Your favorite small features in a game

[crimson sickle2]

Idle animations overall. They add to the character and can sometimes be funny when a conversation with someone in the real world breaks out.

In Persona 4, non-used party members appear in the dungeon to give free stuff and have a cleared out room. The talk option can also lighten the mood when stopping a killer.

 

[D-Class 198482]

ALRIGHT I GOT ANOTHER ONE, ONCE AGAIN A PROTOTYPE 2 FEATURE
If you kill a person/non-special zombie near a group of non-special zombies they'll start eating it: if it is one, they'll eat it, if there are multiple, one of them will drag it away, if there are multiple and two are close to the corpse, they'll start eating it and then start fighting over it in a tug-of-war match before ripping the corpse in half and dragging their part away.

 

[cswurt]

I like being able to customize my own character.
I think many games would benefit from adding this feature.

Like Pokemon.
If you were able to choose from a large menu of different upper/lower/hat/face/hair options, etc.
It wouldn't make a tremendous amount of difference, but it'd be better than everyone all playing the same little twerp.

 

[Stryc9]

I like in the Torchlight games how you can just run over gold to pick it up instead of having to click on it all the time. Makes it so much easier.

 

[Bob Thenecromancer]

Quick save buttons.

 

[The_Lost_King]

I loved being able to force choke some sense into a Czerka officer on Tatooine in Knights of the Old Republic.

I will also add my vote to seeing your body in FPSs. I thought it was so cool in Dark Messiah.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The real-time fauna trail Amaterasu leaves behind in Okami. Flowers when you walk, golden flowers when you run, Autumn leaves when you hurtle through the sky, lily pads when you swim... besides looking gorgeous it adds a proper sense of nature divinity to the character.

They also included this in Bayonetta. The two games were made by the same people, so they made a reference by having it so that when Bayonetta runs in cat form, a lot of black, gloomy plants grow and die in her wake.

I know! I'm a big Hideki Kamiya fan. I never got around playing Bayonetta but I was glad him and the rest of the Clover Studio folk eloped into Platinum. They love their pop culture references. I read somewhere Waka's sword "Pillow Talk" is also in the game, apparently.

 

[triggrhappy94]

Coming off the cusp of trying to make an emblem in Black Ops 2 and failing, I have to say real customizability.
The emblem creator is a joke, and there's so few calling cards that you might as well not even bother.
It makes me remenisant of the one in Forza MS 3. People could make some rediculuous decals.
Also, Yakuza tatoos.

Having a good protaginist makes a game for me.
Like a protaginist who's not afraid to have fun is great. It made the game for me, when in the flamethrower mission Jason in Far Cry 3 started yelling about how fun it is.
The inverse is true too. I enjoyed Kane and Lynch because they completely lost their comp in the middle of gun fights.
Having a growling apathetic "badass" is completely boring.

 

[The White Hunter]

I thought the salmon swimming up the waterfalls in Skyrim was a neat touch.

I love that man, I love the wildlife in Skyrim, I especially love it when you come across a Bear or Troll ripping apart bandits for some unexplained reason.

Also when you come across a pack of wolfs and there's a corpse of a deer of a goat nearby so it's like they're attacking you because you're encroaching on their meal.

Oooh that is pretty nice, though it's kinda a let down when you discoveer that they're just always agressive. I like how troll lairs always have like a hole in the roof where somebody has fallen down and stuff like that. Damn I love Skyrim's world.

 

[Roxas1359]

The little clouds of sand you kick up in Journey.
I think the game would have been way less immersive if they were to just disappear.
They're just so elegantly beautiful.

I love your Klonoa avatar. I really need to play my copy of the Wii version and the PS1 copy.

I have to say that I love how you learn magic in Skies of Arcadia. It levels up based on the stone you have equipped and it is really cool with the way that you get experience for it.

The real-time fauna trail Amaterasu leaves behind in Okami. Flowers when you walk, golden flowers when you run, Autumn leaves when you hurtle through the sky, lily pads when you swim... besides looking gorgeous it adds a proper sense of nature divinity to the character.

This too. Loved how they made her look majestic. Plus the way how the graphics were it looks like everything is drawn.

 

[Pink Gregory]

I was impressed at the amount of customisation available in the options of Dishonored; specifically, I relished having the option to turn all the HUD elements off and remain just as playable, which is certainly more than Assassin's Creed 3 offered.

 

[Zantos]

NPC conversations, just in any game I really love it when they have little discussions between NPC's particularly humorous or easter egg filled ones.

I was thinking pretty much this. Say what you will about all the flaws in the Mass Effect series, but the stuff you overhear or catch a glimpse of was top notch. I can't decide if my favourite is "Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a ***** in space" or the slightly more obvious "Geth do not infiltrate".

Also in Dawn of War, and to a lesser extent Space Marine, the stuff randomly shouted by people (especially DoW unit creation). I've always been a big fan of the praise the God-Emperor stuff, and I do just have to laugh at the random and completely unnecessary big men shouting. I was creating as many librarians and grey knights as I could, just so I could listen to them shout.

 

[Not Matt]

ragdolling when dead. spesially from high places, i love being like pinocio in a catapult

 

[ThisGuyLikesNoTacos]

Environmental weapons.

You know what makes your world seem more believable? Me being able to pick up a stop sign and whack people with it.

 

[AngloDoom]

I think Sonic from Sonic CD tapping his foot and looking at the screen when you kept him waiting, then rolling his eyes and leaping off of the screen to abandon you if you kept him waiting even longer.

It added a nice bit of personality.

 

[Robot Number V]

I really like the ability to slide if I crouch while sprinting in an FPS. Ever since Dishonored did it, I miss it in games that don't have it.

 

[Squidbulb]

In XCOM: Enemy Unknown you can change give your soldiers bright pink hair and armour. It looks amazing.

 

[Pink Gregory]

I really like the ability to slide if I crouch while sprinting in an FPS. Ever since Dishonored did it, I miss it in games that don't have it.

Only other game I can think of that did that was Far Cry 2.

Also, I can't think of any other first person game that wasn't PC exclusive that included being able to lean left and right, apart from Dishonored. I've been playing Rainbow Six Vegas recently, and I'd kill for a 'lean' button.