Tiny insignificant details in games that really impressed you

Specter Von Baren

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Perhaps not insignificant as assumed, but the feel of Metroid Dread's movement controls is so fucking tight, cathartically tactile perfection especially as abilities unlock later on. Am not sure any other metroidvania, critically acclaimed or otherwise, has yet come close. Dead Cells maybe, but it still lacks that hypnotic taiji dichotomy between sense of weight and ninja sci-fi zippiness. Certainly not last month's Trinity Fusion at least, though it was a worthwhile effort nonetheless.
I would say the only game that comes close is a DS game called Daniel X, which has surprisingly good movement for a game based on a YA novel series
 
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Specter Von Baren

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Devil May Cry 1. The Phantom boss fight starts with a cutscenes that ends with Phantom saying he'll crush Dante and he lifts his claw up to do so and brings it down, and then it switches to in engine with Dante in the air, having leaped out of the way and over Phantom who launches a fireball attack at the spot you were just at.

I LOVE when developers have it so cutscenes and in engine gameplay weave together like that.
 

XsjadoBlaydette

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Dave the Diver has surprise lil cutscenes, cinematic pixel art cutscenes that swoop out of nowhere if you study, upgrade, etc with such an opposingly stylish yet flippant tone shift they kinda feel like a treat in themselves. Now have started putting aside the tea, whiskey, morphine needles, possessed talking skulls and cat to.make sure am prepared and comfy for like the 3 silly seconds worth every time.👌
 
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XsjadoBlaydette

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New Prince of Persians is pretty liberal with combat options, though the coolest one so far have tried is being able to parry your boomerang-like chakram as it returns from an attack, sending it back out on another attack, and keep it going as many times you want or until you release how little damage it does to the incoming hostile flurry of swords. Would be improved by being able to aim the parry, but mayhaps is later unlock or just possessed by Megaman ideology.

am posting too much, am insufferable
 

Chimpzy

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Playing Silent Hill Shattered Memories and you have a flashlight. Big whoop, It's Silent Hill, of course you have a flashlight. But it casts realtime dynamic shadows. Ok, sure, it's those blackest black hard stencil shadows like you also see in Doom 3, but still. And they're pretty accurate too. You can shine it at some barb wire, and it'll cast the correct shadow on the wall. It often snows in this game (which also looks pretty damn good btw) and the snow casts shadows. And this is on the goddamn Wii
 
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Playing Silent Hill Shattered Memories and you have a flashlight. Big whoop, It's Silent Hill, of course you have a flashlight. But it casts realtime dynamic shadows. Ok, sure, it's those blackest black hard stencil shadows like you also see in Doom 3, but still. And they're pretty accurate too. You can shine it at some barb wire, and it'll cast the correct shadow on the wall. It often snows in this game (which also looks pretty damn good btw) and the snow casts shadows. And this is on the goddamn Wii
Meanwhile Nintendo’s first parties be like, “What’s a ‘shadow’?”
 
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BrawlMan

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Playing Silent Hill Shattered Memories and you have a flashlight. Big whoop, It's Silent Hill, of course you have a flashlight. But it casts realtime dynamic shadows. Ok, sure, it's those blackest black hard stencil shadows like you also see in Doom 3, but still. And they're pretty accurate too. You can shine it at some barb wire, and it'll cast the correct shadow on the wall. It often snows in this game (which also looks pretty damn good btw) and the snow casts shadows. And this is on the goddamn Wii
Speaking of Wii titles with excellent casting shadows, the dynamic lighting in MadWorld is insane. It truly feels like a Frank Miller comic book come to life.
 
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An extra detail for you: after Ornstein absorbs Smough, not only does he adopt the famous ground pound attack, he also inherits Smough's laugh, and laughs during the attack!
 

XsjadoBlayde

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Oh yeah, Pacific Drive also has the mannequins mechanic from Condemned. Remember the sega game Condemned? The sneaky mannequins? The sequel?? Anyway relieved to see they're not lost to the maw of time, unsettling bastards.


Oh and the menu descriptions on items brought jokes. With distinctly British tones too, though not looking it up to check as don't care if wrong.
 
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XsjadoBlayde

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The physics are physicing hard in new Mudrunners: Expedition game. First time I drove into a tree only to see it bend and flatten beneath my mechanical mass instead of remaining a stoic blockade was a nice lil brain tickle. The series is built off a majority of such small physics-based brain tickles.

Though the visual physics of the tires in garage mode could do with a number or two being tinkered with so they don't wobble so much like jelly each time the vehicle model loads lol.

Oh, also the music's absolute shite. Am just offloading that thought here before it's forgotten forever more. Can you think of the blandest royalty-free "hey dads check out these cars and machines you manly-yet-unthreatening-responsibly-boring bad boys gonna look so cool playing in!" rock track from like a CD educational demo that came free with some magazine in the 90s? It's more generic than that.
 
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Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
I grabbed a shootemup called Graze Counter GM and its last level is really neat. You start flying over the ocean and during the course of it you do a barrel roll, but its top down so you never see your ship turn, but the whole world turns and you see the sun and the shadow of a big enemy bomber flying over head then you right yourself and back to the ocean, I love details like that in shootemups.

I also love when shootemups manage to really feel fast, like it feels like your moving at high speed, not like the classics such as R-type and Gradius where you are just moving slowly.
 

TheMysteriousGX

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I dunno how insignificant this counts as, but in Helldivers 2, not only can you see your Super Destroyer in low orbit, called in orbital strikes attack from that angle, which you need to compensate with terrain for

Also, not only are ricochet bullets physics objects that can do damage, but the flamethrower has backsplash
 

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Another of RE5 details I love are the fact there are multiple ways to stun and melee human sized enemies. If you knee a zombie from behind, you have a possible melee where Chris/Sheva will break the zombies neck, killing it instantly. There are dialogue changes based off which character is player one, etc., or who decide to unlock/crank what. RE5 has a lot of hidden goodies and secrets not enough people talk about.
 
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