I think the absurd level of detail in RDR2 is precisely what makes it work. As someone who lives in the western US, loves being outside and is acutely aware of how much beauty and diversity we've lost over the past two centuries, I find the game both extremely cathartic and extremely tragic. No other game has come so close to replicating the feeling of packing up your camp on a cold, misty morning by a mountain stream, listening to the wind and the birds. It's a romantic depiction of an America that only exists in small pockets now, and it gives the player the same deep nostalgia for simpler, less industrialized times that the characters are feeling in the story.
I feel you there. I remember when I was a kid there was this old log pond down the road from where I lived. You’d find all sorts of stuff like tadpoles, salamanders, and dragonflies. Occasionally you’d see a nutria swimming in there too. Now it’s a suburban neighborhood. The pond was completely drained, filled, and turned into a residential area. There are still plenty of areas just like that around, hell most of Oregon is like that but it’s still sad to see the pond go. It makes me think about how much else has expanded before I was here and how will our ecosystem continue to dominate and change the established one. I see the woods around me and think someday it’s going to be nothing but concrete and asphalt whether in 10 or 100 years. It’s a little disheartening.
@@sirshotty7689 just remember that nature will take over almost immediately once we stop forcing it not to. Look at Chernobyl. It's a whole biodiverse forest now. Sure some harm will be measurable forever because of it but nature will in fact work around it.
@@kennydoggins1712 yeah I know, I’m just being a bit cathartic. I know fighting nature is a losing battle but it doesn’t make it any easier to see something you cherished be gone.
Every fall we would go into the foothills of the Ozarks to hunt and be away from everything with the rest of our family. Now the entire area is privately owned by a logging company and you can’t enter anymore.
Thinking back, I think I've noticed them in passing, but never actually NOTICED them. That's the beauty of the game; something happens and you don't question it because you WOULDN'T question bats in a church tower IRL.
One of the things I love about RDR2 is that you don't feel like someone special. You don't feel like the world revolves around you. You just feel like you're just another person in the world.
For me Rain World was a diffrenr expirence. The abondoned structures just added a feeling of threat and melancholy, but also hope. That even though nature was bulldozed for the structures, it stills finds a way to continue thriving.
Rainworld shoulda been in the list, most alive feeling game ive played. This is due to some of the most incredible and AI and animations I've seen from an indie game
Some day, I really, really, _really,_ wish Curious Archive to cover the harsh and hostile world of Kenshi. It's perfect for this kind of thing with how weird and interesting it is.
Agreed. Despite the fact that it is presented as a dying world, Kenshi feels strangely alive. In its own way. Especially with all of the random conflicts that you can encounter on your journey.
I'm playing RDR2 for the first time. My 14-year-old got it a couple yrs ago on ps4 and this year he bought it for me on PC for Valentine's Day because "Mom, it's the greatest game ever made. It's my favorite game ever and I NEED YOU TO EXPERIENCE IT!" And there have been plenty of times that I've cried while playing, not because of the storyline, but just because of the sheer overwhelming beauty and immersiveness of the game. It's truly the greatest V-day gift I've ever gotten. Maybe the greatest gift period. Being able to bond with kiddo over this and experience it is so amazing.
In Bioshock, you can hack cameras so that they detect enemies instead. Enemies detected will trigger alarms. Every time I play bioshock, I am always fascinated when a random camera I hacked in a far away room triggers an alarm. Splicers were just there, doing their own thing, and now they're fighting drones and stuff, all without me. The world feels like it doesn't revolve around me, because it shouldn't
6:40 it isn't really a 2D texutre on the mud. It is flat like you said but it is something called a normal or bump map. Basically it calculates how the light would reflect/light up the surface as if the 2D bump map was actual 3D detail. That way it looks and interacts with light just like a 3D mesh would, and the only way to tell it's flat is by looking from the side.
I'm pretty sure the mud also uses parallax occlusion mapping, which is also faked depth, but instead of only affecting the lighting it also offsets the rendered pixels based on a height map.
To me, it's got to be Monster Hunter World, that game is just insane. Everything, literally *every single creature and plant* had a role with one another, including the monsters themselves, I'm amazed they were able to include so much appart from the battle mechanics, so much so that i think if you hang out and explore the game turns into a completely different one.
True. I remember these quests that we investigate, and take pictures of cat tribes. And seen many more things about other creatures, like the Great Jagras swallow whole aptonoth then comeback to it's cave to throw out to feed small ones, etc...
Personally I think that monster hunter world while not the same quality as most of these still has a really flourished ecosystem that genuinely feels alive
Once, while trying to get a picture for the Lynian Researcher, I followed around a Viper Tobi Kadachi for days of game time. I got to see every part of its life, where it eats, where it sleeps, what monsters it avoids and what ones it will fight. I got to see every part of the Hoarfrost Reach that was its territory. I got to sit in the coil of its tail and see the iridescent scales on its belly. I never got that photo. But man, if those experiences don't make the already beautiful world of MHW even more humbling.
Btw, Curious, there's a new animated series currently being released called "Scavengers Reign". It's about the crew of a colonizing spaceship stranded on an alien world after their mission went tits up, trying to survive in an ecosystem as hostile and indifferent as it is both beautiful and horrifying. And the horror pulls no punches. I think it would be right up your alley. They're up to six episodes now, and I think it'll go for twelve episodes in total.
Oh my God yes! I was just going to comment this, thank you so much. I hope that Curious Archive and others see this. Even if they don't cover it (which is alright), the series is incredible like you said and it'd be great for people to watch it.
It’s funny, I think detailed environments in video games give me a deeper appreciation for the ecosystem of the real world. It’s just like, knowing how much of an momentous effort has to be made to simulate even a fraction of that complexity makes it all the more mind blowing. Sometimes I’ll be sitting on a bench in a park and see a squirrel just hanging out, or looking at me, and I’m like “woah. That’s a whole living being. It lives here. It’s just going about its life right now, living and breathing, and even thinking, in ways I will never be able to comprehend. But it also feels things like pain and hunger. Damn.” Or, even simpler, I’ll see something in real life and think “DAMN that is incredibly beautiful” in the same way I’ve seen gamers stop and admire a game environment. Like even if it’s just light coming through a curtain in my regular room I’ve lived in my whole life, I just appreciate it. That’s what I love about video games tbh, they just reframe the world in such a wondrous way. (And you know what, even video games that are totally unrealistic and different from the real world reframe things for me the same way. I spent weeks after playing Little Nightmares 2 imagining the ways I could parkour across fire escapes and sides of buildings n shit if I was a tiny child.)
And this is why videogames are art. I think art has the power to allow oneself to reclaim and recalibrate their own perspective on reality. The example you gave is an amazing example of that: seeing mundane objects and giving them a fresh new perspective. Another example would be how art and by proxy videogames can allow us to recontextualize mental pain and struggles. Instead of seeing them as roadblocks, it can be seen as a transformative and subversive force !
You have written a very beautiful comment. I'm moved by it and who I imagine you to be. The Hulk just enjoying a beautiful environment in the desert before a helicopter shows up to start shooting at him has always stuck with me. 😊
I'm playing through Monster Hunter World lately and the ecosystem is easily one of my favorite aspects of it. Sure fighting monsters is fun and all, but being able to just exist in these wild environments and observe them is just as cool to me. Following them around peacefully and watching them hunt, drink, sleep, clean themselves, get in conflict with other monsters, taking note of all their unique little habits, all the little details... It gives such immense appreciation for these animals that, in gameplay, mostly just exist for you to beat up. I've always done my best to capture my favorite monsters instead of killing them, but the more I play World the more I end up capturing basically everything, because I start to appreciate every single creature in it, even the weak "boring" ones or the ones that are annoying to fight. Even the environments themselves are full of little details and secrets, many of them helpful to you once you're familiar with the locales, it's such a great, rewarding feeling in a game that is otherwise basically just a giant boss rush. You start being familiar with all the maps, all their little tricks, all their hidden paths, all the monsters and where they like to hang around, sleep, or eat, all their little habits and quirks that you can often exploit to your advantage. As much as it makes you take them down easier and faster, it also gives you this sense of belonging and respect for the nature of this world, I love that so much.
