Recently, I’ve been playing lots of Destiny 2, and I’d forgotten how much I love the little resting pose that your guardian does with your gun after you idle for awhile. With bigger guns, they tilt it downwards at rest; with hand cannons & sidearms they’re held pointed towards the sky like a Wild West gunslinger on a movie poster. In both cases, when I come back to Destiny after getting up for a drink of water or to use the bathroom, seeing my guardian taking a break always makes me smile a little. Somehow, a little moment of rest in such an over the top game always does it for me.
What are some of your favorite idle animations in games, and why?
When you pause in La-Mulana, your little dude starts going hard on what looks like a bowl of noodles. It’s not technically an idle animation, but it’s the first thing that came to mind.
That reminded me that I love the sound effect that accompanies Donkey Kong’s idle animation in the first game when he beats his chest. It has a really cool echo effect on it.
In Rise of the Tomb Raider, whenever Lara gets out of the water she takes a second to wring out her wet ponytail. Just a really nice, subtle, human touch.
Meryl’s bashful slapping of the gun on her thigh after staring at her in Metal Gear Solid. It’s the first thing I thought of and it made me in love with her when I was young.
Which shooter is it again that makes your character inspect their gun? I can’t for the life it remember XD They start checking if they attachment is on properly, clean the scope with their thumb, etc.
I think Metro has this? I feel bad not knowing because I was playing Metro not two months ago. (EDIT: Lol, you found it while I was typing the response)
There are some fun parts in MLB The Show where if you wait around 30 seconds while you’re pitching, various animations will happen (The umpire taking the bat from the batter, infielders walking up and talking to each other, etc)
Reboot Tomb Raider is when I first noticed idle animations, mainly because I enjoyed watching Lara turn her head and check her surroundings. Not making her stare dead eyed standing still was real effective for me, especially since they were going for more grounded game and it made her feel human.
In Yakuza 0 is on that next level idle animation tip. Not only will Kiryu spark up a cigarette if you leave him alone for a few seconds, there is even a chance an NPC will stop to light one for him.
Metro Last Light!
