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Why are so many games afraid to let your character fly?
- Thread starter Stiler
- Start date
veloxStrix
Banned
Just wait for Peacock Simulator 2016.
EndlessSky
Member
Whats that, you wanna fly bro?
Here, heres a giant fricking robot that transforms into cars and motorcycles, and can fly.
Lets go fly around and kill some space dinosaurs n shit.
Yep. I haven't played it since it comes out later this year here, but have watched a good amount of streams, and you can fly almost anytime you want once you unlock the flying model. Doesn't really give you speed ups on dives like a flight simulator would, but there is a good height ceiling and lots of freedom.
Zeyphersan
Banned
Everyone saying flying is boring is dead wrong. Just Cause 2 with the BOLO Mod for flight is incredibly fun
Video games are not built like real places. If you give a player a free camera to pan around the environment you'll realize just how much stuff doesn't exist because it doesn't need to be built if you're unable to fly/float/whatever. Free form flying requires a ton of work to be done correctly because it requires a lot of content focused in a big open space.
A good example of this is that the original WoW zones weren't built for flying, so when it was introduced Blizzard basically had to rebuild all the zones to allow for it.
A good example of this is that the original WoW zones weren't built for flying, so when it was introduced Blizzard basically had to rebuild all the zones to allow for it.
family_guy
Member
Drakan: The Ancients' Gates. Although it was limited to just the 3D overworld. That's a game I think they need to reintroduce.
Dreamwriter
Member
Final Fantasy XIV's new expansion adds flying mounts (including a dragon) that actually feel like flying, and gives flying a real purpose, with huge 3D areas you have to explore via flight to find everything (and boy are those areas fun to fly around in, after having had to trudge around mountains and stuff beforehand to earn it).
https://youtu.be/ZmD-SjuPPm0?t=1m57s
(jump to 1:57 for flying if the video doesn't start there)
They do have limits - you can't fly in pre-expansion zones, since those zones weren't designed around it, there is a (very high) ceiling your mounts won't go beyond, and the edges of a zone are impassible.
https://youtu.be/ZmD-SjuPPm0?t=1m57s
(jump to 1:57 for flying if the video doesn't start there)
They do have limits - you can't fly in pre-expansion zones, since those zones weren't designed around it, there is a (very high) ceiling your mounts won't go beyond, and the edges of a zone are impassible.
I feel like DC Universe Online would've been if it didn't have PVP. Due to the inclusion of PVP, it requires your flight to slowdown during combat otherwise you could just fly away.
That said, I think they still did it well considering their game engine. It's possible to still float in the air during combat and if a fight isn't going well it's possible to just fly straight into the sky which can be game breaking. But what it does the best is it has that pop noise when using the flight's super speed.
liliththepale
Banned
You can't feel the wind rushing past you or get vertigo from flying in games, so it's not as fun. Plus people like a challenge in games, but not in real life. Flying eliminates a lot of challenges, except for in games with bad flying controls I suppose.
I have something for you
gorgeous game in every sense, waiting anxiously for the sequel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwN6efmhp7E
SSPssp
Member
Whats that, you wanna fly bro?
Here, heres a giant fricking robot that transforms into cars and motorcycles, and can fly.
Lets go fly around and kill some space dinosaurs n shit.
Whoa! Horizon Zero Dawn seems awesome, I haven't seen any visuals of the game until now. Will definitely get it.
Disaster Nebraska
Banned
Kidding, right? That's Xenoblade X for Wii-U.
This is a good, almost mandatory read on the implications flying has on game design, from someone with the credentials to support what he's talking about.
Caveat being, they're readding flying mounts back in due to probably too many people accusing the game of being "afraid" (seriously is this the new "lazy devs") to let your character fly but locking it behind a gate that makes sure it doesn't break intended game design the first time through.
Caveat being, they're readding flying mounts back in due to probably too many people accusing the game of being "afraid" (seriously is this the new "lazy devs") to let your character fly but locking it behind a gate that makes sure it doesn't break intended game design the first time through.
Trigonometrize.
Member
I have something for you
gorgeous game in every sense, waiting anxiously for the sequel
It's not flying, it's falling!
with style
Edit: beaten
anothertech
Member
Play DCUO? (DC Universe Online, Free on PS4)
This mmo's actually feels pretty good in the "flying" department. You can turn on your axis, it's just a little tricky using the camera, you can bank, can't really do loops though, dives do however give you more speed, etc. and they have a bunch of little fun flying powers you can unlock. Most of them are trash, but there are enough decent ones, you can just create a 'flying' super hero and fight with you flight.
Not bad.
This mmo's actually feels pretty good in the "flying" department. You can turn on your axis, it's just a little tricky using the camera, you can bank, can't really do loops though, dives do however give you more speed, etc. and they have a bunch of little fun flying powers you can unlock. Most of them are trash, but there are enough decent ones, you can just create a 'flying' super hero and fight with you flight.
