I don't know why I am posting this, I don't usually like starting threads for some reason, and a quick search showed me linear tends to be linked with plot line and other single player elements so if this has been raised it was months ago. Oh well:
One thing that bothers me about a lot of MP games, particularly those who boast realistic settings, is the fact most of the maps are very, VERY, linear. They consist of nothing more then a handful, normally two, of pathways you can take as you run around the map completing what normally amounts to nothing more then: kill the other guy. Even games that are released these last few months have these style maps. Honestly, you could rip away the 'realistic textures' and replace them with Lego blocks and still have the same game play.
What really prevents a designer from producing a realistic urban environment for us to fight over?
COD4 comes to mind a lot, for while I haven't played it in months on end I constantly thought on how easily the maps could of been flushed out for a more realistic battle field. I couldn't help looking at the flimsy wooden doors preventing my entrance into a building and thinking 'why can't I turn a door knob!?' Windows, shadowy and deep, beaconed me to undertake some realistic sniping only to mock me by being nothing more then textures on a flat plane. Let us not mention the very few 'defensive' positions all being designed so they could easily be flanked, grenaded or leave a sniper/MGer exposed to enemy fire.
All which you would NOT see in a war torn urban environment. These sort of settings limit the way you can fight, prevent you from organising real tactics past 'block the choke point with their dead,' and not just favour running around like a chicken with no head... but ensure it is the ONLY thing you can do.
Imagine, if you would, any small map which boasts heavy urban warfare where you could go into every building. Where you could easily slip down side allies, behind those small apartment blocks, and climb onto rooftops. Where you and a friend or two could take positions in that four apartment, over looking the path the enemy would likely take, and just wait till you could gun them all dead in a single solid move.
Would that not be a better gaming experience?
So how, how, do we get map designers to create such maps?
As for games like battle-field: Their non-linear maps tend to be nothing more then flat landscapes with a few structures. Many times even then the structures are nothing more then blocks with a single floor and roof accessible! What few urban combat maps that do exist are all have the same fault of having buildings as nothing more then 'impassable blocks.' Coupled with the size of the maps it just make it more frustrating, given you need a few hundred people to make the game seem like a realistic battle.
One thing that bothers me about a lot of MP games, particularly those who boast realistic settings, is the fact most of the maps are very, VERY, linear. They consist of nothing more then a handful, normally two, of pathways you can take as you run around the map completing what normally amounts to nothing more then: kill the other guy. Even games that are released these last few months have these style maps. Honestly, you could rip away the 'realistic textures' and replace them with Lego blocks and still have the same game play.
What really prevents a designer from producing a realistic urban environment for us to fight over?
COD4 comes to mind a lot, for while I haven't played it in months on end I constantly thought on how easily the maps could of been flushed out for a more realistic battle field. I couldn't help looking at the flimsy wooden doors preventing my entrance into a building and thinking 'why can't I turn a door knob!?' Windows, shadowy and deep, beaconed me to undertake some realistic sniping only to mock me by being nothing more then textures on a flat plane. Let us not mention the very few 'defensive' positions all being designed so they could easily be flanked, grenaded or leave a sniper/MGer exposed to enemy fire.
All which you would NOT see in a war torn urban environment. These sort of settings limit the way you can fight, prevent you from organising real tactics past 'block the choke point with their dead,' and not just favour running around like a chicken with no head... but ensure it is the ONLY thing you can do.
Imagine, if you would, any small map which boasts heavy urban warfare where you could go into every building. Where you could easily slip down side allies, behind those small apartment blocks, and climb onto rooftops. Where you and a friend or two could take positions in that four apartment, over looking the path the enemy would likely take, and just wait till you could gun them all dead in a single solid move.
Would that not be a better gaming experience?
So how, how, do we get map designers to create such maps?
As for games like battle-field: Their non-linear maps tend to be nothing more then flat landscapes with a few structures. Many times even then the structures are nothing more then blocks with a single floor and roof accessible! What few urban combat maps that do exist are all have the same fault of having buildings as nothing more then 'impassable blocks.' Coupled with the size of the maps it just make it more frustrating, given you need a few hundred people to make the game seem like a realistic battle.
