AmericanWarMachine said:
A Few Notes on Weapons:
1) Guns need to be reffed to as whatever their gun-type is in a game, that is all. I don't need to, nor do I want to, know the name of the weapon I am using
I'll admit to having tired of traditional-type FPSes at least 5 years ago. Apart from something like CS or MW/COD where its sort of justified, have games generally drifted away from the old fists-chainsaw-pistol/x2-shotgun/db-chain/nailgun-plasma/railgun-various_uberweapons (grenade/rocket/bfg/etc) progression? Even GTA seems to keep it quite simple.
(Guns) were fun, there were plenty, and you were encouraged to use the biggest, baddest gun you could find. That is not the case today. Instead, you are almost always restricted to infinite ammo of the base starting gun (usually a very weak pistol), with about 8 or 9 bullets for the fun gun.
I'm not sure what old game you're referring to... even in Doom or Wolfenstein (the one that proudly claimed to be "3D"), you could get plenty of clips and shells for the workaday sidearm and boomstick, but had to be careful to ration your power cells for the plasma and BFG... or maybe you always played with "IDDQD" god-mode on?
(what am i saying... of COURSE you did. EVERYONE did. Just as everyone tweaked things in the Quake console for extra ammo/health/armour, low gravity, noclip/flight and crazy view angles. That sort of stuff also makes it more fun - Gary's Mod sandbox style
)
Where are all the swords ands chainsaws? Other than Left4Dead2, there haven't been ANY chainsaws in almost any games that have been a viable part of game-play since GTA Vice City.
Seriously? I'm going to have to boot up San Andreas now and check
I think it's probably because on the whole, ranged weapons are a lot easier and more satisfying to use than melee ones. Certainly a lot *safer*. As is in real life, so is in most games. The chainsaw was pretty cool to use for a bit in the old 2.5D games, but after the first few goes quickly got banished to the "weapon of last resort" bin, as it was slightly better than using fists and was genuinely the only one with infinite ammo.
Besides you can generally get the same effect by just running someone down.
The question I feel like asking is: have we got enough RPGs and flamethrowers? Both are weapons with fantastic comedic/entertainment value and surprising flexibility. And remember: Ninjas can't catch you if you're on fire.
Shotguns need to actually be shotguns. I'm not sure why, but Shotguns seem to be given this idea that they have an effective range of 20 feet, TOPS, in every medium they are represented in.
Real shotguns actually don't have a great effective range, certainly if you want it to have much stopping power against anything more than a fox-sized opponent, and usually don't have a magazine that will store more than 4 shots. They're built as utility and close-range hunting firearms rather than proper offensive weapons. What you're probably thinking of is a rifle, one built to take large calibre rounds, possibly in a 10+ bullet magazine, rather than an un-rifled 12-guage twin barrel with a very limited shot capacity that fires cartridges of lead pellets.
Close up, they'll take your face off in a very ugly and effective fashion, but once the target is more than a few seconds' sprint away, all the accuracy and stopping power is gone, and you'll only realistically take down a pigeon (or a clay substitute). There's a reason that large-game huntsmen (deer, big cats, whatever) use hunting rifles instead. It's because that kind of gun will pwn the shotgun in any condition other than close-quarters combat where you won't be able to squeeze off more than a few rounds.
Sawn-offs are even worse and only suitable for pushing in someones face during a bank raid.
I'll take a proper semi- or full-automatic assault rifle with a 15+ shot magazine for preference, thanks.
More health, health-bars, and health packs (...) ALSO, health packs are much more appreciated over regenerating heatlh. Oddly enough, regenerating health RUINS games for me. There's no penalty to being hurt anymore
THIS, so badly it hurts. It's taken away some of the challenge element, for a start. Maybe you could have an "easy mode for wimpy people" setting with regenerating health, a "normal mode for people who aren't dicks", and "hard mode for double hard bastards" (well, people who think they are) which either removes the healthpacks or gives you the number that it would have, had it been designed as a regenerative health game.
Because I can sort of suspend my disbelief on the grounds of "there might actually be something in the healthpack that can help my avatar recover from a gunshot wound, and the sequence in which s/he finds suitable cover and attends to the wound has been cut for flow and brevity", but not so much "we have unmentioned super soldier healing powers, so if we hide here for two minutes the shrapnel literally just falls out of us and doesn't even leave a scar".
Also try to include as much of the dialogue as possible from that mental old Doom comic. Or at least, any parts that would seem funny in the game's context. It may be stupid, but it'll certainly get the post-ironic fanboy vote. Combat Quips? are always a neat addition anyway, just ask Duke Nukem ... erm... ahem. OK maybe not.
When hell freezes over... only one man is badass enough to relight its fire...
