Extra Punctuation: A Hard Weapon Is Good to Find

[Puggeh]

As far as "feeling" and "sound" to a gun without it being anything out of the ordinary, I always thought highly of Killing Floor's pump shotgun. It wasn't very powerful, but sounded like a cannon, felt like there was actual effort into pumping it each time (based on animation), and still gave enemies a strong kick-back when it did finally punch through their health.
Not much I can say on that game's overall positives, but some design choices like that have gotten me to look back on it somewhat fondly.

 

[Mr Companion]

Demons Souls, every weapon is satisfying as hell. Even the smallest blade sounds like its tearing into your opponent and thats only slashing, getting a backstab or a counter in sees your character jamming the given weapon right into the victim and kicking him/her away violently.

 

[Joshroom]

For me some of weapons in Fallout 3 were the best. Especially the hunting rifle and the Fat Boy. The Hunting Rifle had a beautiful shot sound and I loved the reload; while the Fat Boy made a very satisfying 'phoot' noise as you launched the nuke.

 

[Stein Inge]

Where can I get the "Game Maker" Yahtzee was using?

Sounds like fun..

EDIT:
OT: The Metal Gear series have some of my favorite guns: from the SOCOM to the PSG1. They were all great.

 

[Num1d1um]

First thing anybody making a fps swords-and-bows game needs to do is make the swords affect the enemy. This is what ruined oblivion for me. Basically the entire appeal of mellee weapons is that, unlike bullets, you're beating them with a heavy, solid object, and they need to react accordingly. This was always what I liked about Condemned. They make beating somebody to death with a drive shaft FEEL like you're beating somebody to death with a drive shaft.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.

 

[PsiMatrix]

There's been so many wonderful weapons I've wielded in games.

One of my favourites was from Resident Evil 2 - the upgraded shotgun. If ever there was a gun that was equal to the Doom 2 double-barrelled, that was it. It sounded awesome and turned the zombies into wonderful splatter marks against the wall (figuratively since the game had bitmap backdrops). EDIT - oh and the recoil really did give you a sense of 'fuck me'. I once cheated by giving it umlimited ammo and navigated the entire police station using the recoil alone.

Turok 2 has another 'pick up the pieces' weapon in the form of the Fusion Cannon (aka Nuke). Long wind up noise, released the plasma and then KABOOM!, everything was gone. One of its other more satisfying weapons was the Cerebral Bore. A small homing shell that attached to the victim's skull and literally bore out their brains in a lovely visceral blood fountain and then they dropped dead. Very satisfying.

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

First thing anybody making a fps swords-and-bows game needs to do is make the swords affect the enemy. This is what ruined oblivion for me. Basically the entire appeal of mellee weapons is that, unlike bullets, you're beating them with a heavy, solid object, and they need to react accordingly.

And there goes my line. Yeah, I eventually fell out of love with Oblivion partially for that reason.

You just swing your weapon over and over again until the target falls dead. Even if you use a power attack with a hammer, it doesn't exactly send them flying. If you shoot fireballs at a charging enemy, they just take it and keep coming at you unphased. Arrows have no feeling of impact behind them. If you're fighting a powerful enemy, it could have arrows sticking out of its face and not flinch.

I love my Borderlands Burning Revolver. The sound from pulling the trigger is really satisfying, as is being able to see your enemy flinch as they get impacted by a burning slug and later burn to ashes. Unless I find a good Repeater with X3+ Shock or Corrosion, I might never stop using Revolvers. I also love my uber high capacity rapid fire shotgun when I just have to tear something apart really quickly (or one-shot a bunch of smaller enemies in quick succession).

 

[Thamian]

As far as viscerally pleasing guns are concerned, a fair few of the guns in HL2 were awesome (shotgun, pulse rifle, assault rifle's secondary fire, crossbow... even the super grav gun was great fun on the grounds that you could grab enemies with it and then take out entire platoons with their corpse), the nuke launcher in ME2 was amazing even if it was generally bloody useless (and the widow... Oh gods the widow), and I'm really running out of memorable guns at this point...

Ah well, the real point is detail and sound design (the latter of which is so often overlooked in favour of the music and graphical design), and some of the best examples of both I've yet seen were RTSs. Specifically Ground Control (which even had the sound of stray rounds wizzing past the camera and the sounds and sights of spent cases being ejected from the autoloaders on the tanks), C&C3 (anyone else remember the awesomeness of a massed Mammoth tank charge from before they emasculated the things?) and just about everything Relic's ever made (Homeworld series (i'll include cataclysm in this), DoW1 and DoW2, and I haven't played the other one or two games).

