As a programmer, what game is the most impressive youve seen?

#1 Without viewing the source or having an intimate knowledge of how much code is re-used by a game company it would be hard to say. I would have to say that most games from Black Isle Studios appear to be expanded versions of their previous games, but even so they are beautiful in the aspects of both art and code. While playing Icewind Dale 2 I often found myself thinking "this must have been a nightmare to write".

#2 I defintely think the GTA games, purely becuase the size of worlds, scope and details.

Deus ex was another :)

#3 Teromous: jaja that kind of reaction is what I wanted "this must have been a nightmare to write" I am an artist, and I have the same reaction with some of the most visually stunning games.

#4 I really like the engine for this game http://infantryonline.com
It has really good physics and for the time when it was first created, it has really nice graphics as well.
Best 2D game ever.
It was made by the same people that made subspace/continuum.
I stopped playing a few years ago when the dev team started killing the game. It's nothing like it used to be. Dev's really killed the gameplay once Sony took over.
But the engine is really nice. It supports 100 players/zone which was unique when it first came out.

More modern, I like the way planetside implemented their zones. It's annoying (as a player) to have to wait for load times, etc. However in planetside you get used to it fairly quickly. Each zone is really large and it makes sense for the size of the total game world.

#5 Tribes.

It would take a million words to explain why. But if you know the game, you already know why.

#6 Have to agree with Gonzo. The original Tribes was one of the games I really wondered how it was coded and I was really amazed (especially the vehicles and how it was so gigantic and epic)

#7 Creatures 3 was the most impressive for me, AI wise. I wonder why nobody has picked up that IP and ai code to do something preteen ish on a console in 3D?

#8 I never got how to play Creatures 3, it's sitting on my desk for over three years.

So far in my life, the most stunning games in graphics and gameplay would have to be:
Freespace I (Someday I WILL buy Freespace II! Even if it costs $200!)
X2: The Threat (Though X3: Reunion will blow it away)
Homeworld Series

Though I think I'm a bit baised sense I'm a space guy, but I think almost everyone can agree on the Homeworld Series.

#9 I hate to be cliche, but I'd go with a three way tie between Defender, Elite and Doom.

Defender was ahead of it's time, using limited hardware to do things which would hint to modern day computing. Elite was pure elegance, a vast and epic game based on algorithms instead production costs. And Doom took a very complicated problem, looked at on it's side and found a somewhat hacky method that convinced people enough to start a genre.

#10 @Brian: I used to play Infantry back in "beta" - mainly Capture the Flag... used to play it alongside EQ when EQ originally came out... when it was free Infantry was a brilliant game.


I'd have to say Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

The quest system is simply brilliant, how things can be done different ways, dialogs can be completed different ways with responses for each one and ending with the proper setup. The quest system really awes me. Another thing is the combat, now this is a combination of art and code, but how the light saber and melee fights look like your watching a Star Wars movie. How all the character have weapons that hit and block eachother, really would love to see the coding behind that and the decision to dodge or block and how it sets all the proper art.

Also the skills in it, the different ammounts of weapons, you can do melee or ranged... and of course the contrast between earning Dark Side and Light Side points. Its amazing how there truly are different ways to complete certain quests and tasks and how things happen different because of it. Plus the point that it all works! With few flaws as well, thats impressive in itself even for a project with simple code.

#11 I'm gonna say "Black & White".

The AI was top notch: You could "teach" your pet titan with rewards and punishment.

Gesture Recognition: This was the first game (to my knowledge) that used gestures as part of the interface. Tre cool, though I understand it wasn't all THAT hard to implement. More recently Darwinia used the same trick.

Graphics: The way your 'alignment' was reflected in your environment really impressed me. Your titan's appearance would change, your tower, and your villages.

Everything impressed me... too bad it wasn't all that fun to actually play.

#12 From a programming standpoint, Dreamcasts Seaman http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/08/11/seaman.review/

Maniac Mansion I guess was pretty rad for it's time. I surely couldn't code all of that with the tools they had.

Elder Scrolls Oblivion when it comes out. Ignore the size, and the graphics, still pretty impressive.

Black and White had kept my mind busy for more than a few weeks wondering how I'd go about doing the same thing.

#13 The original Half-Life had some impressive AI routines. I enjoyed listening to the guys talk amoung themselves, and toss gernades at you when you were hiding behind a crate. Top notch AI routines indicated by the fun factor!

B--

#14 Alternate Reality: The City for the Atari 800

Back when one programmer could do an entire cutting edge game. Philip Price made a game with so much detail I'm still surprised by it. It's one of the things that inspired me to become a professional programmer.

www.ataritimes.com/8-bit/reviews/altreality.html
www.eobet.com/alternate-reality/

- etc

I know I'll be back again.
Maybe next time will be the time I... win.

#15 Tribes. That game made me want to learn to make games.


More recently would be HL2 and Call of Duty. Once I started playing those I had to keep playing til I finished.

#16 I can't think of one single game, but these games all added something really cool:

Thief - light meter
Red Faction - dynamic bsp deformation
Dungeon Siege - no more loading screens

#17 My top pics would have to be Seaman, due to the insane amount of interaction, and Tekken 5, both the graphics were well manipulated as well as the AI, since fighting game AI can be the hardest to make good. Oh, and red faction's Geo Modding was very impressive.

#18 I was completly stuned by "the sentinel", 1987 on Amstrad CPC (also on Commodore 64). This game was full screen with 3D filled faces, at an age were 3D wireframe was only at it beginning.

More recently, I was impressed by the FPS 100K demo made by a deutch demomaker band (don't remember URL).

#19 Black and White, for the resons mentioned by Mark. My other one is Rome:Total War. Hundereds of troops on the screen at once, with AI routines and experiance levels all going at once without a hickup. I thought that was pretty impressive.

Note: KOTOR was awesome too, but it was very similar to what NWN did, if not exactly the same (both made by bioware after all). Convosations and quests, like what is in KOTOR, could be done in NWN using the Toolset. Although the combat in KOTOR is more polished.

#20 Spore looks like it has potential, and looks open ended

GTA series was fun but I though SpiderMan 2 was more fun for the sandbox feel, plus saving people is always better than killing people

I also enjoyed Tribes series, it really gave a reason for Multiplayer combat.

Black and White looked great, and had interesting AI, I hope BnW 2 will be more fleshed out than the first.

Sadly all the new FPS games like Halo, HL2, Doom 3, although quite pretty were very boring and repetative, I expected more from leaders in the industry. More disturbing is, I think, all the established game companies are going to be following suit. Making the game look great ( if you have the hardware) but not really adding anything new to the game play of any of the Genres