Tiny insignificant details in games that really impressed you

[happyninja42]

Dutch: WE ALL NEED TO EARN OUR KEEP! PUT MONEY IN THE BOX AND SIGN THE LEDGER
Dutch's contributions to the Box:

Yeah that was something that really annoyed me. I remember going out and hunting like a LOT of animals, bringing home tons of meat and pelts, and other bits, herbs, you name it. I donated them to the camp, sold the other stuff to what's his face, the cook guy, and had the satisfaction of seeing one of the supply indicators go from red to white for my trouble. So I'm thinking "ok, hell yeah, I'm making progress, making their lives better" *jaunty whistle as I walk across camp to go do more good stuff for my assholes!" *Dutch grabs me in a neck hug that's nothing but dominance, and proceeds to 'remind' me that everyone has to contribute, and that he's disappointed in my lack of contribution*
Me: ( -__- ) Oh, and I'd also donated a lot of jewelry into the box too...or was it spent money directly to buy upgrades? One or the other, but whichever it was, it was the one that apparently DIDN'T tell Dutch that I was contributing. So yeah, fuck that guy.

 

[Dalisclock]

Yeah that was something that really annoyed me. I remember going out and hunting like a LOT of animals, bringing home tons of meat and pelts, and other bits, herbs, you name it. I donated them to the camp, sold the other stuff to what's his face, the cook guy, and had the satisfaction of seeing one of the supply indicators go from red to white for my trouble. So I'm thinking "ok, hell yeah, I'm making progress, making their lives better" *jaunty whistle as I walk across camp to go do more good stuff for my assholes!" *Dutch grabs me in a neck hug that's nothing but dominance, and proceeds to 'remind' me that everyone has to contribute, and that he's disappointed in my lack of contribution*
Me: ( -__- ) Oh, and I'd also donated a lot of jewelry into the box too...or was it spent money directly to buy upgrades? One or the other, but whichever it was, it was the one that apparently DIDN'T tell Dutch that I was contributing. So yeah, fuck that guy.

And of course what's the first thing you need to do to upgrade everything else? Upgrade Dutch's tent, of course. So he can sit around and read his books all day in comfort.

One can only imagine the hypothetical Tahitian mango plantation he had in mind. "Everyone needs to earn their keep and harvest mangos! I'll be reading in the mansion if you need me".

For all Dutch's preaching about the gang being the last bastion of freedom from the tyranny of the industrialized world, he's pretty good at getting everyone else to do all the work and contribute all the money while he parrots his favorite books on philosophy(which even Lenny calls out as being pretty but shallow).

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

And of course what's the first thing you need to do to upgrade everything else? Upgrade Dutch's tent, of course. So he can sit around and read his books all day in comfort.

One can only imagine the hypothetical Tahitian mango plantation he had in mind. "Everyone needs to earn their keep and harvest mangos! I'll be reading in the mansion if you need me".

For all Dutch's preaching about the gang being the last bastion of freedom from the tyranny of the industrialized world, he's pretty good at getting everyone else to do all the work and contribute all the money while he parrots his favorite books on philosophy(which even Lenny calls out as being pretty but shallow).

I kinda think it was by design, to add to the feeling of Dutch being...not all he cracks himself up to be. He didn’t fool Uncle though -

 

[Dalisclock]

I kinda think it was by design, to add to the feeling of Dutch being...not all he cracks himself up to be. He didn’t fool Uncle though -

Stop giving me reasons to respect uncle.

Okay, I'll give him that but he's still a wierd lazy mooch.

Yeah, Lenny gets a good one on Dutch too, indirectly.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Stop giving me reasons to respect uncle.

Okay, I'll give him that but he's still a wierd lazy mooch.

Yeah, Lenny gets a good one on Dutch too, indirectly.

Dutch sure does not like to be questioned. You can just sense his blood boiling underneath, unless it’s delicately defused. Sometimes I wonder how differently things might’ve played out if he had some humility and wasn’t so insecure.

In a way it almost seems like he’s a projection of Miller’s writings; like he’s modeling himself on them, but his foundation is too weak to hold the act up, at least under tough times.

 

[Dalisclock]

Dutch sure does not like to be questioned. You can just sense his blood boiling underneath, unless it’s delicately defused. Sometimes I wonder how differently things might’ve played out if he had some humility and wasn’t so insecure.

In a way it almost seems like he’s a projection of Miller’s writings; like he’s modeling himself on them, but his foundation is too weak to hold the act up, at least under tough times.

