You didn't have to do that, but I'm glad you did.

[Aeshi]

Have there ever been any games that added/had some neat small detail that you barely notice/wasn't necessary but you're grateful for regardless?

I'll start with a couple bunch that come to mind for me:

- In one mission in Shadowrun: Dragonfall you're sneaking into a fancy corporate building, and while you're there you can steal a bottle of expensive wine if you take the time to search one of the bigwig's offices.

Now what you're meant to do is sell it to an NPC in the hub area, but on one playthrough I forgot to do this and carried it all the way to the endgame (depending on when you did said mission, that could easily be 8-12 hours of gameplay), and in one of the endings you can actually use said bottle for a toast! The NPC you do said toast with even remarks on how odd it is that you just so happened to be holding on to something like that.

- One or two of the vehicles in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars have a fully functional mini-map built into their dashboards. It's far smaller than your HUD minimap, and it's unlikely you'd actually be using the 1st-person view to begin with, but it's a nice touch.

- The Blade Wolf boss in Revengance announces "Combination Complete" after finishing a melee combo, a feature that he keeps in his DLC Chapter where you actually play as him.

- The Dangan Ronpa Visual Novels have a part of the HUD that tells you what the currently playing music track is called at any given time.

- In the 3D Monkey Island games they actually took the time to code Stan's vest so that it has the same "Unmoving Texture" effect it did in the old 2D games.

 

[Barbas]

I like well-written dialogue and competent combat AI. I appreciate interesting and well-implemented codex entries, or tutorials that are designed in an unobtrusive manner and notifications that don't pause gameplay or flash distractingly, and are written in a manner consistent with the world the developers are attempting to portray.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I appreciate NPCs with idle/contextual animation ala The Last of Us.

 

[Glongpre]

The first that comes to mind is in Ninja Gaiden 2, when battles finish and you stand still for a moment, Ryu will flick the blood off his weapons before sheathing them.

It was a nice touch.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I liked the Ghoul engine which only seemed to have been used in Solider of Fortune 2. Gibbing is so much more satisfying than ragdolls in my opinion and the Ghould Engine is just one of those things that's really satisfying when you see it in effect. If they ever made another Solider of Fortune it would almost certainly use a different engine instead of a new or updated Ghoul...oh wait, that's kind of a big thing.

---

Pokemon HG/SS is the only one where every Pokemon's sprite is used in the world map to make the Pokemon at the top of your party follow behind you. I'm one of those people who really liked that.

I like how Wolverine is damaged and how he heals over time in the X-Men Origins: Wolverine tie-in game.

I like how when you use bombs or the fire-wand on long grass in Link Between Worlds, the grass withers and turns brown.

The Fire in Far Cry 3. I haven't played Far Cry 4 or Alone in the Dark 360 but I like how you can essentially start wild fires in Far Cry 3.

Papyrus' fridge.

Little Mac's wireframe costumes in Smash 4.

Using the Detective Vision when you fight The Joker after he uses the antidote to cure himself in Arkham City.

Aquaman's hair in Battle for Atlantis.

Character interactions in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Gold (or MUA if you have all of the DLC characters).

The card game in Final Fantasy IX...which isn't that small but I liked it anyway and one can realistically play through the whole game without dealing with the card game and not be effected much at all.

There actually is a Police Station in Germantown, Maryland though I can't say it's populated by Super Mutants or Deathclaws(Fallout 3).

The not-at-all small algorithm put in place that makes each time you smash a bottle in the ship different and changes the speed of melting ice cubes...in Metal Gear Solid 2.

Symphony of the Night is so packed full of content that its feasible to play through and complete the game in multiple ways with multiple weapon, armor and, magical layouts.

Any game with enemy in-fighting. All of those are great.

Any game with gibbing instead of ragdolls.

Idol conversations you can listen to in games like Thief, the Arkham games, etc...

 

[Aeshi]

MGS3: Subsistence in the River of Pain or whatever it's called, you encounter all the NPC's you've killed so far in ghost form, and they are used as a very effective obstacle to your goal of getting through it.

Pretty much the entire MGS series is filled with things in this thread's title.

The original God of War after beating the game, you can break a couple statues and it reveals a scrambled phone number that gives you a "secret" message. Apparently the number still works too.

The Witcher still has the best tryst encounters, because it gives you uncensored mementos of each one in the Director's Cut patch.

MK's Krypts. They're one of the many things I always look forward to with a new MK game with all the extras they pack into these increasingly elaborate labyrinths.

I second Symphony of the Night as well. After beating the game, the castle flips and is playable again with different secrets and abilities gained from the main play through.

 

[WolfThomas]

GTA V and Online is great for little details. Like you're in first person in a cockpit of a helicopter. You can see your compass, artifical horizon, altimeters and if the landing gear are up.

You'll drive out into the middle of no where and find a guy fishing in a creek.

The fact you can see your watch, gloves, tattoos in first person. As well as have effects for wearing a gask mask, sunglasses, helmet etc.

 

[Saelune]

The blood in Duke Nukem 3D. Still best blood Ive ever seen in a game. Maybe not visually, but when you shotgun an enemy against a wall, it splatters on it and then drips down. If you create a pool of blood, usually by gibbing, you can walk through it, leave bloody footprints, and the blood pool shrinks as you do it.

I wish blood was taken more seriously in violent games.

Duke Nukem 3D alone has probably a ton of other neat little things that make it such an amazing game that deserves a proper sequel.

 

[Mister K]

Hmm, those that I can actually remember right now:

- Driving in Brutal Legend. Double Fine really didn't need to make it enjoyable, but they did and I am grateful.

