Poll: Infinite Ammunition?

[EightGaugeHippo]

I've been wondering.
A lot of games offer infinite ammo as an unlockable reward. (this is not about cheats)
The two games I'll use as an example, are Saints Row 2 and Resident Evil 5.
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Both of those games reward constant play with infinite ammo:
Saints Row 2 gives you infinite ammo for completing certain challenges to grade 6
and Resi5 gives it you for fully upgrading a gun, then you must purchase it.
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But both games do Infinite Ammo differently.

Resi5, you have a bottomless magazine, you can fire your weapon forever and never reload.

In SR2, You're still abide by the law of the magazine, so you have to reload, but have an unlimited supply of them.
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So Escapists?
Which method of Infinite ammo do you prefer in games and why?
Feel free to mention what game does this best.
and even though it is not about cheats, don't be shy to include them.

 

[V8 Ninja]

Personally I love to riddle the corpse of my opponent with bullets for five minutes straight, so I'm a fan of the "Bottomless Magazine" type of unlimited ammunition.

 

[Neonit]

sr2 did it pretty well. at this point in the game, ammo supply is (or at least should be) becoming more of an nuisance than real challenge. it deleted the need to constantly run back to the shop, or roleplay a vulture. it increased the flow of the game.

but simply removing reloading seems stupid. some weapons strength lies in their huge magazines. some of weapons weakness lies in slow reloading. removing that makes some weapons unbalanced one way or another, and that shouldnt happen.

but then again, im a big fan of health regen, so i probably am a little biased toward "increase game flow at all costs!!!111" xD

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

sr2 did it pretty well. at this point in the game, ammo supply is (or at least should be) becoming more of an nuisance than real challenge. it deleted the need to constantly run back to the shop, or roleplay a vulture. it increased the flow of the game.

but simply removing reloading seems stupid. some weapons strength lies in their huge magazines. some of weapons weakness lies in slow reloading. removing that makes some weapons unbalanced one way or another, and that shouldnt happen.

One of the things about Resi5 was the Bottomless Mag combined with the Magnum.
The one weakness of the magnums was their small capacity, removing that weakness made the Magnum a portable doom cannon.
Removed all challenge from the game.

I didnt make the experience less enjoyable though, just less challenging.

 

[Haagrum]

Bottomless magazine, easy.

Not a sandbox or FPS fan, but stacking skills and heat sinks in Mass Effect showed me the beauty of effectively-unlimited ammo (as long as you were Soldier-class used the right powers at the right time).

Sadly, even with infinite ammunition and no reloading, there was STILL never enough dakka.

 

[5t3v0]

I will say, bottomless magazine (ITS CALLED A MAGAZINE NOT A CLIP YOU NOOBS) can be a great deal of fun, especially with single shot weapons such as the Grenade launcher in CoD4. That was great fun, mowing down enemies with the grenade alone.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I find the Saints Row 2 method more gratifying, having to slam in a new magazine, clip, drum mag, whatever, makes sense. The enemies get unlimited ammo and still have to reload, might as well all be working with the same rules.

 

[teebeeohh]

infinite supply, bottomless mags takes the fun out of using a machine gun.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

I will say, bottomless magazine (ITS CALLED A MAGAZINE NOT A CLIP YOU NOOBS) can be a great deal of fun, especially with single shot weapons such as the Grenade launcher in CoD4. That was great fun, mowing down enemies with the grenade alone.

Clip is an accepted term for games and has been since the first reloading mechanic was implemented. It isn't the real world and not everyone is a gun nut/gives a shit.

OP:

Personally I prefer infinite magazines over infinite ammo, as the act of reloading a gun is far more engrossing then just constant spraying. Benefits aside, it's a purely aesthetic reason for me.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

Reach gives you a very full appreciation of the difference between the two, since many of the weapons are balanced by how much they damage they can put downrange before you're forced to stop and reload. There's a world of difference between firing a rocket launcher twice at the highest-priority targets before ducking into cover for a few seconds to reload, and hovering over the battlefield with a jetpack, raining a constant stream of death-missiles down with impunity. Bottomless clip, at least in the case of Halo, feels very broken, and all the killstreaks that follow are a matter of course, as opposed to a matter of skill, which really takes a lot of the fun out of it.

