Shadow of Colossus made the best decision regarding the 'trip back' - it got rid of it. After every boss you restart from the center of the map, ready to be guided to a new part of the map. I think it definitely helped the emptiness from becoming tedious from a gameplay perspective, allowing you to focus on the journey and the introspection. Regarding the last point about exploring and trying to uncover everything that can be uncovered in the worlds, I think Shadow of the Colossus has one of the most amazing stories regarding that. I remember years and years ago being part of the community who felt like there was one last 'Big Secret' in the game, but nobody ever found anything until some guy ported to PC and hacked it to be able to go out of bounds and found some unused assets. It speaks to the feeling in Shadow of the Colossus that you get that there is just... something else there.
Yeah that was kinda weird how he talked about Colossus' traversal in the way he did, then immediately made the next point about the 'trip back' after moving on from the game that doesn't have it. Colossus' minimalism is nothing short of genius, the world being empty is a core part of the appeal. That quiet traversal perfectly contrasts and balances the force of the boss fights.
@@TheAkiraCast The game feels oppressively empty, by design you feel like a complete outsider in this large(ish), empty and totally isolated world. You're meant to feel out of place.
Love that game. Definitely my favorite open world, and maybe my favorite game of all time. It's so refreshing, even more so today, to exist in a world that doesn't feel like it's been built to entice you with, well, "content", in the way that the word is usually used in games discussions. There are a few lizards and fruits to eat, sure, but otherwise it's just empty. I like comparing it to the real world when recommending it to people: if you're the type who will always get their errands done right away, then you might enjoy the game for maybe 4-5 hours or so before it's over, but if you're the type who will walk straight into the woods randomly simply because "it looked interesting over there", being fully aware that you likely won't see anything more special than some common plants and bugs (if even that), then SotC might just become your favorite game too.
i’m so happy the long drive was included in this video because i feel like that game perfectly encapsulates that feeling of loneliness that no out of bounds in any game can create, and no other “infinite” empty game can create. once the road ends, you can still drive. nobody even knows if the long drive has a badlands type generation bug after a certain distance because why would anyone want to drive that far? eventually, you can run out of fuel. you can run out of food or water and die. eventually, maybe you’ll even hit something and you lose a tire forever. from my experience, no other game has this raw feeling of true loneliness. the game offers nothing but massive rabbits and weird yellow dudes in overalls that say funny things, and yet, there are no other humans left that you ever see. you hear the radio speak of them, and you even hear news broadcasts, but you never see evidence of other living people besides mutilated body parts and poop on the floor everywhere. it’s honestly scary to think about. with the game being as goofy as it is in its nature, it’s amazing what immersion it brings to you. there’s no road like that in real life (unfortunately), and even if there was, it would be impossible in real life. the long drives scratches an itch most people don’t know they have, and that’s what makes it the perfect infinite and desolate game.
THANK YOU! I wrote a much shorter comment with this same sentiment and I'm so happy someone could put my thoughts into more eloquent words. Truly one of my favorite games of all time and probably the best $12 I ever spent.
I think the true charm of this game comes from the customization of your vehicle and the things you can bring with you. If you gave me a game where you start in a car and were told to just drive an empty road, I'd be bored right away. There's something about that personal touch that makes it so special. I remember the first time I hung the little octopus from the roof, packed the doll in the backseat, and took off. These little knickknacks make the car yours, if you know what I mean. You're not just driving a car down the road, you're driving YOUR car down the road. It's interesting that you mention the game gives you an overwhelming feeling of loneliness; the feeling I got from the game was a sense of home. Sure, the wasteland is empty and barren, but that car is your home and it comes with you. After a while it almost feels like a companion. I know that doesn't really make a lot of sense, as it's hard to put that feeling into words. The game invokes a very unique feeling that no other game really has.
@@seanrrr this is also true, i love that the car can feel so cozy and it makes you feel very safe. it’s like your own little capsule that saves you from virtually everything that poses a threat to you. without the car, the games entirely unplayable, just as you would die really fast without a car on a road like that irl. i do agree with you there though, the customizability is really interesting and makes the game so much more engaging. another part of what makes this game so cool is how different people can get different vibes from it. you see it as a blank slate for you to make a dent in with your car, and i see it as a looming and lonely stretch of sand and grass. the game really is a hidden gem and i hope more people play it because when you take it seriously it’s such an amazing game
I clicked on this video expecting an umpfteenth video essay about how empty levels are spooky and liminal and that is the coolest type of horror ever. But this is totally different
I was expecting an essay about how empty spaces are used to describe certain parts of the story, and so set an atmosphere of wonder for what once was. Or maybe about how players interact with empty spaces in videogames. Still not disappointed with what I got, but perhaps a title change is in order?
I remember Fuel being extremely fun and me being fascinated by that world. But I was 14 (and dumb) when I played that, so my memory might be misleading there 💀
I love racing games and I strongly disagree what OP said about Fuel. It was amazing and one of my favorite things about open world games is that you have a diverse enough landscape, that's my weakness because I loved that about Fuel. If you saw a mountain in the distance, you could literally race on top of it and this was a point in time where I found that really interesting. Add to all of this my love for racing games and Fuel was something that I fell in love with the instant I realized what it was like into the game.
It feels like the kind of game that a sequel could really do wonders with. Embrace the scale, get some half component driving mechanics, and sprinkle in some nuggets of content/lore. Suddenly got a potentially great game
Yeah, I think those kinds of games speak to a certain part of our humanity; our innate drive to explore, see things someone may have missed, or simply head out into the unknown.
These games always make me feel sad seeing empty worlds. Edit: Wanted to leave a note. I play games sorta to ignore any loneliness I may feel at a given moment (not that im a loner, I just feel lonely sometimes) but then seeing such emptiness makes it all the more worse for me :/ )
"Just Cause" has the most fun traversal systems ever. I never played the third one but that parachute-grappling hook combo was so entertaining, especially because you can steal cars while they are still moving. Finding a road and slamming into a truck mid-air to steal it, jumping off a cliff with said truck, bailing out, and then parachuting away... **chef's kiss**
Yeah, I play Just Cause 2 from time to time and it's fun. I haven't really progressed the story very far because I mostly just fly around with the chute and grappling hook. I climbed the tallest mountain like that, without touching the ground. I got Just Cause 4 for free from Epic. I think I'll try it now that I've seen that wingsuit.
@@christiantaylor1495 i agree. Whether it's Forza, NFS, Just Cause, Dirt, or any of the formula games I think it's fun just to go fast and watch the road go by. Something soothing about it.
Fuel really was more a tech demo for its studio (Asobo) than anything else. But I remember it very fondly. Once you complete all the races and missions you're left with viewpoints to visit to 100% the game. It was the first time in my life that I ever felt this weird sensation of complete loneliness, when you're fully aware of how alone you are in a specific environment, with how relaxing and uncomfortable it is at the same time. It was not a great game for sure, but the 65 hours I spent in this world are ingrained into my mind forever, which is no small feat.
I understand. I go caving with my friends, and there's nothing more relaxing than sitting in the dark together, meters below the surface, miles from the nearest road, you may as well be on the dark side of the moon or the bottom of the ocean. The real world stops existing once you pass under the adit or beyond the lip of a cliff and all that matters is the here and now - timeless, endless tunnels and climbs and streams, nothing but you and your friends and pretty scalloped limestone walls and unimaginably epic speleothems... I never expected to be an explorer in real life, and I never expected to have such fun and dangerous adventures! As long as you're not claustrophobic, I would recommend going on a starter trip or into a show cave, because it sounds like you'll really enjoy it 😁
I remember sometimes pulling up under a structure or to the side of the road while it rained and watching the thunderstorm. Been a long time since I played, but that's the kind of stuff I remember.
fuel was and is DOPE! it was a legend in 2009 my older cousin had and beat it i remember getting it as a kid making friends and driving around. offshore shack was the place it was a MMO racing game before the forzas and test drives met alot of people a good friend gamertag was Jemonsue or something like that. he loved the Dukes of Hazzard and used to say "yee doggy! lmao he was my age we used to play all the time fondly remember watching the Sons of Anarchy season 4 promo and it was playing RHCP Danny California so we rode the MC choppers in the game and i was blasting Danny California in the backround lmaooooo and trying to make it up mt ranier was always a fun challenge... wonder where he is hope he is well and has fond memories of it too. well sadly online in that game is dead nobodys playin and sadly it is now a ghost town just like the game map rip fuel online my childhood you will be missed :(
I always wonder about the life or how it would be if you were stuck on that planet How does the life on them survive It's nothing but some tiny ball of somthing and one little dude sometimes, how did it get there? Is Mario killing them acually just putting them down so they don't slowly starve to death?
This reminds me of my odd interest in driving out of the Trackmania Arenas/Racetracks and into the vast nothingness, which would keep getting flatter and more pixelated until I'd reach the end of it and fall into the void. I don't know if anyone can relate but the nothingness of Trackmania games was always fascinating to me
You should absolutely check out Ross Scott's video on Trackmania (his channel is called Accursed Farms and has been around for ages now), he LOVES the emptiness and loneliness in those games (specifically Trackmania 2 Canyon IIRC, I haven't played any of them myself but I rewatch all his videos at least once a year).
dude, how can you make the map design of completely separate games into one narrative time and time again? It's truly great storytelling and I look forward to all of your vids 😂
@@JonathanWhite462Not at all. You're the cringe one for being oversensitive over nothing. 🤡 Being appreciative of good work isn't cringe, kid; you'll realize that when you grow older. 👶😂 Get ratioed.
"The Space Between" is a fascinating concept to think on in terms of game development. Too much space at it feels, yknow, *empty-* useless boring space that seemingly as no place. But without *anything* in between? It can become almost too much for a lot of people. People and players often need some space to rest, something "In between" - something to prevent people from exhausting themselves all in one go. (I'm pretty sure I've seen a few videos on this sort of "resting space," but I'll have to find them and come back later!) It's so fascinating to think about. Super Mario galaxy, as you mentioned in the video, has levels designed with essentially little to no of that in-between. Little empty space, unless that space serves a purpose. Puzzles and platforming one after another, to get to a destination, to reach a star, to get to a boss. There's a few more open levels, where objects are scattered around a designated area, but the void of space keeps the emptiness at bay. And yet.... you still go back to the observatory. The hub world. The real connector between major levels. The space in-between. A resting area for mario, for the player, to pause and run around, check on their progress, collect lives, read a story. And then hop into the action once more. The observatory too is limited in space, but even it has some emptiness to it, corners and platforms a bit out of reach, moving parts high on the ship, the quite literal surroundings off the empty void of space.
