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Games that made you ask, "How did they do that?"
- Thread starter Eblo
- Start date
noonespecial
Member
For all of its failings as an actual game, No Man's Sky has unbelievably advanced tech...
WhiteRabbitEXE
Member
Same generation graphical leaps always get me. Like Halo Reach's AR model having more polygons than a marine holding an AR in Halo 3. 
Or hell, even cross-generational leaps, like a tunnel in the background of a cutscene in Reach, which you barely see/pay attention to, having more geometry than the entirety of Halo CE, lol. I fully understand it all, but it always gets me anyway.
Oh, and Smash Bros. Wii U running at a full 60fps at 1080p, even with 8 players on intense stages with crazy items.
Just to be clear, you're aware that Monolith Soft is a wholly-own, first party subsidiary of Nintendo, right? I only asked because it seems a very large number of people still aren't, despite this being the case since 2007 or so.
Or hell, even cross-generational leaps, like a tunnel in the background of a cutscene in Reach, which you barely see/pay attention to, having more geometry than the entirety of Halo CE, lol. I fully understand it all, but it always gets me anyway.Oh, and Smash Bros. Wii U running at a full 60fps at 1080p, even with 8 players on intense stages with crazy items.
Just to be clear, you're aware that Monolith Soft is a wholly-own, first party subsidiary of Nintendo, right? I only asked because it seems a very large number of people still aren't, despite this being the case since 2007 or so.
NightShift
Member
This is the one for me. It's impressive from so many angles, especially how hard the people at Naughty Dog worked to get it working correctly. They almost had to scrap it entirely.
supernormal
Member
I mentioned that one specifically because I remember them saying it was basically that hardest part of the game.
MasterOfPastures
Banned
Star Citizen converted a small FPS engine that could handle a dozen city blocks or so, into a unified, seamless, continuous expanse of several million cubic kilometers of space that has multiple physical grids (ranging from spaceships to planets).
And they built it all so far in a year.
How did they do it? Time. Money. Germans.
And they built it all so far in a year.
How did they do it? Time. Money. Germans.
Star Citizen converted a small FPS engine that could handle a dozen city blocks or so, into a unified, seamless, continuous expanse of several million cubic kilometers of space that has multiple physical grids (ranging from spaceships to planets).
And they built it all so far in a year.
How did they do it? Time. Money. Germans.
They poached a HUGE portion of the Crytek people that made the CryEngine so that helped immensely.
MasterOfPastures
Banned
I guess they must be happy if the rumors that Crytek is not paying wages anymore are true. Round 2, Hiring!
angrywoodchuck
Member
The music on Pressure Cooker for the Atari Video Computer System. Simply awesome at the time, and still wonderful today.
Frozenprince
Banned
That's a 3D model. Utter sorcery.
I still refuse to believe the actual fighting game parts are in 3D.
J_ToSaveTheDay
Member
Alyx Vance's facial animation at the beginning of Half-Life 2 in 2004.
The Gravity Gun in Half-Life 2 in 2004.
Mind just completely in pleasure that the game had that kind of stuff. I mean, I had seen the marketing vids from the pre-leak build and knew it was coming, but when it was actually running on my PC at home, I was just absolutely enthralled.
Also relevant: Xbox Live matchmaking in Halo 2 in 2004. It wasn't perfect and sucks by today's standards, but it was the first time I remember using a system like that over a server browser. May have not been to everyone's liking to give up the ability to browse and choose their server, but the convenience of just basically pressing Go and waiting for it to pull a match together was pretty crazy, especially for a game I LOVED to play multiplayer in.
The Gravity Gun in Half-Life 2 in 2004.
Mind just completely in pleasure that the game had that kind of stuff. I mean, I had seen the marketing vids from the pre-leak build and knew it was coming, but when it was actually running on my PC at home, I was just absolutely enthralled.
Also relevant: Xbox Live matchmaking in Halo 2 in 2004. It wasn't perfect and sucks by today's standards, but it was the first time I remember using a system like that over a server browser. May have not been to everyone's liking to give up the ability to browse and choose their server, but the convenience of just basically pressing Go and waiting for it to pull a match together was pretty crazy, especially for a game I LOVED to play multiplayer in.
abracadaver
Member
The transforming bosses in the later Resident Evil games always amazed me. There are these human sized enemies and suddenly they become huge monsters. Must be so hard to model and animate.
EatinOlives
Member
Assassin's Creed, especially Unity and Syndicate, absolutely floor me with the sheer amount of high-quality world geometry and assets. The color palette and lighting are especially jaw dropping considering the scale that they built. Even crazier than prior to today these games were being churned out at a yearly pace.
FarFromAnyGame
Banned
I know, shame what it turned out to be, but it's still one of the most impressive games in recent years!
I remember them saying that in the ship level in UC3, the ship actually was in a simulated ocean and was swaying by the dynamic waves. And when it flips over, that was the same ship model you're in, flipping over on it's side in realtime while you're in it.
And the Train level in UC2, that was an actual train moving in the world in realtime! going from the forest to the snowy mountains. Not a stationary train with some moving background that makes it look like it's moving.
It's crazy what Naughty Dog could do on the PS3!
The Uncharted games do a lot of neat technical tricks, but easily the most impressive was how the entire shipyard level in Uncharted 3 bobbed and swayed like a living, breathing set. Still incredible they pulled it off.
I remember them saying that in the ship level in UC3, the ship actually was in a simulated ocean and was swaying by the dynamic waves. And when it flips over, that was the same ship model you're in, flipping over on it's side in realtime while you're in it.
