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Beautiful games at the cost of being static.

simpatico

Member
It's a huge complaint of mine. I think Immortals displayed this very well. Some guy was blasting a wicker basket with ultra spells and it didn't budge. This is an aspect of games that I thought would be completely gone by this point. Go back to early Source games to see a good example of how much live environments go toward making a game feel immersive.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
The funny thing with the FF7 Rebirth example is that in the original announcement trailer, the foliage reacts to Cloud and co walking in the grass.

XELTUr0.gif




The final game they removed it entirely and it stands out.
 
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Raonak

Banned
Making good looking assets can be done by graphic artists and outsourced.

Making interactivity requires diving into the actual programming development tools, so requires dedicated devs to work on it.

More often than not, developers literally do not have the time to add in little "nice to have" features when they have an infinite backlog of unfixed issues.
 
This thread reminded me of this:


Its moments like this back in the PS2 that make me wonder what what the PS3 could do and even the PS4 when I was but a teen!

Fast forward to PS5 and no game has evoked the sense or wonder and discovery like this no more.
 

Zannegan

Member
That's why I didn't like those early UE5 Nanite demos. All this detail in the rocks, but it's all cemented together. I'd rather something significantly uglier with better interaction. Not everything needs to be Minecraft or TotK, but a completely static, dead world is the worst, especially with realistic graphics. It's uncanny
 

Beechos

Member
The static worlds I feel are more like a jap design thing where nothing moves and invisible barriers are all over the place. Like why do I have to walk around a tiny crate and can't jump over it even though my jump action would clear it easily. Same thing goes for fences and rocks.
 
Rebirth the game of extremes, where shit is either a diorama or an object with physics like it’s made out of hollow styrofoam.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Rebirth the game of extremes, where shit is either a diorama or an object with physics like it’s made out of hollow styrofoam.

I wouldn't say extremes, the game is being carried by its art and the density of the open world (even though it's completely static density) helps feel it more "filled-in".
 
I prefer when games have janky and ragdoll physics because theres something humurous about an attempt to simulate reality and have it be broken and confusing. Who wants a 1:1 recreation of reality? It wouldn't be a game.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
Elden Ring doesn’t have moving grass and it doesn’t really bother me.
Yes it does, all the vegetation has swaying effect (that even gets stronger with windy conditions). Turn the game on yourself and pay attention

 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Yes it does, all the vegetation has swaying effect (that even gets stronger with windy conditions). Turn the game on yourself and pay attention


When you walk on the grass they dont react to player but they do react to wind, it basically similar to Xenoblade games.....but I like I said before I dont really pay attention if grass reacts or not, I'm sorry.
 
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Lorianus

Neo Member
Im not trying to make an excuse in favor of gamebryo/creation engine but it handles openworlds with basically every item in it physics enabled and player interactable while also saving the state of the player visited cells for quite a long time, yes its a frankenstein engine but credit where credit is due.
 
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Bry0

Member
I’ve beat this to death but yeah, crysis from 2007 has wildlife, foliage that reacts to your character model and shockwaves from explosions. Amazing looking water and physics, swimming, destructible shacks, player usable vehicle, you can shoot trees to break branches or even knock entire palm trees down. You can modify attachments on the fly in game, pick up any object and throw it including enemies. You can shoot tires to pop them, shoot the gas tank to blow up trucks. Fences break into little pieces, foliage sways in the wind etc etc.

It puts new games to shame. Hell it puts its own sequels to shame.
 
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ButchCat

Member
OP appreciate what you have today because unless you played Deus Ex HR and experienced the dev's love for skyboxes you really can't use the word static (I know you're focused on the immediate player-world interaction).

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R6Rider

Gold Member
On a somewhat related note, Watch Dogs 2 has a fantastic and alive world. Routines, npc variety, npc interactions, etc. Good stuff.

Battlefield 2042 has trees react to explosions and tank shells being shot. And in several BF titles rocket launcher back blast can be deadly.

TLOU2 has the most amazing rope physics and usage that I've seen.
 
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