Poll: Can the lack of iron sight in an FPS be a deal breaker for you?

[MrGalactus]

Honestly, I don't get the problem with iron sights. I think they're just generally disliked here because they have grown in popularity this gen, and there's nothing an Escapist gamer hates more than anything current-gen.

I think it's a cool idea, because that is what you do. When aiming, you look down the sights.

What is irritating is when shoulder fire is totally inaccurate unless you're at extreme close range. I think Brink hit the nail on the head by having pin-point iron sights, and still reliably accurate shoulder fire.

In regards to adding iron sights to hl3... FUCK NO, the great thing about hl2 thats made its appeal last to this day, for me at least, is that you have a great freedom of movement that modern shooters don't. If you add iron sights and remove the freedom of movement, its not halflife anymore. If you want iron sights go play COD and leave halflife alone.

I'll agree with this. There's no need to shoehorn something into everything just because it's popular. It just doesn't belong in Half-Life. Half-life, like you said, is about moving around and sinking as many bullets into Combine Soldier's face as possible as fast as you can.
I think if it's a non team-based game and your enemies can take a lot of punishment, then iron sights don't belong. You're on your own so you need to make sure to avoid being shot.

 

[Choppaduel]

Iron sights generally make combat less mobile, which is more realistic and helps balance stuff like snipers, but can also be a lot less fun. Honestly, I think there's room for both, but some games (bulletstorm, borderlands) would be better served by something like an alt-fire.

thats a tasty opinion... sorry about the pun. I agree

[hr]

In regards to adding iron sights to hl3... FUCK NO, the great thing about hl2 thats made its appeal last to this day, for me at least, is that you have a great freedom of movement that modern shooters don't. If you add iron sights and remove the freedom of movement, its not halflife anymore. If you want iron sights go play COD and leave halflife alone.

 

[TiefBlau]

Hahahahaha...

No.

I have one goal in an FPS: To have fun. If there's a game I'm on the fence about, the existence of iron sights sure ain't changing shit.

 

[Phlakes]

For uber realistic games like COD or Battlefield, yes, but for unrealistic games like TF2 or Unreal Tournament, no.

>uber realistic
>COD

This is a joke right? You're not serious? Please tell me you don't really think COD is "uber realistic"; maybe it is compared to TF2, but it's not realistic.

*Sigh

It's realistic FOR A GAME. It's relative. It's set in the very near future of the real world, it has real weapons, no weird art style, etc. It's not even close to real war, but that's because it isn't real.

So again, it is realistic, for a game.

OT: It really depends on the gameplay. If you need to be faster and more accurate than I prefer to have them, especially in games like Battlefield that have large, open maps, but when they're not there it's fine. And then sometimes they suck too much to even bother with, like in Bioshock.

 

[Valiance]

Considering none of the FPS I actually like has them, I guess it can't.

WHat I DO like is the use of creative, unusual sights, like the scope screen in Battlezone (the Action/RTS game with the Biometal, lots of cold war references and a huge amount of awesomeness).

Area 51's colour-changing laser sight was great too.

Don't forget the really cool camera they had that turned the terrain into wire-frame from Battlezone.

Anyway,

While I've been giving certain FPS <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.284431-Poll-Does-this-trend-in-new-FPS-games-annoy-you#11200235>design decisions a thought lately, I came across several people talking about their issues with iron sights. One guy in particular was saying that if Half Life 3 is released, it should add iron sights as otherwise it would feel antiquated and lacking. Which is curious as never have I felt that Half Life or its numerous excellent mods (Counter Strike, The Specialist, Opera, Action Half Life) actually needed iron sights.

I don't mind iron sights, really, and I can jump right into any of the newer iterations of CoD, BF or MoH and feel right at home. But while playing CS 1.6 the other day at a LAN party after a long time, I kind of remembered what I miss in modern military shooters - mobility while shooting. I did a fair share of strafing and bunny hopping while shooting in CS to make myself a harder target to hit, which I almost never do in CoD (unless I'm using a shotgun) or BF because your movement is restricted with your sights up.

While iron sights are a commendable feature for some (mostly tactical) manshoots (it was a welcome addition in New Vegas), I say bring on some FPS titles without it. This is precisely the reason I'm waiting for <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108908-New-Hawken-Trailer-Will-Blow-You-Away>Hawken, which doesn't involve standing around during the shooty bits but a quite a large amount of dodging, running, circle strafing and jumping (let's face it guys, it isn't exactly Mech Warriors). I know I'll be playing UT2k4 for our next party.

From a purely gameplay perspective, what's your view on iron sights?

Dunno whether it has been done before, the search results are giving me a 404 error for some reason...

