Do you remember it? Physics?

We used to talk about it all the time, about how it raised the level of interactivity in games. And about how it was the future and how we needed advanced CPUs to acheive it.

We had that brief period in gaming when we actually got (a few) physics based games like Psi Ops and Elebits, even Half Life 2 and it's physics demos.

Since then we have had 3 new consoles where they put in powerful GPUs with weaker CPU sets and it's all about the graphics now. I still remember the promise of games like Fracture. What exactly happened to the promise of physics changing games for the better?

Because at the moment all I see it being used in the same way, for dead soldiers to roll down stairs or for cars shunting into each other.

Has gaming moved on? Did gaming just park it in the library of the past? Why have we all forgotton about it?

Tesselation, was so hyped.

I hear Crackdown XB1 has some amazing cloud based physics via the cloud but only in multiplayer. Any other modern games where physics actually has a big impact on gameplay?

Physics has been so utterly parked by the industry that no one even knows what to post in this thread.

Seriously, I think the physics in Rocket League are what makes that game so appealing.  It's crazy some of the stuff that players can pull off in that game.

aspro said:

In my view the only reason we used to talk about it was because it was novel, and for the most case in the early days, greatly amplified and exagerrated. Whereas in the modern games, physics are just assumed.

basically, HalfLife 2 era, physicas were the new new, but now they are just assumed.

Exactly. Listen to Aspro.

aspro said:

In my view the only reason we used to talk about it was because it was novel, and for the most case in the early days, greatly amplified and exagerrated. Whereas in the modern games, physics are just assumed.

basically, HalfLife 2 era, physicas were the new new, but now they are just assumed.

You have a point. However I remember before the 360/PS3/Wii gen launched we all talked about how new consoles would allow such and such with physics and how it would totally change the way we gamed and lead to these amazing experiences. Years later we seem to have settled for the same games only better looking. Fuck the physics.

gamingeek said:

Flashback. Was that the Indiana Jones engine for that cancelled next gen brawler?

Yep. It then made it into the two Force Unleashed, and several Rockstar games but didn't revolutionise gaming as it was apparently going to.

Happy birthday, GG!

Like A.I., the problem with physics is that it is often not something that makes a good game. Sure you can have a game with life-like physics. The problem is that it wouldnt' be very fun. A lot of what creates the fun factor in games is that they can bend real-life properties.