Give me back my face!

[TheCommanders]

I just went back to play through Saints Row 2 again, and made a new character. After having lovingly crafted the character to look exactly how I wanted them, I wondered, how many games still do this? What I mean is how many games give you full control over every aspect of your appearance, allowing you to make exactly the character you want. A lot of games let you select from a bunch of pre-made parts, and then tweak them slightly. It's like they don't trust us to make a decent face. Sure plenty of people will just fuck around, but that's fine, that's part of the fun for them. And for me the fun is playing through a game with a character that is thoroughly mine. A few games (not saying anything about the quality of the rest of the game) where I found this feature lacking were Mass Effect, Dragon Age, SWTOR (yes I've been playing a lot of Bioware recently), and Skyrim (although in that game it's largely irrelevant considering you never see your face again after making it). Anyone familiar with game design knows that it's actually more effort on the part of the designer to create sets of pre-made parts to choose from, and maybe it would still be good to have that option for those who don't really give a damn about all the fiddley customization like I do. However, if you're going to make a game where we get to see our character's face for large amounts of time, let us make it look the way we want!

What are some games you guys (or gals) think have good customization interfaces, or bad ones, and is this a recent trend, or are some games improving the ways the whole character creation thing is handled? Finally, what is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

PS - Yes the topic title is a reference...

 

[dimensional]

Well SC V has great character customization except on the face there its all presets and although you can tweak the body its always sort of the same build. You can create some good stuff in it though but their desire to sell you more nik naks hampers what could have been a superb character editor, oh and they probably dont trust the community enough not to make offensive characters if given the chance (yes I know some already have).

The trouble is trying to get the power and the accessibility but if a layer system was introduced I think a lot more could be achieved very easily.

Most character customisers are pretty poor though and its hard enough just to create a character that dosent look like a total freak. Most also feel like bolt on attachments that dont add anything to the game.

 

[BENZOOKA]

Tiger Woods games had great customization

 

[Durgiun]

The only other game that had good face customization that I can remember is WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2006.

While I have nothing but dislike for Oblivion's and Fallout 3's/New Vegas' face customization. Oh lord, do I dislike it.

 

[DoPo]

Anyone familiar with game design knows that its actually more effort on the part of the designer to create sets of pre-made parts to choose from, and maybe it would still be good to have that option for those who don't really give a damn about all the fiddley customization like I do.

It's harder to come up with a concept, compared to what? I do believe it's harder to create a morphable character model, let the players fiddle around with the variables and have the model still look recognisable. Coming up with several swappable models with low degree of customization would be easier in that case, as you reduce the risk of something breaking.

OT: I do like the option of customization but I hate fiddling around. Usually, the first time I play a game, I spend a lot of time trying out all the options just to see what's there. And then pick a pre-made template (even better if I can just randomise the things) and maybe just add some of my touches - change hair colour, or something like this. I don't like playing the exact same characters over and over again, but then again, custom building them is taking away too much of my game time.

 

[TheCommanders]

Anyone familiar with game design knows that its actually more effort on the part of the designer to create sets of pre-made parts to choose from, and maybe it would still be good to have that option for those who don't really give a damn about all the fiddley customization like I do.

It's harder to come up with a concept, compared to what? I do believe it's harder to create a morphable character model, let the players fiddle around with the variables and have the model still look recognisable. Coming up with several swappable models with low degree of customization would be easier in that case, as you reduce the risk of something breaking.

OT: I do like the option of customization but I hate fiddling around. Usually, the first time I play a game, I spend a lot of time trying out all the options just to see what's there. And then pick a pre-made template (even better if I can just randomise the things) and maybe just add some of my touches - change hair colour, or something like this. I don't like playing the exact same characters over and over again, but then again, custom building them is taking away too much of my game time.

In a game like mass effect, where, for example, they allow you to pick from few noses, then change 2-3 variables (height, width, depth) they already have a morphable model of that body part. It's only a matter of including the interface to allow the player to mess around with it. I understand that a lot of people don't want to do spend the 15 minutes I do creating a character's face, and for them, the mix and match part sets should be there, but I wish that they would include the option to craft the character's face.

