As I mentioned before I've live in a cave for the last 4 or 5 years. Everyone should have a cave like that but that's besides the point.

The question is for those of you who plays big:

What new interesting features showed up in 3D games in the last 4 years? Primarily I'm interested in game engine features but if something else interesting is there don't hesitate to share

I have no idea why i'm replying...

Basically: Graphics improved loads.

Gameplay improved slightly.

Very good example of this is half-life 2, which, I might add, is a crap game.

physics, fun physics

It's only a crap game if there aren't thousands of people who love it. :p

Also: pretty water!

Shaders, physics, more polies, that's about it.

-Ragdoll physics
-This new HDR thing's going to take off
-More freedom ingame, more "interactable" environments
-More support for editability
-Increased commercialism
-Gameplay style fusion , IE: Stealth FPS, RPG elements in DM games
-Vehicles more common
-Card games?
-A lot of sequels

Just do a google search for: Half-Life 2, Quake IV (Not out yet), Doom III, Killzone [3 :o] (not out yet), Unreal Tournament 2007 (also not out yet), and Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. That should give you an idea of what they are like nowadays.

Thatd be Killzone 2, the first killzone was out on the Ps2.

Whoops.

Killzone 2 is apparently planned for the PS2 as well, maybe you're thinking of Killzone 3?

Eyecandy and physics are better, atmosphere is down the tubes. You can probably think the Q3 for that.

I am indeed.

I want bioshock.

I want Martyn.

And BioShock.

Here, I'll just do the googling for you... I'm bored...

Doom III


S.T.A.L.K.E.R


Quake IV


Killzone 3


Half-life 2


UT2007


Splinter Cell Chaos Theory


And the best of the best--
JK!

I agree.

Personally when I look at a new game I'm looking for atmosphere and sound, what it makes you feel. For example Republic Commando in the first level I honestly felt like I was in the battle, they did a really good job with the random trooper deaths and the bug guts of creating the atmosphere of a heavy battle. Atleast that's what I'm looking for...

Doom III does the sound and atmosphere part brilliantly, I must say.

Agreed my heart was pounding when I was hearing the other guys dieing over the com link right at the start.

WTH? What games are you playing?

HL2 no atmosphere?

D3?

Splinter Cell - CT?

CoD. 'nuff said.

I'd say MoH: Pacific Assault has better atmosphere then CoD. Plus a lot of the action is unscripted so its more interesting to play more then once.

[QUOTE=Vincent Valentine]I want Martyn.

And BioShock.[/QUOTE]

You know where I am.

I am suprised that no one mentioned character modeling. The detail has risen dramatically. So much work has been done to add realism.

Just to add to the physics part: working grappling hooks (even better if they can interact with the environment, like wrapping around objects.)

Hey, some of these pictures I haven't seen and they look pretty cool!

I was asking more specifically about what each of you found most impressive (if anything), specifically.

I, for one, would like to see more of emulation of human perceptions and actions. For instance - getting blinded by bright flashes and beams of lights in the face, deafening by loud sounds, like getting shell shocked and all, possibly with wobbling controls - obviously so that you can do things like that on AI and players in the net game. Sound distortion, picture distortion, time distortion...

Maybe vision shimmering, blurring and even psychadelic color changes in proper situations.

Rolling, falling over backwards or getting thrown up in the air with viewpoint going about accondingly (I wonder if this would make people puke, though).

Another cool thing would be envirnoment that's "alive" - operating by some model.. I recall there was some movement in this direction. Echoing and reverb of sounds, etc. Some kind of a sound synthesis from environment. Environmental effect that you can control to some extent (fire, heat (hot air shimmering), water spilling, steam created by some physical model and dissipating, drying, cooling down, etc). Machines that do something meaningful and can be operated.

Anything of that nature.

PS. I tried DOOM 3 a bit and got bored even more than with previous DOOM games. ID just never had it for me. Outside of Mars was way cool, though.

A lot of games already have tons of these features. The light blinding and eyes exposure to light thing simulation is comming to Source Engine and many others I think. It's supposed to ship with the new DOD too. Besides the visual stuff like blurring and blinding, many of those effects can be done on any engine. The thing to be concerned with most is graphics. Lighting seems to be the big thing right now. HL2's lighting looks more realistic than, lets say Doom3, but Doom3's lighting is way more dynamic. Realistic dynamic lighting is the thing that would own.

Bender, I don't know if you mean anything other than such items as flashbangs, but Counter-Strike: Source does an excellent visual and sound distortion from flashbangs.

Much of what you've described has been done.

Specifics?

I'm not asking what _could_ be done. I'm asking what _HAS_ been done, and done well.



I'll check this one out, thanks.



Then reality is definitely your game

The Navy Seals mod for Quake 3 had this and did it awesomely. You got this horrible burn mark on your screen where a flashbang went off after the overall blindness faded. Also, if you got shot in the head and didn't die your view got screwed to hell.

There're a few games that do the deafening when something loud goes off; there's a high-pitched beep that fades out a few moments after the deafness fades, though I can't name a game in particular at the moment.

Humorously enough, there were JK hacks that could throw a person on their back, however, outside of vehicle mounting animations in a couple games, I can't think of any game where your view gets actively thrown about in such a way. I think that this should be something standard.

EverQuest 2 has heat shimmer over flames. Many games have sounds that echo (you usually have to jack the sound realism setting way up). I'm not aware of any games with volumetric water.

Also, EverQuest 2 has cloth simulation, meaning, if you have a crotch flap and jump, it trails behind, not with a prescripted animation; it's pretty snazzy.

Many different games have many different amazing things in them, however, I don't know of 1 game that has all of the newest cool realism elements in one package; it seems the creators just come up with one neat gimmick or two and that's it, rather than getting it all in.

QM

I apologize if this has already been mentioned, but in response to your questions about wobbling and a player getting knocked over, Aliens vs Predator 2 is a prime example that I can think of:

A marine can shoot EMP stun grenades that cause the player to wobble in a daze, lose the ability to move, and get slightly epileptic vision for a moment.


A marine can also be ensnared my a predator's net, which will knock him off his feet(changing the camera view so that it's on it's side with a net meshing over the HUD, really cool). He can't escape unless he uses his knife to cut through, but by that time the Pred will have probably gutted him.

HL2 - I have to say this game has kinda neat atmosphere, it feels fun to play it.

D3 - Ah, the amazing System Shock-ripoff adventure which looks nice but that's it.

SC:CT - Never played, perhaps it has atmosphere, but graphics dont' make it.

BF2 has by far the best visual/audio distortion due to getting bombed of any game.

Rainbow 6.. all of them almost. The flash bangs would blur your vision up something nice and also harm your hearing for a moment.

Come on now, think big. JK can knock the player down, JO has it already, but its annoying so I guess people don't use it much.

I like CoD's.

The last time I was impressed with game graphics was with Unreal. Nowadays it's just what you expect from games. It is normal that they look better.



To the being blinded thing: Force Blind?

Deus Ex has it as well, sort of, and a lot of army games have 'shell-shock' and flashbangs. If a grenade lands beside you, but not close enough to totally decimate you, then you'll be deafened for a bit. In Deus Ex, if you fall off a building and smash both of your legs into bags of goo, it wobbles then collapses to the ground. Yay!

[QUOTE=Quib Mask]Humorously enough, there were JK hacks that could throw a person on their back, however, outside of vehicle mounting animations in a couple games, I can't think of any game where your view gets actively thrown about in such a way. I think that this should be something standard.
[/QUOTE]
The only one I know of is SW: Battlefront, when you go prone.