Open world games have a lot of the space issue, of course. I saw a comment or two mentioning BOTW and TOTK, and they're right in a way. A lot of empty space, essentially "useless" space, travel time in between. Totk especially has more due to the enlarged map; the sky islands are rather sparse when you take a look at them, scattered and sprinkled amongst the empty space of the clouds. The underground, too, filled and yet empty, travel time between little developer-decided pockets of interest. For some it may be too much space. Too much travel time, too much emptiness, ironically too much of too little. I think theres a bit of value in that space, as a chance to rest, to think, to explore and travel; but I can also agree that at times, it can feel so uselessly empty. Spaces with nothing but rock or grass. It's more realistic, in a way, but for a game it can be thought of as tedious. I wonder if there's a good middle-ground? Not too much space, but just enough to rest, think, and recuperate.... As everything, though, that's probably decided on a case by case basis :]
Also found the "in between" video I mentioned thinking of - I believe its "Your Least Favorite Place in Gaming" by DarylTalksGames' Psych of Play series!
@@TheAstralBlade I think it's more of a problem of games that don't try to be immersive or realistic. The Zelda games or Elden Ring is a good example for this. In games where the world feels really immersive and realistic in a way, like Skyrim or Kingdom Come: Deliverance empty spaces feels right to have.
There is a lot of studies in this field. Antropologist Marc Auge has a book called No-Places where he talks about those spaces between, wich can be roads or even populated places with no affective connection to the users (like airports).
@@TheAstralBlade Good comments here! Thinking about this, it comes across as something to break up the [current thing], a longer travel time can make you think about what you're doing, but too much becomes tedious. Perhaps consider Fallout 1 - random encounters would suddenly break up travel and plunge you into completely unexpected situations, some being much more bizzare than others, or sometimes you'd run into a ambush you need to run from... or simply a whale that fell to the earth, a giant foot print embedded into the ground and a smear of humanity with a intact Stealthboy left behind, suggesting there's so much more going on. There's value to travel time both manual and automatic, a good middle ground 'might' be accepting a longer travel time, with with uncertainty thrown into whether you'll get to where you want to in the same condition you started with, more or less, or having your primary task interrupted with a unexpected periphary task or interesting thing.
I remember in Darksiders 2 there's this one level where you literally cannot leave it after you beat the boss, as a kid I tried to find how to leave, so confused as to why I couldn't find the exit, I then had to youtube it and it was literally that I just had to fast travel out
I really love this style of videos. Where videogames are analized as piece of art with all the philosophy behind: human, phsychological, ethical, moral, aesthetic, and technical
I feel like Planetside 2 fits this really well. Because of the depopulated servers alot of the map is just empty land with no people to fight. I've gone into a Harraser and just explored the map at night. Scythes and Mosquitos flying overhead going to some destination where a battles happening. Empty neutral bases without anyone to fight. Going back to zones i remember fighting in when the game was filled with people. Planetside 2 requires a large amount of players to be fun just because of how the game works but ever since it began dying i feel like a ghost exploring a house once filled with life. Entering a room where I've loved and laughed just to stumble upon and empty and vacant colorless square. Loved the vid man. Keep it up.
Honestly the long drive kinda just hits me different, its something about just driving in a empty desert on a actual road leading to the middle of nowhere, put on some 70s music and I can sit on the game for hours
I think its hilarious that the first time I have ever been so early to a video with an empty comment section, is the one time I watch a video about empty maps
I had to trim out the Patreon segment of my video because I messed up an edit and it was dangerous for those with epilepsy (it may not be trimmed immediately, youtube takes a few hours for that). I'll upload the end segment separately on my 2nd channel and link it here, sorry patrons! Edit: Added captioning. Support me on Patreon here: www.patreon.com/user?u=74033438
Oof, yes. Definitely. Great video otherwise, very calming, but that ouchie rainbow at the end I wasn't prepared for. Me eyes and me brain Dx But ye,really good stuff plz keep doing, do recommend 👌
I was going to say, that flashing strobe gave me a giant headache and I'm not even photo-sensitive. Hopefully youtube edits the ending soon for everyone. Glad you listened to peoples comments on that. Otherwise, very good video dude.
Fuel was the kind of game that, despite having a fast travel system, I decided to play through the whole thing without using any fast travel at all. I wanted to experience the size of the world for myself and see it all. I don't know how many times I crossed from one side of the map to the other over an hour or 2 just to do a few side objectives I skipped for some reason, to then drive to another section of the map all over again
my personal experience with an empty world is actually the old MMO Mabinogi! It's very populated in the main cities, but as soon as you go anywhere else it's super barren. There are a ton of locations that just have mobs and zero players unless an event is going on. it's fun to explore but also just super creepy😅 The game's world is surprisingly very huge. edit: omg thank you for all the lik-- just kidding! I actually just remembered to mention that in those empty locations there is also little to NO background music at all, just a lil bit extra creepiness😂
i kinda like empty mmos... if you are the special one who goes from finding a lost dog to slaying gods then why are level 50% angels flying all over the place
I played Ultima Online on some obscure pirate servers back in the day, and with the exception of the main city, the worldmap was pretty much empty of other players. It was cool to place your house in the middle of nowhere, at a secret location, where you could stash all your stuff and invite your friends to show it off. Or just roam freely and explore (this was before game wikis, where you would just look up all the POIs) Recently I played on very popular Ultima Online server (UO outlands) and it's just crowded with players, there is not even room left to put a house anywhere on the worldmap and everything feels like a theme park, not a world to explore. I like it more when it was empty 😂
I think another good example of this is in Space Engineers. When playing in Survival mode, your main objective is just that- survival. You have to manage your resources and create bases, but recently I've been playing Creative mode, where you have access to all items and are invincible. It's designed to let your creativity flow... but you don't necessarily have to do that. Wandering through the endless void that is space encountering an occasional abandoned station or a unmanned cargo vessel is truly one of the most eerie and liminal experiences I have ever had the pleasure of having. It's so empty and it truly gives an unfathomable sense of scale. Great vid btw.
This feels like a great continuation of your "Out of Bounds" videos! Also for me, one aspect of exploring the world, even though it might be empty, is the possibility of 'discovering' something. It could be something boring, something super secret or even simply nothing, I just have to make sure I had been there and realize that there is nothing. Not knowing if it is 'truly empty' would keep bothering me.
i got the same feeling tbh, i've installed backrooms mods on minecraft just to spent hours, just searching and thinking about the possibility of finding anything... we all know we won't find anything, but we still have this feeling.. that something unimaginable could be hiding from us in a so vast place. i think that, the perfect exploration game would be able to use AI to generate a world like this edit: also, this made me a game developer, i was trying to learn enough to create an entire world inside a game, fully explorable.. but something i wasn't expecting is that, if i am the creator, this effect doesn't works on me because i know why and how everything is located at. once i made a procedurally generated backrooms on roblox bcus of this feeling. what mostly surprised me is that if i got too far, the map would start to break itself in wrong loaded chunks. i think this was the only time that i could create my own world and, still, it had things i never expected to see, and i also didn't know how they worked, i've never managed to find what was causing this procedural genration problem.. i truly didn't knew the origin of something in a infinite world, something i couldn't explain and not even understand. considering the chunks would be weirder with time, i ask myself how glitched they would be if i walked for lot of hours. i really want to see more of these, i'd love to see a game world that not even the creator know how it works.. it would be something like exploring the universe and its randomness itself.
Shadow of Collosuss really makes me feel something about the world, it is empty but you felt like there's something hidden everywhere, like i don't know how to put it into words it's just feels that way. And it's also feel liminal. But it's very interesting nonetheless and it's very gorgeous at times especially with the remaster version
It manages to capture the essence of a post apocalyptic world better than games marked post apocalyptic. It feels as though it was a once habited world that has long since seen it's last person until you show up. Like everyone else went away and left you behind
I think sotc would have lost a lot of its charm if the world was smaller. There was this simultaneous feeling of “Oh boy I think it’s right over here” and “I have a bad feeling about this”. There was tension that you don’t normally feel in a non stealth game.
The fact that it’s so big with nothing in it is almost scary. Even though there are little shrines and ruins here and there, it barely feels lived in, like it’s to be avoided at all costs. It gives you that feeling of being somewhere you aren’t supposed to be. Which was a conscious decision on Team Ico’s part, because coding and putting that huge open world plus the rest of the game had to have been hell. Just another reason it’s my favorite game of all time. The story in the game doesn’t just show up in the cutscenes, it’s in every second.
Kenshi is a game which uses its large, empty map really well for a few reasons. First, it adds to the atmosphere of loneliness and desolation the game tries to build. It gives the world the feel of a vast, uncaring expanse that won't miss you when you're gone. Second, in a game where basically anything can kill you, seeing a potential threat coming from a literal mile away can be incredibly useful when deciding if you should run or fight. Third, it makes travel far more satisfying, allowing you to truly feel like the wandering drifter you'll inevitably wind up creating when starting a new game.
People can say it's useless to traverse open maps with nothing to do or acheive. But i find it incredibly relaxing, just hearing your footsteps as you're on a journey to no where.
same for me but the map itself has to be well-made and interesting, even though there's technically 'nothing' to do, and the atmosphere has to be good.
I've recently been playing SCS' trucking simulators: American Trucking Simulator and Euro Trucking Simulator 2. I got them during the Steam summer sale and bought a bunch of the map DLC too. The whole game is driving from point A to point B, making deliveries. You can drive like a maniac, yes, but even with traffic violations turned off, if you get stuck or tip over or crash too many times, you'll need to be towed to a garage, costing you time (and money if it's your own rig). If you have to make a delivery within two game hours, but tip over because you wanted to finish it in less than one, you may end up losing three to four hours from being towed to a town further away than you were when you started driving, and upon completion of the job, will not get paid due to being late. If you damage the trailer and its contents you will incur a damage penalty, affecting your final take. If you choose to quit a job, you will pay out-of-pocket, to the tune of $12,000, which, in the early game, might take several jobs for you to recoup. So, most of the game is you traveling from Frankfurt to Strasbourg or Bakersfield to Reno, reasonably minding the rules of the road, and enjoying the scenery. And I surprisingly love it. I have fun taking jobs in different cities, exploring more of the map, discovering new locations, driving different trucks. I can listen to music or podcasts and complete runs, building my skills and taking on new challenges. I bought my own truck, upgraded my garage, but I still enjoy the quick jobs and the benefit that gas and repairs are covered by the employer. It's surprisingly addictive and I find myself at the end of each job saying, "one more delivery," and choosing some low-paying gig that takes me to a part of the map I haven't yet explored, like Kaliningrad or Steamboat Springs, or go for the high-paying gig that will net me more XP to spend on upgrading my fuel conservation or fragile cargo bonuses.
This was exactly my experience with euro truck simulator. At first, i played strategically. Taking the jobs with highest pay, caring pretty much only for profit. But after i had a garage, bought a few trucks and had a nice passive income going on, i just let it all go. I took jobs that took me out to explore, i choose jobs based on how much of the map i could discover. I would just spend hours on end going from one place to another. Beautiful times.
Something I've always found interesting is the obsession with travelling outside of the map in Elite Dangerous, with several people on standby to rescue others who got stuck outside the bounds of the map and need fuel to get back.
