Statistically meaningless poll for ya. Just asking about those game design decisions that serve the purpose of fun and flow of pace but just disobey rules that govern things like architecture and real-life physics

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.

Attacks that do far less damage than their animations/descriptions would seem to indicate.

This ranges from Golden Sun's distressingly apocalyptic summons which do no environmental damage, to a mere sword-thrust which leaves the target at full offensive capacity despite the fact that they just got stabbed in the gut.

Probably the most immersion breaking, yet very common, bug for me is the shotgun with gravity (and physics) defying kick. It doesn't look right that they become instant spacemen!

Actually the door thing doesn't always apply. I cannot count the number of times I've opened a door into myself while trying to bust into a room all special ops-like in R6:Vegas.

"On three, open and clear. 1... 2... 3... OOOF! Damnit, Stupid door..."

DeadlyFred:
Actually the door thing doesn't always apply. I cannot count the number of times I've opened a door into myself while trying to bust into a room all special ops-like in R6:Vegas.

"On three, open and clear. 1... 2... 3... OOOF! Damnit, Stupid door..."

Hell, even as far back as Majora's Mask (and probably Ocarina by extension, given that it's the same engine although I don't quite remember), I remember doors that open in one direction only.

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.

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.

*Puts hand in air* Ooh Ooh me?
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.

Firewarrior Production Meeting:

"Well we are gonna be basing a game around the Tau,"
"Who are they again?"
"You know the aliens with the crazy arse technology? Giant Hover tanks? battle mechs with jumpjets? Gun drones etc?"
"Oh yes. So you'll be able to get in and drive those later on in the game?
"Umm.. no. In fact, for the whole game you'll be on foot. And we'll also make the autogun stronger than the lasgun... and you'll play as an ordinary Firewarrior on his first day who is just incredibly lucky- Even with Weapon skill 2 he'll be able to take on Commissar with only his ceremonial sword. And take out a whole Valkyrie by himself. And a dreadnought. And a squad of Terminators. And a Greater Demon of Tzentch."
"Wow, will he need some super high tech experimental weaponry that no other Tau can access to do that?"
"Uhh.. no, no I think It'll work best if the most effective weapon at destroying a Greater Demon would be the burst cannon."

Sorry, I've been holding that rage in for a long time. Even Tom Bakers dulcet tones couldn't save that game from the numerous continuity flaws.

I am forced to agree, every time i took out something in power armor i almost cut myself in real life for participating in that unholy dump on the fluff.

The sheer impossibility of one of those four fingered freaks doing all of that was painful as i watched him take dump after steaming dump on all that is Canon in 40K.

Yes shanks, i share your pain.

The shotgun part is one of the things i love about games. I recently won Timeshift on hard and Shooting someone in slowmo with a shotgun never EVER get old!

Also on the postapocalyptic thing i think Fallout 3s fixing that. I mean its still sunny on daytime but the enviorments give a ....... "Not good place to live" Feel

Devs need to put down the bloom brush and take a few steps back and look at what they just did. Seriously, nothing is that shiny.

The way lightbulbs are made of impervious rocket proof glass.

The Greater Demon really was the kick in the preverbal scrotum though. Its like.. the epitome of all that is Chaos and the fight boils down to 'strafe left, hold R1, finish one clip of Burst cannon, Strafe Right, hold R1, finish second clip, repeat twice and win.'

EDIT: Yet I notice we both bought and played it. Looks like the corporate fat-cats at GW won this round lol.

two things.Why is everything in games that is painted a redish color seem to be the symbolism for "this will explode if you shoot at it"? (I know thats not a reality/physics kinda question but I thought I ask anyway), You know in real life It's probably wise not to shoot any kind of barrel or crate casue you may not know whats in them for sure.

The other thing is, The fact that if a guy can take a few shots to the chest and face and all he has to do is hunker down for a minute behind cover and he'll just heal himself is pretty disturbing to me, just because getting shot in real life you probably be incapacitated from the shock alone of a bullet wound not to mention the bleeding and burning of the wound would probably hurt I lot too.

But then again it would probably make the game pretty lame if your guy got shot in the leg or whatever and he just fell to the ground screaming like a scared little child.

Oh yeah, and the fact that in some games, you can carry 15+ guns at once (I don't want to know where you would hide the extras, really). And why the hell (this is an example) is a pistol less effective at killing things than say a gattlinggun-lazer-thing-a-ma-chig. Sure the bigger guns can lay waste to an entire city, but if I'm gonna use it on the boss guy at the end shouldn't a well place pistol shot kill him in an instant too?