Edit: Shit, where's my poll? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO IT ESCAPIST? O_O

Kind of like you, I don't really have a preference. I don't need them. It's nice, but I don't really care. Most of the time I don't use them anyway unless I'm playing a stealth game or tactical shooter like rainbow 6. Half-Life doesn't need iron-sights. And quite honestly, I prefer faster-movement shooters as well, as they tend to require a larger skill-set other than hit-scan. So yeah. UT2K4, Quake Live, Tribes, whatever it is. I like strafe-jumping, wall-dodging, etc. I also like interesting maps and mechanics on the maps when it comes to jump pads or bounce pads or elevators or teleporters or whatever, and most games with iron-sights tend to not have those as a design choice. Either way, it's all personal preference. I loved MOH:AA, and I loved UT '99. I just think that the more depth and varying environments/weapons/movement/gameplay/flavor that a game has, the more you can play it, and the original UT had more than pretty much every shooter that came out in the past 5 years.

Hawken looks to give me my mech and shooter fix at the same time, but without a 'mech-lab or a single-player campaign, I'll still be playing Mechwarrior 2, 3, 4, heavy gear, etc... But Hawken looks to be a good multiplayer shooter with vertical movement, and I don't see many of those. The actual 'mech stuff seems a bit light, (I mean, it seems like you might as well just be a guy with a relatively large health pool and jetpack) but you'll also have a zoom-in feature (ie: ironsights without the ironsights, but same functionality of accuracy and whatnot), so I don't see why it will be so different. Either way, I haven't played the game yet and I don't want to sell it short. It looks fantastic so I'm obviously happy and excited, just I don't think it's the second coming like some people do.

 

[Wireframefool]

I don't really need 'em, their nice to have if they are in the game but I can still play one without it.

 

[Azure Knight-Zeo]

Iron sights was only used to create more realism in FPS games, but now it's like all FPSs need to have it by law (I'm looking at you Bulletstorm). I'd prefer if games didn't use it because it just slows the game down.

 

[The Funslinger]

I hate iron sights as they promote slower gameplay. Also I don't think they add much except for "realism". I don't like any game currently that has iron sights.

I'm glad you put quotes on the realism, because as far as I know, very few weapons sight dead center. It's more bringing them as close as you can to your shooting eye. I especially dislike when they do it with shotguns. Go ahead, aim a shotgun down the middle in real life. Don't come crying to me when you shatter your sternum.

 

[F'Angus]

I never used to like iron sights.. much preferred the full screen zoom reticle, but now I struggle to play shooters with out iron sights on guns (except sniper rifles)

 

[random_bars]

Generally, the presence of iron sights is a deal breaker for me.

 

[Scorekeeper]

Iron sights are a must-have for me.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I'm cool with both in different kinds of games. More tactical, 'realistic' kind of shooters like Battlefield; yes. Twitchy shoot 'em ups like Unreal or L4D; nah. It all depends on the game and the feeling that game wants to give you.

These games need to get slowed down anyways, they're so cracked out.

Play the original Unreal Tournament, or Quake 2 or something. CoD's a snail compared to them. Good times...

 

[Calico93]

I prefer iron sights to scopes any day, having the crosshair go more accurate instead of iron sights (Like in Resistance 2 or Fallout 3 and New Vegas) doesnt bother me tbh. Infact sometimes it helps because you can see more of your target.

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

I think it depends on the game, really. Modern Warfare needs Iron Sights because accuracy is more important than Firepower (In most cases), but in the case of Halo, firepower trumps accuracy (In most cases, obvious exceptions aside).

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

I enjoy them for the most part precisely because they restrict movement. I don't care as much as others about making it more "realistic", but I like the idea of forcing players to choose between being ready to shoot and moving effectively. Most games with iron-sights still allow you to spray without them and many recent games even have ways of making the hip-fire more viable (the laser sight in Crysis 2 for instance).

Up until relatively recently, most FPS games fell into two categories: those where everyone was roughly the same and every ability was available for use at all times, and those where abilities were limited by some form of class system (and limited weapon-carrying capacity meant that many of the games seemingly in the first category were effectively in the second). Now we're seeing a move toward combining the two and giving everyone a universal set of abilities that simply can't be used simultaneously. This way people don't get pigeon-holed into certain roles and can play flexibly, but still have to make a decisions at a given point as to what they should be doing. Despite everyone's complaints, I feel like Crysis 2 did a very nice job creating a system of temporary playstyle decisions like this. In fact, the idea seems to be spreading into RPGs too now, giving us class systems like Rift's where a single player can, though not necessarily all at once, fulfill several different party roles.

 

[SuperNova221]

I hate iron sights until they do it right. when you look down the sights of a shotgun, you don't hold it up to the middle of your chest. If you did, I can garuntee it wouldn't be a pleasant experience. It really bugs me when they use iron sights like that.


On general though, games that don't need iron sights are the games that I like.

 

[Ubermetalhed]

Generally, the presence of iron sights is a deal breaker for me.

Same here. I like my shooters to be fast paced, run and gun style.

Iron sights are unecessary and remind me to much of all the evil COD has spawned.