Realistic or unrealistic

[shaboinkin]

I've seen many of my friends, and online people praising a game for being realistic. I for one, do not care to much about realistic games, for the whole point of video games is to allow ourselves to do things that we would/could not do in real life

My question is: Which do you prefer? why

 

[Papaya Melancholy]

Obviously the game is about having fun, not being realistic. However, I think a lot of games could use a bit more realism. I mean, getting money by killing monsters? When did this begin to make sense? Are they carrying cash? Do you sell their skin? When you find actual solutions to problems like this, games get more interesting.

 

[Fatalis67]

Well, if you play a game and an NPC will buy every single ear of corn you bring him into the millions of ears, you will complain about it, but when you sell him 20 ears and then he runs out of money, you get mad that you have to find another corn buyer.

 

[fyrh56]

I like both realistic and non-realistic titles, but it all comes down to what is expected of the game, for example:

The Gran Turismo series is fun because it's realistic. It uses real cars, real brands and simulates real physics.
The Ridge Racer series is fun because it's an arcade-like game. No realism here.
The NFS series stopped being fun because they couldn't decide on which route they wanted to go, and eventually cocked the whole thing up.

 

[Mstrswrd]

It really depends on the game. Obviously, something like Devil May Cry can never have much realism, but a real world shooter should not have things like instant health packs. i remember hearing that originally, Assassin's Creed was going to have a realistic health bar approach. A few hits, and your dead. That they changed it annoys me, however, fit the idea of "Synchronization" that they game had.

 

[stompy]

Like fyrh said, it's all about what you expect from the game. I like Halo, and Cod4, because they make you a one man army (ok, maybe not so much Veteran, but you get the idea). I like BiA, though, because of its realism. It makes you part of a squad (albeit squad leader), and a piss-weak bad shot, so to survive, the key to success is to use your squad effectively.

 

[Sylocat]

The purpose of fiction is to help you escape from reality.

 

[Frosk]

I'm going to agree with fyrh and Stompy, it depends on the game you are playing.

 

[Easykill]

I liked Morrowind. A healthy compromise, a fantasy where even a rat can kill you if you don't take the time to get your bearings and run out of town weaponless and naked.

 

[x434343]

Both. CoD4 and Half-Life 2 are realistic and widely praised. Team Fortress n00b and Brawl are unrealistic and are widely praised.

 

[flamedance58]

Depends wholey on the game.

If it's a historical game, like WWI/II games and the likes then the more realistic the better.
Games like CS too are supposed to be more modern day and so the realism is a plus.

On the otherhand, sometimes if you're too realistic it can be stupid; like the cases of being shot in the hand making you unable to use it, or being at 1hp and being forced into a 90% speed reduction and unable to do anything..can just be plain annoying.

Vice versa, fantasy games and the like can be way up on the "God Powers!" ladder where you can destroy armies with a mere spell and well where you're one long kung-fu dude against several thousand baddies (Drakengard, Heavenly Sword(s), etc.).

 

[L4Y Duke]

I like a mixture of both.

I love tactical shooters such as Rainbow 6 and Ghost Recon, but I also love games like God Hand, which throw realism out the window, much like how random events throw strategy out the window (See: ZP Review - No More Heroes)

 

[MaxRaine]

I agree that it depends on what is expected of the game. Games built around realism should be realistic.

I however tend to not play games like that, I prefer super powered characters and/or fantasy settings. And, despite what other people might think, games in fantasy settings should not strive for realism... it's a paradox.

 

[Jeroen Stout]

The purpose of fiction is to help you escape from reality.

This type of one-liner irks me, as it almost sounds apologetic - in my view fiction is part of storytelling and part of reality, not something completely set apart from it. It can help you escape to a fantasy world where happy-holly is going on, or it can reflect on reality. It can tell you something about your daily life or the world in general.
Most games may actually not tell you anything about anything and offer you nothing but bland and repetitive amounts of 'fun', of course, but I think that is rather because on the whole games are immature than because fiction on a whole can offer nothing but that.

...no, I don't like Mario Cart.

Realism is relative as well, Tim Schafer may write games about the land of the dead and psychic summer camps, his game are terribly 'realistic' in the sense that characters and situations are etched out. The world is surreal, yet the characters are real. In that regard many war games have a real world but surreal characters that are made out of cardbox.

Regarding realism and Psychonauts: The memories of the various people you meet, agent Vodello in particular, really connect to me on a human level that I haven't seen any other games do. I think that is some 'realism' on a human level.

All in all I value realistic characters and consequence a lot more than guns making the right sound of 'pow pow pow'.

 

[Credge]

I used to be all about game realism when I was younger and less mature. This has, however, changed recently and I could care less about how realistic a game is. In fact, I can't stand to play games that are realistic.

 

[newnightcreature0]

Usually, I prefer an escape from realism. Psychonauts, The Ratchet and Clank Series, Resistance, God of War, Kingdom Hearts, it provides the escape from reality as well as some good humor that i enjoy in video games.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Usually, I prefer an escape from realism. Psychonauts, The Ratchet and Clank Series, Resistance, God of War, Kingdom Hearts, it provides the escape from reality as well as some good humor that i enjoy in video games.

Agreed, I find that the more realistic a game is, the more it irks me when things go awry.

There's a difference between being fantastic and skewed though. Devil May Cry doesn't appeal because the Physicist in me shouts "As iF!!!", but Psychonauts blends it's own physics into the game.

Taking a .50 shot to the head and surviving? Stupid. Soaking up a fireball? That's ok.