Video Game Thread 2.0

[Art Vandelay]

Well, I managed to snipe a tanker full of natural gas with a grenade launcher. Now that was a thing of beauty if ever I've seen one.

[RavynousHunter]

Few men are awesome enough to be capable of sniping with a grenade launcher.

[chitoryu12]

Few men are awesome enough to be capable of sniping with a grenade launcher.

With the Milkor MGL in Far Cry 2, it's hilariously easy. They actually gave the gun a realistic range and a low-magnification scope, so the grenades fly in what seems like an unusually straight line (at least to people who don't know the real velocity of these things and just think that it's like in video games where they drop 30 feet ahead of you).

And since you've got 4 grenades that you can rapid fire, you can basically just stand off from whatever checkpoint or stronghold or whatever that you're attacking on this mission and turn the whole thing into a fireball.

[Art Vandelay]

Few men are awesome enough to be capable of sniping with a grenade launcher.

With the Milkor MGL in Far Cry 2, it's hilariously easy. They actually gave the gun a realistic range and a low-magnification scope, so the grenades fly in what seems like an unusually straight line (at least to people who don't know the real velocity of these things and just think that it's like in video games where they drop 30 feet ahead of you).

And since you've got 4 grenades that you can rapid fire, you can basically just stand off from whatever checkpoint or stronghold or whatever that you're attacking on this mission and turn the whole thing into a fireball.

I was using the most basic grenade launcher. No scope and no stupidly massive firing arc to work with. Just point it upwards, fire and hope you hit what you're trying to hit. It was also at enough of a distance that I could snipe enemy soldiers with a regular sniper rifle and they wouldn't be able to figure out where I was.

Under the circumstances, I like to think I did good.

[chitoryu12]

The one thing that REALLY gets me is how hideously weak the guns in that game are. It's bad enough that a .45 takes three or four shots to the chest to kill someone. But the weakest rifle in the game is a 7.62x51mm battle rifle; if it's taking multiple hits from a full auto G3 to an unarmored mercenary's torso to kill him, something is very wrong with how the developers set up their guns. A 5.56mm assault rifle has better killing power and range!

In fact, the G3 and FAL have such little recoil that it seems like the developers mistook them for "big clumsy assault rifles".

[Art Vandelay]

The one thing that REALLY gets me is how hideously weak the guns in that game are. It's bad enough that a .45 takes three or four shots to the chest to kill someone. But the weakest rifle in the game is a 7.62x51mm battle rifle; if it's taking multiple hits from a full auto G3 to an unarmored mercenary's torso to kill him, something is very wrong with how the developers set up their guns. A 5.56mm assault rifle has better killing power and range!

In fact, the G3 and FAL have such little recoil that it seems like the developers mistook them for "big clumsy assault rifles".

Oh nonsense, the game is the very model of realism. Just look at the vehicles, for example. Only around seven or so of them in the entire game, and no matter what exactly it is and what you do to it (aside from outright blowing it up), fixing it is as easy as spending six seconds tightening a single nut on the engine. Crash a jeep into a tree? Tighten a nut. Shoot an air boat full of holes? No problem, just tighten that one nut. Set a dune buggy on fire? That's right, a few turns of that magic nut and it's as if nothing ever happened.

Then of course there's first aid and other medical issues. One tiny syringe to the wrist will fix any problem, from bullets to falling off a high place to nearly drowning. Failing that, burning yourself with a flare or ripping a single bullet out of either your hand, arm or ankle with either pliers or your own teeth are one of a few effective stop-gap measure. Then of course there's malaria, completely symptomless except for the occasional onset of a pulsating yellow sheen to your field of vision, along with a matching yellow boarder and a lot of panting. Luckily, it can be instantly alleviated with a single pill.

Even the likes of ArmA can't hold a candle to the realism of Far Cry 2.

[chitoryu12]

I think I'd care less about it if the game didn't make so many attempts at LOOKING realistic. Minimal HUD, physical maps and GPS used to navigate, spreading fire, and an emphasis on the dirty combat and gray, sometimes outright black morality of mercenary warfare in Africa. Plus difficulty levels that emphasize taking cover and carefully planning attacks in an open world, rather than linear levels and scripted events.

And then almost all of the realism just gets ejected in actual gameplay.

[RavynousHunter]

I'm thinking about having a...quest line, I guess, in my game that follows the final stages of the development of steam power in the world, and perhaps ethanol, too.  Just one of those cool, optional side things that showcase how the world is developing even as you play around in it.  Considering the human nation in the world is the one most obsessed with technology, so long as its got a practical (or at least semi-practical) use, it would follow that they'd be the first to discover such a thing and any dope can accidentally light up a bit of particularly powerful, distilled spirits and lead to the eventual discovery of ethanol.