It's not so much as "outside the map" as it is that you get to a point where you can't return because you've traveled to a system where you can't refuel. What I love about Elite Dangerous is that the "map" is a 1:1 scale of the Milky Way galaxy. There are BILLIONS of stars you can travel to. There have been 10s of thousands of players that have travelled all over the galaxy and yet the percentage of stars visited is still under 1%. What's even better is there are even more billions of planets that can be landed on and you either drive around or walk on. These planets can have mountains and canyons, valleys and plains. Exploration is my favorite thing to do in the game, mostly because it's a chill way to experience the game.
@@mikey5396 interesting so with enough people we could possibly get to another undiscovered system that does have fuel? or does elite dangerous kind of intentionally add the lack of fuel to keep you in a bubble?
@@Legomanshorts-c5o As you approach the denser regions of the galaxy, the stars get thicker and thicker everywhere you look. Even Colonia has a completely different feel from the bubble.
@@Legomanshorts-c5o You can always scoop fuel. Where people get trapped is jumping into a system with the very last of their fuel, and that system doesn't have a scoopable star. Experienced explorers use the KGBFOAM acronym to remember the scoopable stars, and select only those when plotting long-distance travel.
That was beautiful. I absolutely love the idea of traveling just for the sake of it, for it to suddenly dawn on you that you're at the foot of the mountain you saw hours ago. I just wish the long drive had a bit more interesting scenery, more challenging roads.
Recently started playing daggerfall and thought the wilderness between locations was just random so you could find wilderness enemies but after 2 and a half hours i saw something in the distance... A crypt of some kind, this changed the whole game for me knowing that the world is to scale.
That's the appeal of Bethesda worlds for me. Yes they are largely empty and procedually generated for long stretches but that's regularly interrupted by hand crafted cells that contain something interesting for you to find.
I love stuff like this just something about empty worlds or dead mmo’s that’s so melancholic and chill in a way but also bittersweet. Especially dead multiplayer worlds knowing that it used to be full with people have fun years ago great video man
Some streamer once made a free for all minecraft server (it had some obscure hidden goal but can't remember what it was) and some random player just set out to travel to the edge of the map. It was a beautiful story
@@vargasmartin7143 I found it! The youtube channel is "The Horizon", it's a guy that was lagging out pay2win minecraft servers (how I got to his content). The video is "We Opened a HARDCORE ANARCHY Minecraft Server. This is what happened."
What made The Long Drive for me was how good of a streamer game it ended up becoming for people who just like to interact with chat. I vividly remember early Buffpup playing the game almost every single morning for months before lunch break. She even died a few times and started a new. And we just loved it. I think it evoked the same feeling that games like Truck Simulator games do now.
Just cause 3 was dangerously underrated. My favorite thing in that game is loading a giant cargo aircraft and then putting a giant mech in the back, securing it with Ricos tether ability and then flying over an enemy base and then using the mech to air drop on top of the base and destroy everything once you land. Small things like this make games worth playing and add tons of gameplay hours
I really like Fuel and I regularly just start it to play a few races or to drive around aimlessly. That game could've been so great if it had just a bit better gameplay, even if just added manual transmission, upgrades to vehicles to modify their stats, and some sort of tournaments with procedurally generated races where the bots are fine tuned to your vehicle so you're not forced to always use your best ones available would turn an okay game into a pretty good one for me. You can already create your own races in the game by putting down checkpoints on the map, but you can only play time trial races on them, so making a system that actually creates races for you in the giant world is something that could've made it much better. I wouldn't be a legendary classic like Flatout 2, but a much more pleasant experience. I sadly never got to play the multiplayer part, but it must've been really fun for many people back in the day.
My favorite empty world has to be Sable. I think the vastness of the desert totally fits with the setting and theme of the game, and the music makes it feel so peaceful. I'm glad fast travel exists, but I definitely just glided through the world sometimes when my destination was close enough.
Fuel. I never expected the racing game I grew up with all those years ago to be spoken of on the internet again, let alone by a (decently) famous youtuber. The game was such a blast for young me, a vast paradise of offroad racing and tranquil wastelands all to myself, that I could travel away to and enjoy whenever life kinda sucked. And even after getting all the achievements, finishing all the races and challenges, unlocking all the camps, getting all the driver cosmetics, getting all the cars, finding all of the paint jobs and points of interest, and crossing the map border to border countless times, there are still so many valleys, canyons, mountain ranges, tundras, deserts, highways, dirt tracks, goat trails, burnt forests, abandoned towns, broken bridges, and more that I have yet to explore. All accompanied by one single somber yet adventurous music track that never seems to become repetitive. Fuel is stupid, and it definitely could have been done better, there's no denying that. But at the very least, most of it is stupid in a fun or harmless sense. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
A game that comes to mind is MX Unleashed, it's a motorcycle/dirtbike racing game, there's a free roam mode with 5 maps where you can drive around and do whatever. There are different challenges and special vehicles you can unlock (like a monster truck), but the map is pretty big and a lot of it is empty. Except there are ramps and buildings sometimes really far out in the middle of nowhere where you'd never look, sometimes even cool objects like beach balls or giant eggs you can knock around. The game has a kind of uncanny vibe when you're just out there in the hills with nothing around, but when you find something unique off the beaten path it's a pretty neat feeling Also a lot of the race tracks are on big maps, which have buildings and other things out of bounds, where you normally get teleported back if you go off the track for more than 3 seconds, but if you play on freestyle mode (or whatever it's called) you can actually explore them, albeit with a big arrow on the screen telling you to go back. It's always interesting to me when developers put things in games they know most people aren't going to find or care about, but they put it there anyways because it adds to the atmosphere and exploration value
That Worlds Adrift clip in the intro really punched me out back to 5 years ago lol. I've always been a fan of games that have that out of bounds feeling, but by far WA has got to be my favorite, even 4 years after it shutdown. It's hardly an empty world, almost every 10 minutes you could be in another set of wacky physics and grapple hook combat shenanigans, but I've always been utterly transfixed on the times I was alone exploring the islands all by myself, the visuals and music did for me what BoTW would soon do in spades, I'll always hold the days it was up and running close to my heart.
There came a point in my Minecraft world where I wanted to make a giant floor to ceiling map in survival solely by walking. I got a few maps in before I got burnt out, but this video is giving me motivation to return to it to satisfy my curiosity.
In every game with a map to explore, i always go first for the edge of the map. I love to speculate what's hiding beyond the edge of the map, in the game world that don't exist.
Hey man just wanted to say this was a great video. I work on Astroneer and it made me smile super huge hearing our game getting mentioned next to Minecraft and No Mans Sky. Keep up the great work.
A concept I would love to be explored more are worlds that become more dead and empty as you progress. Usually these revolve around controlling villain protagonists that disrupt the world as they progress. It could be as simple as turning landscapes that used to be full of trees and animals into deserts or something like having one area you visit often turn grey and dead. It's sort of a negative progression, it's not like going into new areas that happen to be empty, but more like personally contributing to the downfall of life in the areas you go to. This of course leads to a darker tone ofc, to which few games tend to explore this concept like Undertale's genocide route, you kill enough monsters and suddenly random encounters stop happening further down the road. The downside is mostly going to be motivation. The player's going to ask... what the hell is the point of this? Why do I want to be the nuke that fell on this land and the radiation that comes with it? The simplest answer is usually the worst answer, "I wanna know what happens next". This kind of concept is hard to pull off and needs heavy lifting from the world building itself and story. There needs to be a living world in order to kill it, other wise we're just beating a dead horse that got ran over by a truck, left to rot with nothing left but a cool looking skeleton.
I'm actually thinking about doing a video regarding that concept. You would be surprised though, because many from software games follow this logic, yet they are so amazing by design they don't interfere with the gameplay aspect
Hollow Knight kinda does something similar. About halfway through the game, the first area, the Forgotten Crossroads, becomes infected, not only making it harder to traverse but also killing off the remnants of life still surviving down there and replacing them with mindless husks.
To an extent, this describes Red Faction: Guerrilla. Next to nothing gets rebuilt in your destructive conquest of Mars, including structures that house rare and powerful ammo respawns and some very useful catwalks/bridges. The loss of infrastructure stung and stuck with me, was far more dainty on my second playthrough, you 'are' technically reclaiming everything.
Its almost set up like you're going to show contempt for "empty spaces" and stuff like back tracking, but then it turns almost wistful for it when talking about that games that skip it. It got me really invested in the questions you were posing. I was prepped to be like "Sometimes seeing interesting things is the fun" but then you said that and then way more. And in 20 minutes no less... incredibly concise even. Your channels going on up the shelf... the shelf is incredibly crowded and partially filled with shitpost, but you are up there.
I love Noita's end of the world, because it isn't the end. In Noita the edge of the world is blocked off by extremely dense rock, which is dense, but not impossible to dig through. If you find your way far enough you reach cursed rock, which will pump damage into you if you stand in it, or even just exist where it once was. But if you manage, you can still go farther than this aggressive means of telling you to go back, Nothing in the game tells you this is even a possibility, the only way you'll find it out on your own is curiosity and tenacity
Once again, I absolutely love you choice of background music especially the violin with cannibalism. I always thought it seemed a bit lonely as it is not only the sole instrument playing for most of the song but also the scene it is used in during the opening of beastars is pretty desolate as well. Doesn’t really give off hopeful vibes.
Sorry I’m writing these while watching and I also really love that you used impending darkness as well for similar reasons as cannibalism. Both of these songs really encapsulate a sort of sad emptiness that fits really well with your subject matter for this video.
I think the calmness and focus on instrumentals in most of the ost makes it perfect for video essays since it can blend perfectly into the background of audio where someone is talking along with whatever footage you’re using(it’s good without overpowering or distracting from the subject of the video.) I’m finding more and more video essay channels that use music from beastars like one of similar size to yours called manley reviews. I think the music just works really well with these types of videos.
I genuinely loved No Man's Sky on launch because it was so empty. These days it feels like a game, which is technically better, but when it launched it was this fascinating, interesting, *empty* place that just left me feeling *so* alone and it was really fun to me.
I haven't played it, but it certainly seems like there should be certain planets and even certain solar systems (Probably most of them actually) that are pretty devoid. Having every planet have life is unrealistic. Then again, Elite Dangerous exists and even though they have big, giant planets there's only like 4 different ones with literally nothing on any of them. Got very boring very quickly, I don't know how people played it for more than a couple hours.
I love the base building in No Man's Sky. I get to make my own little dots of something in the infinite universe of nothing. It's one of the best games like this because you can go anywhere on any planet in any star system and then just pop back to one of your bases when you are done. In Minecraft, if you want to go exploring, you have to put almost as much effort getting back home as you do leaving.
It's still technically "empty," the animals and NPCs are useful really only as resources, so it's actually a shock when you happen to stumble across another player randomly in the galaxy, as usually I only see them as the Nexus hub. It's a strange kind of comforting loneliness to build a base on an idyllic planet and know with a pretty high degree of certainty that no one will ever stumble across it.
