Tiny insignificant details in games that really impressed you

[Chupathingy]

During the Murder on Eridanos DLC for The Outer Worlds, there's a quest where you need to question a dim-witted suspect in a murder case. During the conversation you can choose to initiate a 'good cop/bad cop' routine with one of your companions. During this segment, if you have cigarettes in your inventory you get the option to whip 'em out and light them to make yourself seem more intimidating. Upon doing so the cigarettes are used up and discarded from your inventory.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

In both versions of Runescape, it's possible to use the Construction skill to build your very own house, arranging the rooms how you personally like them and using the facilities inside for various benefits: storing items outside your bank, a chapel to restore your prayer energy, a special drinking fountain for other kinds of energy restoration, and a kitchen with an unlimited supply of cooking ingredients, among others. One uncommonly-used feature is a telescope that can be used to find shooting stars in the sky and get an idea of where and when they might land, so that you can mine them for stardust.

However, if you arrange your house so that the wall of the 'study' room that the telescope is placed along is opposite the wall of another room, instead of learning about shooting stars, you'll learn about the wall.

 

[Absent]

Generally speaking : Footsteps in a videogame's snow = Pure bliss.

Back then I was impressed by songs in games (NOLF or Portal). In NOLF, I seem to remember hearing a Rina Ketty or am Edith Piaf song, in some shed. I also found an unused Piaf song in the game's files. These seem so useless to the game, but so adorable. Nowadays I think that games production became so movie-like that title songs (or in-game songs, in GTA-like car radios) don't impress anyone anymore. For me it meant games were becoming something different.

I'm a big fan of gratuitousness in general. Cathedrals having been build with scupltures that are out of sight of the public is a thing that touches me (okay, I assume they made that for a god who sees everything, or something, but still). Having bought a game in a second-hand shop and seeing that the previous owner had included their handnotes and such, without knowing who would get that, was a wonderful little moment. I love all the "you didn't even need to do that" in life. Actions with no gain, for the beauty of it. Art, I guess ? It seeps into videogames.

And open world games offer a lot of opportunities for that. The creation of a huge 3D world, that no player will explore fully. I'm not talking about easter eggs, but simply very well crafted little places. It impresses me when, in games like Watch Dogs or Mad Max, I find a beautiful place, or a beautiful detail, that had been added "just because", in a place unlikely to be visited. It gives me the impression that the world had been crafted with genuine pleasure. I take such details as gratuitous gifts. As if they went beyond the commercial product exchange, and into the realm of... "playing together" with the person in charhe of that bit. Something like that.

Oh also the photographer giggles when you click his ass, in Infogrames' North & South.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Generally speaking : Footsteps in a videogame's snow = Pure bliss.

I remember being pretty wowed the first time a guard noticed my footprints in the snow in Metal Gear Solid.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Modern problems require classic solutions

 

[BrawlMan]

Evil West has three save slots. Thanks Wild Hog.

Shadow Warrior 3 has 3 save slots too. There are in-game achievements built in for NG+ to extend replay value.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

@BrawlMan There's a certain enemy in Hi-Fi Rush that requires the assistance of one of the support characters to get around its shield. The first time you fight it, you don't have this character, and they join in a cutscene after you flail at it for a little bit. On a higher difficulty replay, when you have all the skills and support characters unlocked, if you use this character you aren't supposed to have to defeat the enemy, the other NPCs will say that this isn't what was supposed to happen and that you're cheating, before outright deciding to just play the usual cutscene anyway.

 

[BrawlMan]

@BrawlMan There's a certain enemy in Hi-Fi Rush that requires the assistance of one of the support characters to get around its shield. The first time you fight it, you don't have this character, and they join in a cutscene after you flail at it for a little bit. On a higher difficulty replay, when you have all the skills and support characters unlocked, if you use this character you aren't supposed to have to defeat the enemy, the other NPCs will say that this isn't what was supposed to happen and that you're cheating, before outright deciding to just play the usual cutscene anyway.

I found out about it yesterday.

 

[wings012]

Generally speaking : Footsteps in a videogame's snow = Pure bliss.

I may or may not have tried to draw a penis in the snow by running my character around in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.

