10 Gaming Moments IMPOSSIBLE To View The Same Way After This
Thought The Last Of Us Part II couldn't get any better? Think again.
While many titles do utilise procedural generation, a lot of the video game worlds we visit have been carefully handcrafted by an army of level designers, artists, and animators, making it much easier for the devs to pepper their games with some truly obscure and easy-to-miss details.
Many of these "hidden details" we see online communities report on are usually cute easter eggs with no real meaning behind them, and while references like this are certainly fun to spot, it's those details that change the way you view certain moments in the game - or change the game as a whole - that stick with players for longer.
From overlooked technical wizardry to revealing, yet difficult-to-spot character moments, it's these extra flourishes that separate the good games from the great ones, giving players yet another reason to appreciate the time they spend in these worlds.
So, whether you're diving into these games for the very first time, or you're heading back for a revisit, these details will undoubtedly change how you view certain story moments, gameplay mechanics, or even the entire package overall.
10. Rocksteady Added A Breathing Animation To Unconscious Enemy Goons (Batman: Arkham Asylum)
Across the vast majority of his TV and film adaptations, Batman has stuck firmly to his "no killing" rule - a rule that is also employed by the version of the Dark Knight seen in Rocksteady's Arkham games.
In this case though, the rule appears to be a bit more flexible, because Batsy will routinely dispatch enemy goons in ways that look pretty lethal, like blowing them up with explosive gel, kicking them over a railing and sending them plummeting to the floor, or even just landing a skull-crushing punch on their noggins.
This has become something of an in-joke over the years, with players forced to accept the ridiculous fact that Batman's extremely violent style somehow keeps his victims in the land of the living. However, the folks over at Rocksteady clearly anticipated that this might be a criticism of their games, so they decided to code in an awesome, almost unnoticeable detail that proves Batman's foes are still alive after suffering a beatdown.
If you zoom in on the chest of an unconscious thug in Arkham Asylum, for instance, you can see that the devs have added a breathing animation to their lifeless bodies, which simply isn't visible unless you go out of your way to look for it.
Once you know the animation is there, it's hard to resist checking in on your human punching bags from time to time - and it also helps you buy into the fact that Batman's highly brutal methods aren't as deadly as they seem.