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Games with exceptional sense of scale?
- Thread starter Spring-Loaded
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Flachmatuch
Member
Mountains in Skyrim feel like smallish hills and the entire gameworld feels like a...errr...game? Like a model (that's not to scale) with clouds and fog. It's a cool game, don't misunderstand me, but sense of scale? Surely you've seen, you know, real mountains? Obviously it would make no sense in an actual game as the size would make it mostly unplayable I guess, but the little tricks they do to make small hills "feel" like huge mountains don't really work imo.
Barack Lesnar
Banned
Some of these vistas are cock teases (like Hengsha). I guess it wouldn't be feasible to model something that massive but it would've been incredible. Imagine Deus Ex HR in a gigantic futuristic open-world city like that instead of the hub cities. Probably just not possible due to time constraints.
Captain Smoker
Member
f u c k, that's huge.
Barack Lesnar
Banned
Yeah AC is huge
Flachmatuch
Member
If that gives you a "sense of scale", you probably haven't been to the Alps :-D But it's cool. It just looks and feels like a not-to-scale model into which you want to put as many different interesting landmarks as possible. That hill in particular looks like it's about 800m tall or something like that (and I'm probably overestimating it quite a bit).
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
how about a sense of the very small, and not just very large?
Completely agree. I found Skyrim's world quite disappointing. Nothing about it felt huge at all really.
agreed, I didnt think I would like it as much as I do. Im no where near beating it, but so far it is def my goty. I like it even more than Skyrim and Xenoblade. Though Xenoblade was more creative with its environment.
The game is like a mixture of LOTR, Skyrim, Xenoblade, SOTC and a bit of Game of Thrones
DukeTogo1300
Member
Serious Sam's levels felt big as shit, and some enemies/bosses almost made you dizzy with their mass. Earth Defense Force and Painkiller had similarly dizzying enemies/bosses.
Far Cry felt massive in general, but being able to attack, or be attacked, by enemies a mile off really sold it. I will never forget the first time I was rocketed by the boats at the docks once I reached the fort at the top of the mountain (demo level). Those rockets took about a minute to reach you, so you'd think you were being sneaky as the first explodes, then you struggled to figure out where it came from, then another explodes, then you finally notice the boat at the bottom of the mountain with two more rockets still on their way up. It was a pretty amazing feeling. There just weren't that many things in my life of gaming that compared to this sudden leap in tech, it seemed impossible.
I think Descent Freespace was one of the first to really succeed with that extreme difference in scale for ship sizes, it was a major part of their ad campaign.
Far Cry felt massive in general, but being able to attack, or be attacked, by enemies a mile off really sold it. I will never forget the first time I was rocketed by the boats at the docks once I reached the fort at the top of the mountain (demo level). Those rockets took about a minute to reach you, so you'd think you were being sneaky as the first explodes, then you struggled to figure out where it came from, then another explodes, then you finally notice the boat at the bottom of the mountain with two more rockets still on their way up. It was a pretty amazing feeling. There just weren't that many things in my life of gaming that compared to this sudden leap in tech, it seemed impossible.
I think Descent Freespace was one of the first to really succeed with that extreme difference in scale for ship sizes, it was a major part of their ad campaign.
Like the hat?
Banned
Yes
Watch the Asura boss fight here (May be spoiler): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJJOTeZcAzQ&feature=fvst
wow, that is the stupidest thing I have ever seen in a game in my 28 years.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
I am amazingly surprised that I'm the first person to say Minecraft
I speel my dreenk
Member
You see those trees that snake up the Skyrim mountain range?
Trees relative to real mountains are basically darkened green points next to the grassy patches.
The_Hitcher89
Member
Mt Chiliad>The mountain in Skyrim
SecretMoblin
Member
I am amazingly surprised that I'm the first person to say Minecraft
You aren't the first, but you're the first with a picture:
But Minecraft is a great example. The theoretical size of the game world is bigger than anything else in this thread, and there are some incredible vistas generated by the game's code. And the fan-made stuff is evidence that you can really play with the idea of scale.
SecretMoblin
Member
Yeah, I agree. Draw distance in general goes a very long way in aiding the sense of scale. Something Xenoblade does extremely well.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
Damnation
Sense of scale is one of the really positive things about this game. Yes, it had all sorts of issues, but it's not the worst I have ever played.
I couldn't find any screenshots that demonstrate it. But you should watch this review from CGR http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBOhPZPAYeA
Are you talking about the console version? I haven't played in a while but I remember that the PC version drew pretty far away if you properly configured the draw distance.
WAR recon zero
Banned
PC version. I think the farthest you can see is 150 blocks away which isn't far at all.
maverick40
Junior Member
No Kingdoms of Amalur? You guys are missing the greatest RPG/open world this year!
This is 20 euro in my local gamestop. Is it worth it?
EVE Online is a game about space, nothing theoretically bigger than SPACE.
Anyways I disagree about scale, the game just doesn't render the world that great and the draw distance is pretty horrible even on very far.
SecretMoblin
Member
I stand corrected!
Meatvillain
Banned
Just wanted to chime in and say that I get a great sense of scale from the world of Skyrim, but I can understand why some might feel the opposite.
