The Best Physics-Game? (Game Physics)

[lord_pooky]

Recently, I remembered reading from one of my PC-mags and came across a description of a free game made by students in game design who incorporated physics into it. I have since forgotten the name and I can't find the article in my mags.

As much as I can remember, one reviewer said it takes 1.5 hours to complete, it is a puzzle game and the game title starts with P. (i think)

[Nurizeko]

Slow down there, thats a pretty detailed description of that game.

:rolleyes:

[severijn]

Why don't you browse through your mags and let us know? Either that, or gives us some more clues...as in how they incorporated the physics exaclty, examples of gameplay etc etc etc

[Tiresias]

why don't we broaden this out to a discussion on what games have implemented physics best?

[SquidDNA]

There was this neat little 2D gravwell game for Windows 95 which featured several planets and a star. Playing against the AI, the object was to land your little triangle on uninhabited worlds to claim them. Your core world would send frigates to colonize and develop those worlds so they'd have defenses and eventually the ability to make their own freighters, as well as labs to make powerups for you (oh and you could respawn on them.) Combat against the AI involved hunting down his triangle ship and nailing it with some bullets, or guided missiles if you had them, while attacking his frigate convoys (no mean feat since they were tough and had two turrets each.) I have no idea what it was called, but it was around the time that math coprocressors were in vouge because it said you ought to have one for all the physics.

[DatonKallandor]

Squids Game sounds much more intruiging than yours pooky.


Daton

[lord_pooky]

I agree with tiresias. I'll changez the title.

well. duh! these are student we're talking about here. 1st year game designers or something.

and yes, tiresias, how do I connect to the IRC room using Trillian 1.3? or 3.1 or watever.

[Methuselath]

I remember that game (Squid's btw)... it was call Gravity Well or something or another... It was bloody hard though, landing itself is a feat.

[Alliance]

I think that Halflife 2 has the best game physics so far, the havok engine is pretty convincing, and usually looks right.

[Moe]

Squid, was that the Ur-Quai or something like that?

[SquidDNA]

I'm pretty sure Methuselah delivers!

Although I think I must have been playing version 0.8 and we're up to five now. It won't run on my laptop for some reason so I'll confirm tonight.

[Unknown Target]

I was waiting for someone to mention Half Life 2...in all honesty, HL2's physics are pretty lackluster. There's nothing new in that game, physics wise, that hasn't been done in every other game that's had ragdolls and moveable objects - the only difference is, Valve toted HL2's physics a lot more (and added the grav gun, which is admitandly very fun). Once you get past the hype, though, HL2's physics aren't that great - it's just that the developers give you a lot more freedom to play with them.

[Ammon Ra]

HL2 is much more physics oriented than, say, farcry, which did have ragdolls, and physics vehicles, but thats about it. In hl2 (esp from the episode 2 gameplay footage) "physics" seems to be a much greater aspect of the game.

Having watched some crysis movies, the tree-destroying seems to be quite fun.

[n0z3k1ll3r]

Physics were only a major part of HL2 because the designers added stupid physics puzzles every 5 minutes. Which I suppose is better than stupid jumping puzzles every 5 minutes like HL1, though.

[Alliance]

the thing with HL2 is that it was practical, I could throw a grenade at a couple barrels and it would send them flying at my enemys, killing them, or moving them out of my way. also, its just cool to play around with, and iirc HL2 was the first published game with the havok engine?

[AceRimmer]

Good physics enhances my playing experience. I don't mind the odd bit of tweaking for fun's sake, but not that it gets stupid.

Mind you, Gravity Well (?) looks very interesting...

[DatonKallandor]

FYI, various games used Havoc before HL2.


Daton

[Unknown Target]

the thing with HL2 is that it was practical, I could throw a grenade at a couple barrels and it would send them flying at my enemys, killing them, or moving them out of my way. also, its just cool to play around with, and iirc HL2 was the first published game with the havok engine?

HL2 was not the first with Havok, nor is throwing a grenade at a bunch of barrels and sending them flying a unique feature of HL2. Go play Doom 3, or UT2k3/2k4, or basically any game released in the past three or four years. That sort of physics stuff was in games at least a year or two before HL2 came out.

[Alliance]

well, I never played doom 3, UT2k3/2k4 so I didnt know, but anyway, games using the havok engine are very impressing.

[molo]

Squid: Gravity Well (http://www.tucows.com/preview/289104) looks like it's still around!

[DatonKallandor]

I just tried squids gravity well, and while fun, combat is a frickin game of luck - and it looks just ugh.


Daton

[SquidDNA]

I haven't played this version so I can't comment on it. The version I played was lines on a solid black background. Like I said-- triangle ships.

[Unknown Target]

well, I never played doom 3, UT2k3/2k4 so I didnt know, but anyway, games using the havok engine are very impressing.

They're only so impressive because you haven't played any others :) Unreal Tournament 2003 is at least 3 years old, and that had ragdolls/vehicles physics/whatever. Play some other games and see what I mean :)

[Methuselath]

Gravity Well is damned old though, the last time I played the game I was... in elementary school. To be honest, back then the graphics was okay... :D

[rocket_Magnet]

I like the look of portal shame someone got a game with the technology out before them (on the competing engine too)


currently playing through prey and really enjoying it, twisted gravity and portals are great fun

[Trizzdog]

I dunno, starting up a game of gmod for hl2 can lead to some very cool physics related things. So far, I've made an airship, a catapult, a cannon, lots of crazy missle launchers, elevators, robots, npc traps, a helicopter... buncha physic related stuff. I personally don't know a game engine with more physic stuff to play with.

