I was listening to a Games Industry Mentor podcast on Technical Design at work this week and it got me excited about doing something in UDK over the summer. One of my biggest take aways from the podcast, besides "build something," was to make something that would wow the employer and create excitement over how I achieved something.

This got me thinking... what has made my jaw drop in games and movies in the past? What has made me wonder how they did it or made my balls tingle because of how epic it was? I'm interested in hearing about what has knocked your socks off in either movies or games and why.

One of the first things I thought of was the Bioshock Infinite trailer. I've seen my fair share of flying cities but never before had I seen a hook rail system connecting different parts of it. When I saw that the main character jumped out onto the railing with nothing but sky underneath him I was thoroughly impressed and could feel a shot of adrenaline surge through me at the thought of falling. And then what does the character do? HE DOES A MID AIR JUMP TO THE NEXT RAILING. Ahhh! I was sold!

Portal... does this really even need an explanation? Fucking genius game. I hear the whole indie dev team got picked up, which I also hear is pretty rare. Valve really took the idea of thinking with portals to town. There is definitely a sense of technical achievement there, you know, behind all the rest of the awesomeness.

Mirrors Edge. Yes please!

Zelda games. Technical wise, there's not too much going on. The dungeons/temples are just a combination of torches that need lighting, switches that need to be pressed, etc. But the puzzles are engaging and at times, epic. I'll never forget the water temple or defeating majora. I guess on that note, the three day time system was pretty neat.

Some of the moments in COD:MW2 and BO where there are some special cinematic/game play elements. For instance, almost falling off the side of the mountain while ice climbing and your partner grabbing you. I guess this isn't much of a technical achievement compared to portals or parkour, but it's still a pretty big hook to who ever is playing it.

Honorable mention to the Half Life series.

In terms of movies, the technical achievement behind Avatar (love it or hate it) was incredible. The amount of detail was unreal and the flying scenes were epic.

Star wars. Enough said.

The third pirates movie (At Worlds End) where they are having a giant pirate ship fight in a huge ass maelstrom.

Neo dodging bullets in The Matrix. Bullet time in general.

Thoughts?

Yup the maelstrom. Bad fucking ass, looked into how they did it to and was pretty simple (if you're into dynamics and all that stuff :P)

Avatar was incredible for the amount of detail on show. Also my jaw was on the floor for alot of the 2nd transformers movie. The part where everything was joining together was just crazy

Yup the maelstrom. Bad fucking ass, looked into how they did it to and was pretty simple (if you're into dynamics and all that stuff :P)

I think I've seen that. Great stuff!

Avatar was incredible for the amount of detail on show. Also my jaw was on the floor for alot of the 2nd transformers movie. The part where everything was joining together was just crazy

Good one! Yeah, forgot about that huge thing. Watching them transform is cool in general, but watching them create one big thing was even greater! I still wonder how they did that... so crazy.

For me it was the very first time I saw the Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park as a kid. That's the exact moment I knew I wanted to be a 3d artist.

Something not visual, but story wise was playing Planescape: Torment. The depth of story in that game blew my mind. Super creative writing. I still hold that up as the best story in a game I've played to date.

30 minutes of a jovial drunken parlour game ending in a 10 second extreme bloodbath in Inglourious basterds

thats how you do cinema

That scene where the water starts vibrating in the car do to the foot steps of the T-Rex is definitely epic. Good one!

I think Final Fantasy 8 was the first time I considered making video games. Before I played that game, I hadn't played any RPG and was blown away at how emotionally attached I got to the story and the characters.

I just looked that Planescape game up. It looks good! I'll have to try and track it down somewhere.

I was just looking at the replay of ocarina of time, and i think there needs to be more recognition to what nintendo has done with innovation. I mean mario 3, to mario world to mario 64 all revolutionized the way we play and see video games. Companies still use some of the elements from those games. So that is an option. To see how to present and introduce elements.

Final Fantasy cinematics where the reason i wanted to become a video game artist.

