Games with unbelievable amounts of polish

[Booze Zombie]

The Polish ones, I can't believe how much POLISH is those games! Ho-ho, he-he!

 

[Daystar Clarion]

The Polish ones, I can't believe how much POLISH is those games! Ho-ho, he-he!

It was only a matter of time...

Bethesda games. You can tell that a lot of love went into creating every nook and cranny in Morrowind and Fallout 3, and to a lesser extent Oblivion (not flaming it, it's a great game, but environments in TES 3 and FO3 were hand-placed, in IV they are mostly randomised).

Edit: The Half-Life series and the Portals are also amazing for this. There's less in them, but that just means they fill it in with HUGE amounts of detail.

I'd say Bethesda games definately have a lot of love poured into them, but in terms of polish, they are some of the buggiest games around. I don't really blame them for that though, their games are so huge that it's impossible to iron out all the kinks.

 

[CommanderKirov]

Witcher 2... Sorry I had to make that bad joke.

For me I guess it would be either Crisis 2 or Half Life and Portal series

 

[noogai18]

Definitely Blizzard. It justifies their insane production times.

Besides them, another game like that is Just Cause 2. It's polished enough to immerse me to the point that at times I actually feel like I'm on a Pacific island rather than just playing a game.

How long would say it takes Blizzard to actually make something?

Mostly thinking of StarCraft II there, with the 13 year gap between the original and II. Although Diablo III is at 11 years and counting. I'm not saying they spent 13 years making StarCraft II, but it's a long time.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

results of polish and love

The Witcher, Painkiller, The Witcher 2.


And if I want even more Polish in my games, I got to the language menu and select 'Polska'.

 

[Sixcess]

Portal and even more so Portal 2. Incredibly slick and well produced... possibly too much so in a way. They looked great and controlled beautifully, but the second game in particular took you through the story so smoothly it felt like a succession of semi-interactive cutscenes in places, especially in the sequences between the test chambers.

Other than that... WoW. I've played a fair number of MMOs, and some of them I enjoy much more than I enjoy WoW, but it's unarguably the most well crafted* MMO out there.

[sub]*no pun intended[/sub]

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Anything made by Blizzard, ever.

WoW in particular is amazingly bug-free considering the absolutely massive amount of content in the game.

Capcom is another developer that really polishes the hell out of their fighting games. SF4 and MvC3 are pretty damn impressive.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Anything made by Blizzard, ever.

WoW in particular is amazingly bug-free considering the absolutely massive amount of content in the game.

Capcom is another developer that really polishes the hell out of their fighting games. SF4 and MvC3 are pretty damn impressive.

Indeed. There's usually some balance issue in their fighting games though (not that it stops me from playing them).

 

[subject_87]

Super Meat Boy, especially the controls, is polished to a mirror shine and thank God for that.

 

[Mike Laserbeam]

I have to say, TimeSplitters Future Perfect was incredibly polished. I actually never found a glitch, and so much love and care went into it...Wow.

Also, I have, just today, acquired a couple of PS2's. I can now play the first 2 games in the series. Woo!

You've not played the first two?! Oh man... You have goooooood times ahead!
Cherish it, CHERISH IT!

 

[ScoopMeister]

Crysis and arkham asylum are the two that spring to mind for me, so much polish you could curl on them.

This is basically what I thought too. Also the Portal games and (to an extent) Halo: Reach.

Bethesda games. You can tell that a lot of love went into creating every nook and cranny in Morrowind and Fallout 3, and to a lesser extent Oblivion (not flaming it, it's a great game, but environments in TES 3 and FO3 were hand-placed, in IV they are mostly randomised.

Only if you don't consider glitchiness to contribute to overall polish.

 

[vivalahelvig]

results of polish and love

The Witcher, Painkiller, The Witcher 2.


And if I want even more Polish in my games, I got to the language menu and select 'Polska'.

There really arent enough games made by the Polish, they make some good shit.

 

[Baldr]

WoW bugfree?? There are still bugs in there since the beginning of the game like the The Battle of Darrowshire bug that prevents anyone from completing the quest and there are still places that you can get stuck or fall through the level that even Cataclysm didn't fix.

 

[AetherWolf]

Uncharted 2 is the first thing to come to mind. I hate cover-based shooting but even I'm in awe by how lovely it looks.

I also downloaded WipEout HD and agree with everything you said.

 

[Juventus]

xbox360 version of bayonetta.

super mario world

god of war games.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Uncharted 2 is the first thing to come to mind. I hate cover-based shooting but even I'm in awe by how lovely it looks.

I also downloaded WipEout HD and agree with everything you said.

I was amazed by how many unlockable vehicles there are.

 

[Puzzlenaut]

Call of Duty.

Love it, hate it, through every level you can tell a lot of work goes into those games adding polish and making the whole experience flawless, at least in the singleplayer

Another is Assassin's Creed -- because their incredible use of macguffins allows them to make every unpolished about it supposedly like that on purpose.

The least polished game I've ever seen compared to the capabilities of the hardware at the time is probably Oblivion. That game was very sketchy in places, chocked full of bugs and had some of the worst sliding feet I've ever seen.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Star Ocean: Till The End of Time. Not the most polished graphically (although I do like the artwork and the visuals a lot), but in the established universe they have set up. Specifically, the in-game dictionary. The amount of time and effort they must have spend developing totally original techno-bable, civilizations, histories, and descriptions of the level of gravity and the tilt that the planets have is simply staggering.

Totally agree, the sheer size of the game was amazing. I've got a save lying around somewhere with 100+ hours on it. I also loved reading all the codex entries, which I don't usually do.