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[Shadowlord]

I especially liked the the-dev-team-thinks-of-everything-ing in the original Deus Ex. I'd give examples, but spoilers! Even for people who have played it.

[TheDarkStar]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything

If anyone is interested

When bodies and debris don't vanish.

I love it. I remember setting up custom bridge battles in Shogun Total War ( first one ) just to look at those beautiful carpets forming while my naginata defended the bridge supported by archers.

I would love to see more non-vanishing tank/apc/car/aircraft wrecks in RTS/FPS games that can be used as cover or can obstruct the field of fire ( of course i mean games where you can deploy multiple random vehicles not the predefined ones ).

Some of the Spring RTS games have units and buildings form wrecks when they die that can obstruct lines of fire (especially some of the larger wrecks).

[itisnotlogical]

ME was still way ahead of the childish duality in most Star Wars games (bluh), but in the end it still lapsed far into didactic parables that soured Renegade paths in a big way for me.

If I can cut in about Star Wars, I think Knights of the Old Republic II did pretty good with the light/dark duality. There was no benefit to being grey, of course, but the silliness of a "good or evil, nothing in between" system was often lampshaded and criticized. The Jedi's naive "DO GOOD THINGS ALL THE TIME" philosophy will only cause problems for the people you help, while the remaining true Sith are basically scars in the Force. There are plenty of instances where making typical good guy-bad guy choices will reveal a deeper side to the situation; for example, giving credits to a bum only encourages others to rob him.

My complaint with KOTOR II's morality system (besides the fact that you sometimes get Dark Side points for apparently good actions) is that there is no way to be grey, or make practical decisions depending on the situation. You are railroaded towards making either Light or Dark decisions so that Kreia can berate you for being dumb. IMO it's already the best thing the old Star Wars EU ever saw, but if it had actually been finished and the morality system tweaked it could have been a work of art in its own right.

[Darkmere]

I haven't played KotOR II, only 1 and some of the older ones. So there's that going against me.

I did read at some point that Lucas was rabidly militant about nothing in the entire franchise ever being morally ambiguous and personally quashing anything about the gray jedi, because morally ambiguous just isn't a thing that exists, apparently.

I had brief hope that his leaving the franchise might  yield something new. But Disney... so no.

[Itnetlolor]

Just remembered something else while playing X-Wing again. You can not only film your combat, but when you replay them in the film room, you can enter the simulation anytime, and relive your finest moments. Even better, with computers as advanced as they are nowadays, compared to back then, you don't need to worry as much anymore about the film being too long or too large a filesize, in other words, I'm tempted to play Ace Combat debriefing music to a fast-forward of the combat if the battle was sufficiently awesome enough. Especially for scenes when I 1-shot TIEs (with a Y-Wing) without bullet-spamming like my wingmen do.

Of course, the simulation does not count towards your final score; so you'll need to actually replay the mission legitimately to make it count. But still, good to get some practice in (especially TIE Fighter sim mission 1, and just cutting straight to the squadron battles).

[PrimusRibbus]

ME was still way ahead of the childish duality in most Star Wars games (bluh), but in the end it still lapsed far into didactic parables that soured Renegade paths in a big way for me.

If I can cut in about Star Wars, I think Knights of the Old Republic II did pretty good with the light/dark duality. There was no benefit to being grey, of course, but the silliness of a "good or evil, nothing in between" system was often lampshaded and criticized. The Jedi's naive "DO GOOD THINGS ALL THE TIME" philosophy will only cause problems for the people you help, while the remaining true Sith are basically scars in the Force. There are plenty of instances where making typical good guy-bad guy choices will reveal a deeper side to the situation; for example, giving credits to a bum only encourages others to rob him.

My complaint with KOTOR II's morality system (besides the fact that you sometimes get Dark Side points for apparently good actions) is that there is no way to be grey, or make practical decisions depending on the situation. You are railroaded towards making either Light or Dark decisions so that Kreia can berate you for being dumb. IMO it's already the best thing the old Star Wars EU ever saw, but if it had actually been finished and the morality system tweaked it could have been a work of art in its own right.

The lily white or phoned-in A-Team villain morality system of the KOTOR games completely missed the best parts of the Star Wars movies (Han Solo the scoundrel, Vader's redemption, Luke battling with temptation, etc). Temptation and grey morality are the most fundamentally important part of Star Wars. KOTOR might be a good game, but it's not a good Star Wars game.

[Yoink]

Throwing townsfolk around in Dragon's Dogma comes to mind. Throwing guards/civilians off of cliffs outside of town was always especially rewarding. I suppose you can use the same method to take out actual enemies, too, but ehh.

