297: Pills Here!

[LadyRhian]

What's that? Another chance to plug Earthbound? Why yes, I do believe I'll take that one...

The above mentioned game takes an interesting approach to food--condiments! Condiments make everything better, used correctly, and will amplify the effects of food. And food, well, food is a magical item that restores health! And, no just health--puddings, cakes, pies, truffles, and other delicious desserts will supply Psychic energy, revitalizing you! Who knew??
Then there's the Gauntlet strategy, of offering different levels of food. Fruit? Well, if you have a papercut, sure, go get some fruit. What? Ham? Well, you better be missing a leg, ya hear? Eh? What's that? You're almost decapitated, you've stepped in spring-launched spikes, your arm is on fire, and you're more than a bit peckish? Well, you best get a meal then--hop to it it kiddo!

Yeah, Taskmaker and Tomb of Taskmaker had that... TOT's highest (best) healing item was a can of spinach. "I'm hero the sailor man..." Okay, maybe not. And then you had everything from iron rations to apples and steak for your healing needs, plus potion of healing. Avernum goes this one better. Not only do you have all sorts of food and potions to heal with, but bandages as well!

 

[sockgirl]

You forgot to mention that junkie Lara Croft. She chugs more pain medication than Dr House! I wonder who leaves all this medication lying around? Especially in tombraider. She's going into a tomb where no where has entered for thousands of years, but then who left all these weapons, ammos, and medipacks about??

 

[HatstandTuesday]

Redneck Rampage:
Has gauges for intoxication (where you want to be sightly drunk at all times) and for how full you are. Both eating and drinking improve your health, and eating reduces your level of intoxication. When you are too full you fart, which alerts everyone to your position, but also drags the gauge back down.. It also has a key for taking a wee (worth 2% health if you actually need one). When you drink too much it becomes impossible to move straight. If you keep drinking, you fall over and the screen goes out of focus.

 

[kahlzun]

The game that springs to mind is Max Payne.
Health in that game was basically painkillers.

 

[carpathic]

I never use the pills on Fallout other than radaway and stimpacks. I hate when my guys get addicted to anything.

I once got addicted to radaway. I should have taken a screenshot.

 

[damienwoodi]

Beware pills because they can cause severe damage due to side effects. Mention Findrxonline that the majority of tablets to calm the pain use acetaminophen and their reactions are dangerous for our body.

 

[Althocke]

Personally I wouldn't mind so much that pills heal all wounds regardless of how severe they are, so long as the game told me so from the beginning. Simply introduce the pills, have a character explain to me that in this game world, science has advanced to produce pills to heal wounds, repair and regrow limbs, all whilst having no side effects from overdosing, and I'll be happy. It's their world and if that's what they say pills do, that's what they do. However, without that context, I'm just chugging Ibuprofen to grow my spine back.

 

[Brainstrain]

Your article had a great topic, but you were overly cutesy in places. "So let's doff our caps in humble celebration of the continuing legacy..." do you really talk like that? It's not very conversational.

A few games address your points: Farenheit will kill you for mixing alcohol and painkillers. Pills in L4D are temporary fixes; they only work for so long, and afterward you're back where you started. Painkillers in Max Payne work best when you give them time; one shot will give you some health and slowly regenerate more. If you pop 5, you'll get maximum healing, but that's four heals you're sacrificing down the road.

Dr. Mario had a great example. If you put the wrong pills on the virus, you'll lose the level.

 

[bjj hero]

Blame TV and movies, first. They made CPR and a defibrillator into a magic spell more potent than any ingame medkit.

It goes back further than that. Once upon a time first aid training videos would show someone come around and be fine after 10 minutes of CPR. That just doesn't happen. Although I agree that defib is over used in TV, I cringe when I see defib used in completely inappropriate situation on "serious" films and TV. Thankfully it seems to happen less often as medically trained consultants are now on most shows... Either that or I now watch less TV now and am missing the gaffes.

I found metal gear solid interesting as you would catch a cold from being outside too long. It didn't affect your health but the regular sneeze (or was it a cough? I've not played it in years) would seriously hamper your stealth.