@@njnjcoThat reminds me of this one obscure sandbox game that has a fairly interesting way it handles player made buildings. Its called Voxel Turf. In it, there's an option for a world to start with nearly nothing. Just wide open fields for the most part. Here's the fun part, custom player made buildings can carry over onto new worlds. They can also be set as a base, which means ANY building set as one acts as a spawn point. Which helps with the lengthy journey issues. Said buildings can be spawned in by AI factions. So I could just be out and about and boom, blast from the past. This makes new future playthroughs trippy to say the least. Having a barren world slowly be populated with creations from the past co-existing with the present.
i actually really enjoy exploring barren planets in elite dangerous. It's just so mind bending to me how huge planets are and it's honestly an enriching experience to just explore the surface in a car to get a feel for it myself.
I cant get over how you create these existentialist videos so quickly, it’s truly amazing how much knowledge you have in that brain bowl of yours. Makes my brain feel like a warm slushie in comparison. Keep up the stupendous work man, never stop doing what you love, because you’re a deeply talented individual.
how uncanny that this video about how large the space in Fuel is came out four weeks ago, and seven days about Jacob Gellar made a video called "games that dont fake the space" that's about (in part)...how large the space is in Fuel 😕
Shadow of the Colossus has no return journey after each boss encounter. You’re warped back to the central hub automatically after each fight, remember? This mechanic, too, services the story, I might add.
I found this video- essay very soothing, from your voice through the use of music to how everything is precisely tied together. The script was well written, and it's interesting that you decides to shine some light on the part of games, that most players don't usually notice. It makes you wonder where does My favourite game fall in the cotegory of roads? Inspires some thought, discusion, analysis.
As a resident of Alaska, I can attest to man's curious desire to travel to the most desolate locations just to do it. There's something hardwired into us to see how far we can go.
As someone who's "completed" fuel twice, there is nothing, and i think that's what made me enjoy it, the game is literally just: finish race, find truck, finish next race, buy new vehicle, drive 20 minutes to the next region, finish those races, find a cool bridge, drive around for a bit, back to races. its such a simple game, there's nothing really to see other than occasional landmarks, but i can jus pull out a boke and ride for hours, no goal, no purpose, just riding, i can ride in 1 direction for hours and end up getting turned around at some point and end up back where i started, theres something about the simplicity of it that i really enjoy
This is one of the greatest videos I’ve watched on RUclips. It concerns a burning question/curiosity of mine in gaming, that started before video games were ever good, when I loved to read books just to see the maps. The desire to explore edge to edge is insurmountable.
I think the scientific term for this feeling is literally "hypnosis." or you could just call it zoning out i know games are leisure and all, but most of them arn't actually about relaxing so I guess that's why its so bizarre when you actually run into one *feels good*
@@protonjones54 lol its not derogatory. Like highway hypnosis. You aren't mapping out the area; your just having a grand old time watching the horizon spin.
@@protonjones54 I didn't mean any offense. *Adventure:* The objective of finding a needle in the haystack. *Exploration:* The objective of discovering something new. *This Feeling:* A pleasant aimless drive. None of them are bad. They're just different feelings. Did you want to find something or did you want to drive?
my absolute favourite moment in an open world has got to have been the return journey at the end of death stranding. You get to just go for it and sprint back accross the whole map without any cargo to worry about, using all the structures and equipment you spent hours setting up for yourself. it really makes you feel like you actually did manage to recconect america when you can just fly accross ziplines and zoom down roads that you set up, it feels like youve really changed the world
Man, this video was entertaining though and through. The way you encapsulated and introduced new games to my wishlist was amazing. So many thoughts and dialogue with no empty moment. Quality content, wish I could Sub more than once. I hope more people see your skills and thoughtful opinions. Thanks mate, keep it up!
Just found your channel today and ive watched this video and forgotten games, i find these kind of thought provoking video essays really interesting and enjoyable. You've earned a sub, keep up the good work!
it's crazy to see nerd cubed in another video. he's one of my favorite RUclipsrs and he's the reason I know about fuel. very cool to see another RUclipsr talk about him
the funny thing is he was my bread and butter as a kid, my favourite youtuber. nowadays i say "wheyyy!!" whenever something exciting happens because thats what he did a lot lmao
Sailing to the world's end with my buddy in Valheim is one of my favourite memories from playing games. It's not extreme but it was long enough and pointless. I love big worlds that just makes me ponder its vastness and indifference towards me.
I agree 100% I remember first hearing about it a few years after it came out and looking all over for a copy of it. Honestly not the greatest game ever but it had a pretty cool theme and was actually pretty fun
@@ericschuster2680 yes. I think it's a cult classic and deserves praise for what it did because it featured it well. If people don't like it, it's because they don't like what it has to offer. I say this because as a distinction, no other game has been designed this way other than maybe The Crew series but that's still smaller.
Just Cause 3 is one of the most purely fun games to play. Its practically a sandbox with a very loose story that encourages you to have fun in its beautiful open world. That game alone kept me entertained for at least a hundred hours. Its worldbuilding is fantastic and its relative "openness" complements the creative and exploratory nature of the game.
I know exactly what I need to do! I need to walk further to the northpole in Kerbal Space Program!! ! I can reach it! I can do it! Thanks for mentioning my channel!
So who wants to tell him that subnautica isn't procedurally generated. The whole of the map is hand made with human design around every corner. It not look otherwise at first due to a semi random start location but that's pretty much the only caveat.
When I first got into your catalog of videos I saw a lot of similarities between you and Jacob Geller. I'm just watching Geller's newest video titled "Games that don't fake the space" and he opened immediately with FUEL. Great minds think alike I guess. Keep up the great work and hope all is well.
In Shadow of the colossus's defense the world is empty on purpose because it is a cutoff piece land meant to contain the colossi themselves and serve as their home far from civilization.
Glad someone else really really loves Just Cause 3 like I do. Spent hours and hours just trying to break the longest wing suit record. Then doing bombing runs on territories that I had reset. Then figuring out all that I could do with the grapple hooks. An amazing amount of potential in that game. Always a way to have fun.
We travelled in WWII Online from Cologne to the Alps with a Ju52 and some paratroopers, we flew for like 2 or 3 hours and then we explored the alps for like an hour, it was glorious.
Stuff like No Man's Sky is really what you make of it. I think it's the interactivity that it has, that you can see a landscape and go "huh, I could make a town here"
Firewatch is and will always be my favorite walking simulator. The story starts as a mystery at first but at the end... you're just lost in thoughtfulness, it teaches you that sometimes, it's not monsters or mysteries. sometimes it's just life. a great game
sometimes, youtube videos like this are uploaded and they completely change the entire youtube landscape. this video will be remembered as a masterpiece.
Ok, I've walked further in Kerbal Space Program!! Part 8 is there.
YO lets go!
Absolute madness
I love your videos
@@hundvd_7 Thanks!!
pin this comment
i'd ask you to try doing this with the Real Solar System mod, but i'm not sure if _anyone_ can handle that
Shadow of Colossus made the best decision regarding the 'trip back' - it got rid of it. After every boss you restart from the center of the map, ready to be guided to a new part of the map. I think it definitely helped the emptiness from becoming tedious from a gameplay perspective, allowing you to focus on the journey and the introspection.
Regarding the last point about exploring and trying to uncover everything that can be uncovered in the worlds, I think Shadow of the Colossus has one of the most amazing stories regarding that. I remember years and years ago being part of the community who felt like there was one last 'Big Secret' in the game, but nobody ever found anything until some guy ported to PC and hacked it to be able to go out of bounds and found some unused assets. It speaks to the feeling in Shadow of the Colossus that you get that there is just... something else there.
Yeah that was kinda weird how he talked about Colossus' traversal in the way he did, then immediately made the next point about the 'trip back' after moving on from the game that doesn't have it. Colossus' minimalism is nothing short of genius, the world being empty is a core part of the appeal. That quiet traversal perfectly contrasts and balances the force of the boss fights.
@@TheAkiraCast The game feels oppressively empty, by design you feel like a complete outsider in this large(ish), empty and totally isolated world. You're meant to feel out of place.
With the Colossus remake didn’t they actually create that secret area proper?
Love that game. Definitely my favorite open world, and maybe my favorite game of all time. It's so refreshing, even more so today, to exist in a world that doesn't feel like it's been built to entice you with, well, "content", in the way that the word is usually used in games discussions. There are a few lizards and fruits to eat, sure, but otherwise it's just empty.
I like comparing it to the real world when recommending it to people: if you're the type who will always get their errands done right away, then you might enjoy the game for maybe 4-5 hours or so before it's over, but if you're the type who will walk straight into the woods randomly simply because "it looked interesting over there", being fully aware that you likely won't see anything more special than some common plants and bugs (if even that), then SotC might just become your favorite game too.
He was talking about replayability bro
i’m so happy the long drive was included in this video because i feel like that game perfectly encapsulates that feeling of loneliness that no out of bounds in any game can create, and no other “infinite” empty game can create. once the road ends, you can still drive. nobody even knows if the long drive has a badlands type generation bug after a certain distance because why would anyone want to drive that far? eventually, you can run out of fuel. you can run out of food or water and die. eventually, maybe you’ll even hit something and you lose a tire forever. from my experience, no other game has this raw feeling of true loneliness. the game offers nothing but massive rabbits and weird yellow dudes in overalls that say funny things, and yet, there are no other humans left that you ever see. you hear the radio speak of them, and you even hear news broadcasts, but you never see evidence of other living people besides mutilated body parts and poop on the floor everywhere. it’s honestly scary to think about. with the game being as goofy as it is in its nature, it’s amazing what immersion it brings to you. there’s no road like that in real life (unfortunately), and even if there was, it would be impossible in real life.
the long drives scratches an itch most people don’t know they have, and that’s what makes it the perfect infinite and desolate game.
THANK YOU! I wrote a much shorter comment with this same sentiment and I'm so happy someone could put my thoughts into more eloquent words. Truly one of my favorite games of all time and probably the best $12 I ever spent.
I think the true charm of this game comes from the customization of your vehicle and the things you can bring with you. If you gave me a game where you start in a car and were told to just drive an empty road, I'd be bored right away. There's something about that personal touch that makes it so special. I remember the first time I hung the little octopus from the roof, packed the doll in the backseat, and took off. These little knickknacks make the car yours, if you know what I mean. You're not just driving a car down the road, you're driving YOUR car down the road.
It's interesting that you mention the game gives you an overwhelming feeling of loneliness; the feeling I got from the game was a sense of home. Sure, the wasteland is empty and barren, but that car is your home and it comes with you. After a while it almost feels like a companion. I know that doesn't really make a lot of sense, as it's hard to put that feeling into words. The game invokes a very unique feeling that no other game really has.