Not bad.
spazchicken
Member
I think this is a little different since it's an RPG. We've always had air ships in RPGs.Whats that, you wanna fly bro?
Here, heres a giant fricking robot that transforms into cars and motorcycles, and can fly.
Lets go fly around and kill some space dinosaurs n shit.
Not sure if serious
MrChowderClams
Member
I have something for you
gorgeous game in every sense, waiting anxiously for the sequel
that's not flying silly. it's falling... with style c:
I came to post DCUO too.
What about Lego Marvel? Any flying character can fly from the airship to the surface and back. Can fly above the airship some too. I had no idea I could even do this until I saw my kids doing it.
You can speed up but flying to close to buildings and trying to ascend you become sticky..like the building is pulling you to it.
What about Lego Marvel? Any flying character can fly from the airship to the surface and back. Can fly above the airship some too. I had no idea I could even do this until I saw my kids doing it.
You can speed up but flying to close to buildings and trying to ascend you become sticky..like the building is pulling you to it.
Mechs are nothing like airships though. How many airships let you fly in the actual game instead of just the world map? How many airships allow you full 3D movement instead of just sorta hovering, always on the same height and only rising when you pass mountains or such? How many airships transform into motorcycles? And lastly - how many airships can be used for actual combat? Not fights on the deck of the airship, mind you, but entering a fight AS the airship. How many games do that?
freethoughtbubble
Member
Unless a developer successfully emulates the sensation of flight -- the acceleration, air resistance, weight, gravity, etc. -- "flying" amounts to merely gliding around aimlessly. Not fun. Its's the difference between soaring through the skies in Mario 64 and floating around slowly a la Mario Galaxy.
Most developers can't even get the feel of melee combat right...
Most developers can't even get the feel of melee combat right...
Baron Von Beans
Member
OP, check out Lair for PS3. There have been patches to bring the game to playable standards, it was rough at release. You pilot a dragon, fighting armies and other dagrons.
I guess the PS3 Iron Man games let you fly? I think?
I guess the PS3 Iron Man games let you fly? I think?
Linkstrikesback
Member
Except for the motorcycle bit?
Ship battles:
Full on ship areas that acted as dungeons too.
Upgrading your ships ability to travel further above/below clouds unlocked whole new areas and was completely controllable.
Man, skies of arcadia had everything.
SSPssp
Member
Oh wow I'm embarrassed. I just searched for Mechs + Dinosaurs + game on google. I thought that was it. I already was going to get Xenoblade without knowing anything about it. I think I need to pay more attention to news. Thanks guys.
Stiler
Member
Drakan is one of the few games I remember playing that had flying in it and it wasn't a flight-sim.
I just played the original (pc game), was super pissed when they made another one and it was console only.
The design though was very "linear" in how they kind of boxed you into the levels to guide you on where to go and what to do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPfbETCLGEc
I feel like a more open world would have worked fine.
I see a lot of comments in here about people saying how it's broken, and all of those are mostly based around the judgement from games like WoW and others where the world or game wasn't built with flying in mind from the start (IE if you could see it from above it'd look unfinished) or there's nothing to do while flying (No flying enemies or vertical space to the world).
Drakan had plenty of flying enemies and other things to do for flying around, it wasn't just "go up into the sky, now there's nothing to do while flying" it had gameplay built around that.
I think a lot of the "issues" with flying are more about the game not being built for it then flying itself not being a fun thing to do in video games.
You can have a lot more vertical slices, actually have huuuuuuuge mountains with "secret" entrances and things to find, since in many games those mountains you see you either can not climb or they never put anything interesting on them (because they don't expect players to go up there). Now they could and you'd have a way to get up there.
Then there's sci-fi/fantasy elements like floating islands or other things they could have in the world for you to find/explore by flying.
Have enemies, things from harpies, to dragons or any other creature a game can think of that makes sense for that world.
Flying could also allow you to have a much larger world-building game, make use of the newer procedural generation to flesh out the world to be large enough so that flying doesn't feel tiny or fit into a small space.
You can have a world that actually feels large so flying in order to get places makes sense or is needed for something.
I remember watching a movie when I was younger called Krull, at one point in thei movie they had to get somewhere really really quickly and in order to do so they needed to fly, which you can see here in this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wJY4bd_M-w
I always wanted a fantasy game that even came close to that sense of world with flying.
Ship battles are one of my favorite parts about the game so far.
