Retro|Spective 214: Lost Features

[Neon Ignition]

This time we will be taken a brief tour through the history of gaming features that have passed away into the annuls of history.


Retro|Spective 214: Lost Features


The key questions around these features will be whether you ever found them to be worthwhile and if you feel they are something that should still hold a place in gaming today?



Feature 01: In-Game Own Soundtrack
The original Xbox brought with it a built in harddrive shifting players focus away from expensive memory cards, but an added function of the inclusion of the drive was the ability to store your own music files onto the console also. These tracks, in supporting games, could then be played in place of the games own soundtrack allowing players to use their preferred music rather than that of the OST - sometimes a gift given the amount of titles using licensed music at the time. As the generation moved on, so did this feature with it being left behind and game OST reasserting themselves as the only way to hear the game.




A Feature That Was Music To Your Ears?

[QualityChimp]

I never really did this, but remember playing Nerf Arena on the PC and you're supposed to put the second disc in whilst you played, but remember I'd left Linkin Park's 'Hybrid Theory' album in the drive.

Turns out "Points of Authority" is a great song to play FPS games to, even with foam projectiles!

As for OSTs, the best one is clearly this:

[wheelaa]

I never took advantage of that.

It does bug me when games don't have sound tests though.

[QualityChimp]

I remember uploading some RATM tracks to my 360 for Beat Hazard:

[fuse]

Definitely have memories of the first time starting up Quake with a CD that wasn't the game disc in the drive and being surprised and confused about it playing the audio from that instead. Never really got into ripping discs onto an Xbox, and yes Spotify is a bum company, but their PS4/5 integration does allow this kind of thing without having to rip specific discs to your system. If I'm playing a new game then I'll generally listen to the music from it, but if I'm playing the same game and hearing the same music all the time then yeah, switching to your own soundtrack is nice.

[wakka]

Yeah this is definitely still a thing to an extent and supported at the system level with Spotify on PlayStation.

I'm stretching my memory a bit now but I do think it was more fulsomely supported in the actual game software in earlier gens though. I remember an ex-girlfriend making me and my housemates a custom playlist for Wipeout HD on PS3, which we were completely addicted to at the time, and it was setup in the game itself as the default audio tracks so it wasn't something we had to choose to use each time or anything (and it was awesome, too).

I also definitely remember being blown away by the iPod compatibility when I first got my 360. One of its many, many cool 'straight out of the box' features in 2005 was that you could connect an iPod via USB and it would be able to read it and make your music library browsable and playable on the console in-game - automatically silencing the in-game music when you did so.

That was a particularly cool piece of support considering that the way that iPods stored and categorised information was not straightforward and easily 'human readable', so would have needed to be specially configured by Microsoft. I wonder if they had to pay Made for iPod licensing fees to Apple to enable it - they probably must have done.

The earliest example of this feature might be on the PS1. I recall that in Ridge Racer, if you loaded into a race and then swapped the disc to an audio CD, it would play the music from the CD instead of the in-game BGM. But I'm not sure if that was a deliberate feature or just a quirk of the game's design.

[egparadigm]

Custom soundtrack was fun with GTA games. EDGE ran a compo for the best one, which I then added to my xbox. It included Sweet Child o Mine, the Beasty Boys and How Soon is Now?

The good thing about it, that differentiates it, is how it’s slipstreamed into the game. Today, if you have custom music it plays continuously which can jar with the mood of the game. For example, on GTA III, the music only plays if you get into a car and not during cutscenes.

[egparadigm]

wakka, didn’t know this, surprising they didn’t make you use Zune!

[Neon Ignition]

Feature 02: Glasses Free 3D
The 3DS launched and throughout its life one of the most contested features was its ability to play 3D games without the need to wear 3D glasses. Many complained of the effect having issues which the New models of the handheld attempted to improve by using tracking via a built in camera. The effect was one of the very few commercially available glasses free uses of the tech and the strength of the 2DS models sales meant later titles sometimes skipped the feature altogther. Now it's long gone with no chance of returning, much like the 3D in TV's that was also prevailent early in the handhelds life.



But Do You Miss It?

[wakka]

egparadigm Haha, yes, thankfully it was wisely designed to be compatible with the music player people actually bought and used!

Nintendo are often accused of relying on gimmicks, which I actually think is mostly untrue since gimmick implies something insubstantial that's present solely to attract attention. Most of Nintendo's more inventive ideas have actual implications for the fun factor of their consoles.

But the 3D on the 3DS really was a gimmick, for me. It was quite impressive and unique, but it wasn't really ever that much fun.

[Neon Ignition]

The 3D screen was 100% a gimmick but I'm fully in the camp that feels it was a shame that it went away. I've never been fussed about 3D in films or even when the PS3 supported it but even now flicking on a 3DS and the effect working so well without any wearable tech impresses. Sometimes it didn't add much but it worked well with the little window room views of Luigi's Mansion, the isometrics of Mario 3D Land etc.

[Dogg Thang]

I adored the 3D of the 3DS. It really wowed me and I genuinely just liked the depth it brought to games. Life is too flat without it.

[wakka]

Yes, it did work well and it was (and remains) very unique. It was a cool 'Wow' feature, I agree.

[fuse]

It was cool but it was also so, so much better with the tracking on the "New" units. Not that I necessarily think they should have done this, but I think there would've been a much more universally positive reception of the 3D aspect had they waited for that hardware to be the entry point for the platform.

[wakka]

Nintendo are so bad for that. Like how the motion controls on the Wii are a thousand times better with Motion+.

I kinda question how many 3DSs were sold on the back of the 3D though and how much of a difference having the superior tracking of the New models at launch would have had. Like with the Wii, unquestionably, the motion controls sold tens of millions of unit. But I feel like people bought the 3DS because it was the new DS and had the new games. I don't really feel like the 3D was that much of a selling point in its own right.

I don't have anything to base that on except my own instincts, though.