The idea that Dutch runs the gang like his own cult feels pretty on the nose here ,where rule #1 he is not to be questioned. Ever.

Early in the game he ribs arthur a bit about talking behind his back, and of course, he gets mad when Arthur INSISTS John should be allowed to leave with his family.

"You Insist?"

And of course, he'll abandon people who he thinks are disloyal. Such as Arthur and John.

 

[SilentPony]

This may not be a tiny detail, but its often an overlooked one - realistic dialogue. So many games just write a bunch of words and throw them at the player as choices and think its immersive. Take Mass Effect and Shepard's dialogue. There was a bunch of them. And not one of them sounded like something an actual person would say. Which okay I understand we can't have the hero of space complaining their underwear is in their asscrack again, or the DragonBorn stubbing his toe and trying not to whimper or Lara Croft forgetting her lockpicking kit and swearing up a storm. The story needs to go forward so certain things need to be said. But still, its cringe.

So props to games that actually get human interactions down right.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

This may not be a tiny detail, but its often an overlooked one - realistic dialogue. So many games just write a bunch of words and throw them at the player as choices and think its immersive. Take Mass Effect and Shepard's dialogue. There was a bunch of them. And not one of them sounded like something an actual person would say. Which okay I understand we can't have the hero of space complaining their underwear is in their asscrack again, or the DragonBorn stubbing his toe and trying not to whimper or Lara Croft forgetting her lockpicking kit and swearing up a storm. The story needs to go forward so certain things need to be said. But still, its cringe.

So props to games that actually get human interactions down right.

Any examples of games or even just single lines in games that do this?

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

The idea that Dutch runs the gang like his own cult feels pretty on the nose here ,where rule #1 he is not to be questioned. Ever.

Early in the game he ribs arthur a bit about talking behind his back, and of course, he gets mad when Arthur INSISTS John should be allowed to leave with his family.

"You Insist?"

And of course, he'll abandon people who he thinks are disloyal. Such as Arthur and John.

In a tragic twist I think the realization that he betrayed Arthur’s loyalty at the end (“(Micah’s) a rat...I gave you all had. I did.”) crushed Dutch and left him bewildered. His last bit of redemption was when he shot Micah. I didn’t notice it until someone pointed it out, but if you look closely at the door of the shack on the mountain you can see a rat crawl out right before Micah walks out. Also didn’t realize it at first, but when John asks Dutch why he’s there and he says,

“Same reason as you, I suppose.”

He likely wasn’t working with Micah, but was planning on killing him too.

Might’ve been a strange coincidence.

 

[Dalisclock]

In a tragic twist I think the realization that he betrayed Arthur’s loyalty at the end (“(Micah’s) a rat...I gave you all had. I did.”) crushed Dutch and left him bewildered. His last bit of redemption was when he shot Micah. I didn’t notice it until someone pointed it out, but if you look closely at the door of the shack on the mountain you can see a rat crawl out right before Micah walks out. Also didn’t realize it at first, but when John asks Dutch why he’s there and he says,

“Same reason as you, I suppose.”

He likely wasn’t working with Micah, but was planning on killing him too.

Might’ve been a strange coincidence.

I didn't notice the rat but yeah, that bit with Dutch at the end struck me the same way. Especially since he had to know John wasn't there to join Micah

 

[BrawlMan]

Evil Within 2. The semi-open world is back to the brim with side quests relevant to the story, gets you new items, and Sebastian's personal quest facing his demons are stand out moments. The attack and sneak animations are another attention to detail as you upgrade. The fact Sebesatian now can stomp on a Lost after kneecapping them (the equivalent of RE4, Van Damme Roundhouse kicking a Ganado) is much better than lighting a Haunted with a match. Speaking of the Lost, there are details, audio logs, and notes on how people became them. It's hinted at when you see the preacher in the church in one of the early chapters. The next hint is whenever Anima appears. Sebastian has a death animation where what happens to the preacher happens to him when caught by Anima.

The Lost have their own details looking molded humanoid combined with skin and papermache. Shooting their arms and they will grow back provided they still have health. The burning variations will use their arm stump as a weapon, because their blood is all lava. Waste ammo during fights, and Sebass will comment and say "I need to save on ammo. Or need to find more ammo.". Or "Shit, I'm out!", when trying fire an empty gun at a monster. There's a funny moment that happens when firing a smoke bolt at Stefano during his boss fight. He will start coughing and literally say "Smoke? Really?". It is hilarious! This is why this game is my favorite horror game of this gen.