@@spookyfrogs1874This channel already has 2 videos on MH, though unfortunately only for the Ancient Forest and Wildspire Waste, so no regular Paolumu. At least Nightshade gets some appreciation.
Also, the thing about World. You should capture everything, it gives more resources than killing anyway. Of course you can't Capture Elders though. But yeah, killing in World doesn't make sense.
@@RuneKatashima that myth is still going around? This has been a thing since the game's original version launched and people have tested, double tested and tore apart the code to disprove it. No, capturing gives the SAME resources as carving, the reason it FEELS like that is for carving some resources you have to break certain parts, or cut a part off AND carve it. Capturing gives all those and is faster. So it IS still the better option. But they both draw from the same pool of possible rewards in the same amounts, capturing just bypasses some requirements that some loot otherwise has. This has been a thing since the game launched and people have tested, double tested and tore apart the code to disprove it.
On the topic of glitches, I had one particular doozy in Subnautica. A reefback wandered into the shallows, and wound up getting stuck on the terrain. It rolled and thrashed around, most of it's body above the surface. And...Not gonna lie, I felt pity for what amounted to a beached whale.
I’ve probably beaten red dead 9 times I’m just that obsessed with it when I learned there were bats my jaw literally dropped in disbelief because I just never knew
Another game where I feel similar is WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition. You play as a lone wolf in yellowstone national park, trying to start your own pack. While not as graphically pleasing as rdr2, it is still fun to play. Playing it on accurate ironwolf difficulty you have to think like a wolf if you want to survive.
@@ASolitaryHowl Upon further research yeah there was a big demographic shift when furrys found the game for multiplayer stuff. For a time it became known as “a furry game” unfortunately.
I vividly remember seeing bears fishing out of a river in Grizzly Hills in WoW back in '09 and being absolutely blown away by it. It was such a small detail, and so thoroughly unimpressive by the standards of even just a few years later, but it was incredible at the time.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is similar to RDR2 in that most of the NPCs (except bandits and wayfarers) all have lives that run outside the characters' interaction. They have homes they'll sleep in at night, get up and go to their jobs, take lunch breaks, etc. In fact, that's how they designed the game; they first made a world that worked on its own without a gamer's interaction, and then started adding the game elements (quests, etc.). Sometimes tailing an NPC to discover their habits might be a crucial step to planning a theft or the resolution of a quest. Pretty impressive for a first-effort, crowdfunded game by a startup company. And the forests and countryside are amazingly realistic. The game's setting, this little fiefdom in Bohemia, is almost the main character. They didn't have to go that hard, but they did.
I'm surprised Vintage Story never got a mention. Its immersive, detailed, full of daily tasks, and can be downright gorgeous if you take a moment to observe at the right moments. What really sets it apart is that like Minecraft it is a voxel game, so you can interact with any and every bit of the world, and its procedurally generated too.
I play that game a lot, and I think it'll get there, eventually. But, right now, the base game has only 10 types of animals in it. They interact in really interesting ways -- watching bears hunt the pigs and bighorn sheep, for instance, or seeing wolves going after the smaller prey, or watching a ram with a couple of ewes produce a flock during the course of a spring and summer -- but right now those 10 species are all that exists. Also, the fact that the Drifters ignore every living thing except the player-avatar seems a bit... off. I do look forward to the major releases for that game, though, and you can tell the DEVs really carefully consider how everything affects everything else. They don't always get it right the first time -- but then, nobody does.
I think another game series worth bringing up is STALKER. The series had a very ambitious world AI system, the devs called "A-Life". Humans actually moved around the world, performed tasks, had routines, formed and disbanded squads. Animals roamed the world, predators hunted prey, they traveled in packs or herds, is small numbers they may run away from you, but in larger numbers, muster the courage to attack. The NPCs were always doing doing things, even when you were far away and they were no longer rendered. It was apparently too good that they had to tone it down for the final release. Some of these cut features are restored in the standalone mod "STALKER Anomaly". Apparently in beta versions of the first game, NPCs were able to take quests and complete them. Playtesters were sometimes frustrated by this, because some NPCs were actually stealing their quests and turning them in before they could.
I was fascinated with something that happened to me in this game and never saw in another game, in the first village there was a guy who gave me some missions, any NPC, after hours of game, walking randomly in an abandoned place I saw a body lying down In over a barrel, I went to check it out and it was this NPC, but it was far away from where he was usually and he was dead, when I returned to the initial village and someone else had taken his place, I found it so crazy, almost exploded my mind.
It was pretty good. Chilling on a trasheap and seeing pseudodogs chase strangers and getting sucked up into anomalies. The weather pattern and day-night cycle really gave the whole environment life.
Lost Ember is an absolutely beautiful game and I'm so happy to see it included in something that's getting a lot of attention. It's one of those games that's stuck with me ever since I played it, and I make sure to recommend it everywhere I go. I nearly cried the first time I played through the game, the story is so beautiful once the pieces start to come together. I make sure to introduce it to all of my friends when I get the chance, and every one of them, without fail, has adored the game. I also highly recommend both the Unravel series and ABZU if you enjoy the more stylized and thematic elements, especially the latter.
I would really love a video on Deep Rock Galactic's ecosystem. It may not be the most in-depth but it's really unique and I'm a huge fan of your videos where you just cover a bunch of different species from one game/movie/art project.
A minor correction - DAU was filmed on a set that was 12000 square metres (a couple of football fields), not 12000 square miles (the same size as Belgium, or Maryland)
One of the best paet of all those small details in red dead is that they arent there to steal the show they are there so people who look for them can find the little things
With all the videos looking into videogames recently, I'm surprised you've not looked at The Eternal Cylinder yet. Definitely a videogame with its own unique ecosystem to look at!
same here! life is rough right now, but these little opportunities to escape and, i dunno, recalibrate, are very important to me. i hope things get better for you, by the way. i know that might be easier said than done, but still.
I'd like to give some details about your segment on RDR2. A common technique for the "flat texture" mud you mentioned would be "Parallax Occlusion", which gives the impression of 3d visuals within a 2d surface. It isn't really an illusion so much as it is actual deformation just taking place on a flat surface. It's very interesting, and I'm glad you mentioned it in your video.
I really appreciate how you make such thought provoking videos focusing on all the subtle unspoken beauty of video games... I feel like too many people in our society just see games and shows as just pointless fun or a waste of time distracting us from the real world. But they're more than that, they're _art._ Art that can be incredibly impactful and help us reflect on our life and its meaning. And like art, some are more impactful and though provoking than others. Some art really is just for fun, and there is beauty in that too. :)
I think I just got recommended this, because I watched a lot of Subnautica. Even more so, I thought it would fit so well in here. It has such a special atmosphere. Every time, you venture out exploring the world, it feels alive, it feels like you are really there under water, and you hear and see and feel the world around you in a way that is very intensive in the moment. It's not just there, but even more so incredible is, that it's all according to the lore, that you can discover. The living world around you isn't just there, it is scannable, and you find out how this ecosystem works, with so many species depending on each other. And when you venture out, during the moment you just float there and look around you, you see and hear so many things, it really feels like you are there, in the moment.
