Topic Index
Poll: Breaches of reality that disturb you in the world of video games.


One thing in video games that tends to disturb me is...
No matter what side of the door you're on, you can always push it open upon turning the knob.
4.8% (5)
4.8% (5)
Despite Newton's law of "Conservation of Energy," you can still send a corpse flying ten feet with a shotgun while your feet are still firmly planted on the ground.
16.2% (17)
16.2% (17)
With the amount of HDR bloom in outdoor areas, you'd think our sun would just about to go supernova.
12.4% (13)
12.4% (13)
Despite post-apocalyptic gameworlds looking run-down and grimy, the amount of glimmer and shine everywhere suggests otherwise (looks at "Gears of War")
9.5% (10)
9.5% (10)
There are more conviently placed barrels of oil in games than there are actual barrels worth of oil left in the real world.
57.1% (60)
57.1% (60)
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Indigo_Dingo
Gone Gonzo
Posts: 6172
Joined: 30 Jan 2008

Copter400:
Think of all the explosive barrels in Half-Life 2. What are they doing there? What do they contain? The material inside them is of apparently of such vital importance to the Combine that they need to be placed every couple of feet. Is it because the chemical is so volatile that in a barrel made of rusted tinfoil it explodes at the touch of a feather? Is this an unfortunate side effect of, say, Combine boot polish?

It boggles the mind, really.

image
image

Does this answer your question?

Flour
Muckraker
Posts: 241
Joined: 20 Mar 2008

It could be me, but when I look outside, I'm not blinded by the sun to the point where it hurts my eyes.(horrible HDR bloom)

Or all the military types unable to look further than 50 meters before everything is blurred. I used to think it was realistic, but then I got glasses.

The Blue Mongoose
Copy Clerk
Posts: 98
Joined: 12 Jul 2008

none of the above.
blowing people away with the shotgun is great.
blowing people away with the shotgun into an exploding oil barrel is awesome!
kicking open a door (RE 4) blowing people away... blah de blah de blah...

you get the idea... i'm a DMC fan. i like the unrealness of games.

Calobi
Press Junketeer
Posts: 472
Joined: 29 Dec 2007

I picked barrels, but it really goes for any crate/barrel at all. When was the last time you actually saw barrels stacked up together? Or random crates filled with nothing or weapons/medical supplies? Never, unless you work at a shipping/oil place.

Spartan Bannana
Gone Gonzo
Posts: 2905
Joined: 27 Apr 2008

I have to disagree with the doors opening outward no matter what side your on, in Hitman they don't always do that.
And am I the only person who doesn't see bloom everywhere?

TheColdHeart
Paperboy
Posts: 43
Joined: 15 Sep 2008

The fact that you can carry grenades and RPGs which can blow a hole in a heavily armoured tank, yet when a wooden door is locked and requires a key...nothing will take it off its hinges.

Frybird
Muckraker
Posts: 325
Joined: 7 Jan 2008

Except for the HDR Thing i kind of like these "unrealities" in Games.

And since there is not much to say about HDR i'd say i have a problem with the Games where you can destoy a Tank or something with any weapon, as long as you have enough bullets.

Someone explain that. Have the Vehicles a certain forcefield that collapses after time, and without it, they explode instantly?

At least in the GTA Series the vehicles start to burn first, wich has a certain amount of "Hollywood Realism" to it

rossatdi
Pulitzer Laureate
Posts: 841
Joined: 27 Aug 2008

L4Y Duke:
Four words:

Giant crate, tiny medpack.

Damn, that must have been a lot of styrofoam.

Or of course it's poplar opposite but kindred spirit:

Small pocket, giant gun.

But then I've always admired the average marine's ability to hide something as big as a blue whale's penis down his trouser leg.

GloatingSwine
Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1135
Joined: 10 Nov 2007

Breaches of reality do not concern me. As long as the internal rules of a gameworld are consistent.

Now, arbitrary gameplay and story segregation, especially Cutscene Incompetence, there we have a problem.

Take Final Fantasy X. So we're going to crash a wedding. Fun times. And we look awesome sliding down those chains, fight some dudes with guns which basically sting like mosquitoes, okay they're annoying, but they don't really hurt. And then it all stops, and people point exactly the same guns at us, and we all stop. And apparently we're caught. There is no-one there whose ass the party could not kick without perceptible effort, even the biggest boss present, Seymour, already has Tidus' bootprint on one asscheek because we've even killed him once before, but apparently we're all scared of their mosquito guns now.

