(Long read)
This is something ive been thinking about for a while and have finally decided to type it up. As gaming evolves, so does our expectations and what we want are games that are closer to real-life. This can be seen by the constant improvement of graphics and animation. Despite that, the only thing that doesnt change is why we play our games, and that is for fun. To entertain ourselves.
Ive been re-playing alot of my PS3 games recently and ive noticed how we're approaching that goal (real-life games). Over the years, ive heard alot of people complain about how alot of PS3 games have 'loose' controls. Truth is, the controls are normal, its just that with our constant push of high graphical/animation fidelity its at a point where characters nearly act like how you would think they would.
Heavenly Sword - When moving Nariko she takes a few steps to get into a running position and once you stop after running, she takes a few more speed slowing steps and stops, a while after the command has been inputted.
Uncharted - Drake moves in a soft manner, when he walks on pebbles he sort of hops, when hes walking up a hill his speed drastically decreases as he lunges and when he takes a forward jump, he stumbles a few steps forward before re-gaining his footing.
Killzone 2 - The analogue controls feel really waited as if you were holding a gun. Move the stick and quickly let go, the gun sort of slides to the left and then recenters. When you also jump/crouch you can notice your character bounce and slightly shake as he gets back into position.
Little Big Planet - You play as a Sackboy and the characters acts as if he was.....a sack. He floats, he patters and moves things realistically according to his being. There are also physics that occur as you would expect them.
There are alot more (on 360/PC too) but im using these as examples ive recently played. Im also not saying that these games are made worse because of how they strive for realism (these games have the perfect balance and are infact made better) but i think this is the first step towards that ultimate goal. The thing is, i dont think that goal will be like anything we want. I mean could you imagine a game where the character takes a really long time to reload, gets out of breath, constantly wobbles etc. Trivial examples but i think you get what i mean. it just seems to undermine the main goal for me, which is fun. I was watching gameplay videos for Vanquish today and wow it felt like a 'game'. Fast movements quick animations although reading comments i heard alot of people complaining how janky they looked.
What do you guys think? this isnt written aswell as i hoped but i think i got the overall message across. Do you think we're heading into that direction of super realism or do you think devs are smart enough to understand the border of enjoyment?
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