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

demagogue on 13/4/2017 at 07:59

Interesting. I hated HL movement for the same reason. It felt bumbling and heavy-handed to me. (I loved it for the visual storytelling though.)

Malf on 13/4/2017 at 09:09

Well Gamebryo's a strange beast. Most people know it because of The Elder Scrolls and 3D Fallout games and Bethesda's refusal to adopt anything else. And yes, the movement and animation in those games is stilted and unrealistic, sure. But that's down to the developer rather than the engine.
If you take a look at some of the (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamebryo) other games that have used Gamebryo, it quickly becomes apparent that the engine is what you make of it. There are some games in that list where movement is fine, and some are even exceptional.

So I reckon you'd be safer saying that movement is terrible in Bethesda's first-party games.

Thirith on 13/4/2017 at 09:19

You're not wrong as such, but I have had surprisingly good times doing something akin to primitive parkouring in Oblivion, jumping from fences to walls to roofs while exploring some of the cities.

Malf on 13/4/2017 at 09:32

Oh yeah, my opinion is that the movement in those games is mostly mediocre, but due to the open nature of them, it allows for some interestingly expressive movement on occasion. Interesting by accident, not design. For example, I loved the hilariously broken enchanting system in Morrowind, that allowed for game-breaking speed and jump enchantments on boots. And I did that mainly to avoid sodding Cliff Racers.

I was just clarifying for Abysmal that his knowledge of Gamebryo was probably solely limited to The Elder Scrolls / Fallout 3 etc. He may have played other Gamebryo games without knowing he's been doing so.

Of course, I could just be being a presumptuous asshole :D

N'Al on 13/4/2017 at 10:42

Once you get the hang of the controls - once you 'feel the flow', once you're 'in the zone' - I find games like skate, Tony Hawk's or SSX to be amazing for traversing space.

demagogue on 13/4/2017 at 12:18

If we're getting into that kind of stuff, the N64 snowboarding game 1080 would give me a high by its sense of speed.

Another one that gave me that feeling was a 90s game called Slipsteam 5000, about little flying pod shuttles you raced in some narrow cyberpunk city or canyon, and you had weapons. A new game called SkyDrift tries to recreate it, but I had the better feeling of speed in Slipstream.

Thirith on 13/4/2017 at 12:24

For me, the first Colin McRae DIRT was like that. I was never particularly good at it, but I liked trying to find the balance between speed and control, and the moments where I felt I'd found that point were glorious.

Then I'd usually get too cocky and ended up sailing over the side of the track.

N'Al on 13/4/2017 at 13:21

Quote Posted by demagogue

If we're getting into that kind of stuff

Who says we weren't? Henke was absolutely right to break the mould. That rebel.

henke on 13/4/2017 at 14:29

Heh. I almost included Skate in my list as well.

While we're on the topic I wanna go ahead and give praise to a little game I discovered on itch yesterday: (http://stolk.org/tlbtc/) The Little Bike That Could by Bram Stolk (who also made The Little Crane That Could, which I also enjoyed a lot). Wonderful bicycle physics in this. Give it a spin, it's free(or PWYW)!

[video=youtube;1n_3lxyxrFQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n_3lxyxrFQ[/video]

Jeshibu on 4/8/2017 at 10:30

I am all about super-mobility games. I even put up with most of the Spider-man games since Ultimate and 3 (I tried to get into 2 briefly after hearing how great its system was but couldn't get into it after 3 - specifically the seperate release button compared to the you-hold-the-line-while-you-hold-the-trigger thing 3 did). Not a fan of Beenox's enclosed level games (Shattered Dimensions/Edge of Time), but even Amazing Spider-man 1 and 2 were good fun (2 less so due to the notoriety system).

The best Spider-man game though is (http://store.steampowered.com/app/21670/Bionic_Commando/) Bionic Commando. It's got gorgeous destroyed cityscapes for levels, great swinging, and some okayish gunplay (really though, just use the arm/kick whenever you can). The only downside is that you want to explore the levels, and rather than put some visible limits there, they made invisible radiation zones the boundaries. This means you can swing with great speed into an area that will kill you before you can make it back to the safe area.

Only game of this type I really didn't get on with was Jet Set Radio, though I wanted to love it. It felt surprisingly restrictive in its movement. Speaking of which, has anyone tried (http://store.steampowered.com/app/280180/Hover__Revolt_Of_Gamers/) Hover : Revolt of Gamers? Hate the name, but it looks interesting enough.

I want to try Windlands too, preferably before buying it. It's a shame there's no demo for it. Anyone else try it in VR?