And people think this is one of the better Final Fantasy games?

varulfic
Muckraker
Posts: 264
Joined: 12 Jul 2008

I can't decide between "No matter what side of the door you're on, you can always push it open upon turning the knob." and "With the amount of HDR bloom in outdoor areas, you'd think our sun would just about to go supernova.". On one hand, the door is in pretty much every game whereas the HDR bloom is just in Source games, on the other hand, who the hell thought it would be realistic that I get blinded by sunlight after spending half a second in the shade? I can understand being in doors in dark corridors and then going out after a few minutes, but being under a bridge for two seconds should not cause my pupils to dilate that much.

Anton P. Nym
Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1523
Joined: 18 Sep 2007

Armitage Shanks:
In WH40K: Firewarrior, how does a single Fire Warrior manage to take on both the might of the Imperium and Chaos respectively? Like an ordinary firewarrior. He's not a commander or a super soldier. You see dozens just like him get cut down. It would have been slightly ok if they made you a Shas'ui or if they put you in a FREAKIN' CRISIS SUIT like they should have in the first place.

I agree that Fire Warrior would've been a much better game had you been a Crisis (or even Stealth) suit pilot; more canonical, more flexible, and WAY more fun*... except, of course, that the lame AI and sloppy animations would've spoiled that too. However, I'm not too certain that this is quite on-topic for the thread as it's not a breach of common reality, just common sense.

For reality-busting, I have to say "invisible wall" is my biggest gripe. At no point do I find myself smacking into an otherwise-undetectable barrier across a street or in an open field. F'gawdsake, level designers, at least put some indicator that this is impassible terrain; a thorn hedge, or barbed-wire fence, or anti-tank ditch, or locked door, or something...

-- Steve

* Indeed, so much so that I mused over possible designs for a Fire Warrior II with that premise, pitting a Crisis Team (you're junior during the tutorial levels, then get to lead it for the rest) against the environment in the campaign and against other races' Dreadnaughts in multiplayer. Pity that it'll never get built thanks to the steaming pile left by the first installment.

TheGreenManalishi
Beat Writer
Posts: 168
Joined: 22 May 2008

there is AWLWAYS at least 2 barrels!! even as far back as the original Donkey Kong arcade, he throws barrels like their his droppings! it sends the wrong message!

Woe Is You
Press Junketeer
Posts: 425
Joined: 5 Jul 2008

None of the above.

So NPC #2048 tells you to hunt boars for their livers. You think: "Easy enough", and go hunting. You kill a boar. You're surprised to note that the boar you killed has no liver. Neither has the second one. Or the third one. The tenth one has one, but the eleventh doesn't.

Such is the bizarro world of MMOs.

Stubee
Muckraker
Posts: 270
Joined: 17 Jun 2008

Lmao those darn oil barrels...

Which game do you think has oil barrels in the most unimaginable location?

Simski
Muckraker
Posts: 322
Joined: 17 Aug 2008

The bodies that fly too much and too much explosive barrels are what I consider things added to make the gaming more fun, seeing people fly of buildings when I shoot them and to get and enemy caught in an explosion is something I often enjoy.

The fact that I often can push a door open both ways is nothing that really bothers me.

However too much bloom and everything being overly shiny can annoy me at times.

Natural Hazard
Beat Writer
Posts: 214
Joined: 5 Mar 2008

Copter400:
Think of all the explosive barrels in Half-Life 2. What are they doing there? What do they contain? The material inside them is of apparently of such vital importance to the Combine that they need to be placed every couple of feet. Is it because the chemical is so volatile that in a barrel made of rusted tinfoil it explodes at the touch of a feather? Is this an unfortunate side effect of, say, Combine boot polish?

It boggles the mind, really.

Also, Oblivion guards. They'll chase you for kilometres, going far out of range from their home towns until suddenly getting sidetracked by something more important, like a mudcrab.

Hehe that made me chuckle and agree with you on that one, fed up of having to run for ages and ages

buggy65
Copy Clerk
Posts: 90
Joined: 13 Aug 2008

Riddle me this Batman!

Why do ALL guns fire Tracer rounds?

ElephantGuts
Pulitzer Laureate
Posts: 988
Joined: 9 Jul 2008

I'm not concerned with any of them. Atleast, I've never encountered them in enough quantity or innapropriate locations that they bother me. Most developers do a good job of knowing where these things are appropriate or not. For example, if GTA4 was filled with exploding red barrels, it would take away from the realistic feel rockstar did so much to implement. But in a game like Battlefield: Bad Company, it's okay to have exploding barrels all over the place. It's not trying to be realistic, it's just trying to be a videogame where it's fun to blow the sh!t out of everything.

Flour
Muckraker
Posts: 241
Joined: 20 Mar 2008

varulfic:
I can't decide between "No matter what side of the door you're on, you can always push it open upon turning the knob." and "With the amount of HDR bloom in outdoor areas, you'd think our sun would just about to go supernova.". On one hand, the door is in pretty much every game whereas the HDR bloom is just in Source games, on the other hand, who the hell thought it would be realistic that I get blinded by sunlight after spending half a second in the shade? I can understand being in doors in dark corridors and then going out after a few minutes, but being under a bridge for two seconds should not cause my pupils to dilate that much.

