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[Mr Fahrenheit]

Even though I'm not a huge fan of the game compared to For Answer, I liked the Armored Core 5/Verdict Day HUD.

 

[Skux]

Good: Warcraft III, the game that taught me to use hotkeys in RTS games thanks to highlights on tooltips. The race-themed skins looked great and everything was in convenient places.

Bad: Assassin's Creed III. Slow, cluttered, unintuitive. The game went to a completely different screen just to swap weapons, when it should have just been an unintrusive overlay. The menus had no logic to them, the navigation rules would change between up/down and left/right for no reason.

 

[Funyarinpa]

Looks like Ios version

Looks like the mobile version, maybe.

It is the mobile version, I'm 100% certain. I remember playing through that part very recently.

 

[Twilight Gap]

Ori

mana on left, health on right, currency/ability level and recharge in middle

 

[Goodacre0081]

I hate the over bearing HUD in Halo 5's campaign. I just want a seamless window into the universe, instead they put the actual helmet on the screen, blocking off the game, and then put way too much visual clutter on top of that. It does nothing but make the game feel claustrophobic and detached to me. The game is gorgeous. I just wish my window into it wasn't so restrictive.

i wonder if this helps with performance. It's not much space taken up, does the game have to render anything blocked by the helmet?

guess you could ask the same question about The Order and Evil Within. do those games also benefit from obstructed views imposed by the letterboxing?

 

[pantsattack]

Anyone know games that let you scale the HUD or create minimal huds?

Spelunky has the PRO version where they remove the large scroll graphic.

 

[Noobcraft]

i wonder if this helps with performance. It's not much space taken up, does the game have to render anything blocked by the helmet?

guess you could ask the same question about The Order and Evil Within. do those games also benefit from obstructed views imposed by the letterboxing?

There's a skull that turns the HUD off so I doubt it makes any meaningful impact. It's an artistic decision.

The Order does benefit from the letterbox because it's essentially rendering a 1920x800 image rather than a 1920x1080 image, which enables the system to push more effects.

 

[liliththepale]

i wonder if this helps with performance. It's not much space taken up, does the game have to render anything blocked by the helmet?

guess you could ask the same question about The Order and Evil Within. do those games also benefit from obstructed views imposed by the letterboxing?

In this case, those obstructed parts probably get rendered anyway. It's probably just as much work to sort out what's not in view as it is to draw it in the first place, since the culling shape is so irregular.

For letterboxed games, stuff above/below is definitely culled and it improves performance a lot. This in fact is a popular criticism levied against those games, that the devs are doing it to cheat.

 

[Manu]

Bad: Resident Evil 6

Just look at this huge fucking thing. It also changed depending on whose campaign you were playing, with some elements even changing places.

Good: Resident Evil Revelations 2

Revelations 2 took a page from The Last of Us for its hud (and admittedly, lots of other things as well) and was all the much better for it.

 

[JP]

It's certainly not unique to Street Fighter V and it's such a small touch but I love when characters move in front of the HUD.

Another really subtle thing that I really like in relation to HUDs is what Naughty Dog have done with their latest games where the cross hair changes shape depending on what you're doing. It can change from a dot, to a circle to a cross with another four lines when you get a headshot.

It's such a subtle thing and it's really clever design and I was really hoping that all the games in the Nathan Drake Collection would have that added, unfortunately it didn't happen though.

 

[Conkerkid11]

A raid-ready UI used most of these frames, even if arranged somewhat differently. On a small 4:3 screen.... that's how raid-wow looked.

I hope you're joking.

This dude's got comic sans.

Plus, this is from 2008 at the earliest. Why's the dude have a 4:3 monitor?

 

[Burt]

I've put an hour or so into Grandia II so far and love it, but goddamn

that HUD is gross. And I'm not just talking about the resolution. The fonts are just all completely wrong. Seems like all the texture stuff is right there in the steamapps folder, I'm seriously thinking about going in and replacing everything with something that doesn't look like HUD roulette.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

I played Dead Space 1/2 this year, and yeah, the HUD is pretty amazing.

 

[teokrazia]

Worst HUD ever: Far Cry 3 pre-patch.

 

[Orayn]

Worst HUD ever: Far Cry 3 pre-patch.

Turning off large portions of the HUD in FC3 and 4 makes them into shockingly immersive stealth games. It's a weird case where filtering out some of the information the player receives can have a dramatic effect on the overall experience.

 

[kavanf1]

Possibly contentious but I would select the Fallout series as an example of a well-designed HUD. Health, AP and compass were the only permanent features, everything else only appears as necessary.

Equally, the pip-boy is a great way of integrating managing content into the game. They fucked up on some of the organisation of content within it, but the design itself, bringing up the pip-boy on your wrist, is really immersive to me.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Technically that's all menu, not heads-up display. Still, really great aesthetic there.

