How would you define a 'satisfying' weapon?
- Thread starter L4Y Duke
- Start date
1 firepower 2 Aim 3 Rate of fire and also if it can be used as a cane, laugh now but try to use a pimpcane/shotgun without falling in love
Satisfying weapon?
A dildo.
What?
For real now:
Satisfying weapons are never about the weapons themselves, it's about the impact they make. You could design the coolest looking shotgun ever, the magic is gone if you shoot someone with it and they don't even flinch. Hit someone in the foot with your sword and his foot hurts, hit someone in the chest and he reels back. It's simple really.
Also: make your weapons as distinct as possible. Give everyone a unique silhouette and colour. Quake never understood this, making everything gray/metallic and round barreled (except for the nail gun)...
A dildo.
What?
For real now:
Satisfying weapons are never about the weapons themselves, it's about the impact they make. You could design the coolest looking shotgun ever, the magic is gone if you shoot someone with it and they don't even flinch. Hit someone in the foot with your sword and his foot hurts, hit someone in the chest and he reels back. It's simple really.
Also: make your weapons as distinct as possible. Give everyone a unique silhouette and colour. Quake never understood this, making everything gray/metallic and round barreled (except for the nail gun)...
The R700 in COD4 is very satisfying to use. Very accurate but can take a bit of use to get it right, and has the best noise, especially when there's a lull in play and it's quiet.
A satisfying weapon, for me at least, needs to sound good above all else. Battlefield: Bad Company's weapons sound like the mutt's chutneys (especially the XM8, even though I hate the actual weapon), but they don't have much stopping power so they do fall a bit flat.
A weapon that 'clicks' with me is one that I can hold down the trigger at the exact moment my opponent does, and shred him first. It needs to be accurate for long-range shots, but also a good bullet hose when fired from the hip so that it does CQC well.
Shotguns, if animated and audio'd well can also be the most satisfying weapons in any game. A loud 'blam' followed by a shower of blood, a 'clump', and the smooth, satisfying sound of the pump action racking back... drool.
All of this is of course futile if the weapon takes an entire clip to drop somebody, something many game developers need to understand.
A few of my personal favourites:
Counter-Strike/Source's M3 - headshots with this thing are just orgasmic.
Crackdown's semi-automatic homing rocket launcher - for obivous reasons...
Battlefield Vietnam's M16 and XM177E2 - sounds are great, animations are excellent. Both can drop a man in two shots.
Rainbow Six Vegas's MP5A5 - felt more like a knife than a gun because of its quick, agressive sounds and rate of fire. Great on burst mode.
The Getaway's Glock 17s - auto-aim made it a little easy, but popping somebody with lead with these was great fun.
Crysis's SCAR - as crap as Crysis was, the SCAR was a nicely rounded weapon with satisfying animations and good sound.
Crysis's MPX8 - sounds fantastic, but that's it.
A weapon that 'clicks' with me is one that I can hold down the trigger at the exact moment my opponent does, and shred him first. It needs to be accurate for long-range shots, but also a good bullet hose when fired from the hip so that it does CQC well.
Shotguns, if animated and audio'd well can also be the most satisfying weapons in any game. A loud 'blam' followed by a shower of blood, a 'clump', and the smooth, satisfying sound of the pump action racking back... drool.
All of this is of course futile if the weapon takes an entire clip to drop somebody, something many game developers need to understand.
A few of my personal favourites:
Counter-Strike/Source's M3 - headshots with this thing are just orgasmic.
Crackdown's semi-automatic homing rocket launcher - for obivous reasons...
Battlefield Vietnam's M16 and XM177E2 - sounds are great, animations are excellent. Both can drop a man in two shots.
Rainbow Six Vegas's MP5A5 - felt more like a knife than a gun because of its quick, agressive sounds and rate of fire. Great on burst mode.
The Getaway's Glock 17s - auto-aim made it a little easy, but popping somebody with lead with these was great fun.
Crysis's SCAR - as crap as Crysis was, the SCAR was a nicely rounded weapon with satisfying animations and good sound.
Crysis's MPX8 - sounds fantastic, but that's it.
I mostly look for power and accuracy in a weapon, so in most FPS games I always jump for a sniper rifle if there is one, or anything with a scope if nothing else. I also like booby traps, the sadistic old git in me finds something very satisfying about a crateload of C4 detonating under an infantryman's feet 
Well, it kinda depends...