EDIT: Upon further reflection I realised that othe genres have turned out some doozies as well such as System Shock 2, the first two Dungeon Siege games (I haven't played the third yet, but considering Square Enix was behind it I'm not hopeful), and Half Life I've already mentioned.

 

[puffy786]

A hard weapon is good to find? Is that a typo or something?
Well I love awesome weapons and I expect different awesome weapons from different games. They usually only appear in Sci-Fi games while you'll be damned if you can be a above average gun in a "realistic" brown FPS where awesomeness is somehow the polar opposite of being hardcore. One awesome weapon that I can think of right now is the lightning gun from Dark Corners of the Earth. It has spinning bolts that is visibly electrified with the electricity flowing in between each bolt. Upon charging the gun, the bolts bends out and a loop of electricity starts flowing around the bolts quickly with a "chew" sound being played. Upon firing, the screen turns part white, Jack gets a visible kickback, and then the gun than emits a cloud of electricity that blurs the screen upon detonation. What I didn't like was the charging time, and the lack of visible effect upon the enemy, and it gets dull after a while since the only other weapons, the tommy and rifle, is useless against the monsters so spamming lightning losses its touch by the end of the game.

 

[puffy786]

Theres also a list on Cool Weapons
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ImpossiblyCoolWeapon

 

[Saelune]

Ah, never did I truly understand this idea until Call of Duty 3. Having mastered the Kar 98k Bolt Action Rifle in CoD2, I immediatly used it in CoD3...but it wasnt the same. It felt like some pea shooter. Sure it worked the same, but it did not feel as satisfactory to pop your head from across the map (sans scope).

 

[sukotsuto]

It's not just in guns - the overall "feel", as in the illusion of substance and weight behind your character and their actions without relying on your controller hardware giving that illusion via vibration, is itself something game designers really has to pay attention to.

 

[finc]

I always used to think the BFG 9000 in Doom was the most underwhelming weapon in the game. Especially when it didn't actually kill anything.

 

[Sansha]

I disagree on the count of Blood's shotgun. I thoroughly enjoyed the enormous amount of noise and power it vomited when using the alternate fire (default X key). The primary fire - one barrel at once - was a bit flimsy, but both at once - and all four when one has Akimbo - is between 'painful' and 'hellfire', and the familiar sound of the speed reload was a subtle delight. It doesn't have to be loud, it just has to sound right.

 

[Daemonate]

Yahtzee:

Little old game called Crimsonland by 10ton. Nab the shareware, and shoot some hot joy. Most satisfying shooting outside of DooM2 and Painkiller.

Also, Quake's Thunderbolt ('shaft') weapon surely deserves an honourable mention. The most visceral firing and impacting of any gun that doesn't technically blow things up.

 

[Anchupom]

I thought a good example of a good weapon was the pistol in BulletStorm.
It felt... Right.

 

[goldenheart323]

Dead Rising has very visceral sounds to its weapons.
The THUNK of the sledge on the hard floor and the WHICK of the golf club are the most memorable for me. Dead Rising 2 has really puny sounding attacks. I couldn't believe how weak the sledge sounded in DR2. I didn't enjoy killing zombies nearly as much. At times it even felt more like a chore than something to do for fun.

Most of the guns in Black on Xbox 1, (and PS2,) were pretty sweet sounding too. I guess that's why so many reviewers called it "gun porn".

 

[Voulan]

I nominate the Yithian Energy Cannon (or Lightning Gun) from Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth. Just after 1:30 in the video.

Now that's a clear signal that you've become mighty.

 

[lowkey_jotunn]

Fallout 3: Railway Rifle.

Loved that thing. It shoots big metal spikes, with appropriate boom and recoil (not overpower, but enough to let you know it fired). If you hit an enemy square in the head,you can decapitate them and pin their head to whatever solid surface is in the line of fire, while the body slumps lifeless to the ground.

Plus, they put a little choo-choo sounds effect after the shot, for giggles.

Spoiler: Video

Pay special attention at the end, when he shoots the dead body, just for kicks.


A few other weapons in that game, particular the Tesla Cannon, had a VEEERY satisfying blast, recoil and effect. Especially when you were dropping helicopters outta the sky. *BOOM*


Other guns I can think of offhand with suitably awesome effects: The hand cannon and upgraded SMG from Mass Effect 2. Completely different ends of the spectrum, but awesome at both ends. The upgraded "Krogan Only" shotgun was less awesome, imo. At least from the perspective covered here. The chainsaw and rocket launcher from Doom 2 where winners. (you already mentioned the Shotgun) And who can pass up the Original Shotgun from Halo 1. Or a fully realized needler blast.