The Getaway, on the PSX, was a game I truly adored because it was an open-world game with NO HUD... none whatsoever. You didn't know how many bullets you had in your gun, no health bar, no nav bar.
So how did you get from point to point in the crowded streets of London without a GPS? Turn signals.
I thought that was one of the most brilliant ways to direct players to their path. The turn signals would blink left or right when it was time to make a turn. Everything else was just the player having to pay attention to the street and avoid crashing.
The recent Mad Max game was almost similar to this, no on-screen nav pointers, you just had the minimap to help guide you to your destination, if you wanted. But otherwise you just drove. I LOVED that so much, because it really let you just immerse yourself in the experience and the exploration.
Too many other games basically have you saddled with the GPS pointers, and in a way it feels like I'm driving/exploring/running based on the nav-pointers rather than just being immersed in the world.
GPS has completely destroyed my ability to actually learn a map and be able to navigate by landmarks in the level.
I'd wager that if I fired up the original Grand Theft Auto game (the top-down one, not the 3D ones) which I haven't played in 20 years I'd probably have a better intuitive feel for where I needed to go than I have for GTA V. Because I had to actually learn that map (or refer to the printed map that came with the game) to be able to play the game.
It's done this in real life too, which is why I'm starting to avoid using the GPS when I can because I feel like I've started to depend on it.
The Getaway, on the PSX, was a game I truly adored because it was an open-world game with NO HUD... none whatsoever. You didn't know how many bullets you had in your gun, no health bar, no nav bar.
So how did you get from point to point in the crowded streets of London without a GPS? Turn signals.
I thought that was one of the most brilliant ways to direct players to their path. The turn signals would blink left or right when it was time to make a turn. Everything else was just the player having to pay attention to the street and avoid crashing.
The recent Mad Max game was almost similar to this, no on-screen nav pointers, you just had the minimap to help guide you to your destination, if you wanted. But otherwise you just drove. I LOVED that so much, because it really let you just immerse yourself in the experience and the exploration.
Too many other games basically have you saddled with the GPS pointers, and in a way it feels like I'm driving/exploring/running based on the nav-pointers rather than just being immersed in the world.
GPS has completely destroyed my ability to actually learn a map and be able to navigate by landmarks in the level.
I'd wager that if I fired up the original Grand Theft Auto game (the top-down one, not the 3D ones) which I haven't played in 20 years I'd probably have a better intuitive feel for where I needed to go than I have for GTA V. Because I had to actually learn that map (or refer to the printed map that came with the game) to be able to play the game.
It's done this in real life too, which is why I'm starting to avoid using the GPS when I can because I feel like I've started to depend on it.