 

[thebobmaster]

Not sure if this is insignificant so much as just something that I've not seen in other RPG's...but on my current playthrough of Skyrim, I decided to do a different sort of character build: stealth with daggers, but healing with magic. I found myself struggling to not get seen, though. No matter how quiet I was, the enemy always seemed to notice me before I got into melee range.

Yeah, turns out that if you have a GIANT GLOWING HAND OF HEALING, it tends to stand out. And it's not just there for effect. Once I unequipped my healing magic, badabing, badaboom, back in stealth business.

 

[Gordon_4]

Modern problems require classic solutions

That explains so fucking much.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

That explains so fucking much.

It is apparently true for Mass Effect sprinting and more than a few Nintendo racing games

 

[Gordon_4]

It is apparently true for Mass Effect sprinting and more than a few Nintendo racing games

Mass Effect sprinting felt natural enough, but galloping on mounts in Inquisition was always awkward - in no small way because of its shitty control implementation.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

I genuinely don't think I've ever seen this in a game before: Hi-Fi Rush has an option in the options menu to change the language of in-game text... on textures in the environment, so things like warning signs or directions are given in more than just English. It isn't for every language the game is otherwise available in, but considering just how stuffed with details the world is, like the security recommendations in Track 5 that passwords should be changed every 48 minutes, it's great that (at least European) non-English speakers get to enjoy them too.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

"Impressed" is perhaps too strong a word, but "suitably distracted from creeping thoughts of suicide" is the comfort felt by watching all those weird piss-take ads in Journey To The Savage Planet recently. They're a lll reminiscent of the multi-dimensional TV remote moments in Rick n Morty at times. One is a sex phone service narrated y a sentient blob of tumours. Another is a device you can throw all your cooking meat waste in to create some sort of creepy meat mini friend. Another is a kinda sea monkey product that grows miniature human-like things in a miniature community space where you can be as cruel as you want. And they space them out between visits to your upgrade base so is just a pleasant bonus bit of humour in-between doing various quest tasks.

 

[Dalisclock]

Mass Effect sprinting felt natural enough, but galloping on mounts in Inquisition was always awkward - in no small way because of its shitty control implementation.

I think I used a horse all of once in DAI and just walked across the zones the rest of the time. Part of the problem is they didn't code more then one horse in so everyone else just vanishes when riding, so you lose the party banter. Also, the zones aren't big or open enough for the most part to make the horses worth it.

Read Dead Redemption that game is not.

 

[Absent]

It is apparently true for Mass Effect sprinting and more than a few Nintendo racing games

In my experience it's also true with real life.

Everytime I rush, I just arrive out of breath, without having gained one second on my normal time.

 

[BrawlMan]

In Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge, the Lunar Star is the only weapon that lacks the Steel-On-Bone technique, because it's a blunt weapon and not bladed weapon. To make up for this, what would've been an SOB, becomes an Obliteration Technique instead, and you get sick ass animation of turning your foes into chunky salsa.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

I've been on a big game music kick lately and one I revisited was the theme for the fight with Masked Dedede from Kirby Super Star Ultra.

Something I realized was the actual significance of the audience for the fight, which is just Bandana Dee. Compare that with the fight you have with him in the Spring Breeze mode where the audience is packed. Dedede also offers Kirby a weapon before this fight. Dedede is serious about this one, he wants to win and beat Kirby for real and prove he's stronger, not just for clout, but for himself.

And something someone else noted in a video for the fight that I hadn't realized is that this is the last time Dedede has willingly fought Kirby in the series. Ever since he has only ever fought Kirby while under control by someone or something else. So once he lost this fight he seems to have decided not to want to fight Kirby anymore.

That's really interesting.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

At the start of Hi-Fi Rush, main character Chai isn't seen wearing the red scarf that he has in the key art and trailers. However, his right arm is in a red sling. Once it's replaced by a robot one in the game's opening act, the first thing he does is change out of a hospital gown back into his ordinary clothes, and that's when he wears the scarf for the first time - he repurposed the sling, once he no longer needed it for his arm, into the scarf. Probably because he thought it would look really cool (and he's right.)