Alright, let me clarify this right off the bat:
Fighting games don't count.
You wanna know why? Fine. I cannot stand fighting games, or their standard mechanics. Meaning: a lingerie model and the concept art for a horror movie stand face to face and take turns whacking each other in the face until one falls over. Repeat 2-3 times as necessary. Really it's not all that different to watching someone play Rock'em Sock'em robots, just significantly flashier.
With that being said, it bugs me that modern games don't seem to bother with incorporating hand to hand combat into their core gameplay.
(And no, the fact that your left click becomes "ineffectual telegraphed punch" when you have no weapon equipped in an RPG also doesn't count.)
And when games *do* include it, it's almost always in a very "cinematic" way. For instance in DE:HR, you do have the option of beating people into unconsciousness with your bare augs. But seeing as how you can only do this when a painfully slowly recharging power bar is full, and that the scenario plays out in the manner of a 6 second cutscene- it just winds up feeling like you're carrying an extremely slow loading pistol with a 1 foot range.
Or say, The Witcher 2's example of fisticuffs. You're able to take part in fist fights for cash, but again due to gameplay problems it doesn't actually feel much like a fist fight. The actual minigame consists of a series of QTEs that feels kind of like a game of Simon Says.
As for what kind of combat I wanna see, I'll outsource explaining to Matt Groening:
As for how one translates the process of violently wrestling a wild animal to the ground and putting it into a sleeper hold into an elegant stream of button presses? Beats me, that's the kind of work one should be paid for. But I know to a certainty that in a game like... Skyrim, or Fallout, I'd love the ability to do so.
Explosions, sharp objects & minion mastery are all well and good. But personally, I find that beating someone to death with ones bare hands is alot more impressive- and engaging.
Fighting games don't count.
You wanna know why? Fine. I cannot stand fighting games, or their standard mechanics. Meaning: a lingerie model and the concept art for a horror movie stand face to face and take turns whacking each other in the face until one falls over. Repeat 2-3 times as necessary. Really it's not all that different to watching someone play Rock'em Sock'em robots, just significantly flashier.
With that being said, it bugs me that modern games don't seem to bother with incorporating hand to hand combat into their core gameplay.
(And no, the fact that your left click becomes "ineffectual telegraphed punch" when you have no weapon equipped in an RPG also doesn't count.)
And when games *do* include it, it's almost always in a very "cinematic" way. For instance in DE:HR, you do have the option of beating people into unconsciousness with your bare augs. But seeing as how you can only do this when a painfully slowly recharging power bar is full, and that the scenario plays out in the manner of a 6 second cutscene- it just winds up feeling like you're carrying an extremely slow loading pistol with a 1 foot range.
Or say, The Witcher 2's example of fisticuffs. You're able to take part in fist fights for cash, but again due to gameplay problems it doesn't actually feel much like a fist fight. The actual minigame consists of a series of QTEs that feels kind of like a game of Simon Says.
As for what kind of combat I wanna see, I'll outsource explaining to Matt Groening:
As for how one translates the process of violently wrestling a wild animal to the ground and putting it into a sleeper hold into an elegant stream of button presses? Beats me, that's the kind of work one should be paid for. But I know to a certainty that in a game like... Skyrim, or Fallout, I'd love the ability to do so.
Explosions, sharp objects & minion mastery are all well and good. But personally, I find that beating someone to death with ones bare hands is alot more impressive- and engaging.