@@seanrrr this is also true, i love that the car can feel so cozy and it makes you feel very safe. it’s like your own little capsule that saves you from virtually everything that poses a threat to you. without the car, the games entirely unplayable, just as you would die really fast without a car on a road like that irl.
i do agree with you there though, the customizability is really interesting and makes the game so much more engaging. another part of what makes this game so cool is how different people can get different vibes from it. you see it as a blank slate for you to make a dent in with your car, and i see it as a looming and lonely stretch of sand and grass. the game really is a hidden gem and i hope more people play it because when you take it seriously it’s such an amazing game
for me the most fun came out of filling the back of my truck with decorations and collecting things like katanas, hats and sunglasses
I mean some roads in Australia are so long and empty that drivers falling asleep out of boredom and crashing is a known phenomenon
I clicked on this video expecting an umpfteenth video essay about how empty levels are spooky and liminal and that is the coolest type of horror ever. But this is totally different
I briefly touched on liminal stuff in my video about the out of bounds, but its definitely very overdone.
I was expecting an essay about how empty spaces are used to describe certain parts of the story, and so set an atmosphere of wonder for what once was. Or maybe about how players interact with empty spaces in videogames. Still not disappointed with what I got, but perhaps a title change is in order?
The fact you used "umpfteenth" makes it very evident that you need to be summarily... ended.
@@TL8311-j6x I can't hide it
You clicked the video expecting that.
You still clicked so that kind of video works
Fuel really is the kind of game that's way more fun to think about than actually play.
I remember Fuel being extremely fun and me being fascinated by that world. But I was 14 (and dumb) when I played that, so my memory might be misleading there 💀
Fuel instilled an early dose of existentialism into me as a kid
I love racing games and I strongly disagree what OP said about Fuel. It was amazing and one of my favorite things about open world games is that you have a diverse enough landscape, that's my weakness because I loved that about Fuel. If you saw a mountain in the distance, you could literally race on top of it and this was a point in time where I found that really interesting. Add to all of this my love for racing games and Fuel was something that I fell in love with the instant I realized what it was like into the game.
It's OK to like something youtuber said was bad
It feels like the kind of game that a sequel could really do wonders with. Embrace the scale, get some half component driving mechanics, and sprinkle in some nuggets of content/lore. Suddenly got a potentially great game
In a world so explored and documented, there is something beautiful about going somewhere no one else has in a video game.
Well said!
Yeah, I think those kinds of games speak to a certain part of our humanity; our innate drive to explore, see things someone may have missed, or simply head out into the unknown.
These games always make me feel sad seeing empty worlds.
Edit: Wanted to leave a note. I play games sorta to ignore any loneliness I may feel at a given moment (not that im a loner, I just feel lonely sometimes) but then seeing such emptiness makes it all the more worse for me :/ )
Real, it's the feeling of seeing a familiar setting without the familiar life in it
It feels very strange, like when you find the edge of the map
@@connorcrazyschanelofcoolne1256 Finding the edge of the map in Subnautica is one of the best things I have ever experienced.
I feel the same way. It’s a really powerful feeling that isn’t pleasant but still something I think people should experience
That's why i always make my Minecraft houses near villagers and domesticate like 10 dogs and cats lol
Asobo Studio, the developers of Fuel, would later go on to make 'A Plague Tale' and Microsoft Flight Simulator. Quite the varied portfolio
Whoa
I love A Plague Tale so much. I still need to play the sequel some day.
So is Fuel like, Microsoft Drive Simulator?
Requiem is amazing but a year my first playthrough i still can't make myself play it again. It's soul wrenching but beautiful. Highly recommend
I agree, so beautiful yet so heart breaking!@@martinsubelj4669
"Just Cause" has the most fun traversal systems ever. I never played the third one but that parachute-grappling hook combo was so entertaining, especially because you can steal cars while they are still moving. Finding a road and slamming into a truck mid-air to steal it, jumping off a cliff with said truck, bailing out, and then parachuting away... **chef's kiss**
I've only played 3 and 4. They might not be the best games I've ever played but they're easily the most fun! I want a fifth...
for people who actually like driving, all driving open worlds are fun.
Yeah, I play Just Cause 2 from time to time and it's fun. I haven't really progressed the story very far because I mostly just fly around with the chute and grappling hook. I climbed the tallest mountain like that, without touching the ground. I got Just Cause 4 for free from Epic. I think I'll try it now that I've seen that wingsuit.
@@christiantaylor1495 i agree. Whether it's Forza, NFS, Just Cause, Dirt, or any of the formula games I think it's fun just to go fast and watch the road go by. Something soothing about it.
@@ridiculousrandy1401 I prefer driving even in Just Cause games instead of gliding or parachuting.
Fuel really was more a tech demo for its studio (Asobo) than anything else. But I remember it very fondly. Once you complete all the races and missions you're left with viewpoints to visit to 100% the game. It was the first time in my life that I ever felt this weird sensation of complete loneliness, when you're fully aware of how alone you are in a specific environment, with how relaxing and uncomfortable it is at the same time. It was not a great game for sure, but the 65 hours I spent in this world are ingrained into my mind forever, which is no small feat.
Asobo going on to make the new Microsoft Flight Sim games makes far too much sense, literally the whole world in all its emptiness for us to explore
I understand. I go caving with my friends, and there's nothing more relaxing than sitting in the dark together, meters below the surface, miles from the nearest road, you may as well be on the dark side of the moon or the bottom of the ocean. The real world stops existing once you pass under the adit or beyond the lip of a cliff and all that matters is the here and now - timeless, endless tunnels and climbs and streams, nothing but you and your friends and pretty scalloped limestone walls and unimaginably epic speleothems... I never expected to be an explorer in real life, and I never expected to have such fun and dangerous adventures!
As long as you're not claustrophobic, I would recommend going on a starter trip or into a show cave, because it sounds like you'll really enjoy it 😁
I remember sometimes pulling up under a structure or to the side of the road while it rained and watching the thunderstorm. Been a long time since I played, but that's the kind of stuff I remember.
fuel was and is DOPE! it was a legend in 2009 my older cousin had and beat it i remember getting it as a kid making friends and driving around. offshore shack was the place it was a MMO racing game before the forzas and test drives met alot of people a good friend gamertag was Jemonsue or something like that. he loved the Dukes of Hazzard and used to say "yee doggy! lmao he was my age we used to play all the time fondly remember watching the Sons of Anarchy season 4 promo and it was playing RHCP Danny California so we rode the MC choppers in the game and i was blasting Danny California in the backround lmaooooo and trying to make it up mt ranier was always a fun challenge... wonder where he is hope he is well and has fond memories of it too. well sadly online in that game is dead nobodys playin and sadly it is now a ghost town just like the game map rip fuel online my childhood you will be missed :(
The point about the sort of connective tissue in Super Mario Galaxy is very interesting and also will plague my mind on any future playthroughs
Oh wow hey Ro, I binged your entire channel like 2 weeks ago
@@TheCursedJudge omg! well now i gotta binge yours
I always wonder about the life or how it would be if you were stuck on that planet
How does the life on them survive
It's nothing but some tiny ball of somthing and one little dude sometimes, how did it get there? Is Mario killing them acually just putting them down so they don't slowly starve to death?
@@roramdin it is payback, indeed
🤮
This reminds me of my odd interest in driving out of the Trackmania Arenas/Racetracks and into the vast nothingness, which would keep getting flatter and more pixelated until I'd reach the end of it and fall into the void. I don't know if anyone can relate but the nothingness of Trackmania games was always fascinating to me
Dude. This is a very strange coincidence, but you *need* to watch my Out of Bounds video. It'll make sense in a bit.
Also if you wanna join the discord I encourage it, we might actually be kindred spirits
@@TheCursedJudge I just found the channel and I'm watching the video rn, that's so funny I thought I was the only one
@@Noldigur definitely not the only one, I spent quite some time in Bay exploring the hills, then the... nothing.
You should absolutely check out Ross Scott's video on Trackmania (his channel is called Accursed Farms and has been around for ages now), he LOVES the emptiness and loneliness in those games (specifically Trackmania 2 Canyon IIRC, I haven't played any of them myself but I rewatch all his videos at least once a year).
Why do I feel this sudden urge to drive to the end of a procedurally generated road in a game I didn't know 20 minutes ago
You need to it's so worth it. Especially if you're interested in cars, and even if you're not.
nomad brain
ooOOooOo, you are compelled by the desire to travel OooOooooO
The end of the road is at about ~5000 km, it took me 98 hours of playtime to reach it. Good Luck!
I don't.
I don't know how he ends up making every video melancholic and poetic, but its so relaxing.
dude, how can you make the map design of completely separate games into one narrative time and time again? It's truly great storytelling and I look forward to all of your vids 😂
I'm trying
Cringe
an idea connecting all those games
@@JonathanWhite462Not at all. You're the cringe one for being oversensitive over nothing. 🤡 Being appreciative of good work isn't cringe, kid; you'll realize that when you grow older. 👶😂 Get ratioed.
"The Space Between" is a fascinating concept to think on in terms of game development. Too much space at it feels, yknow, *empty-* useless boring space that seemingly as no place. But without *anything* in between? It can become almost too much for a lot of people. People and players often need some space to rest, something "In between" - something to prevent people from exhausting themselves all in one go. (I'm pretty sure I've seen a few videos on this sort of "resting space," but I'll have to find them and come back later!)
It's so fascinating to think about.
Super Mario galaxy, as you mentioned in the video, has levels designed with essentially little to no of that in-between. Little empty space, unless that space serves a purpose. Puzzles and platforming one after another, to get to a destination, to reach a star, to get to a boss. There's a few more open levels, where objects are scattered around a designated area, but the void of space keeps the emptiness at bay.
And yet.... you still go back to the observatory. The hub world. The real connector between major levels. The space in-between. A resting area for mario, for the player, to pause and run around, check on their progress, collect lives, read a story. And then hop into the action once more.
The observatory too is limited in space, but even it has some emptiness to it, corners and platforms a bit out of reach, moving parts high on the ship, the quite literal surroundings off the empty void of space.
Open world games have a lot of the space issue, of course. I saw a comment or two mentioning BOTW and TOTK, and they're right in a way. A lot of empty space, essentially "useless" space, travel time in between. Totk especially has more due to the enlarged map; the sky islands are rather sparse when you take a look at them, scattered and sprinkled amongst the empty space of the clouds. The underground, too, filled and yet empty, travel time between little developer-decided pockets of interest.
For some it may be too much space. Too much travel time, too much emptiness, ironically too much of too little. I think theres a bit of value in that space, as a chance to rest, to think, to explore and travel; but I can also agree that at times, it can feel so uselessly empty.
Spaces with nothing but rock or grass.
It's more realistic, in a way, but for a game it can be thought of as tedious.
I wonder if there's a good middle-ground? Not too much space, but just enough to rest, think, and recuperate....
As everything, though, that's probably decided on a case by case basis :]
Also found the "in between" video I mentioned thinking of - I believe its "Your Least Favorite Place in Gaming" by DarylTalksGames' Psych of Play series!
@@TheAstralBlade I think it's more of a problem of games that don't try to be immersive or realistic. The Zelda games or Elden Ring is a good example for this. In games where the world feels really immersive and realistic in a way, like Skyrim or Kingdom Come: Deliverance empty spaces feels right to have.