The RTS HUD can get kind of busy during some of the more intense fights, but never really a problem.

Fair call, I didn't really have too many UI-centric shots in my screenshots.

Any excuse will do for booting up Brutal, though!

I know they didn't win everyone over, but I feel like they did a great job of streamlining the RTS experience, and that extends to the UI. Simple and stylish.

 

[natuKo]

Controversial opinion: I find it interesting that people cite Far Cry 2 and Dead Space as a great example of HUD or UI. The flow of information in both games is actually really badly executed. Look at how the information is laid out on something like Dead Space. I do love Dead Space but it's not the pinnacle of UI for me.

Also, as a side note I just checked the Lead UI Artist who made Dead Space also worked on Battlefield Hardline as UI Director. It really goes to show that great interfaces require the efforts of a whole team to get behind an idea, without that - it's just patching things together with UI, like in the case of Assassin's Creed and even Fallout.

As one of the biggest selling games of all time, did anyone ever complain about GTA V's HUD or menus? I didn't see anything. Because it's simplistic, has everything I need, easy to access and everything is where I expect it to be.

To me, immersion is having the player understand everything in the simplest way possible in a way that they don't even know the UI is there. In a way that they are never frustrated, or ever lost without a clue of what to do.

Good examples: GTA V (Simple, works), Battlefield 4 (Consistent style, , Far Cry 4 (Simple, works), Destiny (Nice use of cursor), Arkham City (Nice HUD, simple info), Dead Space (for showing that there's more ways to display information)
Bad examples: Battlefield Hardline (Regression), Star Wars Battlefront (Menus are good, HUD is terrible), Witcher 3 (too many layers, easy to get lost), Fallout 4 (poor nav), Assassin's Creed (The one where you had to exit the Menu 900 times)

 

[V-Faction]

Simple HUDs are gross. Disappearing HUDs can bite me.

Fill my screen with as much shit and information as you can. Bombard my eyes with a technofeast of colors and numbers till they melt. Assume direct control of the four corners of my screen and all the space in-between.

 

[Samurai G0SU]

Deadspace 1 devs put that hud style into cod aw if anyone noticed.

Thats why i enjoyed aw so much. Sound was amazing too.

 

[Elitist1945]

Deadspace 1 devs put that hud style into cod aw if anyone noticed.

Thats why i enjoyed aw so much. Sound was amazing too.

Wow I don't know why I never noticed that.

 

[Dennis]

The only good HUD is a HUD that can be completely turned off.

 

[natuKo]

The only good HUD is a HUD that can be completely turned off.

I feel like it should be a standard for every game.

WoW is actually great because of customization.

 

[The Dear Leader]

Where is this screenshot from....?

It looks horrible. A Wii version? PC low settings?

Dead Space Extraction? The Wii light gun game that got ported to PS Move and came with Dead Space 2. I think its that at least.

 

[KC Denton]

Dead Space Extraction? The Wii light gun game that got ported to PS Move and came with Dead Space 2. I think its that at least.

Extraction was entirely first-person. This is the mobile version of Dead Space, which had its own story and armor design.

 

[Mr_Antimatter]

You're posting images of player-made addons, and not even like a single one, but several combined by a single user who saw fit to use all of those. Not sure this makes any sense. Might as well start photoshopping the UIs of multiple games together and calling that bad as well.

And there are mods for several recent games like The Witcher 3 that attempt HUD-less UIs by making aspects of the UI dynamically appear based on whether or not the player needs it.

A big problem I had with wow is well, for hardcore raiders, that sort of hud is actually necessary. So much info you had to keep track of to play some classes successfully.

 

[User 73706]

The campaign could use an FOV boost with how cramped the helmet overlays make it feel, but H5G's multiplayer HUD is extremely effective and unobtrusive:

It's also more or less 1080p60 all the time (the multi, I mean), which is a plus.

 

[TyphoonStruggle]

Assassin's Creed HUDS are the worst. A big reason why I don't play them.

 

[pantsattack]

Deadspace 1 devs put that hud style into cod aw if anyone noticed.

Thats why i enjoyed aw so much. Sound was amazing too.

Apart from the caption where is the text coming from? Your helmet, or in world?

Dead space's appeal is that all info was generated from a source wether it's the suit or a console. Floating text in AW is what DS got away from.

 

[Samurai G0SU]

Apart from the caption where is the text coming from? Your helmet, or in world?

Dead space's appeal is that all info was generated from a source wether it's the suit or a console. Floating text in AW is what DS got away from.

I just remember everything was contextualized eith whatever item you were holding. Not a permanent hud display in the 4 corners. They brought that theme over to aw.
And the text moved with the guns like they were holograms attached to it.

 

[specdot]

ALways been a fan of the Prime series helmet hud:

You're kidding. You're kidding right? That is a cluttered mess.

 

[Dennis]

Assassin's Creed HUDS are the worst. A big reason why I don't play them.