Asscreed brotherhood also does interesting things in multiplayer. All the hits are a one hit kill so there is no health. There are throwing knives which injure and slow your opponent and what seems an almost magical quick acting poison, another win for the pharmaceutical companies.

I found this interesting read, having been a paramedic in a past life.

 

[Bags159]

Are you implying that PEEEELS have side effects? At least pills in L4D don't magically heal you; they just give you temporary relief.

Games would be a lot more boring if you had to worry about side effects. "Oh no, those bottles of pills were out of date *keels over and dies*"

 

[HaraDaya]

Far Cry 2 had an interesting take on it, and my favorite part is that tho in the campaign, where you have to go through hell and back in the same firefight and thusly can cram as much morphine (and I presume amphetamines) into your system before you need to do anything, multiplayer requires you to get out of combat and patch yourself up. It may not be realistic yet, and is pretty quick, but it's better than pretty much anything else.

Also, your character suffers from illness, which was definitely a nice touch

Your character seems to be the only character who can keep injecting himself with morphine. Have you ever tried having one of your buddies get incapacitated more than once in the same fight? When you go to rescue them they keep wanting more morphine injectings, until they die. It was actually kind of powerful and unexpected.

That said, I think Far Cry 2 has the best kind of "extra life" when you die, namely the buddy rescue system. Die, and your buddy will come save you, drag you away from the hot spot, and help fight off the opposition. Die again before your buddy is rescue-ready and it's game over.
It keeps the "story" going rather than ending it and loading from a previous spot.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

One thing I never understood about the pills in Left 4 Dead:

Those are some HUGE bottles of pills. We're talking the 200-count type. Yet you can only use a bottle of pills once. Is the character sucking down the whole bottle at once? Or are they so unlucky that every bottle they come across only has two or three tablets left in them?

 

[pparrish]

"So let's doff our caps in humble celebration of the continuing legacy..." do you really talk like that? It's not very conversational.

I was born in 17th century England.

 

[Rex Fallout]

While I believe that this was a very interresting article indeed, I have to disagree with it in one big point- that no one wants to play a quick time event to heal a character during a game. I could see a war game working out quite well were every time you sustained damage you had to duck down under cover, and instead of waiting for that red annoying stuff to get out of your eyes, (cuz come on we are all macho unstoppable american super soldiers here) we pull out a bandage, wrap our arm up and continue on. Then when we take to much damage, we have to restart the level. Yes it might get annoying to some people, but it is much more real than the crap that happens in shooters nowadays. We could even implement Yahtzee's idea of a luck system to avoid bullets. I think this would work out quite well.

 

[The Youth Counselor]

Make developers aware: The Red Cross on white background is a copyrighted symbol owned by International Red Cross, and it happens more often than not that attribution for this effect is not paid in proper.

Copyright lawyers take note: The red cross on a white background was by the Knights Templar, who can't sue because they were killed off, disbanded, and live on in secret as organizations such as the Illumanati, Free Masons, and International Red Cross.

 

[Tom Phoenix]

Ok, why has this not been posted yet?

 

[Anarchemitis]

Make developers aware: The Red Cross on white background is a copyrighted symbol owned by International Red Cross, and it happens more often than not that attribution for this effect is not paid in proper.

Copyright lawyers take note: The red cross on a white background was by the Knights Templar, who can't sue because they were killed off, disbanded, and live on in secret as organizations such as the Illumanati, Free Masons, and International Red Cross.

They never made it a copyright did they?

 

[Deity1986]

I think if the games market widened out (what with phone apps and the wii and all) eventually some medical students will make a doctor sim that does well and that might then go on to affect how other games treat medicine.

 

[Museli]

Whenever I think of in-game healing, I always go back to Streets of Rage. In a back alley with some thugs assaulting you? No problem - simply punch the nearest trash cans until you find a freshly roasted chicken inside one, then devour it in one bite. You're now ready to fight again

 

[awatkins]

All the pills in the games are just placebos and your character only THINKS they have more health.