I was playing Stalker Call of Pripyat last night when I came to the realisation that there are a large number of weapons in games I never actually use.
In CoP, I never use any 9x18mm or 9x19mm pistols at all, ever, under any circumstances. There really doesn't seem much point, mainly because the .45 ACP-firing handguns have a far better selection; two can be silenced and modified for full-auto and all do more damage and generally are pretty accurate, handle well, have decent magazine capacities and are available fairly early on; once you can scratch together 3,500 rubles (fairly easily too), you can get the unique .45 pistols from Nimble, thus also rendering the others useless too. In fact the only reason I really ever pick-up 9mm ammo (both kinds) is to sell, because I feel there is no real need for it.
Having thought about it, I have noticed this in other games as well;
Fallout 3 - Chinese pistol and the .32 revolver; you start with a 10mm which is more powerful and has a larger capacity magazine.
Mass Effect 2 - If you get the weapon DLC packs, they render the starting shotgun, sniper rifle and pistol pointless.
Fallout: New Vegas - The 9mm pistol and SMG; you can get a 10mm pistol outside Goodsprings which has a ton of ammo for it too.
Oblivion - Iron weapons and armour; you get a steel shortsword basically as your first weapon and immediately out of the sewer, you can get a full suit of steel armour and other weapons.
Farcry 2 - As soon as you get into the sandbox proper, the initial tier weapons become pretty obsolete; the pump-action is pointless because if you save your diamonds and do some arms dealer missions, you can get the SPAS-12 fairly quickly (not entirely sure if its in the first region, please correct me if I'm wrong; long time since I played it). The G3 is a pointless acquisition after the tutorial section because the AK-47 is fairly quickly available and considerably better. Same goes for the Springfield, because a few missions for the dealer later you can get the Dragunov. Pistols too feel pretty pointless, until you acquire the Desert Eagle, because the Mac is fairly decent for a sidearm once you have the upgrades and that slot has more useful stuff for it.
Dragon Age - Darkspawn weapons.
In summary, its often far too easy to get (or start with) superior alternatives to certain weapons in games that render some weapons (and armour occasionally too) pointless to have available to you. I feel in some ways that that is a pity, because someone on the game's development team spent a lot of time designing that weapon and another spent a lot of time making it into a physical object in the game. I thought the Chinese pistol looked really cool, but was disappointed by how pointless it was.
What do you folks think and what have you found to be the case?
Edit: What I am saying is why are weapons often made available at the same time, or ever so slightly later than one another, yet one is clearly better. Why was some poor designer made to make it if players are never going to want to use it and subconciously appreciate their work. I think I have misrepresented what I intended to say; there should be a better choice in games and one weapon or a group of weapons shouldn't be so much better than others.
In CoP, I never use any 9x18mm or 9x19mm pistols at all, ever, under any circumstances. There really doesn't seem much point, mainly because the .45 ACP-firing handguns have a far better selection; two can be silenced and modified for full-auto and all do more damage and generally are pretty accurate, handle well, have decent magazine capacities and are available fairly early on; once you can scratch together 3,500 rubles (fairly easily too), you can get the unique .45 pistols from Nimble, thus also rendering the others useless too. In fact the only reason I really ever pick-up 9mm ammo (both kinds) is to sell, because I feel there is no real need for it.
Having thought about it, I have noticed this in other games as well;
Fallout 3 - Chinese pistol and the .32 revolver; you start with a 10mm which is more powerful and has a larger capacity magazine.
Mass Effect 2 - If you get the weapon DLC packs, they render the starting shotgun, sniper rifle and pistol pointless.
Fallout: New Vegas - The 9mm pistol and SMG; you can get a 10mm pistol outside Goodsprings which has a ton of ammo for it too.
Oblivion - Iron weapons and armour; you get a steel shortsword basically as your first weapon and immediately out of the sewer, you can get a full suit of steel armour and other weapons.
Farcry 2 - As soon as you get into the sandbox proper, the initial tier weapons become pretty obsolete; the pump-action is pointless because if you save your diamonds and do some arms dealer missions, you can get the SPAS-12 fairly quickly (not entirely sure if its in the first region, please correct me if I'm wrong; long time since I played it). The G3 is a pointless acquisition after the tutorial section because the AK-47 is fairly quickly available and considerably better. Same goes for the Springfield, because a few missions for the dealer later you can get the Dragunov. Pistols too feel pretty pointless, until you acquire the Desert Eagle, because the Mac is fairly decent for a sidearm once you have the upgrades and that slot has more useful stuff for it.
Dragon Age - Darkspawn weapons.
In summary, its often far too easy to get (or start with) superior alternatives to certain weapons in games that render some weapons (and armour occasionally too) pointless to have available to you. I feel in some ways that that is a pity, because someone on the game's development team spent a lot of time designing that weapon and another spent a lot of time making it into a physical object in the game. I thought the Chinese pistol looked really cool, but was disappointed by how pointless it was.
What do you folks think and what have you found to be the case?
Edit: What I am saying is why are weapons often made available at the same time, or ever so slightly later than one another, yet one is clearly better. Why was some poor designer made to make it if players are never going to want to use it and subconciously appreciate their work. I think I have misrepresented what I intended to say; there should be a better choice in games and one weapon or a group of weapons shouldn't be so much better than others.