And the Train level in UC2, that was an actual train moving in the world in realtime! going from the forest to the snowy mountains. Not a stationary train with some moving background that makes it look like it's moving.
It's crazy what Naughty Dog could do on the PS3!
sertopico
Member
This blew my mind back in the days, the Jupiter engine was great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODeEuPokFRk
Isn't that just super Mario sunshine turned up to 11?
Epic Citadel.
Ran smoothly on my old fucking iPhone 3GS! Madness! Mobile deviced today have lots of power but developing for 3GS myself it seemed I couldnt throw anything at it without it going into the teens of fps. But epic citadel was an entire environment with long drawdistance and bump mapping everywhere.
Ran smoothly on my old fucking iPhone 3GS! Madness! Mobile deviced today have lots of power but developing for 3GS myself it seemed I couldnt throw anything at it without it going into the teens of fps. But epic citadel was an entire environment with long drawdistance and bump mapping everywhere.
TheAdmiester
Member
Where is the "how did they do this" meant to apply?
So while I totally understand the thread's question,I don't fully understand what's impressive about the Soul Reaver example in the OP, but I'm probably missing something.
What I'm seeing is that a couple of blocks move in each GIF example. (I assume for the character to begin jumping on them or whatever to ascend higher). Why is this impressive?
What I'm seeing is that a couple of blocks move in each GIF example. (I assume for the character to begin jumping on them or whatever to ascend higher). Why is this impressive?
SplitYourInfinities
Member
Media Molecule The Thread. Alex Evans and his crew are magicians.
Also, Playground Games and Forza Horizon.
Also, Playground Games and Forza Horizon.
Jo Shishido's Cheeks
Member
Final Fantasy VIII when the pre-rendered backgrounds would switch to FMV backgrounds whilst you maintained control of your character. Utterly stunning, it felt magical.
Oh and of course everything in Shenmue, still blows my mind to this day how it was pulled off.
Oh and of course everything in Shenmue, still blows my mind to this day how it was pulled off.
Finale Fireworker
Member
another vote for Rebirth, GC, i was speechless.
Why do some people call it Rebirth? Is it a regional thing?
I probably feel the way about "Rebirth" that you would feel if I called it "Redux." You would understand what I was saying and even why I called it that, but it would probably make you wonder how I started calling it that in the first place.
Obviously it's totally innocuous and doesn't actually matter, but it's something I've been curious about for, like, a decade.
Psyrgery ES
Member
I've always thought that being able to dinamically split cars at any angle in Carmageddon2 was freaking amazing, taking into account that this game was released in 1998 and it could be ran only with CPU power in Software mode
As an animator, this is not that difficult to do at all actually once you have the right assets and camera angle. Helps that it's incredibly limited with it's movement. They use a lot of toon rigs for games like that, (ones specifically made for squash and stretch style animation) that are able to contort very easily, on top of just presumably loading in a completely new arm model specifically for that move and when you use the right perspective and the right poses you get a lot of good shots on top of the cellshading then you get animation like that. The timelapses in QB are incredibly well done, all that lighting data, effects, and assets loading and switching rapidly in realtime without any hits to performance is some magic type shit they even included weather:
Also still trying to find post mortems on how they did the facial animation in Mafia III, because wtf, because in a game this year.
Sooooo gooood.
johnnydrama
Banned
Battlefield 1.
MadClacker
Member
Resident Evil 2 fitting on an N64 cartridge, complete with both scenarios and FMV's. Blows my mind to this day.
Oh, and GTA V on 360/PS3
...and many more.
Oh, and GTA V on 360/PS3
...and many more.
Bloodporne
Member
This game's graphics and possibilities blew my mind when it came out. That demo was a total 'well I guess I'm buying a PS2 now, holy shit' moment.
For me it has to be Wave Race 64. The water effects still look incredible and I have no idea how they managed this on the N64.
The main programmer of this then went on to do F-Zero X, 30 (relatively basic) cars on a track at 60fps.
Bloodporne
Member
On a totally different note!
blast processed
Member
That's a 3D model. Utter sorcery.
What game is this?
I might just be easily impressed, but I loved the hallucinations in Arkham Knight where you would turn around to find a completely different environment, multiple times in the same scene, totally seamlessly despite you having full control of the camera. I imagine that kind of speedy environment shift really needed the multiple gigs of RAM in the new consoles.
I thought LocoRoco's blob animation was impressive on the PSP.
Along those lines, Half-Life 2 on the original Xbox was a feat.
Along those lines, Half-Life 2 on the original Xbox was a feat.
Guilty Gear Xrd
blast processed
Member
Thank you!
Battlefield 1 just blows my mind. It looks gorgeous, runs great, is full of destructible buildings, deformable terrain, physics, sexy effects and it's all happening online in real-time for 64 people potentially across the globe. How it gets done I don't know, some exceptionally clever people out there to make it happen. I'll just call it magic because that's essential what it is to me.
Came in to post Soul Reaver, thanks OP!
Also, the Uncharted 2 train level comes to mind.
I remember being pretty floored by this when it was first shown. Lost Odyssey. The first cutscene blends seamlessly into the first battle.
It's a long opening, but the transition happens at the 3 minute mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJWZlqLxiLg
Also, the Uncharted 2 train level comes to mind.
I remember being pretty floored by this when it was first shown. Lost Odyssey. The first cutscene blends seamlessly into the first battle.
It's a long opening, but the transition happens at the 3 minute mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJWZlqLxiLg
