What in your opinion was the most ambitious game up to this point?

[DTWolfwood]

Battlefield 1942.

That games has more options and scale than just about every other Battlefield game that has existed since then. It was a 64 player open world battle with all sorts of ability for tomfoolery.

What other FPS lets you submerge in a submarine to hunt battleships while at the same time having to avoid destroyers dropping depth charges on you. All the while other players on the destroyer are shooting AA at an incoming dive bomber. With the rear gunner of the dive bomber trying to shoot down the fighter that was on its tail; all the while the battleship is shelling the shore for an artillery strike called in by a player on land trying to blow up a tank who is trying to capture an objective?

yeh nothing to date gives you that kind of organic player based action in an FPS.

 

[DEAD34345]

Dwarf Fortress is the incredibly obvious answer here. When (or if) it's ever completed, it will essentially be a full simulation of an entire fantasy world, from the ridiculously small scale to the ridiculously large. Even counting only where it's up to now, it's by far the most ambitious and detailed game I've ever encountered, and believe me when I say I've gone through a lot of games.

 

[floppylobster]

What the hell? Did I miss it? How did I get this far without hearing Shen Mue?! Kids these days. Don't know ambition when they see it fall on its face and sink a console, its company and its biggest designer.

 

[Nightmare-Child]

I'll have to say Morrowind. It was something I thought couldn't possibly work, yet somehow did.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Let's see, what comes to mind what hasn't been named already...

I'd say STALKER and DayZ are pretty damn ambitious. As was Portal. Trying to sell a puzzle game to a shooter audience? Tough challenge, but they did it.

Dwarf Fortress is the incredibly obvious answer here. When (or if) it's ever completed, it will essentially be a full simulation of an entire fantasy world, from the ridiculously small scale to the ridiculously large. Even counting only where it's up to now, it's by far the most ambitious and detailed game I've ever encountered, and believe me when I say I've gone through a lot of games.

If you thought Dwarf Fortress was complex, try Aurora. [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=47678.0]

 

[redisforever]

Spoiler: This

HAH just kidding.

Could you imagine?

Ah, the memories... the exciting chases, the AMAZING physics engine, the BEAUTIFUL graphics... ah... wait, I may have been playing something else...


OT: Ambitious does not mean good, or successful: Jurassic Park: Trespasser. It could have been great, but it wasn't given enough time to be finished. Look it up to see just how ambitious it was.

 

[Yggdraz0r]

I'd say....

90% of all Indie games.
Almost everyone of these is either not Triple AAA worthy in regards to design and niche, or just a small group of people thinking outside of zeh box.

I could be wrong though, and it'll ben 75% or something.




Hoi Cowabungaa :3.

*damn you redisforever*

 

[DEAD34345]

Let's see, what comes to mind what hasn't been named already...

I'd say STALKER and DayZ are pretty damn ambitious. As was Portal. Trying to sell a puzzle game to a shooter audience? Tough challenge, but they did it.

Dwarf Fortress is the incredibly obvious answer here. When (or if) it's ever completed, it will essentially be a full simulation of an entire fantasy world, from the ridiculously small scale to the ridiculously large. Even counting only where it's up to now, it's by far the most ambitious and detailed game I've ever encountered, and believe me when I say I've gone through a lot of games.

If you thought Dwarf Fortress was complex, try Aurora. [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=47678.0]

Haha, I have done. Sadly my computer apparently isn't powerful enough to play a game made (almost) entirely out of spreadsheets and menus... It became unplayably slow whenever me or any AIs ever got into actual combat. You make a good point though, it's another game with incredible scope combined with incredible detail and complexity. A little less detail on the small scale than Dwarf Fortress, but on an undeniably wider scope on the large scale.

 

[Unit72]

Ill have to say Black and White was pretty ambitious. In a time where economic games and rts's already have us in a top down birds eye view plopping buildings and managing armies. Black and White just said "your not just a person playing as some omnipotent god, YOU ARE GOD!". For all the whining of the original fans of B&W I fully enjoyed B&W2

Also a nod to Lords of Realm 3. Think medeival 2 total war, real time battles with turn based campaign map. But here in LoR3 its real time battles and real time campaign map! Sure it wasnt perfect but i still play today. No other game like it.

And a little out of the way of the rts genre im giving this award to Mount and Blade. The first person/third person rpg where u make a medieval character and play in this huge map where you fight alongside your men! No story or rather barely any at all, just you, your horse (if u want one) and your army (again if u want an army). Recruite other heros that you can appoint as officers and have them rule armies of thier own when and if you decide to creat your own kingdom! (or queendom)

 

[number2301]

I'm sorry but everyone so far is wrong, although those who mentioned Eve got pretty close. The most ambitious game ever came out in the early 90s and hasn't been matched for scope since. Sure it was a sequel but it just took the foundation built by its predecessor and turned it up to 11.

The game I'm talking about most people on here won't have heard of. It simulated the ENTIRE galaxy on a single 3.5" floppy disc (another thing I bet a lot of people on here wouldn't be familiar with. That's a whole 1.44 MB of data. This game allowed you to travel between distant stars, to fly from the edge of a star system, slingshot past a Jupiter and land on Earth, all seamlessly.

That game was Elite II: Frontier (and to a lesser extent, Frontier: First Encounters). It also had one of the most epic opening sequences ever -

Spoiler: Frontier Intro

In 1993!

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Spore. Oh my god, Spore. It failed. There is no goddamn question that it utterly failed. But the concept? Slowly evolving over several millenniums a creature, starting off as a single-celled organism and very slowly changing and twisting and evolving until reaching the Space Age; flanked on all sides by other species doing the same? That's... that is a mind-blowing concept, and if it was pulled off properly it could have well been one of the greatest games of the decade.

Instead what we got was a bunch of minigames and a 3D modelling and art tool where you can paint things. ...joy untold.

Also S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. It's improved since the rusty Shadow of Chernobyl, but the promised features of the X-Ray engine - emergent, random AI-driven story missions, ever-changing landscapes defined by the anomalies, dynamic... well, everything... that's really ambitious. And while I certainly think Call of Pripyat (or modded Shadow) certainly pulls it off with aplomb, I still reckon it has only just scratched the surface of its own concept. And that says something, considering how mind-blowing amazing the series has been thus far...! And that's why I cried when S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 got cancelled.

 

[Vault101]

Liara "kinda" doesnt count because of the whole "we arent REALLY female" thing....at least in the mass effect universe it isn't seen as a gay relationship

Bah, semantics.

Jim Stirling pointed out that if a man is attracted to a masculine sex toy, he's still gay. If FemShep likes Liara, she likes women. I know it's not technically a gay relationship but I think we can infer in this case.

I have a feeling though that an otherwise straight female could possibly find an Asari attractive...they just seem designed that way

but your probably right....I'm still not sure why Liara was ok (but ash wasnt, I think it was intended in the first game) but then I figure it wouldn't live up to the free love reputation of the asar if Liara was only interested in ManShep

that and "well she's technically monogendered hurr hur"

 

[SmilingWorlock]

I think the original version/idea of Spore qualifies, even if it did turn out simplistic and rubbish.

That's why I came to this topic. The original idea, and early movies were just grat (I remember a video in my favourite print magazin where the tiny player creature ran between the legs of ever evolving giants in a plant-rich real looking enviroment. I was so sad when it turned into running from dancing-in-circle-creature nest to dancing-in-square-creature nest in brownish mud.

 

[Nimzabaat]

*flamesheild*

Mass Effect/dragon age series for being a big mainstream title "attempting" to try good gay relationships

"attempting" being the key word

Seconded sort of. I believe Mass Effect was the most ambitious for actually attempting to have a player driven continuity over three games. That's pretty damn ambitious. (I mean obviously the series shit the bed in the last five minutes, but it was damn good up until that point).

 

[yaydod]

For recent days I would that it is E.Y.E Divine Cybermancie, that games has a massive back story, some very big sprawling levels and some nice skills/research. Unfortunately allot of people went in thinking that it was the successor of Deus Ex while the is really not in that mind set, also it is hard to get into the game at first with the badly made interface but it IS a great game.

Other one i can think of is KOTOR2 with allot of potential but was so rushed out that it was bugged almost to an unplayable level.

Lastly a thought for STALKER which a great game that fulfilled it's expectations, too bad that the sequel was scratched (i know that their are 2 other games but those are expansions not sequels na!)

 

[Nami nom noms]

Super Mario 64