I just really love this channel. Every single video is like finding out a new part of my conscious. Like thinking about details or questions that i just ignore irl. Its a real tranquil experience to watch every video of this channel. Thats why i like every single video that i watch, even though i like videos extremely rarely
I grew up in Maine, lots of outdoorsy people. Hiking, boating, hunting, fishing, nature gazing. RDR2 imo is the best representation of the American landscape. It's an incredible achievement of fictional realism.
Bro I won't lie, you are making me rethinking my life, and the way I relished the there are other things that are more important, in the environment that there are animals and people, that are trying to survive, cause not everyone is in the wrong, each person has their own views on themselves and other people, animals just following their minds, their instincts and trying to live their own life
Outer Wilds is another excellent example of a game with a living ecosystem. The entire world is physically simulated and there are basically no loading screens. It even has themes of ecosystem destruction! I'm kinda surprised it didn't make the cut for this video
I don't even game, but I watch your channel religiously and I'm strongly considering starting out. All those war games never interested me; you've taught me there is a whole world of other things out there
I'm writing a book about a lone human on an alien planet and it was impossible to ignore the ecological themes. The moment I created a technologically advanced society, I knew that this beautiful world I created would have to face destruction at the hands of those who would strip it of its resources. I love your work. Thanks for inspiring me.
Not necessarily. Why not flip the script and have the society have learned from their ancestors' mistakes on Earth and intentionally strive to live in harmony with nature while still having advanced tech? Perhaps the conflict could be about saving the natural environment from some kind of calamity that only the arriving humans have the ability to cure - rather than being the calamity themselves.
One of the best examples of a detailed world breathing life into a game is Monster Hunter World. That game is just above the rest in terms of being lived in, rather than a theme park of killing monsters. They all behave certain ways, interact with the environment depending on whats going on, the turf wars aren't even the selling point, its how everything feels alive. Compare that with Monster Hunter Rise - a later released switch titled ported over, and it doesn't even feel the same. Sure its fun, but there's something about World's well, World that really set it above the rest and will always be my favorite of the series. Fingers crossed for monster hunter world 2.
Some developers have said stuff like squeezing through gaps isn't actually about hidden loading screens anymore, so much as... like, locking you into an area... if say, you walk into a combat arena, having it bookended by these gates means you can just... completely book it out of there. It's more to do with pacing and encounter design, because current gen hardware, like the PS5 have made load times not really something developers have to worry a ton about
I was so tickled to see Alba mentioned here! Even if it's meant for kids, it's SO thorough in the details of those ecosystems, for as far as it goes. No ants, though, heh. You saying that sixty percent of RDR2 is riding your horse through the world makes me for the very first time actually WANT to play the game. I'm usually not a fan of shooters and action games (I find them very frustrating, in all the not-fun ways for my brain), but the details you discuss here... And even the glitches, ha!
Not that these newer videos are bad, but I really miss the old speculative biology and world building videos. Those were why i grew to love this channel and create my own speculative biology game.
i'm sure he'll return to that stuff when he has the opportunity too, i wouldn't worry too much :) i love both styles though, but i agree there was a bit of a shift
been really surprised with how obsessively detailed and alive Frontiers of Pandora has felt. I swear it shines the most when you walk around instead of sprinting and especially once you unlock the perk that makes animals docile unless you are hostile or make a lot of noise. I've sat there and watched as predators hunted down prey lost in all the sounds and sights, I hope someone makes a mod like in Red Dead where you can play as an animal. The AI of the animals is soooo good. Best moment I've had while playing was when two feral thanator chased a sturmbeast out of the tree line on the other side of a river. once it had ran off (but also cornered itself downstream) one thanator kept the sturmbeast cornered while the other crossed the river to come after me. I was low level so I jumped into the river and drifted down to the sturmbeast and scared it back up river so I didn't become lunch. they show that same kind of herding behavior with prey animals and it's so cool to sit back and watch a pack of viperwolves hunt down a herd of hexapede.
To be fair, some realistic features from the ecosystem are there not because someone thought of making explicitly that, but because the atmosferic system itself guarantees it. For example, the poiunt about the stars being less visible in the cities: Most engines use a volume (a square o a sphere) to determine an area that will be affected differently, it could be smoke, fog or color changes. So if a city has a certain degree of fog simulating the pollution, that iself will make the stars not visible without being the original intention.
I'd just like to say, although this can't compare to any of these games, when you win a match in StarCraft two you can look around the map and see some creatures have naturally spawned. Granted this is not very good at making an ecosystem, as it's just usually one or two species and it's only on some maps, I think it's a neat feature of the game.
I'm a big fan of the older Monster Hunter games. You can only explore small sections of the map and the rest is a huge backdrop that lets your imagination fill in the blanks. The environment hints towards habitats and natural formations without having to simulate them or render them in detail.
Tokyo Jungle is another game where it successfully embodies that feeling of the ecosystem being alive whether you’re there or not. It’s not the most graphically advanced and the AI isn’t super complex, but with 50 or so different animals all fighting for survival in one city it definitely feels alive and chaotic wherever you are (and aren’t). You’ll wander into a different territory and there might find yourself in the middle of a turf war or pack of animals hunting another. And regular events come up of random scenarios like a rabies outbreak or buffalo migration on the complete opposite side of the map. You could be underground with nothing around yet hear an all out battle right above you. And if you die, often you’ll see whatever killed you eat your body and continue on their way, or even fight another animal as the screen fades out. The game takes place in an abandoned city with no humans, and the feeling of life continuing without people or even the player to see it remains. It’s definitely not realistic in terms of how animals would behave aside from most prey and small animals being cautious of bigger predators, but it has a unique and lively atmosphere despite the environment being post apocalyptic and quite dead on the surface. It’s an older and mostly forgotten game but I’ve loved it for 10 years now and still play it because of that unique feeling. It’s absolutely ridiculous in so many ways, but it’s always had a special charm to me.
Following a cat around in dwarf fortress is a thing of beauty and playing Rain World was an experience, I'll never forget. Thank you for mentioning those games. :)
one of your best videos yet, it inspired me to dig up an old world building hobby I haven't touched in almost 2 months, keep up with this new style of video it's really great (and inspiring I guess haha)
As someone who works in the theme park industry, the 360 degree set is a philosophy that is becoming more and more common beyond just Disney. Even Waterworld (10:53), though it didn’t make its budget back still lives on as a high quality show at Universal Studios Hollywood, and as a whole land at Universal Studios Japan
Waterworld was dismantled in Universal Studios Hollywood, I believe. Probably the only "old" attractions left are the tram ride and loosely Jurassic World.
In regard to the mud texture stuff: that's just called mapping. Game engines use multiple textures to do things on flat surfaces. It's called a bump map in this case. Your graphics card is sent the images for the model and some shader code that tells it what to do with those textures. It essentially is just a height map that tells the graphics card to alter the way the 3D model is rendered to great and actually 3D effect from 2D information. You also use this with specular highlights, illumination, and normals (the direction a flat plane is facing). You can get all sorts of wonky and fun with mapping. It's used in pretty much every 3D game and is just the standard for making 3D models appear to have more physicality than they actually do. They're the backbone of modern graphics imo.
Very shocked not to see Monster Hunter here, especially World, MonHun always had a very fascinating ecosystem by its world and lore alone, but World truly brought it alive in breathtaking fashion without taking anything away from what makes it a “Monster Hunter” Experience, and its what MonHun Rise really took away, which is just a shame, still a great game but its just not the same
I highly recommend looking into Monster Hunter World/Icebornes ecosystems - some of the most beautiful I've ever seen in gaming. I probably spend hundreds of hours just exploring and watching!