I love it when a game has a really good start screen.
I would rant on about a game where I spent probably upwards of ten minutes just staring at the start screen between sessions, just listening to its music and pondering what had happened in the game (sometimes, I must admit, with tears in my eyes), but I'm pretty sure that game gets panned every time it's mentioned here.

Does the "they were born today, making them very young indeed" thing in Dwarf Fortress count? Because it should.

[nenjin]

That moment in KF when a grenade goes off at the feet of a pack of zeds, and ZED Time triggers. This blossom of gore just slowly expands, zeds with no legs pitching forward into the air in a radius around the detonation gracefully in slow motion. And then the loose giblets come flying past you and it's like you're that guy in a sci-fi movie walking through slow motion normal speed, sidestepping through a field of debris and watching things go past you. And then a crawler comes leaping at you, fully extended in the air, and you single shot cap them in the face or take them out with a melee attack, right as ZED Time ends. It's not a moment that happens often and sometimes ZED Time feels more like a burden than a benefit. But when everything comes to together, it's the kind of thing that should have opera playing in the background.

[itisnotlogical]

ME was still way ahead of the childish duality in most Star Wars games (bluh), but in the end it still lapsed far into didactic parables that soured Renegade paths in a big way for me.

If I can cut in about Star Wars, I think Knights of the Old Republic II did pretty good with the light/dark duality. There was no benefit to being grey, of course, but the silliness of a "good or evil, nothing in between" system was often lampshaded and criticized. The Jedi's naive "DO GOOD THINGS ALL THE TIME" philosophy will only cause problems for the people you help, while the remaining true Sith are basically scars in the Force. There are plenty of instances where making typical good guy-bad guy choices will reveal a deeper side to the situation; for example, giving credits to a bum only encourages others to rob him.

My complaint with KOTOR II's morality system (besides the fact that you sometimes get Dark Side points for apparently good actions) is that there is no way to be grey, or make practical decisions depending on the situation. You are railroaded towards making either Light or Dark decisions so that Kreia can berate you for being dumb. IMO it's already the best thing the old Star Wars EU ever saw, but if it had actually been finished and the morality system tweaked it could have been a work of art in its own right.

The lily white or phoned-in A-Team villain morality system of the KOTOR games completely missed the best parts of the Star Wars movies (Han Solo the scoundrel, Vader's redemption, Luke battling with temptation, etc). Temptation and grey morality are the most fundamentally important part of Star Wars. KOTOR might be a good game, but it's not a good Star Wars game.

Atton's path actually becomes a redemption story, if you play Light Side and get enough Influence. Most of the Jedi Masters you find are cowards, ineffectual or just plain crazy. This LP talks a lot about the more interesting dialogue, especially Kreia's double-speak and Atris' motivations.

[Krevsin]

Shortly after finishing Wolfenstein: The New Order again, Nazis that speak in german and people whose accents sound genuine rather than stupid. stereotypical and corny (I'm looking at you, Wolfenstein 2009).

The game takes place in a world that is incredibly detailed and well-developed, with propaganda posters that seem genuine and not horribly shoe-horned in, actual evidence of popular culture (who would've thunk it that actual people also live in a nazi-dominated world?) and some teriffic bits of world-building dialogue. Also news-articles.

[Nighthawk]

Totally quoting the OP.

In Resident Evil 4, I just noticed that Ashley does a little fist-pump whenever you take down a Ganados. That's freaking adorable.

She also calls you a pervert if you "accidentally" look at her from below.

[Urist Imiknorris]

She also calls you a pervert if you "accidentally" look at her from below.

Even if you're dead when it happens.

[Mech#4]

Atton's path actually becomes a redemption story, if you play Light Side and get enough Influence. Most of the Jedi Masters you find are cowards, ineffectual or just plain crazy. This LP talks a lot about the more interesting dialogue, especially Kreia's double-speak and Atris' motivations.

I can second that let's play. It's a very interesting read and gives quite a bit of insight on Kreia. It also mentions a lot of things that were excluded from the end game and how they'd have affected things.

I can also second the wish for more games with persistent vehicle debris. Well... actually just one game and that's "Dawn of War 1". Though only if it didn't slow the game down anymore than it already does when I play against huge Tyranid enemies.

[Graknorke]

Those stupid tiny details in Deus Ex. Like the fact there is dialogue with Paul for if you start a fight with the terrorist leader on Liberty Island but don't actually kill/stun him.

[Daggoth]

I like it when npc's actually drop the equipment they are carrying. Mostly find this in roguelikes... Alot of rpg's just have vanishing items. Npc in full plate bashing you with +3 vorpal sword of nacho cheese procs dies and he has a cursed sling on his corpse when looted, ect.