Malf on 28/7/2008 at 13:28
Hehe, cautiously sneaking through the enemy trenches only to be confronted by a black & white dog pretending there's a window between it and you...
CCCToad on 28/7/2008 at 15:00
as far war FPSs go, I'd have to agree with the others and vote COD4.
The game does a very good job of recreating the feel of a war movie, with constant pressure, a bevy of scripted events, and dialogue even worse than a hollywood film.
Keep in mind though, that the actual mechanics of the game are somewhat lacking. The description "call of duty: modern gauntlet" is pretty accurate. The game works by infinitely spawning enemies until the player crossess an invsible line, at which point the infinite spawns stop, and resume from a point further along the level. In other words, its more or less identical to the way the gauntlet games infinitely respawn enemies until you find the monster factory.
catbarf on 28/7/2008 at 17:09
Quote Posted by Malf
Another ropey game that has some incredibly good moments is Iron Storm. Maybe not
exactly what you're looking for, as it's an alternate timeline game, where the idea is it's 1960 and the First World War is still going on.
I always thought it kind of silly that World War 1 is still fought in trenches, despite the development of all the technologies that made trench warfare obsolete.
Matthew on 28/7/2008 at 17:14
The collective military mind, on the other hand, is usually geared towards fighting the war before last. If the upper echelons are suitably hidebound then any advances could be frittered away instead of being used to revolutionise warfare.
catbarf on 28/7/2008 at 17:17
Quote Posted by Matthew
The collective military mind, on the other hand, is usually geared towards fighting the war before last. If the upper echelons are suitably hidebound then any advances could be frittered away instead of being used to revolutionise warfare.
True, true, but we see things like tanks and helicopters used, and radio obviously exists. Those together would be enough to end trench warfare.
Matthew on 28/7/2008 at 17:23
Remember though that the tank was in itself a WWI weapon; without the existence of a Guderian-like figure, they could still have been using them as single 'blockade-breakers'.
Shadowcat on 29/7/2008 at 01:10
Quote Posted by Hier
The problem with this is that the player can get to the point where they are so fragile that they're mashing the quickload key every ten seconds, or they have to restart the level. Both are poor solutions, as I think it's long been demonstrated that forcing the player to repeat segments of a game too many times (especially if the segment is long) is just bad game design.
No argument there (provided the player isn't just playing badly), but this is really an issue with any game that does not give you mystical regenerative powers -- death is a far more probable occurrence when healing requires manual intervention.
The key phrase is "too many times", though. Having to redo something a few times because you were not taking due care is absolutely fine, and will often ensure that you are ready to handle subsequent challenges.
In the long term it is more satisfying to play well and succeed than it is to play badly and succeed anyway.
Playing well and continually failing... well, that's a design problem. Mashing the quick-save button (when available) is certainly going to happen in this instance (but is otherwise pretty much down to individual preference, IMO).
Quote:
I liked Vietcong too, it had some fantastic levels. But I remember one--the riverbed fight near the start of the game, fantastic level--where I was so wounded that I limped through the latter half, saving and reloading every few seconds.
I don't know how you did that in a game that uses checkpoint saving?
If it's the level I'm thinking of, I also had difficulties with it, but that turned out to be because I had not yet comprehended the huge degree to which you were safer when prone, as compared to crouching. That wasn't a design problem, but I sure wish that the documentation had been a bit clearer about it :) (even if it is kinda common sense...)
edit: There's also something significant to be said for forging ahead despite being badly wounded. The thrill of actually winning under such circumstances is considerable. It's a gamble -- the penalty for losing is needing to replay the sequence -- but the reward for making it through such a situation is huge, and is something that you can never experience with regenerating health. I had the tense thrill of surviving in this manner on several occasions when playing Vietcong, and that is one of the reasons I remember the game so fondly... I have memories of actually
achieving something when I played it. If you are not really in danger (e.g. Bioshock) the experience can become comparatively bland.
Hier on 29/7/2008 at 13:39
Been a while since I played it Shadow. I guess it was a checkpoint system instead of quicksave; either way, I just remember repeating small sections of that level many, many times, and it was due to the fact that my max health had been reduced so far that one hit, anywhere, would kill me.
EvaUnit02 on 29/7/2008 at 17:46
I finished Airborne earlier, it was a blast. A solid, challenging and highly cinematic game.
Went ahead and ordered the MoHAA War Chest and Vietcong: Purple Haze bundles off of Ebay, hopefully they're good games.
