Best Small Touches in Video Games

[rutcommapat]

So, I've been playing GTA: San Andreas for the first time, and so far my favorite feature is that you can steal a train and drive it around. It doesn't really make much sense, seeing as so much work has been put into most everything else, but it doesn't make me love it any less.

So, what games do you remember where a very small touch was something you played with for hours?

 

[Karlaxx]

I really liked the Nigerian Prince e-mail in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It was perfect in its absurdity.

 

[Panzervaughn]

This thread already happened somewhere. =D

 

[genericusername64]

No more heroes lets you pet your cat

 

[Kekkles]

Team ICO's physics.

/thread

Seriously, nothing beats the first moving experience in ICO or Shadow of the Colossus.

 

[imnot]

In deus ex HR Theres an email telling people to stop changing his wallpaper to animal porn.

I found it funny anyway, mainly because its i na top secret base.

 

[Michael Hirst]

Super Meat Boy, those little homages to classic games before you start a new are, nice little touch that makes my retro heart beat once again.

 

[Leemaster777]

In Bioshock, in one of the later areas, there's an apartment building with dead family inside. A mother, father, and two daughters. They're propped up on the couch, in front of a TV.

It doesn't have any particular meaning, there isn't any noteworthy loot there, it's off the beaten path, but I just found it rather unnerving.

They could have just filled the room with a few normal dead bodies, but they way they did it just made that particular room stand out for me. I didn't even notice it until I had done a few playthroughs of the game.

Just goes to show you, Bioshock is one of those games you can play over and over, and still find something new each time. Cause I always do, whenever I play it.

 

[Randomologist]

One feature I really liked on Civ 4 was the Civilopedia entries on the civilisations, world wonders, etc. Yes, I know I can Google all this stuff, but it is nice to have a concise explanation of what the Chichen Itza was alongside the developers reasons for including it.

 

[Soxafloppin]

The current Mortal Kombat game has some nice touches.

If you use Sub-Zeros Alt costume, you are playing as the Elder Sub-Zero so his Gibberish changes to Noob Saibots.

Noob Saibots MK2 Costume in the P2 Colour changes his Shadow to MK2 Smoke, this is an allusion towards Noob-Smoke, the Sub Boss of MK: Deception.


I know these arent things that "Keep you playing for hours" but a nice touch none the less.

 

[esperandote]

There are tons of those in the silent hill series.

The falling head in the windows in Silent Hill The room. I spent days trying to prove I didn't imagine it.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Leon's rifle reload animation from Resident Evil 4.

It makes him look like a pure badass everytime.

 

[Episode42]

So, I've been playing GTA: San Andreas for the first time, and so far my favorite feature is that you can steal a train and drive it around. It doesn't really make much sense, seeing as so much work has been put into most everything else, but it doesn't make me love it any less.

So, what games do you remember where a very small touch was something you played with for hours?

Loved being able to steal a train. It was on of the first things i did in San Andreas. Although it was helped by a small bug that allowed me to go through the entire rail loop straight away.

As far as small touches go, the original Sonic and the sequels on the Mega Drive. The way the floating platforms bobbed down slightly as you landed on them, it gave it a feeling that Sonic weighed something. Kinda weird, but it stuck out when i played Sonic on the Game Gear a few years later and it lacked that tiny detail.

 

[Cat of Doom]

The inclusion of the alpha zombie game type in halo 3 extended the time I spent on that game by about 200 + hours I bet. so many of my custom games derived from alpha zombie. Didn't relise how much it meant to me until I found it wasn't in halo reach.

Also, the fact Oblivion et me pick up items to put on display was neat.

 

[sshakespeare]

In Ground Control 2 Operation Exodus, when the tanks stopped moving a soldier would open the hatch look around the area and sometimes start smoking, all really unecessary but it adds that extra something

this is one of the best looking games I've ever played with both the sky and all of the units looking fantastic

 

[JoesshittyOs]

In Batman Arkham Asylum.

Spoiler

Scarecrow starts messing with you and there is a point where it looks like your game has crashed

 

[Dalek Caan]

The fact that Grunt and Brutes in Halo 3 and ODST say some really awesome things a always been nice. It wasn't something Bungie had to put in but they did anyway. Good for them.

 

[Okuu_Fusion]

In GTA IV, I liked how early in the morning, the streets would tend to be empty, exept for a few garbage trucks making their morning runs...