Firewarrior is really a game best left alone to begin with. I mean they cop all sorts of strained suspense of belief in 40k fiction (go read any Dan Abnett Novel), so that aspect of it really plays second fiddle to the fact that the game pretty much just sucked overall. Its not unfeasible for a Tau Firewarrior to bust a plasma-cap in a Space Marine (those rifles are actually damn lethal), and you could even have one possibly succeed against totally insurmountable odds (which is more or less a staple of 40k lit anyhow). In the end, the game could've had a great and well contrived basis and still sucked because, well, it did.

jacobschndr:

But then again it would probably make the game pretty lame if your guy got shot in the leg or whatever and he just fell to the ground screaming like a scared little child.

Then the wound would get infected and the limb would need to be amputated and... hey, that would actually be a hell of a lot more fun than a defibrillator...

"Aaaaah medic!"
"I can heal you! BRZZZZZZZ-RAAAAWW-ZZZZRP!"
"UUURGH MY LEEEEG!!!!"
"Ok buddy, you're gona be fine!"
"Thanks!"

I couldn't stand Fire Warrior.

It took 40k and made it it's bitch.

I voted for the Physics defying shotgun. It just seemed the most strange to me.

DeadlyFred:

jacobschndr:

But then again it would probably make the game pretty lame if your guy got shot in the leg or whatever and he just fell to the ground screaming like a scared little child.

Then the wound would get infected and the limb would need to be amputated and... hey, that would actually be a hell of a lot more fun than a defibrillator...

"Aaaaah medic!"
"I can heal you! BRZZZZZZZ-RAAAAWW-ZZZZRP!"
"UUURGH MY LEEEEG!!!!"
"Ok buddy, you're gona be fine!"
"Thanks!"

Damage as a whole is completely unrealistic in games.
I'd like to see a fighting game where you have a very short health bar with localised damage and you rely on dodges, parries and blocks to escape harm.

Graustein:

DeadlyFred:

jacobschndr:

But then again it would probably make the game pretty lame if your guy got shot in the leg or whatever and he just fell to the ground screaming like a scared little child.

Then the wound would get infected and the limb would need to be amputated and... hey, that would actually be a hell of a lot more fun than a defibrillator...

"Aaaaah medic!"
"I can heal you! BRZZZZZZZ-RAAAAWW-ZZZZRP!"
"UUURGH MY LEEEEG!!!!"
"Ok buddy, you're gona be fine!"
"Thanks!"

Damage as a whole is completely unrealistic in games.
I'd like to see a fighting game where you have a very short health bar with localised damage and you rely on dodges, parries and blocks to escape harm.

Bushido blade was almost exactly with that. But with swords so you didn't even have a life bar. One good chop and you were out.

... you know that would be kinda fun. And you can choose to be the medic too.

"Hang on I'm medic you'll be just fine"
"Actually doc I think I'm fine, it's just a flesh wound and..."
"Now I've run out of morphine and bandages, but I do have this chainsaw so I think the only thing we can do now is amputate"
"Wait, WHAT?!.."
BRRRZZZAWWWW
"AAAAHHHH!!!!"

Decoy Doctorpus:

Graustein:

DeadlyFred:

jacobschndr:

But then again it would probably make the game pretty lame if your guy got shot in the leg or whatever and he just fell to the ground screaming like a scared little child.

Then the wound would get infected and the limb would need to be amputated and... hey, that would actually be a hell of a lot more fun than a defibrillator...

"Aaaaah medic!"
"I can heal you! BRZZZZZZZ-RAAAAWW-ZZZZRP!"
"UUURGH MY LEEEEG!!!!"
"Ok buddy, you're gona be fine!"
"Thanks!"

Damage as a whole is completely unrealistic in games.
I'd like to see a fighting game where you have a very short health bar with localised damage and you rely on dodges, parries and blocks to escape harm.

Bushido blade was almost exactly with that. But with swords so you didn't even have a life bar. One good chop and you were out.

What platform and how button-mashy is it?

What bothers me most is doors that cannot be opened.
Normal, weak wooden doors that cannot be opened despite the fact that I am armed with a rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher.

Since when was two inches of Pine resistant to a High Explosive Shaped Charge flying at 900 miles per hour?

Graustein:

What platform and how button-mashy is it?

