Awesome UI's

Quote from Thrik

Yep Crysis UI was on fire, the way it handled weapons was so awesome.

Yeah that and choosing 'powers' also worked well.

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I was thinking of Hitman too the other day I posted, the way they handled the contextual menu is great.

Unfortunately, I remember being really annoyed by the game menus, configuring the loadout was a pain and I remember I was really pissed at something about the handling of saves.

Quote from blackdog

I was thinking of Hitman too the other day I posted, the way they handled the contextual menu is great.

Unfortunately, I remember being really annoyed by the game menus, configuring the loadout was a pain and I remember I was really pissed at something about the handling of saves.

Probably that in-level saves are all temporary checkpoints that are lost when you leave the game.

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Maybe it's nostalgia but such games should have such HUDs.

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Round UI from Sims is also nice, lots of options, all in one place close to cursor

it's all about how much complexity the game has, managing / multi character games will obviously need a more complex UI, sure dead space UI is great, but it's a SP game with a very basic core feature set. Now take a look at Starcraft, it has allot of UI because it simply needs it. I remember when RTS games attempted the less is more approach, it failed miserably.

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Personally, I like UI's that give you what you need to know, reactive elements that only display when you need it. A horror game should have a little information for obvious reasons, a complex management game like Anno 2070 or Starcraft 2 needs a big old UI

Anno 2070 really nails the complex UI, they also have tons of amazing tools allowing for fast selection, the pipette, which cuts the need to open the expanding option to a minimum.

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Then we go into MMO territory, where your dealing with not just 3 or 4 players, but up to 25 ... this requires and very advanced UI that everything can be customized.

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So there's a huge scope of UI's for different games, the biggest mistake developers can make is underestimate the importance of UI - it must fit the design and complexity, not just be minimal or crazy busy for the sake of it.

Oh god, that last screenshot is why I will probably never get into MMORPGs and just stick with Skyrim.

Quote from Thrik

Oh god, that last screenshot is why I will probably never get into MMORPGs and just stick with Skyrim.

It's honestly not that bad. That screenshot is kind of like the Mass Effect one earlier, a worst case scenario. It's a huge party standing around a bunch of NPCs to max out the onscreen names, the quest log is open, they're max level and so have tons of skills, buffs, items, etc. represented on the ginormous toolbars. It's also a screenshot of Everquest 2. Other games look better on that front.

Quote from 2d-chris

take a look at Starcraft, it has allot of UI because it simply needs it. I remember when RTS games attempted the less is more approach, it failed miserably.

Haven't played many RTS, such a noob, but always hated the panel with the character face that just takes up space (or fills a hole - even worse).I agree that they need to display more informations most of the time, but there's also so much chrome in those UIs.

I haven't tried it, so I wonder how efficient is the UI in Halo Wars, which pops up on-demand... maybe it's what you were referring to

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my complaint with this –I tried to replay it last summer– would be that there were too many different keys for basic actions (eg: primary weapon is bind to a different key depending on the active commando); but if you also think about the multi-camera feature, that game was really well thought out!

Commandos was brilliant, very sweet use of cones of vision instead of a radar, etc.

honestly, in an RTS game you want little screen distractions, popup, expanding panels in starcraft would be quite distracting, the thick edging proves a clear distinction between UI and game space, which helps for fast readability. If you look at successful game UI's for RTS, there's a clear separation between information and the visual game window, usually at the bottom. I'd bet there's a really good reason it's down there, something to do with how our brain can process information in the most comfortable manner.

paradoxically, the face in starcraft UI might actually be less distracting being there, than a gap in the lower UI panel.

or, I could be talking crap, and it;s just what we got used to (but I know there's a endless psychology and research into UI interfaces)

Quote from 2d-chris

paradoxically, the face in starcraft UI might actually be less distracting being there, than a gap in the lower UI panel.

Well, doesn't need to be a space, things could be, for eg., more spaced out

Anyways, i think it's a bit of both the reasons you cite: at those times things were done "how it felt right" -as far as i know- so a lot of design choices had good results, to other we just got used to.

Choices have to be contextualized: you most probably cannot play efficiently with SC's UI on a TV with a mouse on the couch, and you can't have a game as fast as SC with a pad.

Not saying that Halo Wars interface is better, I just feel that is a largely unexplored area and the panorama is a bit stale, but as I said, I'm not an RTS expert.

PS: note that the "less is more" concept was mainly oriented to the FPS/action genres.

My mind was wondering under the shower, and going back to GTA4: I think that using the cellphone as the game UI was the most ingenious thing ever

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it also allows for easily doing stuff like input cheats