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I know uncharted is talking about the use of 3d. Helping the player judge how far is a jump, in cover to be able to see around cover with the camera. To me that is pretty cool. But then.. you have the cinematic experience that Uncharted 2 had, and now 3 looks even more epic. All of the demo they showed in the boat was amazing. having the boat in real simulated water where you don't know whats gonna happen or how your characters are gonna move and play is just mind blowing. Looking at the boat tilt sideways and everything falls sides and you hit the water and see him come in through the cinematic camera was awesome.

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I was mermerized by the new Bioshock trailer! the colors and the presentation were amazing! I really never cared for the bioshock franchise, but they do know how to make an awesome trailer. I remember the trailer for the first one i always thought it was one of its kind. Never had i seen a first person view trailer that made me shiver of how well it was put together.

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Metal Gear was always a big one for me. Having snake crawling through the tunnel at the last part, with all his suit exploding and tearing only to have the most epic final battle against revolver ocelot.

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God of war... so many epic moments. Just the 1st 20 mins of the 3rd one makes me have goosebumps.

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amm.. i could keep going :P
hmmm...

I wish I had a PS3 because Uncharted definitely looks like it would have made my list.

I think creating a game with moments like these are great, but they mean nothing if there isn't a solid foundation to go off of. Not only that, but I believe a good designer will let the player experience instead of just showing the player all of these things. Imagine if you were shown how to use a portal gun instead of just using it, or if you simply stood near the railings in Bioshock Infinity and it did all the fun stuff for you.

When Master Chief set the alien up the bomb (Zero Wing reference) in the "Return to Sender" part of Halo 2, I couldn't help but smirk.

Aeriths death in FF7 and the ballroom dance scene, space scene and the Garden vs. Galbadia scene in FF8 were pretty big moments as well. But those are more story oriented.

The Matrix Trilogy:

The matrix trilogy sparked my interest and may others of my generation to get into entertainment sector. The film brought very deep concepts about the human consciousness and society as a whole and mans struggle fir existence and belonging.

Naruto:

Haters gonna Hate. Naruto is a great story of friendship and child's journey from boyhood to manhood trying to fix the world one person at a time.If he can't fix one person he can't fix it all. It focuses on the hatred and anger tha sparks conflicts and dealing with your inter-demons by harnessing its power for the greater good.


Hulk(not Incredible Hulk):

The first Hulk was the best vision I have seen of Hulk on screen to date. It focuses on the messed up connection between Bruce Banner and biological family and how Hulk is the offspring of it. It was a psychological thriller take on his origins with comic book transitions. The scene where Bruce Banner and his father are forced to talk was a memorable moment for me to date. The performance of his father at that moment hit a cord with me.An then when the anger between them could not be contained by either of them any longer it was as if two titans created before your eyes. How they intepreted Hulk as a disease put a gift was great resulting in a lifetime of supressed erections and self tranquility is a struggle for the mighty of men not to mention if you have a monster of pure rage in your blood wanting to just be left alone.


Cowboy Bebop:

The story of a ex assassin turned bounty hunter. With a crew that has just as much issues but use humor to feel normal.Production Value was great and the soundtrack is the best with its blues and jazz.


Sin City-

Black and white graphic novel. Shows how if you manage to stick to some source material you have some classic work under your belt

Watchmen-

Roscahe took it home for me. A superhero self proclaimed detective who doesn't go to jail for killing people but for wearing a mask but is bats crazy if he is't allowed to wear his mask. The blue naked guy story to me was the story of a mans rise to god hood if that is a word.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgmdHvBabAQ

Lord of the Rings:

yea army stampedes in the thousands. I try to watch it now and its abit dated already but man this series brought moving visualization to generic fantasy that was in novels for decades. WOOT!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59BHNYpKx2A
Pulp Fiction

Some what of a collection of short stories that's all relate or affected one another not like "Crash" as each sub plot could stand alone easily.

Kill Bil Vol.1
A inspirational film in the since that how its basically a new age pop culture film which I could compare to how some anime are or the "Last Man Standing" Killbook which is become a film aswell.


300
Manly men fighting a manly war on a manly stage. More manly that manly possible


Project Offset:

recently found some demo reels of the staff on this ever dead project and they had some great gameplay concepts and features that would have been overwhelming.Hopefully I can capture this and homage in my next project as I envision it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0wklH5meHs

Completely agree on Naruto. I don't think a lot of people give it the chance it deserves. My kid brother, a jock for gods sake, made fun of it for the longest time. Now he can't stop watching it... Shippuden is amazing.