I am glad I have clicked on this video, I would have never head of a game like Lost Ember, I love games where you can play as different animals. I for one want to create the World of Kong book in VR using the Unreal Engine and just watch the animals from that book interact in their prehistoric haven.
Every video is a treat, but this one in particular just convinced me that there are some games I need to check out for myself, because exploration of the world is one of my favorite things to do in Breath of the Wild, and I've been looking for more content like that!
Imagine if some game developers create a game with the scale of rdr2 and they knew that fans would create mods to play as the animals in the gamw so they created hidden areas and "events" that only animals can enter and experience as a surprise reward for the dedicated and ingenious players.
let's just appreciate the transition right after 18:55 it's amazing so amazing I didn't even notice it at first, then realizing what happened I had to rewatch it multiple times
The game that made me feel it was alive was Monster Hunter World. The way that the creatures react and respond to their surroundings and the environment is astonishing.
Journey! I love how Journey doesn't really have much defined life, yet it feels so alive, and simultaneously, so dead. You're wandering through ruins, past gravestones and crashed metal monsters, and learning about what was and what will be, all while releasing shoals of ribbons from their prisons, running around with singing kites, and finding amazing secrets hidden among the dunes.
This is the most interesting video about gaming I have ever watched. Thus video flows like art and you sound genuine and incredibly comfortable to listen to. Iwill appreciate game worlds so much more after watching this. Thank you so much for making this. 🙏
While not a current game, ESO Oblivion also has a World that feels like it has a life of its own. Not so much in regards to animals and the ecosystem, but NPCs have their daily routines and their own agency. For example an NPC can get hungry, steal food, and as a result they get attacked by other NPCs and chased by the guards.
A modded server kinda like the isle would be crazy, also one of my favorite games is outer wild. You get to fly around to different planets and explore.
I was OBSESSED with Godus when I was younger. I would just zoom in on the little people and watch them interact with one another, set up fires, talk and dance. Can't believe it got featured here.
you should make a video on the game "The eternal cylinder" it has a lot of very interesting species and biomes i would love to hear you talk about. also, keep up the great work
Jurassic World Evolution 2 added so many new animations to the dinosaurs. I don't have the game yet but I really want it but I think the new animations make the dinosaurs feel much more like animals instead of 'big lizard go roar' and the fact that you can make your own park which is bassiclly an ecosystem is really cool
That RDR2 mod has turned the game into one of my all time favorites, it's almost exclusively how I play it at this point! Now if only it included drinking/eating/attacking for more species...
Absolutely not. We have enough malicious hackers who would gladly steal the mod and weaponize it to sell to players who deliberately purchase these mods to target and harass others. Too many good things have been soured by these hackers and their customer base of online bullies, I don't want to see this beautiful mod go down that path.
10:07 One of my favourite examples of a 360-degree set is Peter Capaldi's TARDIS interior. It was designed right from the start to accommodate unique camera angles, with actors being able to walk around through the different levels in one continuous shot. There were also moving parts and lights that, when active, made the whole set feel alive. The sheer versatility of proper sets cannot be understated, as even simple changes to the environment can have a massive effect on the actors' performances.
i've played rdr2 6 times because of just how detailed and immersive the game is, and i have never gotten bored once. with each play through i've discovered something new, or appreciated something different. i would just spend hours wandering around in the wilderness and it is just one of the most immersive games, if not the most, out there.
I really wish the Devs of the animal mod would add functionality to the animals because at the moment all you can do is run around and kind of awkwardly attack something and it kind of gets boring but there is soo much potential for that mod! Rockstar have truly made a world that does feel alive and it could change the world of red dead into so many different types of simulators. It's crazy how they made that world and yet they haven't really taken full advantage of it! That animal mod with the ability to actually do things could be an entire game itself.
Great video but I would actually say the matte painted backdrops from the 70-80’s are much more immersive than modern CG backdrops which feel like something is off.
The biggest immersion I got from RDR2 was when i was high up on a mountain and it was cloudy and raining and I would just watch in the distance seeing parts of the map that don't have clouds and how the lights shines on the land far beyond me. This seems like a small detail but really felt like something is happening different far away from where I am and gave me a sense of how big the world is.
if you enjoy a seemingly living ecosystem and an environment that unfolds it's story even offscreen just for the player occasionally stumble on its traces, history and scars it leaves in the world, i recommend stalker anomaly, or stalker gamma. alive is a pretty unique NPC system that makes you feel like another part of an already existing world, that doesn't treat you like a player, rather like another NPC that tries to stay alive.
I think the absurd level of detail in RDR2 is precisely what makes it work. As someone who lives in the western US, loves being outside and is acutely aware of how much beauty and diversity we've lost over the past two centuries, I find the game both extremely cathartic and extremely tragic. No other game has come so close to replicating the feeling of packing up your camp on a cold, misty morning by a mountain stream, listening to the wind and the birds. It's a romantic depiction of an America that only exists in small pockets now, and it gives the player the same deep nostalgia for simpler, less industrialized times that the characters are feeling in the story.
I feel you there. I remember when I was a kid there was this old log pond down the road from where I lived. You’d find all sorts of stuff like tadpoles, salamanders, and dragonflies. Occasionally you’d see a nutria swimming in there too.
Now it’s a suburban neighborhood. The pond was completely drained, filled, and turned into a residential area. There are still plenty of areas just like that around, hell most of Oregon is like that but it’s still sad to see the pond go.
It makes me think about how much else has expanded before I was here and how will our ecosystem continue to dominate and change the established one. I see the woods around me and think someday it’s going to be nothing but concrete and asphalt whether in 10 or 100 years. It’s a little disheartening.
@@sirshotty7689 just remember that nature will take over almost immediately once we stop forcing it not to. Look at Chernobyl. It's a whole biodiverse forest now. Sure some harm will be measurable forever because of it but nature will in fact work around it.
@@kennydoggins1712 yeah I know, I’m just being a bit cathartic. I know fighting nature is a losing battle but it doesn’t make it any easier to see something you cherished be gone.
Every fall we would go into the foothills of the Ozarks to hunt and be away from everything with the rest of our family. Now the entire area is privately owned by a logging company and you can’t enter anymore.
@@sirshotty7689 no it doesn't. But it also means you will find more and more new spots as time goes on.
The sheer insanity when he says "I didn't even know there were bats in this game! I'VE BEATEN IT TWICE!"
that line was delivered well
its great when he shows emotion
Thinking back, I think I've noticed them in passing, but never actually NOTICED them. That's the beauty of the game; something happens and you don't question it because you WOULDN'T question bats in a church tower IRL.
Lol, I also just knew about bats after watching this video.
Yes he voice is so good
One of the things I love about RDR2 is that you don't feel like someone special. You don't feel like the world revolves around you. You just feel like you're just another person in the world.
For me Rain World was a diffrenr expirence. The abondoned structures just added a feeling of threat and melancholy, but also hope. That even though nature was bulldozed for the structures, it stills finds a way to continue thriving.
What about the bioenginerred creatures?
Rainworld shoulda been in the list, most alive feeling game ive played. This is due to some of the most incredible and AI and animations I've seen from an indie game
I love scug game and it is very good to scug in the scug game
I love Rainworld so much ❤❤
@@dutchthenightmonkey3457 i love when scug goes "it's raining time"
Some day, I really, really, _really,_ wish Curious Archive to cover the harsh and hostile world of Kenshi.