 

[Meshakhad]

There are several events in some Hearts of Iron 4 mods which end with someone being executed that also decrease your manpower by 1. It's insignificant (an average infantry division will require 10,000 manpower) but it's a nice touch.

 

[Dalisclock]

Red Dead Redemption 2(and the first game as well, I believe).

Arthur/John's Gunbelt and Bandelero will look more or less full depending on how much ammo you have. Even down to individual loops having/missing bullets/shells in them.

RDR2 specific:

-The catalogs in the stores have actual readable advertisements for stuff not even sold in the game, in between the things you can buy. Someone went through a lot of time and effort to put that into the game.

-The newspapers will sometimes have an article about a bounty or sidequest you did, fit into the actual on-screen page, not just another text entry put in there.

-There's a mini-game where you pilot a remote control boat with tiny torpedos in a lake to help NOT-Nikola Tesla. As far as I can tell, this mini-game exists nowhere else and is only available in this one optional side mission.

-There are like 8 seperate Magic Lantern shows to watch, about 10 or so Vaudeville acts in St. Denis and a couple of old timey movies in Blackwater. Only one of the movies and a couple vaudeville acts are remotely connected to the main missions.

I mean, really, a ton of stuff but those are the most obvious ones to me.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

One Finger Death Punch is almost entirely built on these. The gameplay is fairly simple, but besides the execution skill required at higher levels, what makes it so satisfying is how accurately it reproduces the style of those mid-00s stickfigure animations that were popular on Newgrounds and elsewhere. Mechanically, if an enemy is in range on both sides of you at once, they both slow down a little bit to give you time to react and decide which to prioritize taking out, which helps more than you'd think.

 

[happyninja42]

One Finger Death Punch is almost entirely built on these. The gameplay is fairly simple, but besides the execution skill required at higher levels, what makes it so satisfying is how accurately it reproduces the style of those mid-00s stickfigure animations that were popular on Newgrounds and elsewhere. Mechanically, if an enemy is in range on both sides of you at once, they both slow down a little bit to give you time to react and decide which to prioritize taking out, which helps more than you'd think.

yeah OFDP is a super fun game. I remember watching TB's review of it back in the day, and it was really fun watching him completely geek out about how much fun it was. xD

OT: Fallout 4: Survival Mode. So many little things in this mode that make playing the game so much more fun. Now I enjoy FO4 anyway, Survival just makes it more fun for me.
First point: No Fast Travel:
I remember right before they introduced Survival, there was a known bug, where your fast travel got disabled (I assume it was a background patching leading up to the Survival release, that had a few kinks). I got hit with that bug, and they said there was no way to fix it for a particular save file. That if you had that problem, you would have to restart with a new file. Now initially, this pissed me off, but after actually playing it without fast travel, I loved it. It actually made me engage with the map. I wasn't magically teleporting around the place, bypassing all interaction with the map. I had to consider my routes, plan a series of quests to knock out, and in what order, to maximize travel efficiency. I actually had to account for bases of operation, and it made having the network of townships through the Minutemen, connected via supply lines (and thus connecting their junk supplies), incredibly useful. I found myself moving my base of operations from Sanctuary to the drive in theater, because it was a more centralized location. I made an effort to establish each town well, because I needed them in the network so I could more easily craft at any outpost. I actually utilized my trader caravans, to move supplies for me when I was taking everything from Sanctuary to the drive in, because hey, he's going that way anyway, might as well load him up with a 100lbs or so of junk and save me a trip.
It made the vertibird smoke grenades , and the ability to call them as a taxi, a rare luxury for speeding up travel. Coupling it with the teleport grenades from the Institute, and you could (at a cost of those resources) replicate fast travel in a more organic, in-universe way. (teleport to the Institute, and then call down a vertibird to pick you up and take you somewhere else if need be.)

Second point: General health:
It's one of the few games that implemented a survival/health system, that felt really solid to me. There was always a give and take with it. Want to take a nap in a bloody, soaking wet sleeping bag you found in a ruined building? Ok, no problem, get ready to get an infection of some kind. Feel like jumping into a radiation bath for some rare loot? Sure, get ready to lose a lot of health if you don't take precautions. Feel like getting rid of those rads you so foolishly gained by popping a radaway? Fine, get ready to be hungry as hell as the medication freaks out your appetite (a nice little real touch there from my personal experience, if somewhat accelerated timeline), oh and also be ready to be REALLY susceptible to infections as a result, as this stuff compromises your immune system to repair the radiation damage. What's that? You want to sleep in that bag again after radaway?.....you really want pain don't you? Need to get rid of those infections? Fine, get ready to take an antibiotic, and be thirsty as hell. Hope you brought enough food/water to account for this. It made the crops I was growing really useful, as I could make some efficient food/drink (hello noodle cup) if I grew the right crops, as well as adhesive. Just, so much more fun, without being a hassle.

