Ode to the pistol.

[Coppernerves]

Does anyone else here love it when your main weapon runs out of ammo, and switching to a pistol is quicker than reloading or bringing out another long arm?

It's happened to me occasionally in multiplayer CoD 5, and plenty in Metro 2033.

Hell, in the latter even my revolver often ran out, and I had to resort to punching the giant mutant wolves in the face!

That was awesome.

I have a fond memory of Counterstrike, where the decision to switch from assault rifle to pistol allowed me to beat the guy who decided to reload instead.

I remember how Half Life and Bioshock both only gave you a pistol at first specifically to make you feel small and weak, in order to put the focus on setting the scene, making sure that's fully established, before letting you get more empowered with full auto pieces.

However I'm annoyed at both of them for letting their pistols become useless later in the game, where it seems like the enemies are specifically placed so that you never have to reload until a fight is over.

Hell, in Bioshock you can ready long arms as quick as a sheriff can draw his six-shooter.

Now I'll point over to Deus Ex, Human Revolution.
I found the magazine fed pistol to be a handy main weapon for stealth/hacking builds, where long arms aren't needed, and you could save XP for stuff other than inventory space.
But if you had a long arm the Zenith was useless, because it took ages to ready (it couldn't even be cocked and locked!), and even a sniper rifle was fine at short range if you attached a laser dot.

The revolver, on the other hand, was handy for some more combat focused builds, because you could use it in place of a long arm at the start, focusing on cloak instead of inventory (great for keeping 'em guessing), then you put a bullets-to-grenades converter on it when you get inventory and a long arm.
That way you could revolver-grenade enemies when they were in cover from you, then flank them and get your long implement out.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

When did the Half Life Revolver become obsolete? That thing is a one hit kill against any human opponent as long as you can line up the headshot.

I love using pistols in games, especially when they are well balanced. the .45 auto pistol in New Vegas is a favorite of mine.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

When did the Half Life Revolver become obsolete? That thing is a one hit kill against any human opponent as long as you can line up the headshot.

I think he was talking about the pistol. Not the revolver, that thing is god.

Anyway, in any of the Uncharted games, whenever I come across one of the hard-hitting pistols (Desert-5, Wes-44, Tau Sniper, Mag-5), I tend to favor those over just about any other weapon.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

When did the Half Life Revolver become obsolete? That thing is a one hit kill against any human opponent as long as you can line up the headshot.

I love using pistols in games, especially when they are well balanced. the .45 auto pistol in New Vegas is a favorite of mine.

I loved to save me some Magnum rounds for scientist-executing. It just felt more... "correct" than using other weapons.

 

[Uriain]

The Pistol is an enjoyable weapon. I am doing a second playthrough on Spec Ops: The Line and trying to keep a pistol with me throughout the entire playthrough. I do love the Deagle though, that thing is a beast. Used the Deagle and Pump Shotgun in CS for most of my "stint" in that game.. loved it

 

[Erttheking]

The magnum in Halo has saved my ass a couple of times.

 

[m19]

A pistol kill in something like BF3 always feels more special. Especially if you have to switch to it fast.

 

[Clowndoe]

I love in Natural Selection when I empty my assault rifle and the alien player is running away zipping like mad in an effort to escape and ambush me later. I just pull up my pistol and confidently squeeze off a single shot to finish him off. Look up videos if you want a better idea of how difficult it would be.

 

[AndrewF022]

The Deagle in CS is an absolute life saver. It is always the first thing I buy every round because I know if I can't afford a rifle, that pistol will pack enough punch to see me off till I can scavenge one. Also as a huge Scout fan, it's brilliant at making that last hit when you miss your headshot with the scout and only score the 70 odd for the chest, hell of a lot faster than trying for a second scoped shot anyway.

 

[daveman247]

Yes switching to it is usually quicker than reloading. Especiallty since (usually) the target will be wounded. Its surprising how many players just forget about its usefulness.


Plus using a pistole makes the killing seem more... gentlemanly.

 

[Nooners]

The Metro 2033 revolver is damn near a primary weapon for me. Great for noasalises, lurkers, and most lightly armored human opponents.