The "HDR" part shouldn't really be used in the question. (Fake)Bloom can ruin a game. Black on the xbox had that problem, at some points there were so many layers of bloom that you couldn't see 5 steps in front of you(it was more fake bloom than real bloom, but that doesn't change the fact that it was annoying, worthless and made the game even more difficult). CoD4(multiplayer at least) also has some horrible bloom areas, like the building in the north end of Crossfire, great sniping spot if the bloom didn't force you to stand in front of the huge open windows.(I mean, why would anyone put such a great sniping spot in the level when you're going to make it easier for those on the outside to snipe the people in the building? yes, I know this explanation sucks, but inside you've got a flashlight shining in your face while if you're outside, you're basically the one with the flashlight)

The Rogue Wolf
Muckraker
Posts: 323
Joined: 25 Nov 2007

What?

Where's the option for inexplicable invisible walls?

All we have to do is surround the nation with Insurmountable Waist-High Fencing and we'll never have to fear anything!

Xalmar
Copy Clerk
Posts: 116
Joined: 15 Aug 2008

Two words: Invisible. Walls.

It's more than a little jarring when you're flying a plane or something and you try to head to a certain spot, only to find that you can't because there's an invisible wall in the way. It was a bit more understandable in older consoles but on current-gen consoles it's a little ridiculous. I also don't like when you're in a big, free-roaming area but if you try to go too far in one direction eventually a message pops up saying to go back. Morrowind took care of this by taking place on an island, but Oblivion...not so much.

And I also hate the recent game's insistance on being gray and brown. Perfect Dark and Goldeneye for the N64 were both great shooters for their time, and neither of them had only those two spectrums of colour. Is it too much to ask for something to be good to look at every once in a while? And, of course, having an arsenal of grenades, mines, rocket launchers, etcetera, and being forced away by a locked, wooden door. One instance that stands out for me is in Dark Forces 2, while exploring your father's house there are a few wooden doors that won't open without a key. Kyle has grenades, mines, and a lightsaber, and you're telling me he can't open a wooden door?!

Aurora219
Copy Clerk
Posts: 72
Joined: 31 Aug 2008

Headshots.

*Bang*
"Ow."
Ow? I just fucking shot you with a .50 cal sniper and you're not breathing your last breath through the hole in your throat?

Johnn Johnston
Gone Gonzo
Posts: 2893
Joined: 4 May 2008

I went for the Conservation of Energy. It just seems off. For me, out of the poll, it's the lack of environmental damage when you send in the big guns. Leaves you with a feeling of, "What? Is that it?"

Copter400
Gone Gonzo
Posts: 2058
Joined: 14 Sep 2007

Indigo_Dingo:
Does this answer your question?

No. Curse you, Frohman!

At least in EP:2 they started to use propane tanks, albeit propane in rusty tinfoil wrappings.

SimpleReally
Copy Clerk
Posts: 102
Joined: 4 Feb 2008

Pretty much every room in every prince of persia game, who the hell places swinging ropes followed by a trampoline in their walls?

i think im the only one who didnt like these games

Unknower
Muckraker
Posts: 325
Joined: 4 Jun 2008

Invisible walls. There's this one point in Half-Life 2, the first encounter with the headcrab dispenser rockets. I jumped on top of one and tried to jump on top of a shack. Invisible wall stopped me. That left me wanting to know why there was a invisible wall. Was it a developer being lazy or a engine limitation? I don't think you could even go anywhere from that roof.

Eagle Est1986
Press Junketeer
Posts: 408
Joined: 21 Nov 2007

I do always wonder about the oil drums being randomly left around, I wonder where that tradition in games first came from?
I do love them though, I find it almost impossible to not shoot them, even when I can't get a safe distance from them.

Cousin_IT
Infamous Scribbler
Posts: 554
Joined: 6 Feb 2008

I picked bloom; coz when you feel ur retinas being burned when u look at a sheep in the daylight in Oblivion, something is not right :-)

Knight Templar
Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1259
Joined: 29 Dec 2007

Ultrajoe:
I must admit, despite the criminally short and directionless OP, this is a thread i would like to see flourish.

Seeing as the OP doesn't have one, i declare the point of this thread as the discussion of the reality quirks that bug you in games, especially the trivial but niggling ones.

His will be done!

I think I did something like this, it made zero sense though...
Anyway I hate bloom, I am looking outside for 3 min' don't tell me it still affects me just because I'm half-an-inch inside.

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