First person point of view in video games and its (relative) lack of improvement

[KissofKetchup]

I was playing COD MW2 last night with someone down the hall from my dorm and thought it was pretty decent (I'm not a big fan of the COD series, and the last installment that I bought was COD 2, not to bash COD or anything). Today I stumbled across an article about it and how it said how even with the improvment of the visuals, they still didn't really do anything to make the arm movment from your perspective that much better.

My point is that there really hasn't been any improvement for the first person perspective in major, critically acclaimed, and loved video games. There are still first person games out there that you still don't see the rest of your body and feet when you look down. You just see the same old swaying of the gun in your virtual player's arms and the occasional inspection of the gun when you're idle for a minute. About the only time that you don't see your gun is when you run, and only then do you ever see your gun not pointed straight ahead.

Only two games have ever really done an excellent job at making the first person view feel realistic, Mirror's Edge and FarCry 2.

Despite it's short length (I beat in less than 24 hours) the game did a really good job at giving the illusion of that you were actually running jumping and being badass. You saw your feet when you looked down, the camera bobbed realistically. Alas when you had a gun, it still looked clunky just like most other FPS.

Say what you want about FarCry 2, but it also did an impeccable job at making you feel like you were in the characters body. Every time you entered a car it didn't just smoothly saunter in. No, you bumped and tumbled in and the camera showed it. The camera goes blurry when you are tired from sprinting.

More games need to take cues from these games when it comes to first person point of view.

 

[rhyno435]

I agree with you. It takes me out of the immersion of the game when I look down and I don't have a body. I'm just a floating arm with a gun.

I love COD, but it does this really bad. When you pull down your night-vision goggles, he actually uses his hand, but when you're climbing up a ladder or rapelling down a cliff, you just kind of float up or down, with no hand movements.

I have yet to play MW2 but I'm eager to see how the FPS view animations are with the Cliffhanger level.

 

[DazZ.]

I agree with Far Cry 2, I remember reading about how they didn't was cutscenes in the game or jumpy into and out of vehicles because it takes away form the immersion.

It was one of the few things I thought the game did very well.

Just in Left 4 Dead being able to see your legs helps, but to be honest I'm quite happy with how the generic FPS view is, but I would need animations for in and out of cars now like Far Cry.

 

[thejadefalcon]

I agree with you. It takes me out of the immersion of the game when I look down and I don't have a body. I'm just a floating arm with a gun.

I love COD, but it does this really bad. When you pull down your night-vision goggles, he actually uses his hand, but when you're climbing up a ladder or rapelling down a cliff, you just kind of float up or down, with no hand movements.

I have yet to play MW2 but I'm eager to see how the FPS view animations are with the Cliffhanger level.

Cliffhanger's pretty damn good. And in Halo 3, ODST and (I think) Halo 2, you can see your body when you look down.

 

[Nieroshai]

I think this is actually an important issue for FPSs and games in general. If you want us to BE someone, make us FEEL like that someone.

 

[Poopie McGhee]

I have yet to play MW2 but I'm eager to see how the FPS view animations are with the Cliffhanger level.

Pretty cool... Most of the animations are done pretty welll...

the last installment that I bought was COD 2, not to bash COD or anything.

The last one before MW2 was CoD 2 for me as well...

 

[SomeBritishDude]

I honestly don't think about it that much. While it may seem a little off to see no feet when you look down or hands when your climbing a ladder I never really think about it enough to bother me.

I suppose I would appriate if I saw it done well (I havn't played Mirrors Edge or Far Cry 2) but I can't say I cry "BULLSHIT" when ever Gordon Freeman climbs a ladder.

 

[suhlEap]

i agree with you here, i like looking down and my own feet. it makes no sense when the only part of your body that you can see is you hands (or just your gun) far cry 2 did do a very good job with this, you're right.

 

[phoenix352]

i agree on most parts but i got a solution for the "if i look down it takes me out of the game feeling cuz i dont see no legs"

just dont look down?

 

[KissofKetchup]

I agree with you. It takes me out of the immersion of the game when I look down and I don't have a body. I'm just a floating arm with a gun.

I love COD, but it does this really bad. When you pull down your night-vision goggles, he actually uses his hand, but when you're climbing up a ladder or rapelling down a cliff, you just kind of float up or down, with no hand movements.

I have yet to play MW2 but I'm eager to see how the FPS view animations are with the Cliffhanger level.

Cliffhanger's pretty damn good. And in Halo 3, ODST and (I think) Halo 2, you can see your body when you look down.

True, but the animations, at least from Halo 3 were still the run of the mill, sway side to side affair.

I think this is actually an important issue for FPSs and games in general. If you want us to BE someone, make us FEEL like that someone.

That's exactly what I was getting at

 

[Thaius]

And in Halo 3, ODST and (I think) Halo 2, you can see your body when you look down.

I was going to mention that, actually. In all the Halo games you can see your body look down. And they definitely improved the animations for getting into vehicles as the series went on: not everything turned out perfect, but they definitely improved little things like that over time.

