... and I would walk/run/drive/fly/grapple/teleport 500 miles

Thirith on 10/4/2017 at 15:28

Talking of Dishonored, one thing the series does that I absolutely wish could be added to all the Thief games is the contextual double-ducking: I want to be able to duck that inch or so lower to get underneath tables and desks. In most cases it might not help much directly (either I'm in the light or I'm not), but it makes me feel so much more like I'm part of that world than if I just bump into tables and that's all there is to it. If Garrett can jump on top of tables, he should also be able to crawl under them.

WingedKagouti on 10/4/2017 at 16:46

Prototype 1 & 2 and Just Cause 2 are the first games that I think of when thinking about fun mobility. In Prototype at least a part of the fun comes from it taking place in a real world location (Manhattan Island), but a large part is how it actually feels to run up the side of a building, jumping into a glide and then landing with a giant stomp scattering a group of enemies. Kinda like SR4 did later on, just with weird mutations and picking up old ladied only to dive them into the ground from the top of Empire State Building. And then taking their form.

Super Speed in City of Heroes and Super Speed & Acrobatics in Champions Online come up next. Two MMOs that give (gave in the case of CoH) you some decently sized areas and fun ways to get around in them, the fact that the movement powers also work in combat helps make things more chaotic and fun.

After that I think of the modern Sonic Games, with Unleashed (mostly the daytime levels), Colors, Generations and Lost World. While they aren't open world, the sense of speed and agility they manage to convey is just a wonderful experience.

Al_B on 10/4/2017 at 19:26

I also really enjoyed the freedom of movement that Saints Row 4 gives you - yes, it's very silly but it suits the setting nicely. After I completed it I looked around for other games with a similar mechanic I may have missed and Prototype was the only one that seemed to be mentioned (other than the defunct City of Heroes which I enjoyed at the time).

For some reason I never picked up the Prototype games but just checked and they're both on sale on Steam. They're now both in my library :)

Malf on 10/4/2017 at 22:07

Prototype takes itself a little too seriously, and the story's rather morbidly grimdark, but the powers are definitely interesting. Apparently, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, the developer's prior game, is more fun while still having a lot of the same abilities, but that was limited to PS2 era consoles.

Nameless Voice on 11/4/2017 at 01:02

I'm just going to say that in general, it's fun to be able to move freely through a game world, and it also makes that world feel much more like a real place.

It just bugs me when games have a set map of exactly which areas you are allowed to walk in rather than actually allowing you free movement. As a random example, in The Witcher (the original one), Geralt is limited to exactly the paths that the game designers put there, so you can't e.g walk off a tiny edge or do anything unexpected, which just makes the thing feel more game-y (in spite of the game's strengths in other areas.)

It also bothers me when game designers remove the most basic movement options such as jumping and ducking just because they aren't particularly necessary for the gameplay, which further enforce that "game on rails" feeling.

I guess that's a part of the immersive sim mentality. It's that extra bit of simulation where you keep the player where you want them through smart terrain design, rather than just putting invisible walls and barriers everywhere.

Simulated movement is one of the most important types of simulation, and I really feel that it should be included whenever possible, not just in immersive-sim type games.

Thirith on 11/4/2017 at 08:13

Simulation is definitely one thing I value when it comes to movement in games. I don't need it to be hyperrealistic, but it should feel coherent. Even some minimal physics - inertia, gravity - make a huge difference already, though I expect they're difficult to tweak so they actually feel good in a game.

Another small thing that can add to my enjoyment of moving around in a game is small reactive animations: your character reacting to the environment, reaching out when they get close to a wall to judge the distance, that sort of thing. I recently watched a video showing all sorts of such animations in Uncharted 4. They can make your character feel more grounded in the world they inhabit, for want of a better term, and in that sense they serve some of the same function as simulated movement as described above by Nameless Voice.

WingedKagouti on 11/4/2017 at 11:05

Quote Posted by Malf

The protagonist of Prototype 1 is definitely Super Emo McEmopants. But as far as movement goes, it's definitely one of the more fun games I've played, even if it is mostly a reskin of H:UD (which I have also played).

henke on 11/4/2017 at 13:41

My picks.

Best inner-city driving: Midtown Madness - I spent so much time just driving around Chicago and listening to music. Up until this point all the driving games I'd played had been on keyboard, but MM introduced mouse-control, which lent itself well for the delicate adjustments needed for gracefully weaving through traffic at high speeds.
Best open world dirt biking: Motocross Madness 2 - improved on the first by getting away from the supercross tracks and introducing wide open levels I could just drive around for hours on end. I've been looking for a game that could deliver similar open world dirtbike thrills since, but nothing has quite lived up. MXGP has the physics, but you're stuck on the tracks. MX vs ATV Reflex did have some free roam levels, but they weren't quite big enough. GTA IV had the most enjoyable dirtbike physics I've experienced since MM2, just the right balance between realism and arcade, but the game did not have the landscape to make the most of those wonderful bike physics. Sure, you could mod in wide open landscapes, but somehow those felt a bit empty and lifeless, divorced from the proper game.

[video=youtube;NOJV4J-ayz8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOJV4J-ayz8[/video]
Got close, but it's no Motocross Madness 2

One day I'm gonna make an open world motorbike game of my own. It'll be kinda like that Ewan Mcgregor show Long Way Round, but a videogame. It'll be great. You'll see.

Best off-roading: Spintires - What else? When they released (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ6ZkTC6djQ) the 2012 demo, I explored every last nook and cranny of that map, just to get all the offroading I could out of it. Such lovingly crafted trucks, with impecable physics, realistic sounds, and beautiful plumes of smoke bursting from the exhaust when you floored it. And the physics-simulation extended to everything around the truck as well. Trees that would bend and break when driven into with enough force. Mud that deformed beneath your wheels. Water that pushed away when you drove into it and got VISIBLY MUDDLED when you drove your dirty truck tires into it! Sometimes there's SO MUCH BEAUTY IN THE WORLD I JUST CAN'T TAKE IT :(

Best stunt-flying around the city: GTA: SA - There, I SAID IT! Shut up you cry babies who don't know what you're talking about. I spent so many hours in the cockpit of the Hydra, perfecting my (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLDy8eWCnr0) daredevil stunts, crashing into many a bridge and radiostation-mast before I earned my wings.

Also best bicycles: GTA: SA - those bikes, man.

PigLick on 11/4/2017 at 13:42

I am having fun with PLAYERUNKNOWN BATTLEGROUNDS recently. Its the latest early access battle royale style game, very much like early Dayz(without zombies), but with the BR twist. Has a huge arma2 style map, very detailed. The cool thing is instead of spawning randomly everyone starts in a big plane and you can jump out whenever you like.

Yakoob on 12/4/2017 at 09:40

All good picks for different reasons here, so I'd like to add a different one (that I am surprised hasn't been mentioned yet) - Half Life. There was just something very... physical and tactile about the engine. You really felt your weight, inertia, the collisions. Comparing HL to Unreal, Doom or the other titles here (particularly 3rd person), the latter always felt "floaty" or "indirect", whereas HL always felt like I had direct control over my volume in a realistic (if simplified) physical space. I always knew exactly how fast I will run, how far I could jump, how tall I was, how quickly I'd fall, etc.