- Opinions on Blitzball if Final Fantasy X varry, but I personally really liked this mini game to the point that I'd actually buy a videogame centered about Blitzball only (for a reasonable price, of course).

 

[Dedtoo]

The fact that you have to de-scope between shots with sniper-rifles in Battlefield 4. (Minus point for having an upgrade that just removes it.)

The cannon reloading from Battlefield 1. It forces you to look away from your target, meaning you might lose sight of them... But it feels so much better than just shooting and waiting a few seconds, before firing again.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

It's not in the game, per se, but the End User License Agreement for The Witcher 3 isn't written in some difficult-to-understand legalese. It's written in plain English, and was kept concise and to-the-point.

I never read through the EULA anyway, but after glancing at CD Projekt Red's take on it, I felt compelled to actually read it for a change. I wouldn't have begrudged them if they wrote it normally, but little things like that are what make CD Projekt Red so great.

 

[Erttheking]

I liked how you could play whatever soundtrack you wanted during The World Ends With You, whenever you wanted. Would've preferred it if I didn't have to buy them (With in game currency, don't worry). They weren't expensive but it was a bit of hassle.

I really liked the achievement in Arkham Asylum where a bunch of the Joker's thugs are standing around, applauding Batman as he walks into the Joker's "party" and if you're an asshole like me and beat the shit out of all of them, you get the achievement "Party Pooper."

In Shadowrun Hong Kong, there's apparently a secret ending you can get. I did not manage to get it myself, but I absolutely love the way it is written.

 

[09philj]

Hearthstone's clickable board decorations. I love finding all the secrets in each new one.

 

[Kingjackl]

The Witcher contracts in the Witcher 3. They could have easily been inconsequential "kill this monster, get reward" quests with no depth or complexity to them, but they took the time to flesh out the stories of the people involved, and some of them can occasionally give you interesting choices on par with what you'd expect from the main plot.

The haunted house contract in Velen reunited me with a character from Witcher 2, the lighthouse contract in Skellige ended with me getting arrested and triggered a questline involving one of the jarls. I just got done doing the Woodland Spirit contract, which had a moral choice over whether it's better keep up the tradition of appeasing the beast or risk everything to kill it. It's actually one of the few times where playing as Geralt rather than a player avatar of some sort hurt the roleplaying, since killing the beast was such an obvious choice for him.

They could have just as easily been MMO sidequests. You know "kill the ogre, reclaim my stolen treasure, get money and XP". Instead, they went the extra mile and made the monster encounters unique, and gave the quest-givers fleshed out personalities and motivations.

 

[Leviathan]

In Shadowrun Hong Kong, there's apparently a secret ending you can get. I did not manage to get it myself, but I absolutely love the way it is written.

I'm a recovering Shadowrun addict, and now I have an excuse for another 20 hour playthrough.

 

[Aeshi]

In Shadowrun Hong Kong, there's apparently a secret ending you can get. I did not manage to get it myself, but I absolutely love the way it is written.

Which ending would that be? I know of 3 endings, but I wouldn't call any of them "secret" except for maybe the "Golden Ending"

 

[Erttheking]

In Shadowrun Hong Kong, there's apparently a secret ending you can get. I did not manage to get it myself, but I absolutely love the way it is written.

Which ending would that be? I know of 3 endings, but I wouldn't call any of them "secret" except for maybe the "Golden Ending"

In Shadowrun Hong Kong, there's apparently a secret ending you can get. I did not manage to get it myself, but I absolutely love the way it is written.

I'm a recovering Shadowrun addict, and now I have an excuse for another 20 hour playthrough.

Well I was kind of referring to the Golden ending as the secret ending. The one where you pull a quick one over the big bad at the end. Mainly due to how hard it is to unlock.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Well I was kind of referring to the Golden ending as the secret ending. The one where you pull a quick one over the big bad at the end. Mainly due to how hard it is to unlock.

Don't you just need to talk to the talismonger a whole bunch of times and say the right thing to Is0bel?

(Edit) All I know is that HK was (apart from the SNES classc) the best SR videogame right up until they made the extended campaign. Duncan is a prick and it felt needlessly forced. "Hi! Choose mediocrity and your brother liking you while you live a life as a wage slave. Or your brother hating you because you don't want to be miserable for all the years of a far longer life span..."

No ... fuck you. That was horrible. Why in hell was there no middle ground for this? Why no seperation between siblings, as one went one path while the other went another? Whole play on the separation they had before the game prologue coming back full circle, but this time it was the parting that they wanted and could mutually live with. One gaining their SIN and the other SINless ... not the one separation that was inflicted on them as kids.

That would have been far more satisfying choice to beable to make. Play on the Yin and the Yang (play on the SIN and SINless, and the irony of both terms), bringing the story full circle to where it all began. Only this time, it is the same separation but a different perspective on the same situation.

No, all we got was; "Ha, FUCK YOU!" I thoroughly dislike the extended Hong Kong segment. Ruins it for me.

Because of that, Dragonfall is now my favourite.

 

[Erttheking]

Well I was kind of referring to the Golden ending as the secret ending. The one where you pull a quick one over the big bad at the end. Mainly due to how hard it is to unlock.

Don't you just need to talk to the talismonger a whole bunch of times and say the right thing to Is0bel?

Ok, I should probably replace "hard" with "tricky."

 

[jademunky]

Old example: Chrono Trigger, we have all been conditioned as gamers to just grab whatever can be grabbed so when the opportunity comes up to steal lunch from an old man, most of us just took it without a second thought. Six hours later, you have been arrested for kidnapping and one of the character witnesses against you is that same old man!