PSX and it's the antithesis of button mashing. One missed swing with one of the heavier weapons and you leave yourself open to a world of head choppage. To put it into perspective, if you complete a character's story you get their shitty ending. To get their good ending you have to complete their story without taking a hit and following the bushido code.

DeadlyFred:
Firewarrior is really a game best left alone to begin with. I mean they cop all sorts of strained suspense of belief in 40k fiction (go read any Dan Abnett Novel), so that aspect of it really plays second fiddle to the fact that the game pretty much just sucked overall. Its not unfeasible for a Tau Firewarrior to bust a plasma-cap in a Space Marine (those rifles are actually damn lethal), and you could even have one possibly succeed against totally insurmountable odds (which is more or less a staple of 40k lit anyhow). In the end, the game could've had a great and well contrived basis and still sucked because, well, it did.

Yeah I'll agree the game wasn't great, but I somehow feel it might have been because they missed so much great in-universe stuff, say, giving you squad based gameplay, what with working together being basically the whole Tau ethos. Instead, they tried to copy Halo. Of course, without the vehicles. The awesome awesome Tau vehicles that are much cooler than most Halo stuff.

Oh and in response to your other comment, I dunno. The only Dan Abnett I've read are the Tanith books and they seem to play it fairly straight, there is an awful lot of Guard death as there should be, even main character death in the later novels. Multiple main character death, 24 style.

Decoy Doctorpus:

Graustein:

What platform and how button-mashy is it?

PSX and it's the antithesis of button mashing. One missed swing with one of the heavier weapons and you leave yourself open to a world of head choppage. To put it into perspective, if you complete a character's story you get their shitty ending. To get their good ending you have to complete their story without taking a hit and following the bushido code.

I need to get a PSX, for this game.

Graustein:

Decoy Doctorpus:

Graustein:

What platform and how button-mashy is it?

PSX and it's the antithesis of button mashing. One missed swing with one of the heavier weapons and you leave yourself open to a world of head choppage. To put it into perspective, if you complete a character's story you get their shitty ending. To get their good ending you have to complete their story without taking a hit and following the bushido code.

I need to get a PSX, for this game.

Runs fine in EPXE. Plus it's not super rare so finding a copy isn't hard.

Decoy Doctorpus:

Graustein:

What platform and how button-mashy is it?

PSX and it's the antithesis of button mashing. One missed swing with one of the heavier weapons and you leave yourself open to a world of head choppage. To put it into perspective, if you complete a character's story you get their shitty ending. To get their good ending you have to complete their story without taking a hit and following the bushido code.

I can't imagine it getting any harder than the mission mode in the Guilty Gear X series, one had your character at half-health pitted against another with regenerating health, and can only be damaged by 6+ hit combos.

Agiel7:

Decoy Doctorpus:

Graustein:

What platform and how button-mashy is it?

PSX and it's the antithesis of button mashing. One missed swing with one of the heavier weapons and you leave yourself open to a world of head choppage. To put it into perspective, if you complete a character's story you get their shitty ending. To get their good ending you have to complete their story without taking a hit and following the bushido code.

I can't imagine it getting any harder than the mission mode in the Guilty Gear X series, one had your character at half-health pitted against another with regenerating health, and can only be damaged by 6+ hit combos.

To unlock the secret chracter you had to kill a hundred dudes in a row.

Hah, some very good choices but I had to go with bloom. I think it's absolutely marvellous when done correctly... it's just a shame that it is rarely ever done this way. The main thing that springs to mind for me on this subject is Age of Empires 3, or more specifically... the Warchiefs expansion. When I upgraded to the WC-expansion I was forced to play the first few games with squinted eyes until I eventually just got used to it and burnt a few more layers away in my iris(retina?... eye!), making me even more short sighted.

As I say though... bloom itself is freakin' sweet when done nicely, And I'm actually struggling to think of any examples that haven't over-done it.

Four words:

Giant crate, tiny medpack.

Damn, that must have been a lot of styrofoam.

If gamers ever took over the world you could deal with the problem by surrounding their govenmental buildings with red painted barrels.

All of these things except 4 annoy me.

What always disturbed me was in Bioshock, how the fuck does a pane of glass that is under immense pressure by default manage to withstand a Revolver round, a shotgun blast and an RPG in quick succession? And how in the hell did they build that place underwater in the first place?

And who would be suicidal enough to bring guns into an underwater city thats kept seperate from death by unfathomable crushing pressure anyway? And how did they get them?

And why did they think that a Lighthouse in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean would make a good camouflage?