Look around

Video game concept

Player can somehow look around without changing their facing and usually trivially return view to that direction. Common in vehicle simulations where player can look around out of the various vehicle windows without affecting vehicle movement.

games

platforms

Alternate names: Camera nudge, POV control

X³: Terran Conflict

WIN 2008-10-17

X²: The Threat

LIN 2006-05-30

Flight Simulator 2002

WIN 2001

WIN 2000-12-01

WIN 2009-03-05

WIN 2009-06-26

WIN 2013-09-26

X: Beyond the Frontier

WIN 1999-07-01

WIN 2011-12-16

WIN 2007

ANDR 2010

WIN 1998-11-30

Related:
* Peeking
* Head tracking
* Joystick HAT

This tag may need a better name?

Implications:
* Looking 90 degrees to the right and keeping your movement the same has no effect on which direction you move, only where the view points. This eliminates most 3rd person games where the camera view and movement are tied.
* Games where the camera is not locked to any character are not applicable (such as most strategy/management games).

This is common in (flight) simulators where player can control where the pilot/driver looks and thus gain vision around them as much as the cockpit or equivalent allows without altering the vehicle aim or movement direction.

Popular tags

msflightsim stacsim starwraith-series

Parent groups

Controls, Peeking, UVL: Tags that may need renaming

Child group

Head tracking

Games by year

The first Look around video game was released on November 30, 1998.

StarWraith 3D Games, Egosoft and Microsoft published most of these games.

Platforms

Windows		21
Linux		6
Mac OS X		2
Android		1