Immersion: The Little Things

[Grabbin Keelz]

I dunno about you, but I love noticing those tiny extra details in games. The developers could have worked on something else, but they took the time to put in just a bit more effort and ended up making the game more immersive. An example of my favorite bit of innovation was in Super Mario 64. While most games have third person camera control from an unseen force, Mario 64 actually had a real camera man following you around. You didn't think much about it after the intro, but later in the game when you find the room of mirrors you can see the camera man floating behind you.

So whats that minute detail that you appreciate in a certain game? It can be the smallest thing.

 

[Brown Cap]

The butterflies in the original Jakk and Daxter

How the water carried off the dead bodies in the first FarCry

The "Ragdoll" effect

ah... good times

 

[Mr Pantomime]

I liked how in Metal Gear Solid 4, when you crouched for too long, snake would get a bad back. Really empahsised that you were playing an old man.

The NPC conversation always intrigued me in Mass Effect 1 and 2. Some people would talk about the most mundane things. Made it seem a lot more realistic.

 

[DustStorm]

Skate. They didn't take the Tony Hawk approach and instead made it like a real camera man was filming you skate. Pretty immerseive if you ask me.

 

[Wuggy]

The birds in Witcher 2. They flock around stuff they eat and when you walk near enough, they fly away and come back when you're further away again. It's a really minor detail, but it gets me quite immersed to the world. There's a lot of other factors too of course.

 

[Mallefunction]

In AC2 and Brotherhood, I loved listening to the doctors call out shit. "My 43% survival ratio is the highest in ALL of Roma!" Pfft! And then if you got into a fight near their stall they would actually cower and try to protect themselves.

 

[Badong]

I can't think of anything right now other than fictional swearing. Seriously, well made fictional swearing can get you saying it after a while.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Nice details to the world around you that makes it feel like someone was there before, that it is an actual world inhabited by people, Half-Life and Bioshock do this incredibly well.

And random NPC banter, I love that shit, I'll have a completely useless party member with me just for the shits and grins.

 

[SamFancyPants252]

Fish that die and float off whenever you see an underwater explosion in any game

 

[MrHero17]

Rain and steam getting on your visor in the Metroid Prime games, also how certain electrical enemy's would cause your visors to display static if thy got to close.

 

[EternalFacepalm]

The Dunwich Building in Fallout 3. It was amazing.

 

[Layz92]

When a model actually bends it's legs to be in sync with the gradient of a hill. When the reload animation in a FPS is actually a proper reload (thumb moving up to hit the clip release etc) rather than the clip just falling out of the gun. Also appropriate environmental damage on weapons. Like in Crysis where after the huge blizzard whips through all your weapons have cracked lenses etc.

 

[Drummie666]

In Medal of Honor, the screen has a very small shake effect to show the involuntary muscle movements in our necks to keep our heads up.
I found that to be a very nice touch.

 

[danintexas]

When you move things in Oblivion - You can move heavier objects with a higher strength.

 

[tahrey]

The pager messages in old top-down GTA, and how the NPCs could get into traffic accidents (or run across the train tracks and get fried on the 3rd rail) all by themselves. Shows just what you can do with single-figure MB RAM and made things feel a bit less clinical.

... i can't really think of any others, somehow. Maybe that's the mark of a really good "little touch", though - that it doesn't stand out enough to be consciously noticed?