Btw, if you want to see some crazy contraptions, check out the challenge section in the their forums (http://forums.facepunchstudios.com/forumdisplay.php?f=17)

[ASnogard]

A old Genesis/Megadrive game ... Sub-Terrainia had a intresting (and annoying) gravity effect, basically you had to manouver around using thrusters, and had to avoid touching services while gravity constantly tried to drag you down... add other tasks like carrying items on a hoist, which really stuffed up you controls and landing (gently) on pad to collect people which was quiet hard.

Best physics ? Hmmm CoH has some intresting effects but I suppose HL 2 has made the most use of a physics engine to date, if not the best use (some of the puzzles are just...sad )

[Methuselath]

Meh, tried Grav Well... Didn't like it, just like Daton. Bloody graphics hurt me eyes. :D

[Tails]

I guess I can safely say that The Incredible Machine gives my physics skills a run for their money.

[321Llama123]

HL2 was not the first with Havok, nor is throwing a grenade at a bunch of barrels and sending them flying a unique feature of HL2. Go play Doom 3, or UT2k3/2k4, or basically any game released in the past three or four years. That sort of physics stuff was in games at least a year or two before HL2 came out.

I'd love to know how you can compare those games, because the physics in Doom 3 were, well, terrible. Also, I dont think i've ever seen a single seperate physical object in UT2004.

On a lighter note, Armadillo run is very good in the Physics department (I kid the not)

[Unknown Target]

They both had physics engines that could pull off the same stuff that HL2 could, just the developers never utilized it (they didn't think it'd be as important/didn't think of it, Im sure).

Don't get me wrong though, the stuff you can do with HL2's physics is awesome, it's just that none of it is particularly groundbreaking. It's just the first game that lets you do that stuff, but other games ahve the same capabilities.

[SquidDNA]

Garry's Mod really lets the HL2 engine shine in this respect. Melon Ball is so fucking weird. I mean especially when whoever is running the server decides "Okay, we're going to run on the ceiling now instead!" an inverts gravity.

[A176]

I don't know what the hype was all about for rag doll (another reason I disliked Far Cry).

[Screaming_Eagle]

Hmmm, I'm pretty surprised G.R.A.W. (http://www.ghostrecon.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=28211) hasn't been mentioned yet..

[rocket_Magnet]

for nifty physics i really can't stress this enough

prey (http://www.prey.com/) is the top dog at the moment go to the features page on the website and look under "gravity flipping" and "wall walking"

for example

http://img0633.paintedover.com/uploads/thumbs/0633/preyscreen_19xx.jpg (http://paintedover.com/uploads/show.php?loc=0633&f=preyscreen_19xx.jpg)

[Busby]

Now you are thinking with Portal. (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1299927595688205543&q=Portal&hl=en)

[Trizzdog]

Garry's Mod really lets the HL2 engine shine in this respect. Melon Ball is so fucking weird. I mean especially when whoever is running the server decides "Okay, we're going to run on the ceiling now instead!" an inverts gravity.

I wonder who would do something like that, hmm? ;)

I personally need to get more Melon Racing maps. Some of the maps they have made can get insane, physics wise. I dare you to even finish some of the maps without turning into melon paste :p

OT: Onslaught mini mod + killing contraptions + awesome fort + a beastly server = super crazy fun in gmod.

[severijn]

Physics are usually there to add to the immersive factor...take farcry, doom³, FEAR...those games would look plain ugly if the bodies would clip through the stairs and so.

However, I find using the havok engine just for the bodies and the breaking glass and barrels here and there just a waste of money. Good examples of the usage of physics are Company of Heroes, where physics actually do matter, to some extent, and it's damn cool to see your artillery level an entire church to get a sniper. Of course, most of this is still for the pretty effect.

The real deal is HL², the gravity gun, the puzzles, the neato flying buzzsaws that you can break by smashing against the walls...it's simply amazing, and fun to do too! What HL² did with rigid bodies, Prey did with gravity. the gravity switches, the enemies falling off the ceiling(I wonder how the pads know who lives and who don't, but oh well), the elaborate killing methods in multiprey...

For the future, I hope that the next thing in line is to be Jedi Knight 4...with a heavy usage of havok physics. One can only hope. Soon, Dark Messiah will ease the burden. Hehe, Ice near cliffs.

[DoltIncognito]

Not a whole lot of games out with great physics, yet, but there are a decent titles.

However, there are quite a lot of games coming out soon with amazing physics. Stranglehold, Alan Wake, and Heavenly Sword come to mind. Practically all games using UE3 will have better, or great, graphics.

[a_Necron_Lord01]

I really have no idea how to answer this, there are many good games, with many good bits of physics.

However, going with what I actually own and actually play, I would vote for Half Life 2, which I think is pretty spiffy.

However, going out on a limb, I would say this looks pretty damn spiffy: Star Wars X-Box 360 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnaB26RYW0w)
In perusing YouTube I came across this oldie but goodie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PZSj3ad3C0

[deadguy]

Narbacular Drop = Portal precursor

[lord_pooky]

Yes! I remembered. The game I'm talking about is Penumbra, a survival first-person horror game made by Frictional Games.

Frictional Games (http://www.frictionalgames.com)

Penumbra Download (http://www.frictionalgames.com/penumbradownload/)

I'm downloading right now. I'm so excited.

pooks

[Mikali]

Silent Storm has good physics.

That Gravity Well game kind of reminds me of Star Control, which had weak gravity around planets that would cause ships to crash into them.