Even the hell raised in ArcadeFight manages to feel like an accomplishment because your destructive capabilities are limited to how much havoc you can wreak before you have to reload and end your multi-kill streak. Turning on Bottomless Clip in a custom game becomes a boring and not-at-all challenging matter of "find fuel rod gun, pull trigger until game ends". While I prefer to play a game within the confines of the rules and be the best I can under those limitations, given a choice between the two, I much prefer unlimited ammo.

Besides, I hated the Chicago Typewriter in RE4, took all the suspense and strategy out of the game.

 

[5t3v0]

I will say, bottomless magazine (ITS CALLED A MAGAZINE NOT A CLIP YOU NOOBS) can be a great deal of fun, especially with single shot weapons such as the Grenade launcher in CoD4. That was great fun, mowing down enemies with the grenade alone.

Clip is an accepted term for games and has been since the first reloading mechanic was implemented. It isn't the real world and not everyone is a gun nut/gives a shit.

well if you didn't give a shit you certainly jumped in on the side of calling them clips. That constitutes giving a shit. Just because it was used in early gaming doesn't mean it has to be true today, either. (can't think of an example. Too late at night after a long day of being sick for me)

 

[AngryMongoose]

Infinite supply.
Infinite supply is a convenience, and in SR2 it's there for when buying ammo is no longer an issue. Bottomless mags change the mechanics of a game; they're unlockable cheats which make the game kinda dull. Both, I guess, but Infinite supply should be a mid-game unlockable secret, while bottomless mags should be a post-hard game thing.

 

[StormShaun]

I remember when Saints Row 2 gave you unlimited ammo for completing most of the side activitys, it was worth it to have unlimited guns.

Should happen to Saints Row 3!

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well if you want it to keep the game balanced then it needs to be a weak weapon with infinite supply, so it always helps you out in a jam but it's drawbacks don't overpower it.

But if you just want to have an "I win" button then bottomless magazines are the simple way to go.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

I will say, bottomless magazine (ITS CALLED A MAGAZINE NOT A CLIP YOU NOOBS) can be a great deal of fun, especially with single shot weapons such as the Grenade launcher in CoD4. That was great fun, mowing down enemies with the grenade alone.

Clip is an accepted term for games and has been since the first reloading mechanic was implemented. It isn't the real world and not everyone is a gun nut/gives a shit.

well if you didn't give a shit you certainly jumped in on the side of calling them clips. That constitutes giving a shit. Just because it was used in early gaming doesn't mean it has to be true today, either. (can't think of an example. Too late at night after a long day of being sick for me)

I'm a gun nut and I give a shit about people thinking their surface knowledge of a subject somehow constitutes a reason to call others out for improper terminology.

 

[Esotera]

I think the original Mass Effect did this really well, they gave a vaguely plausible explanation for the infinite ammo, but still let guns overheat. Otherwise, I prefer games that lose all ammo in the magazine when you reload.

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

I will say, bottomless magazine (ITS CALLED A MAGAZINE NOT A CLIP YOU NOOBS) can be a great deal of fun, especially with single shot weapons such as the Grenade launcher in CoD4. That was great fun, mowing down enemies with the grenade alone.

Clip is an accepted term for games and has been since the first reloading mechanic was implemented. It isn't the real world and not everyone is a gun nut/gives a shit.

well if you didn't give a shit you certainly jumped in on the side of calling them clips. That constitutes giving a shit. Just because it was used in early gaming doesn't mean it has to be true today, either. (can't think of an example. Too late at night after a long day of being sick for me)

I'm a gun nut and I give a shit about people thinking their surface knowledge of a subject somehow constitutes a reason to call others out for improper terminology.

Chill out guys.
This is not about the finer etiquette of weapon terminology.

Its about your preference in physics bending ammunition supply.
So put your differences aside and leave it. You are not proving anything apart from how childish you guys are.

 

[Macgyvercas]

You could have looked within the same series for examples. The original Tomb Raider pistols had bottomless mags, while in Legend, Anniversary and Underworld, it's infinite supply.

That being said, I'm kinda fond of infinite supply, just because I like the sound or a mag being loaded into a gun (maybe a bit too much).

 

[crimsonshrouds]

infinite ammo is pointless to me unless im playing a heavy in tf2