The best sense of scale I've experienced this gen would have to be the environments in Xenoblade Chronicles, the game is pretty incredible in that regard.
Kratos's fight with Cronos is an awesome setpiece for scale, as is the fight with Poseidon at the beginning of the game.
The last Colossus in Shadow of the Colossus...incredible.
The best sense of scale I've experienced this gen would have to be the environments in Xenoblade Chronicles, the game is pretty incredible in that regard.
Kratos's fight with Cronos is an awesome setpiece for scale, as is the fight with Poseidon at the beginning of the game.
The last Colossus in Shadow of the Colossus...incredible.
Flachmatuch
Member
Well, it's not crap, but it is super generic. The king of focus grouped genericness. It is also the absolute undisputed emperor of bad fantasy "poetry" - there's an entire questline that's based on really, really, really bad and generic and bad poetry. There's an ok but super-generic combat system in it, along with generic crafting and questing and generic environments. It's the king of generic. If you like generic loot games, you can sink a few dozen generic hours into it though. It does not in any way belong in this thread though. But the two things that really do stand out about the game are how incredibly generic it is and how bad the poetry in it is. It's completely unashamed about these things, so it's kind of fun that way.
Weltall Zero
Member
Loving all the Xenoblade love. 
OK, that's genuinely great.
Yep, you do.
For me, it's Guild Wars 2 currently, but I didn't take any screenshots that really illustrated it (by showing more than a few elements at once). Here's the best I got:
The dam at the left side is traversable at each level. You can also walk from that point to the gates of the city on the right with no transition.
Same city, from inside, at night.
More of my pics here:
http://weltallzero.minus.com/mgWzXUSJq/1g
and here:
http://weltallzero.minus.com/m8GalvE1z/10g
Another game that had quite impressive scale was Gigantic Drive / Robot Alchemic Drive. The city would be rendered in quite decent detail when walking around as a human... then you'd get into giant robot battles and control them from afar.
OK, that's genuinely great.
Yep, you do.
For me, it's Guild Wars 2 currently, but I didn't take any screenshots that really illustrated it (by showing more than a few elements at once). Here's the best I got:
The dam at the left side is traversable at each level. You can also walk from that point to the gates of the city on the right with no transition.
Same city, from inside, at night.
More of my pics here:
http://weltallzero.minus.com/mgWzXUSJq/1g
and here:
http://weltallzero.minus.com/m8GalvE1z/10g
Another game that had quite impressive scale was Gigantic Drive / Robot Alchemic Drive. The city would be rendered in quite decent detail when walking around as a human... then you'd get into giant robot battles and control them from afar.
Wuthering_Heights
Banned
chickdigger802
Banned
Let's talk more handhelds.
Bowser's inside story did it quite well.
And so are most games with bosses and what not that took up both screen real estate (contra 4 is another good one).
Infinite Space also did scale surprisingly well.
Sure the ships were as about as detailed as like star fox 64, but the way the camera is positioned makes your bigass ship seem big ass.
which is actually quite hard to do, because quite often you don't actually feel that big if you control the 'biggest ship'.
Bowser's inside story did it quite well.
And so are most games with bosses and what not that took up both screen real estate (contra 4 is another good one).
Infinite Space also did scale surprisingly well.
Sure the ships were as about as detailed as like star fox 64, but the way the camera is positioned makes your bigass ship seem big ass.
which is actually quite hard to do, because quite often you don't actually feel that big if you control the 'biggest ship'.
Ultimate answer: Shadow of the Colossus
Lots of jRPG answers worth mentioning:
Final Fantasy X: The Calm Lands, Remiem Temple (just looking over the walkway made me dizzy)
Final Fantasy XII: Damn near everything. The entire sandsea, for example. Just massive.
Final Fantasy XIII: Archyltte Steppe
Xenoblade: Just play the game. Every major area is massive.
Non-jrpg:
God of War 2: Lots of things but the
come to mind
God of War 3:
. Enough said.
The Assassin's Creed Games: Pretty obvious.
Batman: Arkham City: The game is just so vast
Uncharted 2 and 3: The mountains, the deserts, so many of the eye-opening set pieces. The entire
in Uncharted 3.
Lots of jRPG answers worth mentioning:
Final Fantasy X: The Calm Lands, Remiem Temple (just looking over the walkway made me dizzy)
Final Fantasy XII: Damn near everything. The entire sandsea, for example. Just massive.
Final Fantasy XIII: Archyltte Steppe
Xenoblade: Just play the game. Every major area is massive.
Non-jrpg:
God of War 2: Lots of things but the
Steeds of Time
God of War 3:
Kronos and Poseidon battles
The Assassin's Creed Games: Pretty obvious.
Batman: Arkham City: The game is just so vast
Uncharted 2 and 3: The mountains, the deserts, so many of the eye-opening set pieces. The entire
horseback chase
For me, it's Guild Wars 2 currently, but I didn't take any screenshots that really illustrated it (by showing more than a few elements at once). Here's the best I got:
She is too cute! :3
You can double the max view distance with Optifine, but the engine doesn't handle that all that well.
Oblivion (maybe Skyrim too by now? Haven't kept up with the new stuff) at least had several mods that populated the areas with new npc's. Tho I'd say the bigger issue with Bethesda's stuff is the small cities to begin with.