It's perfect for this kind of thing with how weird and interesting it is.
kenshi is the most jank game i have ever played and i love it. kinda like new vegas or morrowind in the way that it doesnt hold your hand
YES
Agreed. Despite the fact that it is presented as a dying world, Kenshi feels strangely alive. In its own way. Especially with all of the random conflicts that you can encounter on your journey.
I actually can’t believe he hasn’t got a Kenshi video yet!!
It perfectly encapsulates the topics of the last several videos on Curious Archive, really making sure you are a PART of the living world
It’s a blessing when curious archive posts the exact minute my lunch break starts
For you
@@dracorexyz Timezones exist
Hehhahah this is funny to me because I’m here 2 am in the morning. You lucky lunch consumer. (I am sleepy)
@@parkaller7959bros probably a flat earther
@@parkaller7959shit im stupid
I'm playing RDR2 for the first time. My 14-year-old got it a couple yrs ago on ps4 and this year he bought it for me on PC for Valentine's Day because "Mom, it's the greatest game ever made. It's my favorite game ever and I NEED YOU TO EXPERIENCE IT!" And there have been plenty of times that I've cried while playing, not because of the storyline, but just because of the sheer overwhelming beauty and immersiveness of the game. It's truly the greatest V-day gift I've ever gotten. Maybe the greatest gift period. Being able to bond with kiddo over this and experience it is so amazing.
In Bioshock, you can hack cameras so that they detect enemies instead. Enemies detected will trigger alarms.
Every time I play bioshock, I am always fascinated when a random camera I hacked in a far away room triggers an alarm. Splicers were just there, doing their own thing, and now they're fighting drones and stuff, all without me. The world feels like it doesn't revolve around me, because it shouldn't
6:40 it isn't really a 2D texutre on the mud. It is flat like you said but it is something called a normal or bump map. Basically it calculates how the light would reflect/light up the surface as if the 2D bump map was actual 3D detail. That way it looks and interacts with light just like a 3D mesh would, and the only way to tell it's flat is by looking from the side.
I'm pretty sure the mud also uses parallax occlusion mapping, which is also faked depth, but instead of only affecting the lighting it also offsets the rendered pixels based on a height map.
To me, it's got to be Monster Hunter World, that game is just insane.
Everything, literally *every single creature and plant* had a role with one another, including the monsters themselves, I'm amazed they were able to include so much appart from the battle mechanics, so much so that i think if you hang out and explore the game turns into a completely different one.
Agreed, hopefully the next one does it even better, like adding more dynamic weather
True. I remember these quests that we investigate, and take pictures of cat tribes. And seen many more things about other creatures, like the Great Jagras swallow whole aptonoth then comeback to it's cave to throw out to feed small ones, etc...
Personally I think that monster hunter world while not the same quality as most of these still has a really flourished ecosystem that genuinely feels alive
Looks like MH wilds will do just that@@hyperbannana9262
Once, while trying to get a picture for the Lynian Researcher, I followed around a Viper Tobi Kadachi for days of game time. I got to see every part of its life, where it eats, where it sleeps, what monsters it avoids and what ones it will fight. I got to see every part of the Hoarfrost Reach that was its territory. I got to sit in the coil of its tail and see the iridescent scales on its belly.
I never got that photo. But man, if those experiences don't make the already beautiful world of MHW even more humbling.
Btw, Curious, there's a new animated series currently being released called "Scavengers Reign". It's about the crew of a colonizing spaceship stranded on an alien world after their mission went tits up, trying to survive in an ecosystem as hostile and indifferent as it is both beautiful and horrifying. And the horror pulls no punches. I think it would be right up your alley. They're up to six episodes now, and I think it'll go for twelve episodes in total.
i recommend watching it for the first time while on mushrooms or weed. theres some great worldbuilding
Seconded! Could be another cool ecosystem video. I'm loving show so far, and it feels really fresh and different :D
Oh my God yes! I was just going to comment this, thank you so much. I hope that Curious Archive and others see this. Even if they don't cover it (which is alright), the series is incredible like you said and it'd be great for people to watch it.
Wait. The series is out? Where can I watch it?
I just saw that animated short like two weeks ago.
@@tjarkschweizer It's up on Hbo Max (or "Max" cause they changed it lol)
It’s funny, I think detailed environments in video games give me a deeper appreciation for the ecosystem of the real world. It’s just like, knowing how much of an momentous effort has to be made to simulate even a fraction of that complexity makes it all the more mind blowing. Sometimes I’ll be sitting on a bench in a park and see a squirrel just hanging out, or looking at me, and I’m like “woah. That’s a whole living being. It lives here. It’s just going about its life right now, living and breathing, and even thinking, in ways I will never be able to comprehend. But it also feels things like pain and hunger. Damn.”
Or, even simpler, I’ll see something in real life and think “DAMN that is incredibly beautiful” in the same way I’ve seen gamers stop and admire a game environment. Like even if it’s just light coming through a curtain in my regular room I’ve lived in my whole life, I just appreciate it. That’s what I love about video games tbh, they just reframe the world in such a wondrous way.
(And you know what, even video games that are totally unrealistic and different from the real world reframe things for me the same way. I spent weeks after playing Little Nightmares 2 imagining the ways I could parkour across fire escapes and sides of buildings n shit if I was a tiny child.)
And this is why videogames are art. I think art has the power to allow oneself to reclaim and recalibrate their own perspective on reality. The example you gave is an amazing example of that: seeing mundane objects and giving them a fresh new perspective. Another example would be how art and by proxy videogames can allow us to recontextualize mental pain and struggles. Instead of seeing them as roadblocks, it can be seen as a transformative and subversive force !
Bro this was beautiful 🥲
W
I love beautiful souls like you who find beauty in the simple, little things in life. May you keep finding beautiful things in your life.
You have written a very beautiful comment. I'm moved by it and who I imagine you to be. The Hulk just enjoying a beautiful environment in the desert before a helicopter shows up to start shooting at him has always stuck with me. 😊
I'm playing through Monster Hunter World lately and the ecosystem is easily one of my favorite aspects of it.
Sure fighting monsters is fun and all, but being able to just exist in these wild environments and observe them is just as cool to me. Following them around peacefully and watching them hunt, drink, sleep, clean themselves, get in conflict with other monsters, taking note of all their unique little habits, all the little details... It gives such immense appreciation for these animals that, in gameplay, mostly just exist for you to beat up. I've always done my best to capture my favorite monsters instead of killing them, but the more I play World the more I end up capturing basically everything, because I start to appreciate every single creature in it, even the weak "boring" ones or the ones that are annoying to fight.
Even the environments themselves are full of little details and secrets, many of them helpful to you once you're familiar with the locales, it's such a great, rewarding feeling in a game that is otherwise basically just a giant boss rush. You start being familiar with all the maps, all their little tricks, all their hidden paths, all the monsters and where they like to hang around, sleep, or eat, all their little habits and quirks that you can often exploit to your advantage. As much as it makes you take them down easier and faster, it also gives you this sense of belonging and respect for the nature of this world, I love that so much.
oh my god dude i have been absolutely consumed by MHW the past few months, I would *love* to see him to a video on it!! Especially my cutiepie paolumu
@@spookyfrogs1874This channel already has 2 videos on MH, though unfortunately only for the Ancient Forest and Wildspire Waste, so no regular Paolumu. At least Nightshade gets some appreciation.
It's literally Australia in Fantasy
Also, the thing about World. You should capture everything, it gives more resources than killing anyway. Of course you can't Capture Elders though. But yeah, killing in World doesn't make sense.