There is a lot of studies in this field. Antropologist Marc Auge has a book called No-Places where he talks about those spaces between, wich can be roads or even populated places with no affective connection to the users (like airports).
@@TheAstralBlade Good comments here!
Thinking about this, it comes across as something to break up the [current thing], a longer travel time can make you think about what you're doing, but too much becomes tedious. Perhaps consider Fallout 1 - random encounters would suddenly break up travel and plunge you into completely unexpected situations, some being much more bizzare than others, or sometimes you'd run into a ambush you need to run from... or simply a whale that fell to the earth, a giant foot print embedded into the ground and a smear of humanity with a intact Stealthboy left behind, suggesting there's so much more going on.
There's value to travel time both manual and automatic, a good middle ground 'might' be accepting a longer travel time, with with uncertainty thrown into whether you'll get to where you want to in the same condition you started with, more or less, or having your primary task interrupted with a unexpected periphary task or interesting thing.
I remember in Darksiders 2 there's this one level where you literally cannot leave it after you beat the boss, as a kid I tried to find how to leave, so confused as to why I couldn't find the exit, I then had to youtube it and it was literally that I just had to fast travel out
I really love this style of videos. Where videogames are analized as piece of art with all the philosophy behind: human, phsychological, ethical, moral, aesthetic, and technical
Crazy how you managed to fit every open world game in the last 20 years into one 20 minute long video
Zelda?
Not really
they are still pretty empty far better than the other AAA but the map is still too big for what comparatively little it has.
@@Landry_Maines I wasn't replying to your comment I was replying to the guy above you. 👍
@@rjrht oh sorry
I feel like Planetside 2 fits this really well. Because of the depopulated servers alot of the map is just empty land with no people to fight. I've gone into a Harraser and just explored the map at night.
Scythes and Mosquitos flying overhead going to some destination where a battles happening.
Empty neutral bases without anyone to fight.
Going back to zones i remember fighting in when the game was filled with people.
Planetside 2 requires a large amount of players to be fun just because of how the game works but ever since it began dying i feel like a ghost exploring a house once filled with life. Entering a room where I've loved and laughed just to stumble upon and empty and vacant colorless square.
Loved the vid man. Keep it up.
Crazy how a youtube comment can make a man cry
Honestly the long drive kinda just hits me different, its something about just driving in a empty desert on a actual road leading to the middle of nowhere, put on some 70s music and I can sit on the game for hours
the multiplayer in this game is so funny though, you should try it.
I hate that, especially in real-life. I start almost falling asleep. I hate emptiness and nothing.
@@GreenLeafUponTheSky I love that, but even I fall asleep for a while. Your brain just needs stimulation from time to time
I'm so glad Jacob gave you the shoutout. You deserve it thoroughly.
As for me, I'm just glad I found a new channel to binge throughout the weekend!
I think its hilarious that the first time I have ever been so early to a video with an empty comment section, is the one time I watch a video about empty maps
Love the vid tho!! Great stuff man
0:31 Bro just roasted Connecticut in the first minute.💀
I had to trim out the Patreon segment of my video because I messed up an edit and it was dangerous for those with epilepsy (it may not be trimmed immediately, youtube takes a few hours for that). I'll upload the end segment separately on my 2nd channel and link it here, sorry patrons!
Edit: Added captioning.
Support me on Patreon here: www.patreon.com/user?u=74033438
Oof, yes. Definitely. Great video otherwise, very calming, but that ouchie rainbow at the end I wasn't prepared for. Me eyes and me brain Dx But ye,really good stuff plz keep doing, do recommend 👌
another awesome video.
The rainbow text bug is still there for a couple seconds
@@killermemestar2132 -🤡
I was going to say, that flashing strobe gave me a giant headache and I'm not even photo-sensitive. Hopefully youtube edits the ending soon for everyone. Glad you listened to peoples comments on that.
Otherwise, very good video dude.
Fuel was the kind of game that, despite having a fast travel system, I decided to play through the whole thing without using any fast travel at all. I wanted to experience the size of the world for myself and see it all. I don't know how many times I crossed from one side of the map to the other over an hour or 2 just to do a few side objectives I skipped for some reason, to then drive to another section of the map all over again
my personal experience with an empty world is actually the old MMO Mabinogi! It's very populated in the main cities, but as soon as you go anywhere else it's super barren. There are a ton of locations that just have mobs and zero players unless an event is going on. it's fun to explore but also just super creepy😅 The game's world is surprisingly very huge.
edit: omg thank you for all the lik-- just kidding! I actually just remembered to mention that in those empty locations there is also little to NO background music at all, just a lil bit extra creepiness😂
Always hated the feeling of exploring outskirts in MMOs that were barren and empty... very creepy feeling indeed!
Oh god, Mabinogi. Been a long time since I've thought about that game lol.
i kinda like empty mmos...
if you are the special one who goes from finding a lost dog to slaying gods then why are level 50% angels flying all over the place
I played Ultima Online on some obscure pirate servers back in the day, and with the exception of the main city, the worldmap was pretty much empty of other players. It was cool to place your house in the middle of nowhere, at a secret location, where you could stash all your stuff and invite your friends to show it off. Or just roam freely and explore (this was before game wikis, where you would just look up all the POIs)
Recently I played on very popular Ultima Online server (UO outlands) and it's just crowded with players, there is not even room left to put a house anywhere on the worldmap and everything feels like a theme park, not a world to explore.
I like it more when it was empty 😂
I think another good example of this is in Space Engineers. When playing in Survival mode, your main objective is just that- survival. You have to manage your resources and create bases, but recently I've been playing Creative mode, where you have access to all items and are invincible. It's designed to let your creativity flow... but you don't necessarily have to do that. Wandering through the endless void that is space encountering an occasional abandoned station or a unmanned cargo vessel is truly one of the most eerie and liminal experiences I have ever had the pleasure of having. It's so empty and it truly gives an unfathomable sense of scale.
Great vid btw.
This feels like a great continuation of your "Out of Bounds" videos!
Also for me, one aspect of exploring the world, even though it might be empty, is the possibility of 'discovering' something. It could be something boring, something super secret or even simply nothing, I just have to make sure I had been there and realize that there is nothing. Not knowing if it is 'truly empty' would keep bothering me.
i got the same feeling tbh, i've installed backrooms mods on minecraft just to spent hours, just searching and thinking about the possibility of finding anything...
we all know we won't find anything, but we still have this feeling.. that something unimaginable could be hiding from us in a so vast place. i think that, the perfect exploration game would be able to use AI to generate a world like this
edit: also, this made me a game developer, i was trying to learn enough to create an entire world inside a game, fully explorable.. but something i wasn't expecting is that, if i am the creator, this effect doesn't works on me because i know why and how everything is located at.
once i made a procedurally generated backrooms on roblox bcus of this feeling. what mostly surprised me is that if i got too far, the map would start to break itself in wrong loaded chunks. i think this was the only time that i could create my own world and, still, it had things i never expected to see, and i also didn't know how they worked, i've never managed to find what was causing this procedural genration problem.. i truly didn't knew the origin of something in a infinite world, something i couldn't explain and not even understand. considering the chunks would be weirder with time, i ask myself how glitched they would be if i walked for lot of hours.
i really want to see more of these, i'd love to see a game world that not even the creator know how it works.. it would be something like exploring the universe and its randomness itself.
0:16 the first time i had ever heard CT slander online. Thank you for recognizing our empty state.
Shadow of Collosuss really makes me feel something about the world, it is empty but you felt like there's something hidden everywhere, like i don't know how to put it into words it's just feels that way. And it's also feel liminal. But it's very interesting nonetheless and it's very gorgeous at times especially with the remaster version
It manages to capture the essence of a post apocalyptic world better than games marked post apocalyptic. It feels as though it was a once habited world that has long since seen it's last person until you show up. Like everyone else went away and left you behind
I think sotc would have lost a lot of its charm if the world was smaller. There was this simultaneous feeling of “Oh boy I think it’s right over here” and “I have a bad feeling about this”. There was tension that you don’t normally feel in a non stealth game.
The fact that it’s so big with nothing in it is almost scary. Even though there are little shrines and ruins here and there, it barely feels lived in, like it’s to be avoided at all costs. It gives you that feeling of being somewhere you aren’t supposed to be. Which was a conscious decision on Team Ico’s part, because coding and putting that huge open world plus the rest of the game had to have been hell. Just another reason it’s my favorite game of all time. The story in the game doesn’t just show up in the cutscenes, it’s in every second.
@@joshmatter3540finally, a correct opinion about SOTC
@@joshmatter3540 true art of every game and console iv sold even through being homeless i still managed to keep my ps2 copy ❤️
Kenshi is a game which uses its large, empty map really well for a few reasons. First, it adds to the atmosphere of loneliness and desolation the game tries to build. It gives the world the feel of a vast, uncaring expanse that won't miss you when you're gone. Second, in a game where basically anything can kill you, seeing a potential threat coming from a literal mile away can be incredibly useful when deciding if you should run or fight. Third, it makes travel far more satisfying, allowing you to truly feel like the wandering drifter you'll inevitably wind up creating when starting a new game.
People can say it's useless to traverse open maps with nothing to do or acheive. But i find it incredibly relaxing, just hearing your footsteps as you're on a journey to no where.
same for me but the map itself has to be well-made and interesting, even though there's technically 'nothing' to do, and the atmosphere has to be good.
Yeah for sure, I used to just ride around a horse in BOTW. Not even doing anything just enjoying the environment.
Well, that seems incredibly boring
@@iUnreal1i Sometimes in the midst of all the chaos and the noise, what you really need is a little bit of boring.
@@iUnreal1iWay to completely miss the point. You sound like a kid.
I've recently been playing SCS' trucking simulators: American Trucking Simulator and Euro Trucking Simulator 2. I got them during the Steam summer sale and bought a bunch of the map DLC too. The whole game is driving from point A to point B, making deliveries.
You can drive like a maniac, yes, but even with traffic violations turned off, if you get stuck or tip over or crash too many times, you'll need to be towed to a garage, costing you time (and money if it's your own rig). If you have to make a delivery within two game hours, but tip over because you wanted to finish it in less than one, you may end up losing three to four hours from being towed to a town further away than you were when you started driving, and upon completion of the job, will not get paid due to being late. If you damage the trailer and its contents you will incur a damage penalty, affecting your final take. If you choose to quit a job, you will pay out-of-pocket, to the tune of $12,000, which, in the early game, might take several jobs for you to recoup.
So, most of the game is you traveling from Frankfurt to Strasbourg or Bakersfield to Reno, reasonably minding the rules of the road, and enjoying the scenery. And I surprisingly love it. I have fun taking jobs in different cities, exploring more of the map, discovering new locations, driving different trucks. I can listen to music or podcasts and complete runs, building my skills and taking on new challenges. I bought my own truck, upgraded my garage, but I still enjoy the quick jobs and the benefit that gas and repairs are covered by the employer.