Zvonimir Boban
Banned
paragonpro
Banned
Even though you're gliding...You can basically fly in arkham knight haha, but yeah I get what your saying, superman returns was an awful game, but flying felt amazing in that game, I'd like a game with similar flight mechanics, the issue is, that unless the game is built around those mechanics specifically, it runs the risk of breaking the game.
matrix-cat
Member
Dark Void is a terrible game in every aspect except flying. Screaming around pretending you're The Rocketeer is absolutely marvelous in that game. The on-foot controls are like a standard third person shooter, but pressing Y gets you into a nimble hover mode where you can still use all your normal weapons. Double-tapping Y puts you in full-on rocketpack mode, where you fly around crazy fast and use the guns attached to your rocketpack to do strafing runs. It's fucking rad, and it's actually balanced really well. Flying at full speed is awesome, but you cover distance so quickly that it takes skill to do it safely in smaller (or enclosed) areas; you can rocket from one end of a room to the other in a nanosecond.
You can go straight from running around on-foot to full-speed rocketpack flying, and you have perfect control over it. Basically, you'll always blast off in the direction your reticle's pointing, so it's a piece of cake to go zooming straight through a doorway when you're trying to escape a building you've just blown up, for example. You can cut your rocketpack's engine in mid-air whenever you like, just for the fun of it. I still hold out hope that someone will incorporate flying controls this fun into a legitimately good game one of these days, but for now I can say with confidence that Dark Void is the best rocketpacking game ever made.
This is pretty much it.
Oh yeah bro, they space dinos like, alien dinosaurss, on another planet.
Zero Horizon is Robo dinos.
Both look super cool.
Stiler
Member
Dark Void is a terrible game in every aspect except flying. Screaming around pretending you're The Rocketeer is absolutely marvelous in that game. The on-foot controls are like a standard third person shooter, but pressing Y gets you into a nimble hover mode where you can still use all your normal weapons. Double-tapping Y puts you in full-on rocketpack mode, where you fly around crazy fast and use the guns attached to your rocketpack to do strafing runs. It's fucking rad, and it's actually balanced really well. Flying at full speed is awesome, but you cover distance so quickly that it takes skill to do it safely in smaller (or enclosed) areas; you can rocket from one end of a room to the other in a nanosecond.
You can go straight from running around on-foot to full-speed rocketpack flying, and you have perfect control over it. Basically, you'll always blast off in the direction your reticle's pointing, so it's a piece of cake to go zooming straight through a doorway when you're trying to escape a building you've just blown up, for example. You can cut your rocketpack's engine in mid-air whenever you like, just for the fun of it. I still hold out hope that someone will incorporate flying controls this fun into a legitimately good game one of these days, but for now I can say with confidence that Dark Void is the best rocketpacking game ever made.
I remember seeing the videos for that game before it came out and it reminded me so much of the Rocketeer (I love that movie).
Then there was the hype that it was being developed by the Crimson Skies people, and those games were super fun and had the kind of old pulp style that the Rocketeer had.
If the game itself was better it could have been amazing.
Mihael Mello Keehl
Banned
Maybe cause the game would be super easy.. have you played a kirby game? Or SMW with the cape or blue yoshi?
th4tguy
Member
How so?
If what we hear is true, the whole reason Batman is going after Superman in BvS is because of the amount of destruction Supermans fight caused.
John Kowalski
Banned
"yes, let's let the player break our perfectly designed levels in hundreds of different inconceivable ways"
I thought you could only glide in SR4? Admittedly, it's a very shallow glide when fully powered up, but I seem to remember having to periodically intercept buildings in order to gain a little height.
Haven't played GooH; can't speak for that.
AgentLampshade
Member
"Here's this painstakingly crafted world, made with love and care. Every single building has hidden lore and is a character of its own and you can... just... fly over it."
NHarmonic.
Member
First thought was of Gravity Rush.
Next up was Divinity 2. My favourite part of the game was just jumping and turning into a dragon to soar through the air, escape tough fights in open areas or explore. Skyrim's "Dragonborn" felt so lame coming from this.
Also comes to mind is how Lenneth flies around the world in Valkyrie Profile.
Next up was Divinity 2. My favourite part of the game was just jumping and turning into a dragon to soar through the air, escape tough fights in open areas or explore. Skyrim's "Dragonborn" felt so lame coming from this.
Also comes to mind is how Lenneth flies around the world in Valkyrie Profile.
inked_illusion
Member
Cause depending on the game, the flying mechanic can break the game's design significantly, Dark Souls would be awesome but would be busted if you could fly in that game (so is Fallout). Yes, I chose those games cause I like and not randomly.
Aside from the obvious Skies of Arcadia (which has fantastic airship battles as you plot artillery barrages across multiple turns), Nostalgia on the DS also had them.
Short answer being 'very very few' which is what you were getting at though
peanutbutterlatte
Member
I still maintain the only way to play GTA: San Andreas is with the Flying Cars cheat, and I think the absence of it in the series since is why I've gone off GTA massively...
pillowtalk
Member
I'm late to the party on this, but this is why gravity rush/daze is my favorite superhero game. Flying (falling) around the city feels so good.