 

[happyninja42]

Which okay I understand we can't have the hero of space complaining their underwear is in their asscrack again,

Actually I would love this kind of line as random banter content. And given the level of Whedon-esque quipping that the characters do with each other, it would totally fit. I mean, I can totally see this being a topic of discussion in say, an elevator load screen. Shepherd comments about a wedgie, and if there is an alien in the group, they might ask for clarification, while a human companion might empathize. I mean, come on, who doesn't want to hear Mordon and Rex, discussing the wedgie equivalent for their species, and the pros and cons of having/not having various anatomy? Mordon: "Ah, I see, yes Shepherd that does sound....problematic. However the location of my species cloaca makes that less of an issue." Rex:" Yeah well, try sitting in a cramped tube with 4 testicles, talk about manspreading being a necessity. You ever been kicked in the balls Mordon? Well it's not just twice as bad because I've got twice the balls. It's..." *winces in memory* "exponentially worse"

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Red Dead Redemption 2(and the first game as well, I believe).

Arthur/John's Gunbelt and Bandelero will look more or less full depending on how much ammo you have. Even down to individual loops having/missing bullets/shells in them.

RDR2 specific:

-The catalogs in the stores have actual readable advertisements for stuff not even sold in the game, in between the things you can buy. Someone went through a lot of time and effort to put that into the game.

-The newspapers will sometimes have an article about a bounty or sidequest you did, fit into the actual on-screen page, not just another text entry put in there.

-There's a mini-game where you pilot a remote control boat with tiny torpedos in a lake to help NOT-Nikola Tesla. As far as I can tell, this mini-game exists nowhere else and is only available in this one optional side mission.

-There are like 8 seperate Magic Lantern shows to watch, about 10 or so Vaudeville acts in St. Denis and a couple of old timey movies in Blackwater. Only one of the movies and a couple vaudeville acts are remotely connected to the main missions.

I mean, really, a ton of stuff but those are the most obvious ones to me.

It’s probably the fact that so much of what can be missed is often the most interesting, and in many cases makes up the bulk of the most actual unique content. The stuff Strange Man does kinda flies under the radar of most scripted missions or quests, and is just added detail. Idk if he’s worked for Rockstar or had inside info, but he seems to know the story behind a ton of random places, people, events, etc. that aren’t even mentioned in the story.

This extends to the environments themselves, which seem to have a logic or grand design behind them that I would’ve never thought of if it were never explained


One of my favorite environmental details is how well the color grading can make vegetation look faded when dry and vibrant green when wet. This is especially the case in Roanoke Ridge, and some areas of Big Valley.

 

[BrawlMan]

A lot of Tetsuya Mizuguchi hybrid rhythm games are this. Lumines, Meteos, Rez, Child of Eden, and Tetris Effect. The use of dynamic music and sound ques are just icing on the cake.

Double Dragon Neon had plenty of fun secrets and hidden sections. You could break all of the Skullmageddon's TVs in the 2nd stage and get an achievement/trophy. The 360 version has an exclusive achievement called Finish What You Started. When immediately starting the game gives you 1 achievement point (unevening you total achievement score, making it hard to divide by an even number). Beating the actual game gives you the other 49 achievement points.

 

[Crowchild]

The animation in Witcher 3 when Geralt pulls out a sword, with the other hand from the back he slightly pushes the sword for it to come out easier. It's like 1 second thing, but such a nice realistic detail

 

[wings012]

When I first got a smartphone, I was installing a lot of random garbage apps and among them was basically just a compilation of all the Elder Scrolls books. Which I used for my toilet reading material

Daggerfall:On Lycanthropy - The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP)

en.uesp.net

And I got to this book. I had recently played Skyrim and done the whole Werewolf questline and gotten it cured. I liked how Skyrim, 15 years after Daggerfall had these little lore consistencies. In Skyrim, you had to seek out the Glenmoril Witches to get a cure to your lycanthropy and this old Daggerfall book on the subject matter has a reference to that. "On the other hand, I have a colleague investigating a coven of witches in the Glenpoint foothills of High Rock who are rumored to have a cure."