tegan

I Had a Random Thought (About Video Games)

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Dishonored.

 

I think the only other option would be Mirror's Edge. No other FP "S" is about movement.

 

It could be argued that Doom is very much about movement. 

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Doom is my choice. Whenever I start a new FPS it always takes me an adjustment period to get used to the default run speed.

 

EDIT: But I don't know if I can count it since 99% of my experience with Doom is through gzDoom, which adds mouselook and jumping, which I don't think were in the original game.

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I totally disagree Osmosisch! TF2 is largely about movement. It's not very overt but there's a reason I'm pretty good at that FPS even tho I can't aim at all.

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I think as far as pure movement empowerment goes, zooming around the walls and ceilings of levels in AvP as an Alien also feels pretty great.

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Being a Hunter in L4D is pretty great. And also feels significantly different from being a Boomer in L4D! Or even just survivor.

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Being a skulk in NS2 is my favourite. (NS2) Marine movements is pretty good too. Although Tribes and Reflex also have really good movement.

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I would say that movement in FPS's is definitely a big deal in the right areas.  Take speedrunning.  Compare a speedrun of Quake and a normal playthough.  They're both subject to the same mechanics, but the speedrun will use some insane quirks of the system to build and maintain tons of speed.  Those same tricks obviously won't work in a game like Half-life or Call of Duty.  These tricks are also a big deal in competitive play.  As SBM said, TF2 isn't just about your ability to shoot, it's also about your ability to get around the map, which includes lots of vertical movement (such as rocket/sticky jumps).  Heck, even Portal 2 added a bunch of movement based paint.  I'd say it's as nuanced as 2D movement is.

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I played quake live the other day and I thought that was really good feeling.

Also in my limited experience..

Halo games

Dishonored when you have the blink thing down.

Skate is not an fps but I always like how well it managed convey satisfying movement feel.

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I think we can also talk about how the nuance of the movement system affects combat as well.

Like CS:GO has tight movement but very little movement goes on during a duel because of how much it will throw off accuracy.

Meanwhile look at two scouts fighting in TF2 they're A-D strafing to the max and taking advantage of their double or triple jumps while going full tilt with shotguns that don't have a lot of innacuraccy when fired at speed.

Or look at an Arena Shooter like Quake where people trick jump, rocket, and wall limb to the technically fastest speeds and still find time to pause for a perfect 360 blink-and-you-miss rail gun snipe.

Though I still feel the movement + combat paradigm strongest in NS2 since as an alien you're fighting melee vs guns and often using weird angles and the strength of your a-d strafe to stay alive and bite the bipeds.

Or look at Dirty Bomb which has about a dozen different player classes moving at different speeds and allows everyone to do at least two wall jumps allowing people to trick jump their way across the map while shooting at no real amount of decreased accuracy.

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Sonic 1 is still pretty much gold standard for me.

 

Another game I never played that was formative for pretty much all my friends. Damn parents making me use my imagination.

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Another game I never played that was formative for pretty much all my friends. Damn parents making me use my imagination.

Are you trying to imply the rest of us weren't?

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lol no. Just lamenting the fact I wasn't allowed to play games until I was 11ish, meaning I missed out on a lot of classics. 

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Interesting to read everyone discussing 2D. I'm on a gap-plugging Metroidvania mission. After finishing Zero Mission I jumped to Aria of Sorrow which I guess I must be 60-70% though. Although Soma skates around the castle, I'm really enjoying the movement and progression. I wonder if this has ever been cited as an influence on the Souls games. At first it was the grim Gothic setting and the sword names that provoked the thought but from the enemy patterns to the stat choices, I'm definitely feeling a connection.

 

Or maybe I'm just imposing it. Anyway, good game. I too just got SotN on PSN so my hope is that ultimately the original NES game, Super Castlevania, SotN, Aria of Sorrow and Mirror of Fate will give me a nice overview of the series.

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Movement in TF2 just feels good. It's smooth and you feel like you're getting somewhere.

Not to mention rocket jumping & sticky jumping let you fly.

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99% of my time with TF2 was spent in 2007 before they added all the stuff that is the game now, but I never liked the movement penalty on the sniper rifle charge. It's probably from having played so much CS where aggressive peeking is very viable even though it's difficult. The charge makes sniper duels so different, because the guy peeking an angle can take a much easier shot and still win, and the guy peeking has the advantage to begin with even without that consideration.

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Why do videogаmes have trash mobs? I was playing Dragon Age: Origins, and I opened a room in an undead-infested castle, to see two basic skeletons. It took me longer to order my party to attack than it took for my party to turn them into powder. They yielded about four copper pieces and five XP. Why do games have trivial encounters like that?

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Why do videogаmes have trash mobs? I was playing Dragon Age: Origins, and I opened a room in an undead-infested castle, to see two basic skeletons. It took me longer to order my party to attack than it took for my party to turn them into powder. They yielded about four copper pieces and five XP. Why do games have trivial encounters like that?

 

My guess would be that there are few reasons.

1. historically they exist

2. they serve to teach you how to use combat between authored boss battles

This may lead you to ask why aren't there only boss battles and cut the trash?

I would guess that it's cheap to fill up game space & time with trash, and expensive to create authored special boss encounters. You slow the player down by setting arbitrary gear/stats barriers that can only be breached by getting enough gold/gear/exp from trash.

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This may lead you to ask why aren't there only boss battles and cut the trash?

 

Shadow of the Colossus takes that approach!

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And unfortunately it's really boring. ):

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99% of my time with TF2 was spent in 2007 before they added all the stuff that is the game now, but I never liked the movement penalty on the sniper rifle charge. It's probably from having played so much CS where aggressive peeking is very viable even though it's difficult. The charge makes sniper duels so different, because the guy peeking an angle can take a much easier shot and still win, and the guy peeking has the advantage to begin with even without that consideration.

 

The charge mechanic for the sniper rifle has been in the game since at least Team Fortress Classic (I never played QWTF) so it's got some roots.  I think it was designed like that specifically to keep it from being like CS and leave the running and gunning to other classes.

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My guess would be that there are few reasons.

1. historically they exist

2. they serve to teach you how to use combat between authored boss battles

This may lead you to ask why aren't there only boss battles and cut the trash?

I would guess that it's cheap to fill up game space & time with trash, and expensive to create authored special boss encounters. You slow the player down by setting arbitrary gear/stats barriers that can only be breached by getting enough gold/gear/exp from trash.

 

They also pace the game and contextually make sense. If you've got an evil mastermind, it makes sense that they have minions. And sometimes it feels good just to mow enemies down easily.

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