Former DICE designer analyzes in-game user interfaces

ladies love the big... vocabulary

GRID and DIRT 2 have some of the coolest main menus ever.

Dead Space's user interface was one thing that definitely made the game standout.

I thought the fact that it didn't pause the game was a good thing. It's odd to get used to but it keeps you in the game. It's pretty easy to tell when you can safely upgrade and buy things at the store and when you should be looking for the next limb to chop off. Once you get used to the musical cues and how enemy spawns work there's no real reason to be caught off guard at a bench.

I loved the interface on consoles, but on the PCit was pretty clunky.you had to move your mouse hand over to use the arrow keys in order to navigate the store, bench, and main menu's. They really should have figured out a better solution for that.

As far as console go though, the interface is fantastic in every way.

meh, no mention of nintendo games...

I remember those Doom 3 interfaces were quite fancy, back in the day.

that's the entire point, you're supposed to feel vulnerable even when looking through your inventory. the feeling that the pause button won't save you adds to the tension.

Can I just mention how awesome Republic Commando's UI was? It was entirely in-game, as part of the Clone Commando helmet(with the exception of the weapon ammo count on the weapon itself), you could even see the interior of your helmet around the edges of your visible area. It was a bit Metroid Prime-ish, but so much more, with all the on-screen bits pointing out party members and showing a silhouette of them for giving orders to take cover and blow open a door or whatever. Plus the fun of meleeing an enemy and getting bug goo/droid oil/Trandoshan blood on your visor, and a laser going across the screen and wiping it clean.

And that's why Republic Commando is one of my favorite SW games ever, with a much grittier take on the SW universe.

ok so the verdict is... a UI thats is functional but tradtional is preferable to a fancy one that is useless? did he really need four pages to reach that opinion? I mean I disagree with some of the particulars, but still. Btw Dead Space's holographs were awesome, if only because you had to view them in real time wioth the game world without changing your perspective. More than once I was shuffling inventory when a necromorph got me from behind. Scared the bejesus out of me. You had to constantly look over your shoulder and it really added to the game. I remember once watching a friend play and even as he was looking at the item store we saw a necromorph arm wave in front of the item list. When he exited there was one standing RIGHT FREAKING BEHIND HIM looking over his shoulder. brilliant.

Or how about Shadow of the Colossus? A lot of it is non-diegetic(the health bar, stamina/grip circle, the equipped weapon box). But it did a few clever diegetic/in-universe ui elements, like holding up the sword to focus a beam of light on where your next colossus is, or where the weak points on a given colossus is. The sword mechanic was a clever way of directing the player around the world and focusing his attention on a boss's weak points without having to put up on-screen interface guides.

While it's mildly outside the scope of this article, wasn't there an article almost a year ago about MS purchasing some tech so that devs developing games on their consoles could make main menus with much sharper graphical detail that rivals what you see in-game?

I guess we haven't seen it yet. It just seems that in general main menus look so out of place because they're often so blurry and contrast laiden. You look at games like Bioshock or Mass Effect with great, sharp graphics and the main menus look like they came from an N64 game.

and apparently only the nintendogs franchise

I made sure to keep my back to the wall when I was in the menus. Being at a kiosk was different, but I always made sure to clear the area first. I really liked that immersiveness.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Ghostbusters.