It's surprisingly addictive and I find myself at the end of each job saying, "one more delivery," and choosing some low-paying gig that takes me to a part of the map I haven't yet explored, like Kaliningrad or Steamboat Springs, or go for the high-paying gig that will net me more XP to spend on upgrading my fuel conservation or fragile cargo bonuses.
This was exactly my experience with euro truck simulator. At first, i played strategically. Taking the jobs with highest pay, caring pretty much only for profit. But after i had a garage, bought a few trucks and had a nice passive income going on, i just let it all go. I took jobs that took me out to explore, i choose jobs based on how much of the map i could discover. I would just spend hours on end going from one place to another. Beautiful times.
Something I've always found interesting is the obsession with travelling outside of the map in Elite Dangerous, with several people on standby to rescue others who got stuck outside the bounds of the map and need fuel to get back.
whats out there? never seen it
It's not so much as "outside the map" as it is that you get to a point where you can't return because you've traveled to a system where you can't refuel. What I love about Elite Dangerous is that the "map" is a 1:1 scale of the Milky Way galaxy. There are BILLIONS of stars you can travel to. There have been 10s of thousands of players that have travelled all over the galaxy and yet the percentage of stars visited is still under 1%. What's even better is there are even more billions of planets that can be landed on and you either drive around or walk on. These planets can have mountains and canyons, valleys and plains. Exploration is my favorite thing to do in the game, mostly because it's a chill way to experience the game.
@@mikey5396 interesting so with enough people we could possibly get to another undiscovered system that does have fuel? or does elite dangerous kind of intentionally add the lack of fuel to keep you in a bubble?
@@Legomanshorts-c5o As you approach the denser regions of the galaxy, the stars get thicker and thicker everywhere you look.
Even Colonia has a completely different feel from the bubble.
@@Legomanshorts-c5o You can always scoop fuel. Where people get trapped is jumping into a system with the very last of their fuel, and that system doesn't have a scoopable star.
Experienced explorers use the KGBFOAM acronym to remember the scoopable stars, and select only those when plotting long-distance travel.
That was beautiful. I absolutely love the idea of traveling just for the sake of it, for it to suddenly dawn on you that you're at the foot of the mountain you saw hours ago. I just wish the long drive had a bit more interesting scenery, more challenging roads.
Recently started playing daggerfall and thought the wilderness between locations was just random so you could find wilderness enemies but after 2 and a half hours i saw something in the distance... A crypt of some kind, this changed the whole game for me knowing that the world is to scale.
Watch out for vampires.
That's the appeal of Bethesda worlds for me. Yes they are largely empty and procedually generated for long stretches but that's regularly interrupted by hand crafted cells that contain something interesting for you to find.
Daggerfall is really crazy. It couldn't be made today because of graphical fidelity standards.
I love stuff like this just something about empty worlds or dead mmo’s that’s so melancholic and chill in a way but also bittersweet. Especially dead multiplayer worlds knowing that it used to be full with people have fun years ago great video man
Some streamer once made a free for all minecraft server (it had some obscure hidden goal but can't remember what it was) and some random player just set out to travel to the edge of the map. It was a beautiful story
What did they find?
@@skeletonking2501 The edge, and themselves presumably
May I ask what streamer and if there are VODs still available?
@@vargasmartin7143 I found it! The youtube channel is "The Horizon", it's a guy that was lagging out pay2win minecraft servers (how I got to his content). The video is "We Opened a HARDCORE ANARCHY Minecraft Server. This is what happened."
i honestly kinda love those weird minecraft experiments.
Skyrim for me is one of the only games where the world actually seems alive, every 5 meters their is something meaningful to do, explore etc…
What made The Long Drive for me was how good of a streamer game it ended up becoming for people who just like to interact with chat. I vividly remember early Buffpup playing the game almost every single morning for months before lunch break. She even died a few times and started a new. And we just loved it. I think it evoked the same feeling that games like Truck Simulator games do now.
Reminds me of Desert Bus
Just cause 3 was dangerously underrated.
My favorite thing in that game is loading a giant cargo aircraft and then putting a giant mech in the back, securing it with Ricos tether ability and then flying over an enemy base and then using the mech to air drop on top of the base and destroy everything once you land.
Small things like this make games worth playing and add tons of gameplay hours
I really like Fuel and I regularly just start it to play a few races or to drive around aimlessly. That game could've been so great if it had just a bit better gameplay, even if just added manual transmission, upgrades to vehicles to modify their stats, and some sort of tournaments with procedurally generated races where the bots are fine tuned to your vehicle so you're not forced to always use your best ones available would turn an okay game into a pretty good one for me.
You can already create your own races in the game by putting down checkpoints on the map, but you can only play time trial races on them, so making a system that actually creates races for you in the giant world is something that could've made it much better. I wouldn't be a legendary classic like Flatout 2, but a much more pleasant experience. I sadly never got to play the multiplayer part, but it must've been really fun for many people back in the day.
My favorite empty world has to be Sable. I think the vastness of the desert totally fits with the setting and theme of the game, and the music makes it feel so peaceful. I'm glad fast travel exists, but I definitely just glided through the world sometimes when my destination was close enough.
Fuel.
I never expected the racing game I grew up with all those years ago to be spoken of on the internet again, let alone by a (decently) famous youtuber. The game was such a blast for young me, a vast paradise of offroad racing and tranquil wastelands all to myself, that I could travel away to and enjoy whenever life kinda sucked. And even after getting all the achievements, finishing all the races and challenges, unlocking all the camps, getting all the driver cosmetics, getting all the cars, finding all of the paint jobs and points of interest, and crossing the map border to border countless times, there are still so many valleys, canyons, mountain ranges, tundras, deserts, highways, dirt tracks, goat trails, burnt forests, abandoned towns, broken bridges, and more that I have yet to explore. All accompanied by one single somber yet adventurous music track that never seems to become repetitive. Fuel is stupid, and it definitely could have been done better, there's no denying that. But at the very least, most of it is stupid in a fun or harmless sense.
And I wouldn't have it any other way.
A game that comes to mind is MX Unleashed, it's a motorcycle/dirtbike racing game, there's a free roam mode with 5 maps where you can drive around and do whatever. There are different challenges and special vehicles you can unlock (like a monster truck), but the map is pretty big and a lot of it is empty. Except there are ramps and buildings sometimes really far out in the middle of nowhere where you'd never look, sometimes even cool objects like beach balls or giant eggs you can knock around. The game has a kind of uncanny vibe when you're just out there in the hills with nothing around, but when you find something unique off the beaten path it's a pretty neat feeling
Also a lot of the race tracks are on big maps, which have buildings and other things out of bounds, where you normally get teleported back if you go off the track for more than 3 seconds, but if you play on freestyle mode (or whatever it's called) you can actually explore them, albeit with a big arrow on the screen telling you to go back. It's always interesting to me when developers put things in games they know most people aren't going to find or care about, but they put it there anyways because it adds to the atmosphere and exploration value
That Worlds Adrift clip in the intro really punched me out back to 5 years ago lol. I've always been a fan of games that have that out of bounds feeling, but by far WA has got to be my favorite, even 4 years after it shutdown. It's hardly an empty world, almost every 10 minutes you could be in another set of wacky physics and grapple hook combat shenanigans, but I've always been utterly transfixed on the times I was alone exploring the islands all by myself, the visuals and music did for me what BoTW would soon do in spades, I'll always hold the days it was up and running close to my heart.
it really hit my nostalgia... miss that game
The island editor is still up, and during all the lockdowns one of the guys added in a FPV drone mode to fly around all of these created islands.
They announced a "sequel" called Lost Skies about a month ago, i miss WA so much ;(
I miss that game so much
forever in out hearts. We are gods.
There came a point in my Minecraft world where I wanted to make a giant floor to ceiling map in survival solely by walking. I got a few maps in before I got burnt out, but this video is giving me motivation to return to it to satisfy my curiosity.
In every game with a map to explore, i always go first for the edge of the map. I love to speculate what's hiding beyond the edge of the map, in the game world that don't exist.
Man, I did this in Fallout 3 quite early and ended up pretty unprepared at the Dunwich building, which made me regret my decision very quick
Hey man just wanted to say this was a great video. I work on Astroneer and it made me smile super huge hearing our game getting mentioned next to Minecraft and No Mans Sky. Keep up the great work.
the first witcher game is great at achieving atmosphere with this - definitely worth playing, underrated game in the franchise
So true !
Needs a remaster.
@@heli0s101 i think it’s being remade as we speak
@@heli0s101 There is enhanced version of remaster but a remake I think is needed
Great narrative skills. I feel like you have a good voice for creepypastas.
A concept I would love to be explored more are worlds that become more dead and empty as you progress. Usually these revolve around controlling villain protagonists that disrupt the world as they progress. It could be as simple as turning landscapes that used to be full of trees and animals into deserts or something like having one area you visit often turn grey and dead. It's sort of a negative progression, it's not like going into new areas that happen to be empty, but more like personally contributing to the downfall of life in the areas you go to.
This of course leads to a darker tone ofc, to which few games tend to explore this concept like Undertale's genocide route, you kill enough monsters and suddenly random encounters stop happening further down the road. The downside is mostly going to be motivation. The player's going to ask... what the hell is the point of this? Why do I want to be the nuke that fell on this land and the radiation that comes with it? The simplest answer is usually the worst answer, "I wanna know what happens next".
This kind of concept is hard to pull off and needs heavy lifting from the world building itself and story. There needs to be a living world in order to kill it, other wise we're just beating a dead horse that got ran over by a truck, left to rot with nothing left but a cool looking skeleton.
I'm actually thinking about doing a video regarding that concept. You would be surprised though, because many from software games follow this logic, yet they are so amazing by design they don't interfere with the gameplay aspect
Hollow Knight kinda does something similar. About halfway through the game, the first area, the Forgotten Crossroads, becomes infected, not only making it harder to traverse but also killing off the remnants of life still surviving down there and replacing them with mindless husks.
This entire concept is literally just dark souls 3.
To an extent, this describes Red Faction: Guerrilla. Next to nothing gets rebuilt in your destructive conquest of Mars, including structures that house rare and powerful ammo respawns and some very useful catwalks/bridges. The loss of infrastructure stung and stuck with me, was far more dainty on my second playthrough, you 'are' technically reclaiming everything.
look into Pathologic 2
Its almost set up like you're going to show contempt for "empty spaces" and stuff like back tracking, but then it turns almost wistful for it when talking about that games that skip it. It got me really invested in the questions you were posing. I was prepped to be like "Sometimes seeing interesting things is the fun" but then you said that and then way more. And in 20 minutes no less... incredibly concise even. Your channels going on up the shelf... the shelf is incredibly crowded and partially filled with shitpost, but you are up there.
I love Noita's end of the world, because it isn't the end.
In Noita the edge of the world is blocked off by extremely dense rock, which is dense, but not impossible to dig through. If you find your way far enough you reach cursed rock, which will pump damage into you if you stand in it, or even just exist where it once was.