LOTR: YES! So many epic moments!

WAT. Project Offset is really dead? Man... I remember watching their vids in awe. That one where the sky changes and the winds pick up is really good. I wonder how they did that?

yea I linked the guys demo reel for PR in the last post. Intel has the IP and engine and its in the vault collecting dust. They have no intentions of selling it back to them at their new studio.

Akira, the whole thing was epic, like nothing I'd ever seen before. It was all drawn by hand and yet looks so real.

Oh yeah LoTR, love those films so much. I could sit down and watch all 3 in a row no problem, with all 3 PoTC after Might have to do that...

Originally Posted by Stradigos

Completely agree on Naruto. I don't think a lot of people give it the chance it deserves. My kid brother, a jock for gods sake, made fun of it for the longest time. Now he can't stop watching it... Shippuden is amazing.

although I dont watch any anime, the effects in the latest naruto games (think it was on ps3) look downright impressive.

god of war 2. Blows my mind still what they pulled off on a ps2, and all at 60 fps

Half-Life. It sparked my interest in games.

Bioshock gave me chills when i played it the first time and the second time i played it i knew i wanted to make game environments for a living.

5 Centimeters Per second (Movie) : I love the artstyle in this movie.

The elder Scrolls Oblivion: The feel of freedom and awesomeness in this game mindblew me at that time and also awesome mod community.

Final Fantasy 6 changed my life so that games would always be more than games to me.

When Final Fantasy hit the PS1, I was starting to think more and more about art in games. By FFX on PS2, I KNEW I wanted nothing more than to be able to design, create, move, SOMETHING to beautiful characters in video games.


As for movies, many amazing Disney and Pixar films always have and always will inspire me.

Also, Moulin Rouge--Turth, Beauty, Freedom, and above all else, Love

Shadow of the colossus- fighting each one of those massive things are just epic..climbing one of them to find the weak spot pretty much sold it for me, the interactivity of that experience was one of a kind.Arguably one of if not the best PS2 game.

oldies but goodies(family comp days)-contra(up2,down2 you know the drill ),megaman(acquiring the boss' ability once defeated got me into it)I remember coming up with my own "(insert word)man" bosses.

PC- Bioshock(would you kindly),Counterstrike/Halflife(got me into modding, made my first ever map using worldcraft then),Oblivion Elder scrolls-spent hours and hours playing this one, no turning off of PC for days.PORTAL!!!-the game mechanics,the story, the cake, the ending song,easily one of the greatest game ever made.

Starwars- 2 words> classic, epic
Matrix and LOTR trilogy
Tron and Bladerunner
Pixar and Disney films as well.special mention UP
Spirited away

Watching the Pixar short film collection got me into 3d, and although avatar was all super hyped up on it's graphical achievement, I still thought that district 9's cg was better. I actually thought it was a better movie altogether

oh and how could I forget
Dragon Ball Z: Powerups that make gravity even run and hide and men who can destroy planets if they feel like it.

One of those childhood moments where you go

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What impressed me about games.......The fact that despite the hours, bad management, ridiculous contracts and publisher agreements, people still want to work in games development.

LoL, seriously though, I've been impressed with naughty dog and sony santa monica; the GoW and Uncharted franchises are only getting better in visuals. I love the approach valve is taking with handling the digital games distribution and various business models, that sort of experimentation is pretty exciting to see coming from a company that is not a publisher. And tech wise, i am loving what udk and cryengine can do with DX 11. There's so much cool stuff that can be done nowadays with MANY different mediums that it's incredible.

The era of the super franchise is upon us, but to beat dead horse, soo much cool stuff is coming along to test and try on different platforms... it so awesome, and impressive!

Overgrowth is the only thing for me, recently...

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When the two ships dropped off the side of the cruiser, pretty sure I suffered a brain-bleed from the awesome. Pity the rest of the film was cack.

Is it weird that that never impressed me as much as serenity?

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For the life of me, I can't find the actual fight. : O