 

[ramboondiea]

most games i stick by the pistol aslong as its fesable, take killing floor, as-long as i aint a medic my pistol is the most fired gun.

that being said, any game with guns, im usually going to be sporting a shotgun first chance i get, but i never leave pistols, its a sense of owing them for getting you through those first zones haha

 

[aguspal]

I dont know why but the whole " Pistol drawn faster than your other weapoin reloads" I just dont see it. It must be a difference of a milisecond or so than only people who have played videogames 24/7 must notice. And damn it, I DO play videogames a lot of time, but I just cant tell the difference. I usually just reload my main weapon OR switch to other.


The only series where pistols are definitivly usefull is in Left 4 dead. Because they are actually usefull even in mid range if you croutch for better accuaracy. Infinite pistol ammo dosnt hurts, either.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

When did the Half Life Revolver become obsolete? That thing is a one hit kill against any human opponent as long as you can line up the headshot.

I love using pistols in games, especially when they are well balanced. the .45 auto pistol in New Vegas is a favorite of mine.

I believe the unique .45 was the strongest 1h gun in the game in terms of dps.

The 9mm was fun too, although useless against larger wasteland wildlife.

Bioshock revolver, and subsequently Rivet Gun (which seemed a lot weaker than its Bioshock 1 counterpart) were still useful for defeating splicers, especially the anti-personnel rounds.

I'm a big pistol fan, the only time they jam me up is games like Far Cry 2 when they... jam up. The pistol in my eyes is the cornerstone of stable guns. It may not be strong but it damn well better have good accuracy and semi-auto fire.
-All commentary here refers only to videogame guns.

 

[Anget Colslaw]

I always found myself using the magnum in l4d2 more than the shotgun I was carrying. Also do revolvers count, because I love the boltok pistol in Gears of War, actually carry that instead of a sniper now in the third game.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Pistols have a very fun feel to them. Personally, I love using the Beretta in Killing floor, the Five-seveN in CS:S, and the Grach-443 in BF:BC2.

 

[Euryalus]

Remember in Halo: CE when you switched to your pistol not because it was quicker to reload, but because it was better? XD

That thing was op as fuck! The silent cartographer level was like "Here are some rocket launchers to deal with the hunters" and I was like "lol nope. I've got a fuckin' pistol."

... Good times XD

Other than that, I always loved the 10mm pistol in Fallout 3 because it felt cool. I'm not sure why. It wasn't incredible. Idk.

The revolver and dual pistols from Dark Watch also get a special mention. They were neat, but also useful.

 

[PeterMerkin69]

I love pistols. It's a shame they're not modelled better in video games, but health point damage models and minimal/unrealistic physics negate their usefulness. Ideally, they should be easier(faster) to aim than long arms, and have a little more stopping power than assault rifles, lower penetration, and maybe not bump into things as much. But, no. They're just -5 instead of -10. Boohiss.

Shotguns are invariably awful, too. The damage models are so screwed up that what should be terrible, frightening weapons fire five or six paltry flower petals, each with the ballistic coefficient of a particularly blunt grain of rice. Here, too, I am inclined to boohiss.

 

[lacktheknack]

I love pistols. They're so... pistolly.

Also, pistols have saved my ass in XCOM a frankly embarrassing amount of times.

Plasma sniper rifle + Upgraded plasma pistol + sniper with opportunist and pistol damage bonus = AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! COME AT ME, BASTAAAAAAARDSBANGBANGBANGBANG!

Snipers proficient with pistols are all kinds of overpowered, is what I'm saying.

 

[BlackFlyme]

I dont know why but the whole " Pistol drawn faster than your other weapoin reloads" I just dont see it. It must be a difference of a milisecond or so than only people who have played videogames 24/7 must notice. And damn it, I DO play videogames a lot of time, but I just cant tell the difference. I usually just reload my main weapon OR switch to other.

It really depends on the game, but as a general rule, it's faster to draw a pistol than it is to draw any other gun. Whether doing that is faster than reloading can really vary depending on your setup.

Spoiler

I wish I could have found a more in-depth video, but just watching this, you can see that it was faster for him to just swap to his secondary than it was for him to reload.

OT: I've never really found any one pistol that I liked, though I do tend to like revolvers in general. I remember in New Vegas I would always have That Gun, Lucky, Mysterious Magnum, and any other revolver I could find on me.

As for non-video game games, I like the revolver from Pathfinder, which is the only advanced one-handed firearm there is. Unlike primitive firearms, advanced firearms always hit touch AC (even on called-shots) regardless of how far away the enemy is. The revolver can hold the most ammunition compared to any other gun, and can be dual-wielded, allowing me to fire a volley of rounds at any enemy unfortunate enough to get in my way.