When you're trying to backstab someone mercilessly and get away with it you'd want something moderately accurate, silenced, scoped and preferably somewhat powerful (Crysis, SCAR with sniper scope, silencer and cloak on )
But when all subtlety is tossed overboard I'm the first to grab myself a Flak Cannon and make em catch shrapnel bombs with their foreheads, or alternatively attempt to shove their heads up the barrel(s) of the ridiculously overpowered for-final-boss-only tools you occasionally get (for example Crysis, nuclear grenade launcher)
When you're trying to backstab someone mercilessly and get away with it you'd want something moderately accurate, silenced, scoped and preferably somewhat powerful (Crysis, SCAR with sniper scope, silencer and cloak on
)But when all subtlety is tossed overboard I'm the first to grab myself a Flak Cannon and make em catch shrapnel bombs with their foreheads, or alternatively attempt to shove their heads up the barrel(s) of the ridiculously overpowered for-final-boss-only tools you occasionally get (for example Crysis, nuclear grenade launcher)
Something that makes a large *thunk* noise is good for me. It has to make a good noise when it hits, and if it makes a small explosion on impact it makes the headshot all the sweeter.
Accuracy and Rate of Fire make a good gun. For example on Battlefield Bad Company I prefer the AN94 to the M16. The AN94 is ludicrously weak with an amazing rate of fire and accuracy. Now the M16 has amazing power and accuracy but a crap rate of fire. I prefer the AN94 and I do alot better when using it.L4Y Duke said:
Also sound can make a good gun also. Even if the gun is terrible, Id use it if it sounded good.
what makes a satisfying weapon is the situation you use it in, like impact hammering someone in the face while they try to tee-bag someone else, and seeing there body burst into a hundred pieces (if you don't find that satisfying, you just aren't human!)
Impact hammer, UT3!
Impact hammer, UT3!
Sound, weight, and it's effect on an enemy. All of the weapons are satisfying in Left 4 Dead for example, and they're all as normal as you can get. Even the lowly pistols are AWESOME, because it is quite cool (as I and others have commented) to watch zombies run towards you, jerk and stagger realistically when you shoot them, take a few steps, then fall over.
The huge machine gun in Black is extremely satisfying. It looks as big as your character, has massive recoil and kills things very fast.
Ultimately, I'd say how satisfying a weapon is is directly proportional to how it affects opponents. Cool-looking weapons are pointless if they're not fun to use. And using high-caliber firearms should always FEEL like it (something Black and Urban Chaos did very well.) I mean, if you fire a .50 caliber pistol in real life, your arm is gonna about fly off your body. With that in mind, the character in the video game should either fire with both hands or there should be TONS of recoil. Maybe both. And enemies should be blasted back at least 20 feet with every shot.
I'm usually against realism in games, but this kind of realism only makes the weapons more fun to use.
Ultimately, I'd say how satisfying a weapon is is directly proportional to how it affects opponents. Cool-looking weapons are pointless if they're not fun to use. And using high-caliber firearms should always FEEL like it (something Black and Urban Chaos did very well.) I mean, if you fire a .50 caliber pistol in real life, your arm is gonna about fly off your body. With that in mind, the character in the video game should either fire with both hands or there should be TONS of recoil. Maybe both. And enemies should be blasted back at least 20 feet with every shot.
I'm usually against realism in games, but this kind of realism only makes the weapons more fun to use.
Its hard to say. Usually I prefer a weapon that just has a specific 'feel' to it. This is rather open ended I know but its also the truth. For example I love the Shiskabober and the Chinese assault rifle in Fallout 3, however while I consider these weapons (as well as the Rock-it-launcher) to be loads of fun the weapon I really get that feel from is the Hunting rifle. I know it doesn't do the same damage as the rifle, Reload speed is a joke until you get high enough with Small arms, Ammo is plentiful to a point but not too much so. The only plus is that its easy to mantian. And yet I love the satisfying feel of it. I love being able to go into VATS and knowing that odds are good my shot is going to take the head off of whoever i'm aiming at. I love the simplicity and straightforwardness even though other weapons are even more so for both.
Oddly I can only describe it as feeling a kind of 'crunch' feeling when I use it. A kind of deep impulse of sorts. I suppose the ammo and range kind of works but to its favor but at the same time its not anything logical that makes it satisfying to me.
Another example is in the old rainbow 6 for the 64 (I forget which one) And for many subsequent similar games I tend to prefer the Shotgun. I know that it does not have the overall tactical importance or stopping power but It gives me that same feel. its that palpable feel it gives you which just hits a button deep down with me and makes me feel happy.
I don't know what the matching criteria is with this as I prefer things like the Assault rifle in Turok and the ballers in Hitman. I just KNOW when a gun, sword or other weapon works for me.
Oddly I can only describe it as feeling a kind of 'crunch' feeling when I use it. A kind of deep impulse of sorts. I suppose the ammo and range kind of works but to its favor but at the same time its not anything logical that makes it satisfying to me.
Another example is in the old rainbow 6 for the 64 (I forget which one) And for many subsequent similar games I tend to prefer the Shotgun. I know that it does not have the overall tactical importance or stopping power but It gives me that same feel. its that palpable feel it gives you which just hits a button deep down with me and makes me feel happy.
I don't know what the matching criteria is with this as I prefer things like the Assault rifle in Turok and the ballers in Hitman. I just KNOW when a gun, sword or other weapon works for me.
