechanic to show a more cinematic angle because you don't have to worry about the other controls.

tman

360 games with properly integrated custom soundtracks...
If a game has a button that allows you to skip to the next audio track, surely it can't be that hard for them to make this button function when you're playing your own music???

Overheal

tman wrote: »

360 games with properly integrated custom soundtracks...
If a game has a button that allows you to skip to the next audio track, surely it can't be that hard for them to make this button function when you're playing your own music???

licensing. stupid, stupid licensing issues.

Fnz

DamoElDiablo wrote: »

I actually really liked how RE4 incorporated them into the cut scenes, it did so very well, like the knife fight. Parts like the boulder rolling after you aren't counted as cut scenes, they simply use the QTE mechanic to show a more cinematic angle because you don't have to worry about the other controls.

I admit I was late to the game on RE4 and got entirely fed up with it shortly after that 'boulder-rolling' cut scene so didn't stick around to experience many others in the game. In that instance, I didn't feel adequately warned that that something would be required of me during the scene and so failed it the first time. Even when I was prepared, the 2nd, 3rd.... 5th time, I still managed to screw up that QTE. When I did manage to get it right, I found it wasn't satisfying in the least and really added nothing to the gaming experience.

I think QTEs in God of War are handled in a more satisfying manner, with forewarning that a QTE was about to be initiated. The cinematic moments didn't feel obstructed by QTEs. Fahrenheit was particularly bad in this regard.

Sierra Oscar

One thing I would like to see less of - "DLC" offers before a game is even released.

Yes, I am looking at you Empire Total War. Having to pay for a few additional units prior to a games release is silly. Why cant they just be bundled with the gold version of the game?