Whats wrong with topdown views these days :(

Hedge

Hedge

Hedge

Soldato
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I dont understand why all games need to have full blown camera angles, 3d this 3d that etc..

I been playing Diablo 2 today as i mentioned in another thread, and from a viewing perspective, other than the aging visuals, the top down scrolling view is great for games.

New tech could add amazing textures, and maybe a camera that could zoom in and out, and phenomenal detail.

I wish it never got abandoned as a way to play games. Im sure its not just nostalgia that makes me love the viewpoint of topdown gaming
 
Tefal said:
You mean like metal gear solid games?
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Last mgs game i played was the first one when i first had a playstation. So actually id never even thought of that.

Maybe im just not looking at the right games/overlooking things.

I just see from picking up boxes on the shelves in game stores or looking at screenshots.

Things like Alien breed on the amiga... were awesome, but if they get remade. (watch me be proven wrong lol) it will probably be an fps or something.
 
Tefal said:
You mean like metal gear solid games?
Click to expand...

They stopped being topdown since the rerelease of Snake Eater (Subsistence). Top down views are restrictive and you can't see anything at all. It's a relic of a bygone era where computers didn't have the power to render much.
 
because it looks dire?

you cant see whats coming up, cant see the height of anything, why would you want this? very restrictive
 
mattyfez said:
What annoys me are RTS type games that dont let you zoom out enough, very annoying, makes me feel trapped!!!
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Don't play supreme commander then, it will make playing any other rts more painful than it already is. The strategic zoom was long over due for the genre.

Back on topic, i think titan quest is the only game of recentish time to come with top down veiw i beleive. Then there were rumour floating about that the hellgate london developers' next game would be in similar leu.
 
one game that has some pointless views is Company of Heroes, I really love the game, but why do you need to be able to zoom in that far? lol
 
Hear hear - bring back isometric games!

Just the thought games like Planescape, Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Syndicate etc etc created with today's technology make me excited. They'd look like living, breathing paintings - smoke blowing in the wind, leaves rustling, rivers flowing by. So much charm was lost in the move to 3d and, despite how much technology has improved in recent years, it's never come back.
 
I fully concur...
2.5d/Isometric viewpoint is awesome.
I often find the fully 3d viewpoint (a la WC3) more restrictive.

Go play D2:lod and Cossacks, and experience the eternal wonders of 2.5d!
 
Isometric sounds fine... until you realise that it means being resigned to never quite seeing what is around the corner; losing/missing/overlooking things because you're standing on top of them/too close to them/at not quite the right angle in relation to them; a permanent 3/4 profile of your character with severely restricted animation due to the fact that you cannot actually turn in a true 360% circle, but merely pass through several iterations of the 3/4 profile; a character who looks and moves like a slightly more fluid version of the 2D Egyptians in pyramid hieroglyphics.

Some games couldn't even "remember" which hand your weapon was in; it would switch from hand to hand, depending on which direction you were walking in. Painful stuff.

Sure, isometric was great in the old days, when nothing else was around. Now it's been totally outclassed by the power of a truly immersive 3D environment, and the unrestricted freedom of real 3D movement in a truly real 3D world.
 
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I'd recommend Shadowgrounds Survivor then.

I bought it a few weeks ago off Steam, and it's great.

Top down view, but full rendered in 3D, lovely graphics.

It had a whole load of options, including dualcore and quadcore for Physics modes (and Physics cards)

Lots of 3D options to ramp the detail up, but at the end of the day, it's a top down, Alien Breed style shooter.

I got it for £3 as it was on a weekend special on steam.
There's also a demo available.

Vin.
 
I've been replaying Mechcommander 2, and the first thing I do is zoom out to top-down view at the start of each mission :D
 
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