If you don't like it, don't press that button

As I'm getting older, I'm definitely starting to appreciate that I just can't see shit. If the game's going for an ultra-realistic environment, then there's just so much more visual clutter that I need help picking things out.

In my opinion, it's just an accessibility feature. Those are always nicer to have than to not. But if you're a purist, or you don't have any problem finding things, then I'd also hope you'd be able to disable it.

I actually love this in videogames. It's a really cool way to interact with the environment and literally see the world through a different lense with a level of control that no other medium of storytelling can achieve.

Maybe this dude should go watch a movie if he doesn't want to interact with things.

Unpopular opinion maybe, but I LOVE that shit!

What? And get stuck in places because you didn't see the not-so-obvious object you needed to interact with?

Yeah, fuck that.

What I never wanna see again is a game having me hold a button instead of pressing it, for literally anything

Topical example would be apace marine 2

I remember the first time I sent out a ping in the voxel-based action-adventure game Outcast (1999). I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.

There are good and bad implementations, but going to have to disagree with op on the whole.

Does holding Alt in Baldur's Gate 3 fall under this? It doesn't have any kind of visual effect, but I do often find myself needing to use it to see what can be picked up or interacted with in the area.

Just make it a toggle to highlight shit. On and off.

I used to play games that permanently highlighted interactive objects. I am playing a game, I don't need realism.

If mandatory: meh
Accessability feature for players with impaired vision: great bloody UX

t, your local UI/UX guy

It's because in older games, you could clearly differentiate between the background and the gameplay relevant sprites or models drawn over it. It was a technical necessity but it doubled as communicating to the player what's important. When technology advanced past that being technically necessary, something needed to take its place. The pulse is just one of many ways to do that and the easiest one to integrate into a realistic artstyle. When you get more stylized, your options open up considerably.

Idk halo odst did this and I thought it was pretty cool. Assassin's creed also did it pretty well (I've only played 1, 2, brotherhood, and 3)

It's cool if it's done right imo

I was trying to think on the history of this feature, since i wouldn’t necessarily count something like AvP's heatvision mode. That's meant to simulate a real thing, even if it works a bit gamey, by highlighting active objects.

Assassin's Creed is the game that, for me, codified the mechanic into it's current form. Hawk Vision or whatever they called it specifically highlighted game objects. I think they even mention that the animus machine is projecting that view to help Desmond see the world how his ancestors would have understood it.

But... I'm going to call the origin as being way farther back. In flight sims, your targeting hud can highlight enemies and targets by drawing little boxes around them. That is the very first instance I can think of where a game highlighted objects of interest for the player's benefit. Most flight sims (or adjacent genres like mech sims) would also label the box with the name of the thing, sometimes with health, ammo, weapon, or weakpoint indicators as well.

Honestly if I could do this in real life for an object I'm looking for, and have the object ping and light up and flash and shit, I would love it.

If the game has a lot of stuff but only some of it is actually interactive, there should be a way to disambiguate.

Counterpoint:

P I N G

What about Satisfactory? It has that feature, but it also has alot more pros than cons?

The Batman Arkham games kinda do that right? Except it was more of a toggle when you had it on or not?

I think No Man's Sky was my first brush with it. In that game the feature is entirely necessary, especially when starting out on survival, but that was ground zero for me.

Like in Hogwarts Legacy? Or your Witcher senses in TW3? Oddly I've only noticed it really with AAA games

subnautica does this and it's awesome

Earliest game I can think of would be Super Metroid, with it's X-Ray Scanner, which is an upgrade you get partway through the game. It's not 100% necessary, but some of the game's secrets are designed with it in mind.

The Metroid Prime games implemented an FPS version of this pretty well. Really contributed to the atmosphere in some places. Also, while the visors let you see otherwise invisible things, they also made other things harder to see (or, in the case of the scanning visor, you couldn't shoot while it was on.)

I hate picking up items. Oh I always stacked the pull in ability in kingdom hearts.

Duck Hunt!

The first game I remember doing this is The Witcher 2. Not sure if that's the first game to come up with the idea, but it's the earliest example I can remember.

The only game I'm aware of in my library that has a feature like this is Satisfactory, the "ping" feature to find nodes they tutorialize but you'll probably quickly stop using because you use an external map for planning/get to know the map.

Assassin's Creed? I mean, it wasn't the button but it did have the "vision".