As a programmer, what game is the most impressive youve seen?
by Scott Turner · in General Discussion · 06/08/2005 (11:11 pm) · 69 replies
As an artist I have a list of games that inspire me because of their graphical beuty, as a programmer, what game has impressed you and why? it could be old or outdated, but what game has an interface, concept, AI or something else that is very difficult to achieve? it could have turn out to be a bad game overall, but I want to know about coding in games. Thanks.
#42
1. Half-Life - The fact that it's still being sold speaks volumes to what was done on the programming level. Not the graphics, not the original gameplay and not the booth babes. These guys managed to put together a game that could be completely revamped and brought up to more or less modern levels through the use of mods. It's amazing there wasn't some showstopper function buried in the code preventing all this goodness.
2. Fritz (Chess program) - While pretty much any chess program can beat 99.9% of the human population, this one has something call "sparring mode" where it will intentionally make mistakes. The difference between easy mode in most chess programs and sparring mode is night and day. Most programs have an easy mode where the program will play at near grandmaster level then suddenly make a glaringly obvious mistake. Pretty much perfect play interspersed with random moves. Fritz will play well but when you put it into "pressure" it will conceive a bad move that requires the player to make a tactical combination to win material (or even checkmate). The player that can put the computer into pressure is rewarded with mild blunders, similar to how a real chess match may progress.
3. Neverwinter Nights - In my opinion this is one branch of the future of gaming. Like Half-life the game was just the beginning, it was life after the game that makes it so interesting. Obviously NWN was built from the ground up with the idea of being used to create more game content. I don't think they did as well as Half-Life since they seemed more tied to the rulesets but they provided the whole interface and made the mission creation of NWN accessible to the masses. Drawbacks seemed to be that some things were in the engine and not moddable (aspects of the ruleset I believe). I also think they missed an opportunity to integrate team development. When I looked into working on a team it was typically necessary to have all manner of strict naming conventions to get more than one person working on the same set of files, this is something source control should have been handling (I forget what aspect of the game made it difficult to add it to source control after the fact.)
06/19/2005 (12:34 am)
As a programmer, I have a couple:1. Half-Life - The fact that it's still being sold speaks volumes to what was done on the programming level. Not the graphics, not the original gameplay and not the booth babes. These guys managed to put together a game that could be completely revamped and brought up to more or less modern levels through the use of mods. It's amazing there wasn't some showstopper function buried in the code preventing all this goodness.
2. Fritz (Chess program) - While pretty much any chess program can beat 99.9% of the human population, this one has something call "sparring mode" where it will intentionally make mistakes. The difference between easy mode in most chess programs and sparring mode is night and day. Most programs have an easy mode where the program will play at near grandmaster level then suddenly make a glaringly obvious mistake. Pretty much perfect play interspersed with random moves. Fritz will play well but when you put it into "pressure" it will conceive a bad move that requires the player to make a tactical combination to win material (or even checkmate). The player that can put the computer into pressure is rewarded with mild blunders, similar to how a real chess match may progress.
3. Neverwinter Nights - In my opinion this is one branch of the future of gaming. Like Half-life the game was just the beginning, it was life after the game that makes it so interesting. Obviously NWN was built from the ground up with the idea of being used to create more game content. I don't think they did as well as Half-Life since they seemed more tied to the rulesets but they provided the whole interface and made the mission creation of NWN accessible to the masses. Drawbacks seemed to be that some things were in the engine and not moddable (aspects of the ruleset I believe). I also think they missed an opportunity to integrate team development. When I looked into working on a team it was typically necessary to have all manner of strict naming conventions to get more than one person working on the same set of files, this is something source control should have been handling (I forget what aspect of the game made it difficult to add it to source control after the fact.)
#43
I would say that Knights of the Old Repbulic Wins the award of teaching one the best way to tell a story. It broke the game up into great segements with a intro{4 piece main story}ending. It was in many ways both linear and open-ended in how you could play the game. The game most of all though left you statisfied with the ending. Most games have rushed endings, like Fable or Kotor 2. But I must say, you really savour that ending, and thats how it earned its game of the year award.
06/20/2005 (6:58 pm)
@ Halo. What was innotative about Halo was not the combat features. Its was the combination of fast paced gameplay with interlocking cinematics. What Halo did so well was bring the whole picture together. The vehicles, the story, and the combat all came together into one coherant FPS game. You could spend an entire night playing through the Halo campaign as it blended together so seamlessly. Halo is going to make a great movie based off the Story of the book trilogy and the game fan base. Its not that you could jump that made halo stand out, but it was that you play through a full, fast paced action game seamlessly (and with a buddie!). As for halo 2, It was a sequal controlled by microsoft for the pure point of making money. Halo: Combat Evolved earns its title.I would say that Knights of the Old Repbulic Wins the award of teaching one the best way to tell a story. It broke the game up into great segements with a intro{4 piece main story}ending. It was in many ways both linear and open-ended in how you could play the game. The game most of all though left you statisfied with the ending. Most games have rushed endings, like Fable or Kotor 2. But I must say, you really savour that ending, and thats how it earned its game of the year award.
#44
06/21/2005 (12:05 am)
Another game that I'm sure will impress everybody is called Spore. It's not out yet but a prototype was shown at GDC last year. It generates all of it's worlds, including inhabitants, landscape, and buildings, just through code. It lets you build your new civilization from scratch and guide it as it evolves. In my opinion it will be a major feat because of the wild diversity in gameplay and there has never been anything close to it done in the past.
