Head's Up!

[DarkTone | 1,072]

What is the best and worst HUD you have ever seen in a video game?

[Reed Rothchild | 10,320]

Dead Space is famous for working the HUD into the world.

Worst?  Xenoblade 2 is pretty overwhelming for awhile.  Good luck figuring all that shit out.

[Webhead123 | 889]

3 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Dead Space is famous for working the HUD into the world.

I love it when games can work their HUD into the game diegetically, the way Dead Space does.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,152]

I love Ocarina of time, but I always hated how they put those giant buttons at the top of the screen that are ridiculously oversized for how big they actually needed to be, and then it gets even worse when you ride the horse and those enormous carrots show up... it's like, is there a way to make riding a horse in a video game look any less cool?  Do I need a reminder that Zelda games are for little kids too?  Do the developers think we're half blind?  Wtf is up with that shit?!?

[G-type | 3,021]

I'm glad Shadow of the Colossus has you following the direction the light glints off your sword, rather than a floating green arrow pointing where to go. 

[TDIRunner | 3,086]

The Doom HUD is pretty iconic and was well thought out for the time even though about half of it was unnecessary.  

 

Roblox has a pretty awful HUD.  I don't play it myself, but when I watch my kids playing, I wonder how it doesn't drive them crazy.  

Edited January 24, 2024 by TDIRunner

[Sumez | 3,296]

On 1/23/2024 at 10:58 PM, Reed Rothchild said:

Worst?  Xenoblade 2 is pretty overwhelming for awhile.  Good luck figuring all that shit out.

Jesus crimini. That game just moved way further up on my list of games to never ever play! 

[DefaultGen | 6,063]

Gameplay doesn't get better than Path of Exile with no loot filter

[Reed Rothchild | 10,320]

1 hour ago, Sumez said:

Jesus crimini. That game just moved way further up on my list of games to never ever play! 

I mastered it all by hour 40 

[Sumez | 3,296]

Here's a screenshot of some new Suicide Squad game that came out. At first I thought this was doctored, like that joke picture someone made of Elden Ring, but I think it's actually real

[cj_robot | 562]

So my brother in law is super into World of Warcraft. He showed me his setup one time and I swear his screen looked pretty close to this screenshot I found online

Apparently, the layout is customizable, but good Lord Almighty that's a lot of shit to try and make sense out of.

[Gloves | 12,983]

7 minutes ago, cj_robot said:

So my brother in law is super into World of Warcraft. He showed me his setup one time and I swear his screen looked pretty close to this screenshot I found online

Apparently, the layout is customizable, but good Lord Almighty that's a lot of shit to try and make sense out of.

Beyond being customizable, you can install plugins. This screenshot  has gone a bit overboard with regard to doubling up on displaying the same information more than once.

That said, it's not far off from the reality I remember while raiding on WoW.

[OptOut | 9,445]

I think the Halo games and Metroid Prime games both do a good job of integrating the HUD into the gameworld, seeing as in both games you are wearing a helmet and looking through a visor. It feels natural to have a bunch of info on screen in that context.

I also remember one of the most talked about innovations of Donkey Kong Country when it came out was the fact that it hides your banana and life count as you play, only showing when the number changes one way or another. There were few SNES platformers at that time which weren't cluttered with HUD chaff, so that was just another element that made DKC stand above the crowd and seem like something totally fresh.

[DefaultGen | 6,063]

Shout out to Oblivion for its just-run-at-this-arrow HUD being a major influence in ruining my immersion in video game worlds for the past 18 years. (Still love Oblivion tho)