[Art Vandelay]

I think I'd care less about it if the game didn't make so many attempts at LOOKING realistic. Minimal HUD, physical maps and GPS used to navigate, spreading fire, and an emphasis on the dirty combat and gray, sometimes outright black morality of mercenary warfare in Africa. Plus difficulty levels that emphasize taking cover and carefully planning attacks in an open world, rather than linear levels and scripted events.

And then almost all of the realism just gets ejected in actual gameplay.

I'd argue that the maps and GPS aren't exactly realistic either, since a paper map apparently tracks where you are and what direction you're facing in real time, and the GPS comes with a built-in diamond detector.

In all honesty, I don't mind the lack of realism. Far Cry 2 is not a simulation and never claimed to be one, after all. The combat is enjoyably tactical and I can't imagine making things more realistic would really add to the game. Realistic vehicle mechanics would just be tedious and annoying, as would having to master realistic weapon physics for every single new gun we got. If you really want realism out the ass for everything, that's what ArmA or Operation: Flashpoint is for.

[Witchyjoshy]

Strange thing is that Skyrim gets the same "this isn't realistic enough" treatment when nobody cared about realism in the TES series until Skyrim came out

[chitoryu12]

I think I'd care less about it if the game didn't make so many attempts at LOOKING realistic. Minimal HUD, physical maps and GPS used to navigate, spreading fire, and an emphasis on the dirty combat and gray, sometimes outright black morality of mercenary warfare in Africa. Plus difficulty levels that emphasize taking cover and carefully planning attacks in an open world, rather than linear levels and scripted events.

And then almost all of the realism just gets ejected in actual gameplay.

I'd argue that the maps and GPS aren't exactly realistic either, since a paper map apparently tracks where you are and what direction you're facing in real time, and the GPS comes with a built-in diamond detector.

In all honesty, I don't mind the lack of realism. Far Cry 2 is not a simulation and never claimed to be one, after all. The combat is enjoyably tactical and I can't imagine making things more realistic would really add to the game. Realistic vehicle mechanics would just be tedious and annoying, as would having to master realistic weapon physics for every single new gun we got. If you really want realism out the ass for everything, that's what ArmA or Operation: Flashpoint is for.

Not a simulation, no. But a major part of the initial marketing advertised that it would be a gritty, realistic, difficult game with minimal HUD to better immerse you in the world. And then you actually play the game and the difficulty mainly comes from making enemies superhumanly durable and making almost 100% of everyone in the world instantly hostile for no good reason.

The worst part is that it would be easy to fix the problems without compromising the gameplay Tweak the difficulty levels so that higher difficulty means that both the player and the NPCs take much more damage. Make the assault rifles have low recoil and damage and the battle rifles have high recoil and damage, balancing it better and requiring players to make a bigger decision about their rifle choice, and make the more powerful weapons actually kill quickly to represent their raw power instead of a random militiaman surviving a 3-round burst from an FAL to the heart. Lower the amount of random encounters and don't just turn all the checkpoints to "Enemy" to bog down the player.

With these changes, you'd have a game that's almost identical to the existing one while having better "good realism", less fake difficulty, and more tactical choices available.

[RavynousHunter]

Anyone interested in joining a modded Minecraft server?  I'm part of a fairly small one, mostly just a few homies screwing around; really laid-back, cool kinda stuff.  We've already got an established main camp of sorts, plenty of resources ("abundance" would be an understatement, lemme tell ya), and lots of open land.

If ya are, just PM me w/ your MC username, and I'll pass it along to my admin to get you whitelisted.  Not a hard process, really, so long as you haven't had any previous convictions for trolling.  Also, I must warn you, if you try to troll the server, I'll lock you in a tomb of bedrock in hell for, if nothing else, makin me look bad.

Mod pack and other info available upon request.  Also looking for anyone who might be a good staffer, since its pretty much just me and the admin on the server staff at the mo'.

[kefkaownsall]

Strange thing is that Skyrim gets the same "this isn't realistic enough" treatment when nobody cared about realism in the TES series until Skyrim came out

New Vegas was trying to also be survival so yeah

[ironbite]

Strange thing is that Skyrim gets the same "this isn't realistic enough" treatment when nobody cared about realism in the TES series until Skyrim came out

Yes because dragons are so realistic.

[Askold]

Strange thing is that Skyrim gets the same "this isn't realistic enough" treatment when nobody cared about realism in the TES series until Skyrim came out

Yes because dragons are so realistic.

That game is a disgrace! There are so many factual errors in it that the real dragon warriors of history are turning in their graves!