But if you manage, you can still go farther than this aggressive means of telling you to go back,
Nothing in the game tells you this is even a possibility, the only way you'll find it out on your own is curiosity and tenacity
Easily one of my favorite RUclips channels of all time
Edited: Hey, man! Glad you saw my comment. Keep up the great videos 👍
Alas, by editing it you removed the channel's thumbs-up icon.
Once again, I absolutely love you choice of background music especially the violin with cannibalism. I always thought it seemed a bit lonely as it is not only the sole instrument playing for most of the song but also the scene it is used in during the opening of beastars is pretty desolate as well. Doesn’t really give off hopeful vibes.
Sorry I’m writing these while watching and I also really love that you used impending darkness as well for similar reasons as cannibalism. Both of these songs really encapsulate a sort of sad emptiness that fits really well with your subject matter for this video.
The Beastars OST is SO GOOD
I think the calmness and focus on instrumentals in most of the ost makes it perfect for video essays since it can blend perfectly into the background of audio where someone is talking along with whatever footage you’re using(it’s good without overpowering or distracting from the subject of the video.) I’m finding more and more video essay channels that use music from beastars like one of similar size to yours called manley reviews. I think the music just works really well with these types of videos.
Empty open worlds feel just like real life.
i feel like theyre the exact opposite and thats why theyre interesting
I genuinely loved No Man's Sky on launch because it was so empty. These days it feels like a game, which is technically better, but when it launched it was this fascinating, interesting, *empty* place that just left me feeling *so* alone and it was really fun to me.
I haven't played it, but it certainly seems like there should be certain planets and even certain solar systems (Probably most of them actually) that are pretty devoid. Having every planet have life is unrealistic.
Then again, Elite Dangerous exists and even though they have big, giant planets there's only like 4 different ones with literally nothing on any of them. Got very boring very quickly, I don't know how people played it for more than a couple hours.
I love the base building in No Man's Sky. I get to make my own little dots of something in the infinite universe of nothing. It's one of the best games like this because you can go anywhere on any planet in any star system and then just pop back to one of your bases when you are done. In Minecraft, if you want to go exploring, you have to put almost as much effort getting back home as you do leaving.
It's still technically "empty," the animals and NPCs are useful really only as resources, so it's actually a shock when you happen to stumble across another player randomly in the galaxy, as usually I only see them as the Nexus hub. It's a strange kind of comforting loneliness to build a base on an idyllic planet and know with a pretty high degree of certainty that no one will ever stumble across it.
@@njnjcoThat reminds me of this one obscure sandbox game that has a fairly interesting way it handles player made buildings.
Its called Voxel Turf.
In it, there's an option for a world to start with nearly nothing. Just wide open fields for the most part.
Here's the fun part, custom player made buildings can carry over onto new worlds. They can also be set as a base, which means ANY building set as one acts as a spawn point. Which helps with the lengthy journey issues.
Said buildings can be spawned in by AI factions. So I could just be out and about and boom, blast from the past.
This makes new future playthroughs trippy to say the least. Having a barren world slowly be populated with creations from the past co-existing with the present.
@@Spearra That sounds interesting, I might give that a try.
i actually really enjoy exploring barren planets in elite dangerous. It's just so mind bending to me how huge planets are and it's honestly an enriching experience to just explore the surface in a car to get a feel for it myself.
I cant get over how you create these existentialist videos so quickly, it’s truly amazing how much knowledge you have in that brain bowl of yours. Makes my brain feel like a warm slushie in comparison. Keep up the stupendous work man, never stop doing what you love, because you’re a deeply talented individual.
I'm just a little gremlin whose brain is weirdly fit for making youtube essays, I don't know if I'm much beyond that.
Man we’re all little gremlins with hamster wheel bodies, you’re one of my favorite gremlins on this platform.
@@jamassexd4134what’s a gremlin
how uncanny that this video about how large the space in Fuel is came out four weeks ago, and seven days about Jacob Gellar made a video called "games that dont fake the space" that's about (in part)...how large the space is in Fuel 😕
Shadow of the Colossus has no return journey after each boss encounter. You’re warped back to the central hub automatically after each fight, remember? This mechanic, too, services the story, I might add.
I found this video- essay very soothing, from your voice through the use of music to how everything is precisely tied together. The script was well written, and it's interesting that you decides to shine some light on the part of games, that most players don't usually notice. It makes you wonder where does My favourite game fall in the cotegory of roads? Inspires some thought, discusion, analysis.
Was not expecting to see CARS for the Wii today. What a game!
EVERY game needs a wingsuit. even point&click adventures
As a resident of Alaska, I can attest to man's curious desire to travel to the most desolate locations just to do it. There's something hardwired into us to see how far we can go.
As someone who's "completed" fuel twice, there is nothing, and i think that's what made me enjoy it, the game is literally just: finish race, find truck, finish next race, buy new vehicle, drive 20 minutes to the next region, finish those races, find a cool bridge, drive around for a bit, back to races. its such a simple game, there's nothing really to see other than occasional landmarks, but i can jus pull out a boke and ride for hours, no goal, no purpose, just riding, i can ride in 1 direction for hours and end up getting turned around at some point and end up back where i started, theres something about the simplicity of it that i really enjoy
I swear every time you put out a video my day gets that much better
This is one of the greatest videos I’ve watched on RUclips. It concerns a burning question/curiosity of mine in gaming, that started before video games were ever good, when I loved to read books just to see the maps. The desire to explore edge to edge is insurmountable.
I think the scientific term for this feeling is literally "hypnosis."
or you could just call it zoning out
i know games are leisure and all, but most of them arn't actually about relaxing so I guess that's why its so bizarre when you actually run into one
*feels good*
It's not HYPNOSIS, Jesus. It's a man's desire for adventure
@@protonjones54 lol its not derogatory.
Like highway hypnosis.
You aren't mapping out the area; your just having a grand old time watching the horizon spin.
@@AJGexe hypnosis IS a derogatory way to explain it. You yearn for the exploration
@@protonjones54 I didn't mean any offense.
*Adventure:* The objective of finding a needle in the haystack.
*Exploration:* The objective of discovering something new.
*This Feeling:* A pleasant aimless drive.
None of them are bad. They're just different feelings.
Did you want to find something or did you want to drive?
@@protonjones54 man stfu and stop being a soft loser for nothing
my absolute favourite moment in an open world has got to have been the return journey at the end of death stranding. You get to just go for it and sprint back accross the whole map without any cargo to worry about, using all the structures and equipment you spent hours setting up for yourself. it really makes you feel like you actually did manage to recconect america when you can just fly accross ziplines and zoom down roads that you set up, it feels like youve really changed the world
Man, this video was entertaining though and through. The way you encapsulated and introduced new games to my wishlist was amazing. So many thoughts and dialogue with no empty moment. Quality content, wish I could Sub more than once. I hope more people see your skills and thoughtful opinions. Thanks mate, keep it up!
Just found your channel today and ive watched this video and forgotten games, i find these kind of thought provoking video essays really interesting and enjoyable. You've earned a sub, keep up the good work!
it's crazy to see nerd cubed in another video. he's one of my favorite RUclipsrs and he's the reason I know about fuel. very cool to see another RUclipsr talk about him
It's always nice to see another procrastinator out in the wild. Dan’s the reason I know about Fuel too, Just Cause as well.
the funny thing is he was my bread and butter as a kid, my favourite youtuber. nowadays i say "wheyyy!!" whenever something exciting happens because thats what he did a lot lmao
Sailing to the world's end with my buddy in Valheim is one of my favourite memories from playing games. It's not extreme but it was long enough and pointless. I love big worlds that just makes me ponder its vastness and indifference towards me.
A shame that fuel isn’t talked about more, it totally deserves more recognition
I agree 100% I remember first hearing about it a few years after it came out and looking all over for a copy of it. Honestly not the greatest game ever but it had a pretty cool theme and was actually pretty fun
I've got a nice mod for fuel and It boosts this game graphics. With some mods and tools you can have a beautiful game and play it for hours
@@jccrontop that actually sounds super dope, stuff like that makes me wish I had PC lol
Does it really tho?
@@ericschuster2680 yes. I think it's a cult classic and deserves praise for what it did because it featured it well. If people don't like it, it's because they don't like what it has to offer. I say this because as a distinction, no other game has been designed this way other than maybe The Crew series but that's still smaller.
Just Cause 3 is one of the most purely fun games to play. Its practically a sandbox with a very loose story that encourages you to have fun in its beautiful open world. That game alone kept me entertained for at least a hundred hours. Its worldbuilding is fantastic and its relative "openness" complements the creative and exploratory nature of the game.
Wanderlust is a goal all its own. Thanks for the video, it was lovely!
Even though the spaces i n the maps are boring, sometimes they can get a bit fun, like driving in it.
Coming in here from DarkviperAU
I know exactly what I need to do! I need to walk further to the northpole in Kerbal Space Program!! ! I can reach it! I can do it! Thanks for mentioning my channel!
So who wants to tell him that subnautica isn't procedurally generated. The whole of the map is hand made with human design around every corner. It not look otherwise at first due to a semi random start location but that's pretty much the only caveat.
I wish every video like this had a list of games shown in the description. Thanks for including that.
When I first got into your catalog of videos I saw a lot of similarities between you and Jacob Geller. I'm just watching Geller's newest video titled "Games that don't fake the space" and he opened immediately with FUEL. Great minds think alike I guess. Keep up the great work and hope all is well.
NerdCubed is my childhood man, subscribed just cause of that
here from Jacob Geller's channel! hi~
In Shadow of the colossus's defense the world is empty on purpose because it is a cutoff piece land meant to contain the colossi themselves and serve as their home far from civilization.
This channel never fails to fill me with an existential fear
Glad someone else really really loves Just Cause 3 like I do. Spent hours and hours just trying to break the longest wing suit record. Then doing bombing runs on territories that I had reset. Then figuring out all that I could do with the grapple hooks. An amazing amount of potential in that game. Always a way to have fun.
perfect time after starfield
Starfield ain’t empty so…
We travelled in WWII Online from Cologne to the Alps with a Ju52 and some paratroopers, we flew for like 2 or 3 hours and then we explored the alps for like an hour, it was glorious.
Stuff like No Man's Sky is really what you make of it. I think it's the interactivity that it has, that you can see a landscape and go "huh, I could make a town here"
Love that worlds adrift footage made it into this video (even if you were saying it had an empty map). That’s one of my fav games ever. RIP
Imagine riding through a desolate world and killing mountainous colossi all to revive a girl who gave you mono.
nope, i absolutely expected kerbal space program because it's literally huge
It's somewhat ironic that a video from a band called "We are the Empty" got uploaded at the same time as this
Firewatch is and will always be my favorite walking simulator. The story starts as a mystery at first but at the end... you're just lost in thoughtfulness, it teaches you that sometimes, it's not monsters or mysteries. sometimes it's just life. a great game
sometimes, youtube videos like this are uploaded and they completely change the entire youtube landscape. this video will be remembered as a masterpiece.
Definitely would have loved to see Jalopy mentioned here. It’s a bit like Long Drive but better.