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[K.Sabot]

Stair test.

 

[NeoRausch]

"Hug-Button" in a boy and his blob. Makes the game 150% better while not really doing anything....beside hugging.

 

[Apenheul]

Automated playthroughs at the "press start" screen of console games.

 

[ErikB]

Just at the moment, the bit in Blood Stone where Bond is trying to gain entry to a construction site and the guard says that no one get in there. Without a one of these. And hands him a hard hat. Bond says 'Of course. Safety first.' and the guard walks away. As he does so, Bond turns around and chucks away the hat and moves on.

Sgood!

 

[Zampano]

Weapon switching animation in Vanquish.

 

[Fracas]

Camera bob and full body awareness in first person games is really awesome IMO.

 

[Deified Data]

Full Body Awareness in FPSs

(The Darkness)

THIS! It was also in Butcher Bay.

 

[Roubjon]

Stair animations. If a game has an animation for walking up stairs, I'll love it twice as much. I'm looking at You Metal Gear and Radiata Stories.

 

[Meccanical]

Bullet time and all the mechanics that capitalize on it.

This is why I love Vanquish and the Max Payne series.

Edit: Whoops forgot to mention F.E.A.R.

 

[antitrop]

Weapon switching animation in Vanquish.

I also love the sounds of the suit in Vanquish, as well. The sound of the jets when you go into and out of a jet-booster slide is one of the coolest things this console generation, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[blindrocket]

Shooting the lights out (in many games)

Cloth physics (I remember running through a drape/curtain covering a door in one of the Hitman games over and over just because it looked cool)

Using the ketchup as fake blood in MGS

Psycho Mantis reading your memory card in MGS

 

[GhaleonQ]

Perhaps the real star of Inazuma Eleven, however, is the sound of the cursor moving through the menu. Over the years, sound designers have struggled to find the perfect sound. With Inazuma Eleven, we daresay it has been located. Recently, we met Yasunori Mitsuda in person, and when the formalities were out of the way, we asked him about the menu cursor sound in Inazuma Eleven, and he blushed like a little girl: “I didn’t think anyone would ever ask me about that”. If we had to guess, we would say that it is the sound of a pinhead-sized drop of organic boysenberry jam hitting the floor of a hermetically sealed racquetball court after dropping thirty meters. We asked what brand of microphone Mitsuda used to capture this amazing sound, and he said he could not dare divulge his secrets, that he would have to leave something for the sequel.

http://www.actionbutton.net/?p=461

I LOVE cute or clever "extra" stuff that builds a world. I'd include menu construction, sound and music design, instruction manuals, item/descriptor text, and other such things in this.

 

[Spazznid]

Singing in Journey.

It's like giving the guy/gal you're playing with a nice warm hug.

 

[Messofanego]

Shooting the lights out (in many games)

This is the only thing bumming me out in Dishonored. So many lights but they're all guarded and can't be shot out. A big thing I love in stealth games is making your own shadows. Shooting a light out in Riddick, then going into dark vision and stalking your prey feels so satisfying.

 

[Roland Deschain]

Having just finished Spec Ops: The Line:

- when you run around in the sand and stop you'll still slide a bit further which is a nice touch
- the character's physical appearance gets worse the farther you get into the game. Starts out normal, then you'll get burns, torn clothing, blood etc all over. (see also: Arkham Batman games)
- your character will yell out 'Reloading!' or 'Enemy down!' in the beginning of the game. As the game goes on and the happenings start to wear down his mental and physical health his speech becomes a lot more frayed and hysterical.
- enemies that have random conversations

Can't recommend this game enough. It's pretty cheap now too I think.

 

[Messofanego]

Having just finished Spec Ops: The Line:

- when you run around in the sand and stop you'll still slide a bit further which is a nice touch
- the character's physical appearance gets worse the farther you get into the game. Starts out normal, then you'll get burns, torn clothing, blood etc all over. (see also: Arkham Batman games)
- your character will yell out 'Reloading!' or 'Enemy down!' in the beginning of the game. As the game goes on and the happenings start to wear down his mental and physical health his speech becomes a lot more frayed and hysterical.
- enemies that have random conversations

Can't recommend this game enough. It's pretty cheap now too I think.

