So after some busy weeks I finally popped open Battlefield 4 and started playing. I like the campaign mode of FPS games and usually enjoy playing through the story line. On my first session BF4 seems pretty glitchy but thats another matter. I realized there are a few things that each FPS is now doing that are quite annoying. Both CoD and BF franchises are guilty of over using these story line techniques.
The “I got blown up and my ears are ringing and I can’t control myself,”(variation, “I’m under water and almost drowning and have to wait until someone pulls me out at the last second”). I think it was borrowed originally from Saving Private Ryan when Tom Hanks gets his bell rung on the beach. It worked the first couple of times I saw it in video games but now its annoying. Now its just a frustrating time in which they won’t let me control my character. CoD does this over and over but BF is guilty too.
Starting a mission in the middle then flashing back to the beginning of it with (18 hours earlier). I know its an attempt to be cinematic but it is way over done. BF4 did this right at the beginning.
Torturing or killing off your character. It was shocking when CoD first killed off a point of view character. Now I’ve come to expect it.
Most games can be rated using TTC (Time To Crate- how long it is after you start before you see your first crate). Also, most shooters have a sewer level or three.
Always shoot the red barrel. Conversely, never hide behind the red barrel.
If a weapon you’ve never seen before is sitting, brightly lit, in the middle of a room, make sure you’re fully healed and you’ve got tons of ammo in all of your weapons- because as soon as you touch that new weapon, you’re going to be ambushed.
At some point you need to be separated from your companions. Floor collapse, wall collapse, bus crashed through the wall between you… time to take the scenic route!
You’re the man for [any/every] job: We need you to act as sniper, now we need you to be the turret gunner, now you need to set the explosive, now you’re going to have to fly the helicopter… Don’t ask what your companions’ specialties are.
Less plot oriented is the ole “It takes three shotgun blasts to do the job of one knife swipe/axe chop/arrow or bolt shot” bit where today’s Navy Seals would be better off equipped as feudal soldiers than modern fighters. And “Hand grenades: Great against armored personnel carriers, less useful against wooden doors”.
I think those aren’t so much cliches as necessary parts of game play. In real life if you get shot once in the foot you are out of the fight. That would be a pretty boring game. And most games can’t be open worlds. That makes for much different game play. Sort of like with the earlier CoD games. If you stayed in one spot thousands of enemies would continue to attack. Move up 10 feet and your guys join you and end the attack. That’s not a cliche just a limitation.
I’ll add bullet proof furniture.
Getting shot at by 5 guys with assault rifles? Just duck behind a couch (or even worse into an office cubicle) and you’ll be fine.
You can carry 90 shotgun shells, and currently have 88. You walk over a box of 20 shells. You now have 90 shells, and the box is gone. Where did the 18 shells go?
And unlike a lot of complaints, this one seems like it could be very easily taken care of. How hard would it be to make the box an object that has a variable amount of shells?
My problem with many FP games is that the allowable/workable movement range is narrower than my hallway. My character is in a space that’s drawn as about 10 yards wide, but he can move at most one foot to each side and if he’s not completely centered things go pear-shaped? Fuck this shit. “Limited range of movement” shouldn’t mean “required to perform an exact set of clicks or you can’t even get through the first door”.
The humble pistol is a rapid-fire high-damage long-range beast. It seems to grow worse the closer you are to an opponent, where auto weapons become better.
Grenades are best thrown while jumping and always bounce like flubber. Given all of the desert environments in today’s games, I’d love to see a grenade actually land in sand or grass without looking like an NFL punt return.
Night vision goggles with grainy static-ey poor resolution pixelly Predator-vision. Real military personal NVGs are essentially crystal clear with amazing optics, and aside from narrowing the field of view they’re better than my real eyes
Your greatest explosive option on any map is the parked rusty Chevy. The gas tanks on old cars go supernova.
My son was watching me play through HalfLife 2 for the first time, and when we got to the point where I’ve picked up all the cool weapons and ammo and I got to the secret base, the professor says “Okay, let’s get you out of that suit…” and my son and I are both going “NOOOOOOO!!!”
Exploding barrels, too. Propane tanks. Exploding cars and such. Fallout is allowable because the cars have nuclear engines.
The revolver is always the most powerful weapon. Even if your auto is .45 and the revolver is presumably .357, it’s not a little stronger, but many times more so.
Human enemies are usually brave and hardened, even if $10/hour mooks. The better paid ones just take more hits. They never flee except to find a new position to attack.
I’d say the flashlight is pretty realistic if you play as a civilian, considering how often most people charge their batteries
Some games account for that, but not many. Also, these usually occur in games: 1) enemies will drop a fixed amount of ammo, no matter how many they shot at you. They will shoot as if excessive waste isn’t coming out of their paychecks. 2) if using a magazine-based gun, and you fire 2 of 30 rounds then reload, the other 28 rounds go back into your pool without having to grab a 28-round magazine later on. Also, Garands are reloaded the same way whether you fire all 8 rounds or just 1. You do not need to manually remove a partially full clip, it just ping!s into the air.
Something Important! is happening somewhere in view, let me take away your controls so you can gawp at it.
I used to think it robbed players of their agency for no good reason, until I watched some friends play through Bioshock: Infinite. I was all, "No dude, look over there. Something. Important! Is. Happening. No, the other way! Now you’re supposed to be having a touching moment with Elizabeth, stop staring at the floor!
I guess some players just don’t know how to frame a scene.
Water dripping right on your eyes in a FPS makes little droplets that run down, stick, or slowly fade away, just like they would on a windshield, don’t you know?