#46
06/21/2005 (5:47 am)
Zarch (aka Virus) must have been one of my biggest "Holy Fsck!"-moments in computer history. The first game FOR ME where I saw fluid frame-rate 3D filled polygons and it was fun to play as well.
#47
06/21/2005 (6:02 am)
Knights of the Old Republic. Proof that a compelling story line and great gameplay out weigh eye candy.
#48
- Space Harrier...nuff said. One of my all time favorite games ever. I mean this was back in 1985 when cutting edge was 2 sprites doing meaningless things. I always wonder how they did that back then....and always wanted to build a remake...and I actually did one day....(www.3d-design.0catch.com)
- Street Fighter 2. No one can forget this one.....
06/21/2005 (7:20 am)
- Solaris for the Atari 2600. Now if there was anything that pushes the good ole 2600 to the max, this game definately did. It had great 3d graphics and effects and was developed in a time when the 2600 was dying to the NES and SMS. Matter of fact, it was the only reason why I bugged my dad to get me a 2600...:p- Space Harrier...nuff said. One of my all time favorite games ever. I mean this was back in 1985 when cutting edge was 2 sprites doing meaningless things. I always wonder how they did that back then....and always wanted to build a remake...and I actually did one day....(www.3d-design.0catch.com)
- Street Fighter 2. No one can forget this one.....
#49
06/21/2005 (7:47 am)
Eve Online. How they get one server running thousands of clients without problem still amazes me. Their net and server code must be spot on. OK so there's not much to render but it's still a lot of clients pushing around a lot of information to and from the server.
#50
06/21/2005 (8:21 am)
Flight simulator on Commodore 64. My 1st game on my 1st computer. A big mystery how they where able to write such a game on 64mb of ram. Ok it was crappy graphics, but at that time they realy where good programmer to fit such a game on only 64mb.
#51
UT (Original)
Tribes (Original)
C&C
Simply due to the fact that at the time they came out they all offered well balanced game play, new concepts, well thought out interfaces, and an addictiveness(?) which doesn't show up so much anymore. Of course this is probably more "game design" then coding.
Additionally, and I may be wrong on this, but UT,TA and Tribes all offered very accesible and supported modification abilities.
Since then, I can honestly say for for pure beauty of a "structure (not landscape/whole level)" UT2003 had some great effects if you could push all the settings to the max... Plus the voice announcing "Holy Shit!" as soon as you maxed out the settings was a nice touch. :)
That's my Newbie Opinion.. and I'm stuck with it.
06/24/2005 (10:31 am)
Total AnnihilationUT (Original)
Tribes (Original)
C&C
Simply due to the fact that at the time they came out they all offered well balanced game play, new concepts, well thought out interfaces, and an addictiveness(?) which doesn't show up so much anymore. Of course this is probably more "game design" then coding.
Additionally, and I may be wrong on this, but UT,TA and Tribes all offered very accesible and supported modification abilities.
Since then, I can honestly say for for pure beauty of a "structure (not landscape/whole level)" UT2003 had some great effects if you could push all the settings to the max... Plus the voice announcing "Holy Shit!" as soon as you maxed out the settings was a nice touch. :)
That's my Newbie Opinion.. and I'm stuck with it.
#52
06/24/2005 (10:37 am)
FarCry - i always talk about it like this is the best highly technological game i ever seen. 
#54
Morrowind (glad that was mentioned at least once already)
Shenmu
Thief
06/24/2005 (3:53 pm)
System Shock 2Morrowind (glad that was mentioned at least once already)
Shenmu
Thief
#55
Flight simulator on Commodore 64. My 1st game on my 1st computer. A big mystery how they where able to write such a game on 64mb of ram. Ok it was crappy graphics, but at that time they realy where good programmer to fit such a game on only 64mb.
Surely you mean 64 kilobytes, instead of megabytes? :-)
06/25/2005 (4:08 am)
Claude-Alain Fournier wrote:Flight simulator on Commodore 64. My 1st game on my 1st computer. A big mystery how they where able to write such a game on 64mb of ram. Ok it was crappy graphics, but at that time they realy where good programmer to fit such a game on only 64mb.
Surely you mean 64 kilobytes, instead of megabytes? :-)
#56
03/30/2006 (12:29 am)
Lol just re-reading old thread, yes 64kb. 
#57
The answer is closely related to the time, of course..
I thought "Revs" on the BBC Micro was incredible (must have been early-to-mid 1980s). How anyone managed to squeeze filled polygon 3D graphics out of that machine is amazing. It was technically much better than Elite in that regard.
03/30/2006 (2:52 am)
Missed this thread before..The answer is closely related to the time, of course..
I thought "Revs" on the BBC Micro was incredible (must have been early-to-mid 1980s). How anyone managed to squeeze filled polygon 3D graphics out of that machine is amazing. It was technically much better than Elite in that regard.
#59
with their new Factions release on 3/28, man it is just rocking
I can be found most nights sitting in my dark, cluttered office coding away burning the midnight oil or mastering the art of the Necromancer in GuildWars
-Ron
03/30/2006 (7:12 am)
I think GuildWars! is daBomb!with their new Factions release on 3/28, man it is just rocking
I can be found most nights sitting in my dark, cluttered office coding away burning the midnight oil or mastering the art of the Necromancer in GuildWars
-Ron
Torque Owner Matt Benfall
That's what Nintendo aim to do with their games - total suspension of disbelief, and TWW manages that almost perfectly. Ragdoll on enemies that works realistically, but isn't thrust in your face. The way the eyes of the characters met as they walked past each other, the seamless transitions between the zones and the wonderful feeling of sailing...
Damnit, I'm going to go play it again.