Peeking Inside Horizon Zero Dawn’s Machines
Horizon Zero Dawn is filled with incredible visuals and tiny details for players to gawk at as they explore its world. However, one of the more fascinating details we personally found was when we decided to take a closer look at the screenshot above. Sure, you can see the sets of cables that create a sort of muscle, or the cloud of dust rising from the floor after the beast hit the ground, but there’s something even more impressive. And it’s in that razor-sharp mouth.
If you zoom in close enough on the image, you can actually make out the screws, holes, and smooth surfaces of each razor. Zoom in even further, however, and that small speck of white in the center of the mouth can be identified as another piece of tiny metal helping to comprise this mechanical beast.
There’s a ton of fascinating details that can be found on Horizon Zero Dawn’s machines, but the fact that Guerrilla Games went through the painstaking effort to texture bits of metal inside the creatures themselves is a step above the rest.
Breath of the Wild’s Incredible Lightning
As you explore the sprawling terrain of Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you probably noticed the weather is constantly changing. And while rain can be a real nuisance when you’re trying to scale a cliff, causing you to slide all the way to the bottom, it’s when it storms that you’re in real trouble.
Breath of the Wild’s lightning is both a blessing and a curse. A curse because, given the chance, it’ll pick out Link’s metal weaponry and fry you in the middle of Hyrule Fields. However, keep your distance and stash away any metal instruments and you’re rewarded with some fantastic sights. Breath of the Wild’s lightning doesn’t just flash across the sky, it slams into the ground, forking off in opposite directions with wispy lines trailing off into the dark night sky.
If you’re lucky enough to see it hit a metallic object or structure, though, you’ll even be able to see electricity rising from the metal to meet the bolts striking down. Breath of the Wild’s lightning is incredibly impressive and these tiny details help to make it look just as lethal as it can be.
For Honor’s Lifelike Armor Movement
For Honor may not have been everybody’s cup of tea, but Ubisoft’s brawler definitely had some fantastic views for players to appreciate as they sliced down the opposition. While its environments provided us with great, atmospheric settings for us to do battle in, it’s actually when you take a closer look at your character’s attire that you start to realize how great For Honor looks.
And no, we’re not talking simply about the way your character’s armor and weaponry looks, but the way it reacts to your warrior’s movements. Next time you sprint across the battlefield or block an incoming sword strike, watch the way the clothing moves and responds. It bounces, crumples, flails, and hunches up in such a realistic manner that it’s almost like watching two real people do battle. It’s not game-changing, but it’s just one instance of the way Ubisoft made For Honor an incredibly immersive experience.
Persona 5’s Tiny Animations
Persona 5 is one heck of a stylish game, there’s simply no denying it. All you need to do is watch its opening cutscene and you’ll get a taste of what’s to come over the next 100 hours. And what the game may lack in graphical prowess, it makes up for in really cool, tiny animations that help to enrich your experience that little bit more.
For example, if you choose to take cover behind a wall or pillar one of your teammates is behind, they’ll react and pose differently next to you. If you dive behind cover next to Makoto or Ann, they’ll crouch in front of Joker and lean up against his standing leg as they cautiously peer around the corner.
Also, if you find yourself spending a lot of time studying in the diner, the protagonist will spin his pencil between his fingers. As you raise your proficiency, though, he’ll pull off more elaborate pencil spinning tricks as he studies the day away.
What have been your favorite tiny details in video games so far this year? Be sure to let us know down in the comments below.
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