@@RuneKatashima that myth is still going around? This has been a thing since the game's original version launched and people have tested, double tested and tore apart the code to disprove it. No, capturing gives the SAME resources as carving, the reason it FEELS like that is for carving some resources you have to break certain parts, or cut a part off AND carve it. Capturing gives all those and is faster. So it IS still the better option. But they both draw from the same pool of possible rewards in the same amounts, capturing just bypasses some requirements that some loot otherwise has. This has been a thing since the game launched and people have tested, double tested and tore apart the code to disprove it.
On the topic of glitches, I had one particular doozy in Subnautica. A reefback wandered into the shallows, and wound up getting stuck on the terrain. It rolled and thrashed around, most of it's body above the surface. And...Not gonna lie, I felt pity for what amounted to a beached whale.
I’ve probably beaten red dead 9 times I’m just that obsessed with it when I learned there were bats my jaw literally dropped in disbelief because I just never knew
Another game where I feel similar is WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition. You play as a lone wolf in yellowstone national park, trying to start your own pack. While not as graphically pleasing as rdr2, it is still fun to play. Playing it on accurate ironwolf difficulty you have to think like a wolf if you want to survive.
Isn’t that the furry game?
@@noelvalenzarro
You should assume any game with an animal main character is a furry game
@@noelvalenzarro No, why would it be?
@@noelvalenzarro No, why would you think that?
@@ASolitaryHowl Upon further research yeah there was a big demographic shift when furrys found the game for multiplayer stuff. For a time it became known as “a furry game” unfortunately.
I vividly remember seeing bears fishing out of a river in Grizzly Hills in WoW back in '09 and being absolutely blown away by it. It was such a small detail, and so thoroughly unimpressive by the standards of even just a few years later, but it was incredible at the time.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is similar to RDR2 in that most of the NPCs (except bandits and wayfarers) all have lives that run outside the characters' interaction. They have homes they'll sleep in at night, get up and go to their jobs, take lunch breaks, etc. In fact, that's how they designed the game; they first made a world that worked on its own without a gamer's interaction, and then started adding the game elements (quests, etc.). Sometimes tailing an NPC to discover their habits might be a crucial step to planning a theft or the resolution of a quest. Pretty impressive for a first-effort, crowdfunded game by a startup company. And the forests and countryside are amazingly realistic. The game's setting, this little fiefdom in Bohemia, is almost the main character. They didn't have to go that hard, but they did.
I'm surprised Vintage Story never got a mention. Its immersive, detailed, full of daily tasks, and can be downright gorgeous if you take a moment to observe at the right moments. What really sets it apart is that like Minecraft it is a voxel game, so you can interact with any and every bit of the world, and its procedurally generated too.
I play that game a lot, and I think it'll get there, eventually.
But, right now, the base game has only 10 types of animals in it.
They interact in really interesting ways -- watching bears hunt the pigs and bighorn sheep, for instance, or seeing wolves going after the smaller prey, or watching a ram with a couple of ewes produce a flock during the course of a spring and summer -- but right now those 10 species are all that exists.
Also, the fact that the Drifters ignore every living thing except the player-avatar seems a bit... off.
I do look forward to the major releases for that game, though, and you can tell the DEVs really carefully consider how everything affects everything else.
They don't always get it right the first time -- but then, nobody does.
It doesn't have an eco-system though.
I think another game series worth bringing up is STALKER. The series had a very ambitious world AI system, the devs called "A-Life". Humans actually moved around the world, performed tasks, had routines, formed and disbanded squads. Animals roamed the world, predators hunted prey, they traveled in packs or herds, is small numbers they may run away from you, but in larger numbers, muster the courage to attack. The NPCs were always doing doing things, even when you were far away and they were no longer rendered. It was apparently too good that they had to tone it down for the final release. Some of these cut features are restored in the standalone mod "STALKER Anomaly". Apparently in beta versions of the first game, NPCs were able to take quests and complete them. Playtesters were sometimes frustrated by this, because some NPCs were actually stealing their quests and turning them in before they could.
I was fascinated with something that happened to me in this game and never saw in another game, in the first village there was a guy who gave me some missions, any NPC, after hours of game, walking randomly in an abandoned place I saw a body lying down In over a barrel, I went to check it out and it was this NPC, but it was far away from where he was usually and he was dead, when I returned to the initial village and someone else had taken his place, I found it so crazy, almost exploded my mind.
It was pretty good. Chilling on a trasheap and seeing pseudodogs chase strangers and getting sucked up into anomalies. The weather pattern and day-night cycle really gave the whole environment life.
Lost Ember is an absolutely beautiful game and I'm so happy to see it included in something that's getting a lot of attention. It's one of those games that's stuck with me ever since I played it, and I make sure to recommend it everywhere I go. I nearly cried the first time I played through the game, the story is so beautiful once the pieces start to come together. I make sure to introduce it to all of my friends when I get the chance, and every one of them, without fail, has adored the game.
I also highly recommend both the Unravel series and ABZU if you enjoy the more stylized and thematic elements, especially the latter.
I would really love a video on Deep Rock Galactic's ecosystem. It may not be the most in-depth but it's really unique and I'm a huge fan of your videos where you just cover a bunch of different species from one game/movie/art project.
The description that you've given during this entire video, made me feel emotional... And made me respect more for the game creators even more!
Curious Archive: *exists*
Me: Stops everything to watch new video
A minor correction - DAU was filmed on a set that was 12000 square metres (a couple of football fields), not 12000 square miles (the same size as Belgium, or Maryland)
Thank you 🙏
Miles seemed to big, but hell, meters seems too small for everyone to have lived there. Knowing that adds a layer of claustrophobia to the nightmare.
One of the best paet of all those small details in red dead is that they arent there to steal the show they are there so people who look for them can find the little things
With all the videos looking into videogames recently, I'm surprised you've not looked at The Eternal Cylinder yet. Definitely a videogame with its own unique ecosystem to look at!
I'm going through a hard time right now but watching your videos makes me forget for awhile and feel interested
same here! life is rough right now, but these little opportunities to escape and, i dunno, recalibrate, are very important to me. i hope things get better for you, by the way. i know that might be easier said than done, but still.
@@ryanadolfi4007 thank you! I will keep pushing- I hope you do too! We got this! 🥰💪
Monster Hunter definitely comes to mind
Only worldborne
This honestly is my favorite RUclips channel there’s so much effort in every video and I’ve never got bored of one
I'd like to give some details about your segment on RDR2. A common technique for the "flat texture" mud you mentioned would be "Parallax Occlusion", which gives the impression of 3d visuals within a 2d surface. It isn't really an illusion so much as it is actual deformation just taking place on a flat surface. It's very interesting, and I'm glad you mentioned it in your video.
I really appreciate how you make such thought provoking videos focusing on all the subtle unspoken beauty of video games... I feel like too many people in our society just see games and shows as just pointless fun or a waste of time distracting us from the real world. But they're more than that, they're _art._ Art that can be incredibly impactful and help us reflect on our life and its meaning. And like art, some are more impactful and though provoking than others. Some art really is just for fun, and there is beauty in that too. :)
I think I just got recommended this, because I watched a lot of Subnautica. Even more so, I thought it would fit so well in here. It has such a special atmosphere. Every time, you venture out exploring the world, it feels alive, it feels like you are really there under water, and you hear and see and feel the world around you in a way that is very intensive in the moment. It's not just there, but even more so incredible is, that it's all according to the lore, that you can discover. The living world around you isn't just there, it is scannable, and you find out how this ecosystem works, with so many species depending on each other.
