Sulphur on 30/7/2012 at 19:22
Quote Posted by faetal
I'd be a little happier if only games more consistently showed the gun I last had equipped in cut-scenes. In some of the games which make you choose between e.g. 3 weapons, the cut-scenes sometimes show you holding one (usually the one you start the game with) you threw away 3 levels back.
Max Payne 3 does it. Whatever you're holding remains in your hands when the game switches to a cutscene. The downside is, every time the game returns control to you, you're left holding the goddamn pistol because the cutscene probably had him switching to it and waving it about.
Also, Sg3: Max Payne 3 again. Wound decals apply to Max and are persistent, even in cutscenes. Only it's kinda hilarious watching Max walking about and talking with bullet holes in his arms and back, and in one of the last few cut scenes, there was this bright red bullet wound right on his ass. Took all the gravitas right out of the scene, I can tell you that.
Quote Posted by DDL
The more lifelike and humanised the other characters are, the harder it would be (for me at least) to kill them. The more realistically it models the horrific damage you are capable of dealing to enemies, the harder it would be to stomach actually doing that. Watching enemies get injured and respond realistically: limping because you shot them in the leg, watching another enemy run out and take their arm to help them into cover and then you shoot him too, so on.
Basically if AI and body rigging/animation gets good enough to allow you to be the sniper in (
http://www.gustavhasford.com/ST2.htm) grunts, then holy fucking shit I am not going to play that.
Though as noted, some people would probably LOVE that shit.
Did you happen to see that (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZYkj0glnqs) The Last of Us E3 trailer? We're getting there, and I already feel there's trouble brewing. There was a whole bunch of editorials about how video games are glorifying violence, and this video was one of the principals in that discussion. Specifically, how there was cheering/applause right at the end of the video at E3.
And, also, might as well complete this and make it a hat trick (everything's better in threes): Max Payne 3. Those bullet wounds on your enemies when you shoot them in the face, the blood spatter, the way, say, an enemy's shoulder cracks back when you fire a round into it, or the way their bodies jerk spasmodically while being pumped with machine gun fire, it does get a little... disturbing. That Euphoria tech makes for some pretty convincing stuff when it works right, and the fidelity's only bound to get better from here on out, both in character animation/physics and modelling.
It's something I've been musing on for a while: we've all enjoyed shooting gormless mooks in our games because they're blood-filled pinatas, pressurised balloons filled with watery ketchup, and they were recognisably approximate versions of people, just abstracted enough and unrealistic enough (until
now) for us to not really care when we dispatched them with a shotgun.
But now that you can see a bullet blowing out the back of someone's head, complete with a stylish cut-away of all that claret blossoming outwards in slow crimson whorls, it's not something so easily abstracted away for the sake of your regular dose of catharsis once their bodies slump to the floor with their faces in a silent rictus of pain.
We've crossed the line into where this usually incidental stuff in our hobbies can get quite disturbing, and I can only wonder what the moral brigade that knee-jerked to GTA3 on release would think of the brutality in MP3.
Malleus on 30/7/2012 at 20:31
Quote Posted by Sulphur
And, also, might as well complete this and make it a hat trick (everything's better in threes): Max Payne 3. Those bullet wounds on your enemies when you shoot them in the face, the blood spatter, the way, say, an enemy's shoulder cracks back when you fire a round into it, or the way their bodies jerk spasmodically while being pumped with machine gun fire, it does get a little... disturbing.
Only to get hilarious and/or annoying when they jump on their feet and keep running around with a bullet wound in their neck, as long as they have 1 HP left. Especially jarring since everything else is so well done in MP3.
Also, you summed up pretty well why there will never be another (new-gen) Manhunt game.
june gloom on 31/7/2012 at 00:02
Now you're just gonna make me sad. :(
Phatose on 31/7/2012 at 04:02
I suppose on second thought, this is the kind of tech that will never see the light of day in commercial entertainment.
Aside from what's already been said, something particularly dangerous pops to mind. Say you combine all these techs - procedural location generation, procedural character generation, procedural wounding. You put it all together, handling issues as delicately and tastefully as possible. You end up with a Rainbow Six style game, planning and all that - it's a way to allow these things but force the player to consider their actions carefully and avoid random shooting. It all comes together, you release to great reviews.
A week later your boss calls you into your office to 'discuss' this new mod he's gotten phone calls about. Aurora - the Batman shooter mod. Or the new "Columbine" map. Or whatever the most recent horror is.
Ah well. Seemed like it had potential at first, but I suppose this will never escape the realm of theory, or military training sims at most.