Yeah, the adaptive "barking" in relation to story progression is something I hope in future games. Nolan North shouting RELOADING later on with animal-like growls sent chills to my spine.
How they developed the adaptive "barking":

Everything changes. Take the barks, for example - the phrases shouted back and forth between characters during combat. Initially these wouldn't sound out of place in any standard by-the-numbers war shooter. They're clean, crisp orders and warnings, stuff like "flash that bunker" and "hostile eliminated."

Pearsey speaks up. "The writing process was mainly iterative. We planned for three full sets of barks for each squad member, each representing a specific phase of a character's arc. Each bark, of course, is intended to provide either feedback or information to the player - the trick is to avoid too much repetition. Variations are written for each bark. Then, they are written. Over and over."

The process behind making this all happen, called "Thin Slices" by the development team, is revolutionary enough to warrant a talk at this year's GDC Europe . An action as benign as healing a wounded teammate starts as an encouragement to get up and work through the pain, moves into desperation at their situation, and ends in screamed orders to get up and keep moving because Walker needs them to keep killing people.

What was once an act of compassion has been rewritten as an act of aggression, triggered by the player. Things that started out as violent - for example, highlighting a target for your squadmates to shoot - are stripped of euphemism, as "Take out that sniper!" becomes "Kill him." Same act. Different words.

 

[Pietepiet]

The way the Stylish text in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door has an incredible amount of weight to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s68brsIljVU

The amount of squash before it stretches back to its regular size is just perfect. This is the kind of details that I love in games.

Other than that (and Idle Animations since they've already been mentioned):
- Inbetween animations that you'll only see if you let them play out. For instance landing from a jump. They should be allowed to cancel out of, but it's a little something extra that looks great if you find it.
- Sound effects that get higher in tone when you pull off combos.
- Silly customizable stuff that doesn't really affect anything other than appearance, like the emblem on Layle's jacket in The Crystal Bearers.
- The sound of cheers, usually kids going YAAAAAY or something, when you do something cool. Like finishing a combo in Sonic Rush.

There's probably way more stuff that I love but probably can't point out just like that. It just feels good whenever it's there, I guess.

 

[endresults]

Item text and enemy bios. I don't like reading pages of lore in one sitting, a la the books in Skyrim, but I'll read potion lore all day long.

 

[Senoculum]

Metal Gear Solid 2.

Where Snake doesn't (to an extent) clip enemy bodies on the floor. There's an animation where he steps over and around them, as you walk past. That impressed me way back when.

 

[Jawmuncher]

Basicall everything MGS2 added.
Game was the definition of what a Next Gen game should be (For the time it was released)
Took full advantage of the platform with all its little additions many of which have already been mentioned.

 

[Noisepurge]

dirt and small dents and paint scrapes in GTA4 that cars get.

satisfying *thump* sound when hitting on the breaks in NFS games.

Hitman Blood Money holding the gun behind your back when walking towards people (many other small details in these games too)

MGS2 everything you can fuck around with fruit, bottles, magazines, TV screens, enemies.

 

[Blades64]

Marios 'burn' animation whenever he steps on fire/lava from Super Mario 64 to Mario Galaxy.

Racers that actually have a sense of speed.

Air combos in action games.

Ryu dashing blood off his weapon in Ninja Gaiden.

Dodge offset in Bayonetta.

In POP 2008, when the Prince would have to take Elika on his back in the beginning of the game he would say things like, "You're heavier than you look!" By the end of the game he stopped saying that and just made casual remarks like, "I got you." Thought that was pretty cool.

 

[Choppasmith]

I love it in Uncharted when Nate gets the Sniper rifle and you have an enemy lined up and he says "See ya, jackass"

-In The Last Story or Assassains Creed, I love how how you can walk slowly through a crowd and gently push them aside or run full force and bump into them. Also in TLS, I just love how you can run bump your head on signs if you're not careful.

-Having just beat NSMBW, I love a lot of little details here, but the thing that tickles me the most is how koopas, goombas, power ups, flowers, and a few other things will actually jump/dance/react to the "Wah Wahs" in the music.

-In Rayman Origins, how the cursor on the title screen will be in tune with the title theme.

-Also loading screens with Easter Eggs of their own.