And when you venture out, during the moment you just float there and look around you, you see and hear so many things, it really feels like you are there, in the moment.
I just really love this channel. Every single video is like finding out a new part of my conscious. Like thinking about details or questions that i just ignore irl. Its a real tranquil experience to watch every video of this channel.
Thats why i like every single video that i watch, even though i like videos extremely rarely
This is such a well-written video essay! Honestly, you captured so many inarticulable feelings about games like these so well. Thanks!
I Never Heard someone with a really calm voice like you. You're the best man. I hope you have a good day.
What an amazing video! Your narration and analysis are incredible, I love your content
18:55 I just felt the need to point out this visual transition. Nice! :)
I grew up in Maine, lots of outdoorsy people. Hiking, boating, hunting, fishing, nature gazing. RDR2 imo is the best representation of the American landscape. It's an incredible achievement of fictional realism.
Bro I won't lie, you are making me rethinking my life, and the way I relished the there are other things that are more important, in the environment that there are animals and people, that are trying to survive, cause not everyone is in the wrong, each person has their own views on themselves and other people, animals just following their minds, their instincts and trying to live their own life
Outer Wilds is another excellent example of a game with a living ecosystem. The entire world is physically simulated and there are basically no loading screens. It even has themes of ecosystem destruction! I'm kinda surprised it didn't make the cut for this video
I don't even game, but I watch your channel religiously and I'm strongly considering starting out. All those war games never interested me; you've taught me there is a whole world of other things out there
I'm writing a book about a lone human on an alien planet and it was impossible to ignore the ecological themes.
The moment I created a technologically advanced society, I knew that this beautiful world I created would have to face destruction at the hands of those who would strip it of its resources.
I love your work. Thanks for inspiring me.
Sounds like a really interesting concept, I hope to have the opportunity to read this book someday!
Not necessarily. Why not flip the script and have the society have learned from their ancestors' mistakes on Earth and intentionally strive to live in harmony with nature while still having advanced tech? Perhaps the conflict could be about saving the natural environment from some kind of calamity that only the arriving humans have the ability to cure - rather than being the calamity themselves.
One of the best examples of a detailed world breathing life into a game is Monster Hunter World. That game is just above the rest in terms of being lived in, rather than a theme park of killing monsters. They all behave certain ways, interact with the environment depending on whats going on, the turf wars aren't even the selling point, its how everything feels alive. Compare that with Monster Hunter Rise - a later released switch titled ported over, and it doesn't even feel the same. Sure its fun, but there's something about World's well, World that really set it above the rest and will always be my favorite of the series. Fingers crossed for monster hunter world 2.
Its a good day if he uploads
yes
Man your videos just keep getting better
Some developers have said stuff like squeezing through gaps isn't actually about hidden loading screens anymore, so much as... like, locking you into an area... if say, you walk into a combat arena, having it bookended by these gates means you can just... completely book it out of there. It's more to do with pacing and encounter design, because current gen hardware, like the PS5 have made load times not really something developers have to worry a ton about
I was so tickled to see Alba mentioned here! Even if it's meant for kids, it's SO thorough in the details of those ecosystems, for as far as it goes. No ants, though, heh.
You saying that sixty percent of RDR2 is riding your horse through the world makes me for the very first time actually WANT to play the game. I'm usually not a fan of shooters and action games (I find them very frustrating, in all the not-fun ways for my brain), but the details you discuss here... And even the glitches, ha!
This may be my favorite video of yours. Also, the creatures spazzing out in Rain World is definitely a feature I would never want removed
This channel is supremely underrated
These videos slap
it's intresting, how your work on Monter Hunter World brought me to your channel.
And it's a very alive world.
can't wait for what the next game has. just the idea of what they could do is so exciting!!
WHY is ur voice so Fuking Calming!!??! i love it!!
Not that these newer videos are bad, but I really miss the old speculative biology and world building videos. Those were why i grew to love this channel and create my own speculative biology game.
i'm sure he'll return to that stuff when he has the opportunity too, i wouldn't worry too much :) i love both styles though, but i agree there was a bit of a shift
One game I really thought you should of talked about is no man’s sky. ( it’s literally a game about exploring procedurally generated ecosystems)
been really surprised with how obsessively detailed and alive Frontiers of Pandora has felt. I swear it shines the most when you walk around instead of sprinting and especially once you unlock the perk that makes animals docile unless you are hostile or make a lot of noise. I've sat there and watched as predators hunted down prey lost in all the sounds and sights, I hope someone makes a mod like in Red Dead where you can play as an animal. The AI of the animals is soooo good. Best moment I've had while playing was when two feral thanator chased a sturmbeast out of the tree line on the other side of a river. once it had ran off (but also cornered itself downstream) one thanator kept the sturmbeast cornered while the other crossed the river to come after me. I was low level so I jumped into the river and drifted down to the sturmbeast and scared it back up river so I didn't become lunch. they show that same kind of herding behavior with prey animals and it's so cool to sit back and watch a pack of viperwolves hunt down a herd of hexapede.
To be fair, some realistic features from the ecosystem are there not because someone thought of making explicitly that, but because the atmosferic system itself guarantees it.
For example, the poiunt about the stars being less visible in the cities: Most engines use a volume (a square o a sphere) to determine an area that will be affected differently, it could be smoke, fog or color changes. So if a city has a certain degree of fog simulating the pollution, that iself will make the stars not visible without being the original intention.
Always love these videos.
It’s probably a combination of the subject, the voice and the composition of the video.
I'd just like to say, although this can't compare to any of these games, when you win a match in StarCraft two you can look around the map and see some creatures have naturally spawned. Granted this is not very good at making an ecosystem, as it's just usually one or two species and it's only on some maps, I think it's a neat feature of the game.
This video was so soothing to watch. I might actually end up getting RDR2 simply to enjoy the open world.
I was considering getting RDR2 when I saw it's on discount right now, and you've convinced me
16:41 - 16:57 summed up perfectly, AMAZING video. I love this perspective so much.
I'm a big fan of the older Monster Hunter games. You can only explore small sections of the map and the rest is a huge backdrop that lets your imagination fill in the blanks. The environment hints towards habitats and natural formations without having to simulate them or render them in detail.
Tokyo Jungle is another game where it successfully embodies that feeling of the ecosystem being alive whether you’re there or not. It’s not the most graphically advanced and the AI isn’t super complex, but with 50 or so different animals all fighting for survival in one city it definitely feels alive and chaotic wherever you are (and aren’t). You’ll wander into a different territory and there might find yourself in the middle of a turf war or pack of animals hunting another. And regular events come up of random scenarios like a rabies outbreak or buffalo migration on the complete opposite side of the map. You could be underground with nothing around yet hear an all out battle right above you. And if you die, often you’ll see whatever killed you eat your body and continue on their way, or even fight another animal as the screen fades out.
The game takes place in an abandoned city with no humans, and the feeling of life continuing without people or even the player to see it remains. It’s definitely not realistic in terms of how animals would behave aside from most prey and small animals being cautious of bigger predators, but it has a unique and lively atmosphere despite the environment being post apocalyptic and quite dead on the surface.
It’s an older and mostly forgotten game but I’ve loved it for 10 years now and still play it because of that unique feeling. It’s absolutely ridiculous in so many ways, but it’s always had a special charm to me.
Great video as always. I'd love for you to cover Scavengers Reign. It's such an exciting imaginary ecosystem.
I never imagined I would watch a nature documentary about video game echo systems. What a time to be alive.
I really like ur content curious archive ur videos allways makes me good❤❤😊
Following a cat around in dwarf fortress is a thing of beauty and playing Rain World was an experience, I'll never forget.