They don't need to restrict it so it looks recognizable, only so that it functions within the game's facial animation system, which works based on set points in the facial model. They would need, for example, to limit the mouth so it doesn't reach the sides of the face, as that would screw with talking animations, but within those limits, let the player go nuts! Like I said, the Saint's Row 2 system allows for precise customization, but still accommodates people who just want to tweak a few things.

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

You already named my favorite game for this: Saints Row 2 followed by the third (which i don`t hold up high with the plastic hair and the downgraded body options).
I can spend lots of time with making a character but it seems that most other games featuring this are sports games or rpgs. More open world games/tps would be nice.

I rented Skyrim a while back and i liked the character creation there. It wasn`t nearly as fleshed out as SR2 but had good options.

In ME2 i just used the prebuild male character. I wasn`t able to create something i liked there and since the prebuild is on the cover this is Sheppard to me.

 

[The Pinray]

The newer Fallout game's customization was piss poor. The games were great, but I ended up working for ages just to make someone that looked passable in New Vegas. In Fallout 3, though it took me forever, I ended up making a guy that looked like the spitting image of his father, albeit younger. That was awesome.

But I digress.

I thought Skyrim's customization was alright. I see my character's face all the time (I play predominantly in third person and usually forgo helmets), and I really enjoy how he looks.

Mass Effect's I found severely lacking.

Oh, and Neapolitan.

 

[Lucem712]

The newer Fallout game's customization was piss poor. The games were great, but I ended up working for ages just to make someone that looked passable in New Vegas. In Fallout 3, though it took me forever, I ended up making a guy that looked like the spitting image of his father, albeit younger. That was awesome.

I think FO3 had a feature where they would match the features you chose to your father, that way you couldn't be black/asian and your father be this white guy. Though, that might be a total fabrication on my part.

OT:

I really enjoyed Skyrim and how much you can get in and tweak,(Especially the human races.)
Fallout 3/NV were shoddy at best and I was lucky my dude came out normal looking.

Also, GTA:SA. That was pretty awesome, being able to get buff or chunky. All the clothing options, tattoos, and haircuts. I really need to get a copy of it.

 

[A Satanic Panda]

The newer Fallout game's customization was piss poor. The games were great, but I ended up working for ages just to make someone that looked passable in New Vegas. In Fallout 3, though it took me forever, I ended up making a guy that looked like the spitting image of his father, albeit younger. That was awesome.

I think FO3 had a feature where they would match the features you chose to your father, that way you couldn't be black/asian and your father be this white guy. Though, that might be a total fabrication on my part.

And you'd be right, it does change your dad to your race. And once I made a perfect Gordon Freeman character in FO3, but I could never replicate it.

 

[Folji]

I love a game that offers character customization, even just a little bit of it. But stories are a little bit easier to tell when you have a defined protagonist instead of a blank slate that has to be filled in, even if the current "defined protagonist" norm revolves around 30-something brown-haired caucasian males.

Character customization is probably the main reason why I play RPGs.

 

[The Pinray]

The newer Fallout game's customization was piss poor. The games were great, but I ended up working for ages just to make someone that looked passable in New Vegas. In Fallout 3, though it took me forever, I ended up making a guy that looked like the spitting image of his father, albeit younger. That was awesome.

I think FO3 had a feature where they would match the features you chose to your father, that way you couldn't be black/asian and your father be this white guy. Though, that might be a total fabrication on my part.

It mainly matched the skin color. His main features stayed the same for the most part. I've made characters that look nothing like the dear old dad. My dude had his jawline, eyes, forehead, ears, etc...

Don't ruin my fun! D':

 

[octafish]

Wasn't APB's key draw it's extensive character creation toolset? Now that it is F2P I've been meaning to check it out, but I'm not sure if it is soloable.