History Main / WreakingHavok

** A deliberate YourMileageMayVary by the developers. Vehicles only control badly if the vehicle is designed badly. It's very possible to create all-terrain vehicles.

** It's also the first game in the series where you can damage opponents by [[GreiviousHarmWithABody throwing another opponent into them.]]

** It's also the first game in the series where you can damage opponents by [[GreivousHarmWithABody throwing another opponent into them.]]

* ''PerfectDark'' has a ''very'' primitive physics engine. It could be used to provide limited cover in some levels, but the only time the creators used this deliberately was in the last level, with the piece of rubble that had to be pushed over a switch.

Since the first release of the Havok engine in 2000, it's been the go-to software for developers looking to add a little verisimilitude to their worlds -- it allows [[CrateExpectations crates]] to stack realistically, chains to swing convincingly, and [[RagdollPhysics corpses to collapse satisfyingly]]. [[FollowTheLeader Several other physics engines followed]]. But, like nuclear power, it can also be used with reckless abandon. Sometimes the developers, giddy with the possibilities afforded them by real-time collision modeling, become drunk with power, and you'll run across an application of the physics engine that shouts "Hey! Check out these physics!" so loudly it comes dangerously close to breaking the fourth wall.

* ''{{Vindictus}}'' may be the first MMO to have a fully functioning physics engine (Valve's Source engine, in fact) and is quite proud of the fact. Many of the higher-tier weapons and armor are covered in chains and baubles that swing about as the player moves, and one of the highlights of the combat system is the ability to pick up random objects and use them as [[ImprovisedWeapon ImprovisedWeapons]], such as pots or chunks of stone or mid-sized ''trees''. HilarityEnsues.

* ''{{Vindictus}}'' may be the first MMO to have a fully functioning physics engine (Valve's Source engine, in fact) and is quite proud of the fact. Many of the higher-tier weapons and armor are covered in chains and baubles that swing about as the player moves, and one of the highlights of the combat system is the ability to pick up random objects and use them as ImprovisedWeapons, such as pots or chunks of stone or mid-sized ''trees''. HilarityEnsues.

''{{Vindictus}}'' may be the first MMO to have a fully functioning physics engine (Valve's Source engine, in fact) and is quite proud of the fact. Many of the higher-tier weapons and armor are covered in chains and baubles that swing about as the player moves, and one of the highlights of the combat system is the ability to pick up random objects and use them as ImprovisedWeapons, such as pots or chunks of stone or mid-sized ''trees''. HilarityEnsues.

''{{Vindictus}}'' is one of the first MMOs to have a fully functioning physics engine (Valve's Source engine, in fact) and is quite proud of the fact. Many of the higher-tier weapons and armor are covered in chains and baubles that swing about as the player moves, and one of the highlights of the combat system is the ability to pick up random objects and use them as ImprovisedWeapons, such as pots or chunks of stone or mid-sized ''trees''. HilarityEnsues.

* ''{{Half-Life}} 2'' contains heaps of physics puzzles, from piling cinder blocks on see-saws to placing buoyant barrels under an aquatic ramp to removing cinder blocks from a pulley system (not to mention the carelessly dropped can from the quote above). And these all occur ''before'' you get the Gravity Gun. One wonders whether every member of the Resistance fleeing from City 17 had to pass the same series of puzzles, or whether this was an elaborate obstacle course set up to determine whether Gordon Freeman was truly the Chosen One...
** Justified in the Ravenholm level, in which some of the puzzles are clearly traps set up by the [[AxCrazy Ax]] CrazyAwesome Father Grigori. The scarcity of ammo pickups in Ravenholm also require you to lean heavily on your shiny new Gravity Gun, which was also totally an excuse to [[strike:exploit the physics]] [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential chop zombies in half with buzzsaws]].
*** There's even an achievement for just using the gravity gun in Ravenholm.

* Look everybody look at our water effects! What not impressed by the most realistic game representation of water, how about a [[{{Hydrophobia}} five hour game based around water to change your mind.]]

** At a certain point in the game you come across several baddies who haven't noticed you. They are in a room with several gas cylinders nearby. Outside the room there is another gas cylinder, this one lying on the ground, with the gas nozzle pointing away from the doorway. You can just go in guns blazing and kill the mooks the good ol' way, but the ''awesome'' way to do it is to shoot at the cylinder's gas nozzle. The cylinder will then ignite, rocket inside the room and blow up. What enemies aren't killed by that will be killed by the explosion of the other canisters, ignited by the first one.

