My friend Kevin Mangan likes to compare to Street Fighter IV to chess. With strategy happening in seconds opposed to drawing out over the length of your average chess game. He’s right, and for those of you gifted to have the hyperactive twitch skills to play this form of super-chess, Street Fighter is probably a game you love.

It’s also beautiful. Kotaku posted a gallery featuring these screens of Capcom‘s upcoming Super Street Fighter IV, all prominently featuring the onscreen UI. (Hard to avoid with that style of fighting game.) There’s some beautiful stuff going on here. I know I am fairly vocal about constantly moving towards a HUD-less experience, but when it comes to a game like Street Fighter the UI really just enhances the gameplay. All that information is needed, this allows a player to risk an attack or choose to play more defensively as well as adapt their strategy to whatever the situation requires.

I really like how characters models, and effects move in front and behind the UI as a whole. To me that sort of  integration feels a lot like the lines a network will project onto a football field while watching a NFL game. The action revolves around what you’re seeing, and the HUD/UI doesn’t block the action or interfere with gameplay. It’s quality work. I look forward to seeing it in action in the game.

There was an embargo on video and images taking during Molyneux’s X10 faux-drama filled introduction of Fable 3. However this morning (or late last night depending on where you live) the first screen’s of Lionhead’s upcoming RPG hit the web. They’re HUD-free as promised, in game or created for promotional purposes is something you can decide, you can check them out over at Kotaku or see them on the official site. Your call.

In a video interview earlier this month, Molyneux said players would be “pissed” to hear about one of Fable III’s features. What’s the scoop? There’s no health bar, he said. In fact, there’s no heads-up display elements on the screen at all.

“Look at the screen!” Molyneux gushed, gesturing at the monitor like Vanna White. “It’s completely clean! Why do we need the fucking health bar?”

Instead of having a bar to show the player’s remaining health, Fable III will take cues from action games, not RPGs, and have environmental graphic changes that show that you’re close to death.

What, I asked, about other such menus and gauges?

“The 2-D parts of Fable 1 and Fable 2 were rubbish,” he responded. “That’s why people didn’t change their clothes, or change their weapons.” In Fable 3, he said, he’s looking to make that character-customization busywork “part of the game.”

In an interview earlier this week with Matt Peckham from PCWorld, Molyneux was quoted as saying: “I’m really scared that when I go out and tell people what it is, they’re going to get super pissed off. They really are. But it’s the right thing to do man, I’m sure it’s the right thing to do.”

This is twice where he describes a fan base getting angry over the removal of traditional HUD elements. I don’t get it. I’m not sure why he fears this choice will cause some sort of backlash from players. It’s become a staple for Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty series. I’ve brought it up twice where it was tackled by EA Sport’s Fight Night and again when Double Fine took a similar direction with Brutal Legend. If you can pull it off well, a player won’t notice. Simple as that. If you do a poor job, they’ll complain. Trying to drum up drama where there isn’t any seems silly.

You can read more over at Wired.

Split Second integrates the typical race HUD in a rather ingenious way.

There’s no doubt you haven’t heard of Black Rock Studios upcoming racing game Split/Second. A lot of interested has been bubbling with the recent videos showing some pretty impressive gameplay. The game flips some of the traditional elements you’d see in a typical racing shooter by adding destructible environments and special abilities that allow for some intense fast paced gameplay.

As seen in the screen shot above Black Rock has rather ingeniously introduced a integrated HUD into the mix. Instead of the typical direction with HUD elements located on the periphery Black Rock has clustered it all near the rear of the players vehicle and angled it in a way it feels like it’s apart of whats happening on screen. This not only puts relevant information right where the players are looking, the  center of the action, it does so without interruption.

Black Rock takes it a step further by adding effects to the HUD making it feel just as much apart of the action as the exploding buildings, crashing cars are. The HUD flickers and fades, glows hot and shifts around compensating for the moving camera. This adds to the action and these small but important effects serves to not only pull a player into the gameplay but still deliver important contextual information. When you see Split/Second’s clustered integrated HUD in action it really feels cinematic. It’s rare when a HUD can ads to the drama of the gameplay experience.

Be it be ammo readouts located on a weapon like some modern shooters have done, or health displayed on a playable character model similar to Dead Space. HUD integration is a good way to draw a player deeper into the experience. I encourage you to check the video after the break to see Split/Second’s HUD in action.

Avatar isn’t going to just be a new movie from Titanic director James Cameron; it’s also going to be a new video game developed by Ubisoft. It’s gotten a significant amount of press for a movie tie-in, even dominating a sizeable space at PAX for a booth featuring a replica of the cockpit of one of the flying machines starring in the movie… er… game.

As this video posted on Kotaku shows the graphics are impressive, however I’m not awed by Ubisofts choices for HUD layout. Persistent elements are thrown in every corner, and numbers and icons fade in and out. I understand the idea of keeping action the center of attention, but with a display this scattered it takes a lot to check health, know where you’re going, what you’re fighting with, how much XP you have, and if an ability is ready to use.

Here’s my take, I’d group things differently and focus on making it easy for the player to get the information needed without spending too much time looking away from the action. There are four persistent elements on the screen, a combo health meter and ammo meter, an XP bar, a mini map, and a radial menu for abilities. Randomly things like weapon ammo, selected weapon, target’s heath and hits, will pop in and out as well. These could have been grouped in a much nicer manner giving the player one location to look at as opposed to scanning all edges of the screen to get the important information.

Grouping elements at the bottom

This example sets the grouping together at the bottom of the screen. The selection weapon is displayed below, and the users aren’t forced to scan every edge. The nonpersistent elements could easily be displayed between the radial menu and the Minimap, or above the various bars on the left or the right. I’ve done one other thing as well. I’ve grouped action related elements, ammo, health, abilities, on the right side of the screen, and bigger picture elements: mini-map, XP on the left. This gives the user one place to look for action and combat information, and a second area that can be ignored until needed during more exploratory moments.

Grouping elements on the sides.

Similarly Ubisoft could opt to group each set on the sides. This unclutters the bottom and provides the user only two locations to look at as opposed to four or five. Again as in the above example, I’ve split the grouping between necessary action related elements and more bigger picture elements.

The goal with any HUD design is to blend so seamlessly it’s unnoticed as a player interacts with a product. A few quick changes and a scattered HUD can be streamlined allowing an easier play experience. Easier play means more immersion and more immersion allows for better storytelling and ultimately a more memorable experience. With a few changes and Ubisoft could be well on their way to creating that memorable experience.