They can be turned off.....

 

[User 73706]

Apart from the caption where is the text coming from? Your helmet, or in world?

Dead space's appeal is that all info was generated from a source wether it's the suit or a console. Floating text in AW is what DS got away from.

I think subtitles typically deserve a pass for accessibility's sake.

 

[Meccanical]

Knights in the Nightmare

WHAT ARE THOOOOOOOOOSE

 

[TheGamingBox]

You're kidding. You're kidding right? That is a cluttered mess.

it's a bad pic, looks alot better when playing on a tv

 

[Darknight34]

Man you guys...the Metroid Prime huds and the Halo 5/4 campaign huds are easily in my top huds of all time. Immersion level is so high for me in those games. I love minimalism too, like in dead space, but a hud can be obvious and still be awesome.

 

[Glass]

Is that how the game looks all the time?

HUD wise yes, in campaign mode. Multiplayer has none of the blacked out screen and feels far less cramped. The FOV in Halo is always pretty low, to balance gameplay I guess, but low nonetheless, so its complete overkill with all those bells and whistles added to the HUD.

 

[Bishop89]

Dead space is the best. It's not intrusive and doesn't block anything AND it tells you all the vital information you need to know
Edit: and it contextually makes sense in the universe

 

[bojie1986]

MGSV HUD

 

[Psyrgery ES]

Ghostbusters Game

The Hud is shown in your proton pack:

Green: Health
Red: Heat
Enemy health: reticule

Developers admited they were inspired by Dead Space Hud

 

[memoryswap]

Half-life 2 will always be a reference for me: simple, easy to navigate and unobtrusive. Worst thing a HUD can do in most cases is call attention to itself with useless animation and other eye candy, a ton of colors, etc.

 

[Fancy Clown]

I liked Evil Within's HUD (upper left hand corner) and inventory selection. Very clean and unobtrusive, and I like how they blended the brain scan theme into the inventory.

Notice how the weapon icons are white in the release version.

And they segmented the health bar and changed the nasty ass neon green to a more earthy tone

 

[Dreams-Visions]

always was a fan of TF2's UI. always unobtrusive and straight forward.

 

[Man Called Aerodynamics]

So glad to come into this thread and see Dead Space front and center. The greatest.

 

[Skinpop]

I'm surprised that people like the Dead Space HUD so much. I personally consider it a failure.
I guess they were going for immersion but it ends up counteracting that. It's jarring to have a screen of a menu in the world of the game(since it doesn't make sense) and it doesn't make any sense, at least with a view or an overlay it's easier to see it as something purely abstract. Additionally, it makes it harder to use the menu which is a design crime on its own. I kinda get that people like it as an effect but it has a negative effect on its functionality. It's simply annoying to read things that are in perspective. I think it's cool that it exists but I strongly disagree with it being a good HUD.

Generally I can't stand any UI that has a 3d effect or moves around, it's just a cheap gimmick without any functional merits. Killzone 2 is similar to dead space in that regard.

As for the dark souls UI. I don't get why you'd single it out as a particularly bad UI. I wouldn't nominate it as one of the best but aside from being maybe slightly too big(I never thought about that playing the game) it fits with the aesthetic of the game, displays all the important information you need without drawing too much attention.

I guess it's not really a HUD, but I love the UI in prison architect:

It looks especially good in motion and has a very coherent visual design.

As for worst offenders I absolutely hate the UI in skyrim. It doesn't fit with the aesthetic of the game, the usability is crap and from a game design perspective I despise the usage of quest markers and such things.

 

[pantsattack]

I think subtitles typically deserve a pass for accessibility's sake.

I agree. But I meant the other text that is not subtitles. The mission objectives are floating out there coming out of nothing, unless it's the dudes visor projecting them. But in that case the devs could fill the screen with stuff saying it's what the character is seeing. ex. Samus, Master Chief.

 

[diffusionx]

Was it Modern Warfare 2 that had like 10 different fonts on the screen?

The Tomb Raider games have a good HUD

 

[ebullientprism]

I enjoy MGS V's HUD. Pretty simple


Battlefield 3's HUD is a mess though....

BF is kind of a necessary evil though. I really dont see how it could be made any less obtrusive. All of that is necessary info.

The Chat box can already be hidden. And thats about it.

 

[Accoun]

Was it Modern Warfare 2 that had like 10 different fonts on the screen?

I think it's 2.

 

[Bedlam]

Alan Wake's big fat "GO DO THIS NOW" -Hud killed half of the immersion for me.

The only good HUD is a HUD that can be completely turned off.

Too bad though when games are designed with the HUD in mind. Take Witcher 3, for example. People were always saying "turn off the HUD for maximum immersion!". That may be true but only very rarely do the quest descriptions contain enough information about the locations. They mostly rely on the disappointing "go to point x on the map" way of quest-design.