Thank you for mentioning those games. :)
one of your best videos yet, it inspired me to dig up an old world building hobby I haven't touched in almost 2 months, keep up with this new style of video it's really great (and inspiring I guess haha)
As someone who works in the theme park industry, the 360 degree set is a philosophy that is becoming more and more common beyond just Disney. Even Waterworld (10:53), though it didn’t make its budget back still lives on as a high quality show at Universal Studios Hollywood, and as a whole land at Universal Studios Japan
Waterworld was dismantled in Universal Studios Hollywood, I believe. Probably the only "old" attractions left are the tram ride and loosely Jurassic World.
I love just, watching, my friend explore Rainworld. I truly admire the devs for their amazing work.
In regard to the mud texture stuff: that's just called mapping. Game engines use multiple textures to do things on flat surfaces. It's called a bump map in this case. Your graphics card is sent the images for the model and some shader code that tells it what to do with those textures. It essentially is just a height map that tells the graphics card to alter the way the 3D model is rendered to great and actually 3D effect from 2D information. You also use this with specular highlights, illumination, and normals (the direction a flat plane is facing). You can get all sorts of wonky and fun with mapping. It's used in pretty much every 3D game and is just the standard for making 3D models appear to have more physicality than they actually do. They're the backbone of modern graphics imo.
Very shocked not to see Monster Hunter here, especially World, MonHun always had a very fascinating ecosystem by its world and lore alone, but World truly brought it alive in breathtaking fashion without taking anything away from what makes it a “Monster Hunter” Experience, and its what MonHun Rise really took away, which is just a shame, still a great game but its just not the same
He has made two monster hunter world videos. You can find them easily under playlists.
@@tjarkschweizer thanks for the info, just found the channel from this vid in my reccomended
"The mud in Red Dead is beautiful."
I never thought I'd hear the words "mud' and "beautiful" in the same sentence.. especially that close together.
I highly recommend looking into Monster Hunter World/Icebornes ecosystems - some of the most beautiful I've ever seen in gaming. I probably spend hundreds of hours just exploring and watching!
He made 2 videos on it then seemingly dropped it and refuses to elaborate or even mention it now.
@@handtomouth4690 oh thank you for mentioning I wasn't able to find any video but it seems I overlooked it (:
Wonder why it's not in the video
I am glad I have clicked on this video, I would have never head of a game like Lost Ember, I love games where you can play as different animals. I for one want to create the World of Kong book in VR using the Unreal Engine and just watch the animals from that book interact in their prehistoric haven.
i like how this video is essentially just an absurdly high quality mod review.
except he doesnt say what mod it is
Every video is a treat, but this one in particular just convinced me that there are some games I need to check out for myself, because exploration of the world is one of my favorite things to do in Breath of the Wild, and I've been looking for more content like that!
Imagine if some game developers create a game with the scale of rdr2 and they knew that fans would create mods to play as the animals in the gamw so they created hidden areas and "events" that only animals can enter and experience as a surprise reward for the dedicated and ingenious players.
let's just appreciate the transition right after 18:55
it's amazing
so amazing I didn't even notice it at first, then realizing what happened I had to rewatch it multiple times
The game that made me feel it was alive was Monster Hunter World. The way that the creatures react and respond to their surroundings and the environment is astonishing.
Journey!
I love how Journey doesn't really have much defined life, yet it feels so alive, and simultaneously, so dead. You're wandering through ruins, past gravestones and crashed metal monsters, and learning about what was and what will be, all while releasing shoals of ribbons from their prisons, running around with singing kites, and finding amazing secrets hidden among the dunes.
I do hope that you one day will cover the intricate and fantastical world of Made in Abyss.
This is the most interesting video about gaming I have ever watched. Thus video flows like art and you sound genuine and incredibly comfortable to listen to. Iwill appreciate game worlds so much more after watching this. Thank you so much for making this. 🙏
ı just like games that let you fully embrace it like rdr2 the witcher 2 journey and lot more
While not a current game, ESO Oblivion also has a World that feels like it has a life of its own. Not so much in regards to animals and the ecosystem, but NPCs have their daily routines and their own agency. For example an NPC can get hungry, steal food, and as a result they get attacked by other NPCs and chased by the guards.
The sequel we didn't know we wanted.
A modded server kinda like the isle would be crazy, also one of my favorite games is outer wild. You get to fly around to different planets and explore.
honestly this is a super effective way to make me want all of these games so much - fantastic job CA!!! 💖
I was OBSESSED with Godus when I was younger. I would just zoom in on the little people and watch them interact with one another, set up fires, talk and dance. Can't believe it got featured here.
you should make a video on the game "The eternal cylinder" it has a lot of very interesting species and biomes i would love to hear you talk about. also, keep up the great work
Jurassic World Evolution 2 added so many new animations to the dinosaurs. I don't have the game yet but I really want it but I think the new animations make the dinosaurs feel much more like animals instead of 'big lizard go roar' and the fact that you can make your own park which is bassiclly an ecosystem is really cool
That RDR2 mod has turned the game into one of my all time favorites, it's almost exclusively how I play it at this point! Now if only it included drinking/eating/attacking for more species...
Absolutely not. We have enough malicious hackers who would gladly steal the mod and weaponize it to sell to players who deliberately purchase these mods to target and harass others. Too many good things have been soured by these hackers and their customer base of online bullies, I don't want to see this beautiful mod go down that path.
@@randomgeneration7781 just eating/drinking and resting would be cool then! no need for attacks :)
I also downloaded a trainer mod for GTA 5 and just turned Trevor into a cat and free roaming Los Santos meowing at people. IMMERSIVE.
10:07 One of my favourite examples of a 360-degree set is Peter Capaldi's TARDIS interior. It was designed right from the start to accommodate unique camera angles, with actors being able to walk around through the different levels in one continuous shot. There were also moving parts and lights that, when active, made the whole set feel alive. The sheer versatility of proper sets cannot be understated, as even simple changes to the environment can have a massive effect on the actors' performances.
i've played rdr2 6 times because of just how detailed and immersive the game is, and i have never gotten bored once. with each play through i've discovered something new, or appreciated something different. i would just spend hours wandering around in the wilderness and it is just one of the most immersive games, if not the most, out there.
The music at the beginning brought back memories, sad sad memories
I really wish the Devs of the animal mod would add functionality to the animals because at the moment all you can do is run around and kind of awkwardly attack something and it kind of gets boring but there is soo much potential for that mod! Rockstar have truly made a world that does feel alive and it could change the world of red dead into so many different types of simulators. It's crazy how they made that world and yet they haven't really taken full advantage of it!
That animal mod with the ability to actually do things could be an entire game itself.
Great video but I would actually say the matte painted backdrops from the 70-80’s are much more immersive than modern CG backdrops which feel like something is off.
I really adore your videos. They really do prove that games are art
The biggest immersion I got from RDR2 was when i was high up on a mountain and it was cloudy and raining and I would just watch in the distance seeing parts of the map that don't have clouds and how the lights shines on the land far beyond me. This seems like a small detail but really felt like something is happening different far away from where I am and gave me a sense of how big the world is.
Always love your video about the biology of each creature.
Can you do a speculative biology and world building of "Made in Abyss"
if you enjoy a seemingly living ecosystem and an environment that unfolds it's story even offscreen just for the player occasionally stumble on its traces, history and scars it leaves in the world, i recommend stalker anomaly, or stalker gamma. alive is a pretty unique NPC system that makes you feel like another part of an already existing world, that doesn't treat you like a player, rather like another NPC that tries to stay alive.