** To elaborate on the game's physics: The way their system was set up, each interactive physics object was encased in an invisible box that would approximate the item's collision detection data, and when two items' respective boxes collided with one-another, they would start pushing each other away at the collision point until they were no longer colliding. Unfortunately, this made it extremely difficult to properly simulate any object that wasn't a box the size of one cubic metre, and stacking objects on top of one another was almost impossible, so the developers' ideas for item stacking puzzles went straight out of the window. A similar system was also used to procedurally animate the game's dinosaurs, with each of the dinosaurs' limbs acting as a separate physics object.
*** ...which sometimes resulted in velociraptors ending up with spring-loaded heads trapped inside their torsos, and the physics processing for the dinosaurs took so much resources that they couldn't have more than seven dinosaurs per level. Man, was that game an ObviousBeta.

* Silver the Hedgehog's psychokinetic gameplay in ''[[SonicTheHedgehog2006 Sonic '06]]'' is enabled by the Havok Engine and [[BlatantLies is treated with as much reverence and respect as the rest of]] [[ObviousBeta the game.]]

* ''Gish'' is a 2D platformer with extensive use of physics. Titular main character especially.

** However, these were simple, flat sprites rather than actual 3D objects. Especially the pool balls, which moved only in two dimensions. In fact, you could say that the very first video game - ''Tennis For Two'' (1958) - already incorporated physics to model the behavior of a tennis ball.

* ''{{Portal}}'' is made entirely of WreakingHavok segments, although this is partially justified by the fact that the first 19 levels were designed by Aperture Science to test out the Portal Gun and the subject's spatial reasoning skills. This reasoning wears a little thin, however, when [[spoiler:[[BenevolentArchitecture you escape into the maintenance areas and find that they, too, were apparently designed to be navigated by someone with a Portal Gun and a good grasp of inertia]]]].
** OrIsIt?
** To be fair, it remains justified even after [[spoiler:leaving the 'proper' testing, since the portal device is used to find a route through the 'backstage' that would normally be impossible. People who were supposed to be there would have just used the doors (which are mostly locked to the player) or several of the catwalks which have now collapsed.]]

** Looking at the videos, this troper suspects that kinetic friction exists, but static friction doesn't.

*** And God help you if you decide to decide to engage in a little [[AnInteriorDesignerIsYou home decorating]]. Trying to place a book on a shelf could result in everything else on that shelf ending up halfway across the room.
**** It gets even worse if you have the GameMod that makes most objects in the game use physics. If you dare to pick up a book from a bookshelf, expect it to collapse down on you within the next five seconds.
*** There is only one, ONE quest that can be solved using the physics engine. It is in the second, SECOND expansion, and can even be solved without, WITHOUT the engine, proving that yes, it is entirely pointless to the game...
*** [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Pointless? POINTLESS!]]

** The game also features an [[RubeGoldbergMachine elaborate physics-based trap]] in a grocery store that involves explosives, a baseball launcher, a series of dominoes, and a swinging battering ram. It takes forever to run its course, and you know the instant you set it off that it's not going to turn out well, but this troper had to stick around and see how it played out.
*** It ''does'' turn out well, it opens a hole in the ceiling and some missiles fall through for the player to loot.
*** ... Some of the time. The unpredictability of both Havok and the game itself means that there are [[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Gold_Ribbon_Grocers#Bugs plenty of opportunities]] for this to fail, even if it doesn't kill you in the process.

* ''SaintsRow 2'' generally uses Havok for relatively sensible things -- [[RagdollPhysics ragdoll'd corpses]], explosions, car crashes, etc. -- but there's an "Insurance Fraud" MiniGame in which you have to fling yourself in front of traffic and attempt to bounce from car to car in the most painful way possible. It is deliriously entertaining.

* ''SecondSight'' eventually gives you telekinesis, which is great for this sort of thing, but you don't really have to wait until then. In the first mission (after the tutorial level), there are loose crates and chairs. If you happen to run a little to close, you can wind up kicking them down the hall. And if they happen to hit some enemies, you might find your suspension of disbelief slightly strained when you wind up killing them by accident.