 

[KissofKetchup]

i agree on most parts but i got a solution for the "if i look down it takes me out of the game feeling cuz i dont see no legs"

just dont look down?

I'm not saying it completely unimmerses me, but with today's quad-core processors and gigs of ram, and with developers making graphics more and more detailed, I'm saying it's pretty much inexcusable that pretty much every game isn't doing that by now

 

[thejadefalcon]

I agree with you. It takes me out of the immersion of the game when I look down and I don't have a body. I'm just a floating arm with a gun.

I love COD, but it does this really bad. When you pull down your night-vision goggles, he actually uses his hand, but when you're climbing up a ladder or rapelling down a cliff, you just kind of float up or down, with no hand movements.

I have yet to play MW2 but I'm eager to see how the FPS view animations are with the Cliffhanger level.

Cliffhanger's pretty damn good. And in Halo 3, ODST and (I think) Halo 2, you can see your body when you look down.

True, but the animations, at least from Halo 3 were still the run of the mill, sway side to side affair.

Maybe so, but it's better than nothing, right?

And in Halo 3, ODST and (I think) Halo 2, you can see your body when you look down.

I was going to mention that, actually. In all the Halo games you can see your body look down. And they definitely improved the animations for getting into vehicles as the series went on: not everything turned out perfect, but they definitely improved little things like that over time.

Really? I didn't think you could see it in the first game?

 

[The Rascal King]

Does anybody remember a game called Breakdown? It came out around 2004 or so. It was an ambitious game [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d0cAiOz99U]. It was way different because you had to pick everything up instead automatically collecting them, like guns and ammo and key cards, it also has platforming too. It's kind of like Half Life meets Mirrors Edge

 

[Thaius]

I agree with you. It takes me out of the immersion of the game when I look down and I don't have a body. I'm just a floating arm with a gun.

I love COD, but it does this really bad. When you pull down your night-vision goggles, he actually uses his hand, but when you're climbing up a ladder or rapelling down a cliff, you just kind of float up or down, with no hand movements.

I have yet to play MW2 but I'm eager to see how the FPS view animations are with the Cliffhanger level.

Cliffhanger's pretty damn good. And in Halo 3, ODST and (I think) Halo 2, you can see your body when you look down.

True, but the animations, at least from Halo 3 were still the run of the mill, sway side to side affair.

Maybe so, but it's better than nothing, right?

And in Halo 3, ODST and (I think) Halo 2, you can see your body when you look down.

I was going to mention that, actually. In all the Halo games you can see your body look down. And they definitely improved the animations for getting into vehicles as the series went on: not everything turned out perfect, but they definitely improved little things like that over time.

Really? I didn't think you could see it in the first game?

I played the first campaign to death; I love the story and universe of Halo. And yeah, you could see your legs in that. I remember trying to shoot through my knees to see what would happen... nothing ever did.

 

[sgtshock]

The thing about full body awareness is that it can detract from immersion instead of adding to it if it isn't done right. I usually don't even notice a lack of legs unless I think about it, but if I look down and see two poorly-animated, low poly sticks coming out from under me, it just reminds me that I'm inside a video game character.

 

[phoenix352]

i agree on most parts but i got a solution for the "if i look down it takes me out of the game feeling cuz i dont see no legs"

just dont look down?

I'm not saying it completely unimmerses me, but with today's quad-core processors and gigs of ram, and with developers making graphics more and more detailed, I'm saying it's pretty much inexcusable that pretty much every game isn't doing that by now

crysis had that...a lil too much of that actually lol.. you could see every part of the body you'd expect to see which was awkward at points .

and i dont remember really but cod doesnt use the legs in 1st person view because when you try to climb stuff the legs just look out of place which is weird .

on the other hand played left 4 dead recently? at some point past version 1.0.1.8 or something the game added the legs part on the view it wasn't all that awesome but it was there.

and to be OT: its all out of laziness really a lot of game devs are just cutting edges of game production and development to save money and time which causes all the unnecessary patching later EA are experts on the matter

 

[Kajt]

I agree, more games should have this. I like to able to see my character's legs when I'm blowing off the heads of the zombies below me.

 

[thejadefalcon]

I played the first campaign to death; I love the story and universe of Halo. And yeah, you could see your legs in that. I remember trying to shoot through my knees to see what would happen... nothing ever did.

Who needs bullets when a grenade will do? I pressed the wrong but... I mean, I meant to do it... as an experiment... yes, that'll do.

 

[badgersprite]

"Gun toting mutes with cameras for heads." Yeah, but I do give points to people who know how to use first person perspective properly and use it to great effect throughout the game - like the 'cinematic' scripted moments in MW2; because you never break from first-person perspective, your pulse really starts to pound when shit starts getting real.

I'll give devs credit and say that they probably haven't included the player character in first-person because don't want to have players distracted in FPS seeing their own limbs on screen, as they might instinctively think this camouflaged arm is an enemy about to attack them.