Favorite Features in Games

[Rosella]

So we've had topics on best game ever and that lists reasons why, but I thought it'd be interesting to talk about specific features that games have had that you really loved (even if it was in a game you didn't like all that much).

So to start off, one feature I really enjoyed was April's journal in The Longest Journey. It wasn't necessary but it added a really great atmosphere to the game. It was really well-written and just added to the tone of "This is ridiculous and absurd and why is it happening to me but I guess I need to figure out what to do." I dunno, I thought it did a really good job of giving the player someone to relate to.

And if you guys are interested, you can also list ways games may have implemented the feature but done it in a way that wasn't as pleasing. Like FFXIII also had a journal feature but reading over it was impersonal and tedious. It was a recap, which I guess was nice if you stopped playing the game for a while, but it just read so blandly that I hardly cared what it said.

So what are your favorite features?

[Bludshot]

I absolutely adored the radio in Fallout 3.  The music station really built on the effective use of old music in the first two games' intro sequences.  All of the tracks, in addition to being catchy and enjoyable, all have a sort of irony or metaphor in reference to the post apocalyptic setting.

The Enclave station, while not really having to much music outside of songs typically associated with American nationalism, also featured Malcolm McDowell as the self proclaimed president of the United States.  McDowell does a great job playing a stereotypical American ideal while giving the impression to the player that he has sinister motives.

I can't imagine the game without it.

[drusain]

Some things come to mind.

Something I liked about the Ratchet and Clank games is that during mission briefings, the "plans" would be drawn as if someone drew it in MSPaint or something. It made mission briefing funny and lighthearted when comparing the mission briefings in games that take themselves seriously. It's like saying "it doesn't really matter what the mission is, but here's some funny pictures before you go on your way."

I also liked the "Item World" concept from the Disgaea series. Aside from levelling your character, you could also opt to hop into "the world of the item" and increase its stats by going through randomized stages up to floor 100. It just adds to the craziness!

I liked double/triple techs from Chrono Trigger/Cross. Basically your characters had specific skill lists, but some characters' skills synergized with other characters. One character could have a basic sword attack and another could have a basic ice attack, but if you use their turns together, the sword guy would have a ice-elemental sword attack.

There's also Shadow Hearts too which made two big risky ideas that I thought were great. One was the Judgement Ring. It's basically a wheel that spins anytime you did anything in the game (turn-based RPG). If you wanted to attack, the wheel shows up and you need to press the button at certain points of the wheel or else the attack would fail (or do extra damage if you hit the "sweet spot" on the ring). You even had to use it for using items. You even used it to get discounts from stores if you wanted to buy something. Shadow Hearts also had a "sanity meter" which was interesting; aside from your HP and MP your characters had a sanity bar that would drop down each turn. If your character dropped below 0, you would go insane and get "berserk" status and you'd lose control of the character unless you used consumables to bring back their sanity points. Added some immersion in the game when some of the weak-willed characters would go insane after fighting ugly demons for too long!

I just like games that go the extra mile to add something innovative! 

[Big C from Cauney island]

I liked the nanosuit options in crysis, especially in the first game. Going invisible, getting superspeed, power, real cool. 

I also like the concept of playing a game within a game. Space quest did this a few times, and I'm sure more recent games have probably done it too.

Also, the game "rage", although I'm not a huge fan, added the element of driving to a FPS. pretty cool as well.

Assasins creed 2 and brotherhood are some of the best recent games.  Climbing through a virtual city is cool. I also liked buying up Rome and getting bank money.

The F.E.A.R. slow motion also notable.

When Aliens: colonial marines comes out for the Wii U, there is talk of making the new controller a motion tracker. 

[m.ward]

I liked crystal crazy-seqal to crystal quest (sigh fond memories) because it was fun and challenging, I also liked the crystal quest creature editor (but thats going back to the days of the Mac 11e)