Realism, eh?

[MrNeil]

Where do we draw the line when gaming begins to really reflect aspects of reality?

No I don't mean a game where you pay a mortgage, help your kids with homework and keep your house tidy each day but more your box average gameplay from FPS to RPG's, perhaps even strategy games.

One of my first realisations that games were rolling down the realism road (I wonder how many times I can say real) came whilst playing the original ghost recon for the Xbox. You were shot, the player gave a grunt and the controller vibrated. The noise was also loud - like a slap as the bullet slammed into the character. You genuinely got quite a fright. Movement was sluggish and slower as per real combat, characters got breathless and so on...

Games which are too realistic are usually slated and unwelcome as it can often take the fun from the experience. However nowadays graphics are beginning to accurately reflect real scenery, character movements are based on real motion and even violence has become quite the thing and I'm sure there's more to come there.

What do you consider realistic in a game? Do you think we should draw that thing line between fun and realistic? As for myself - I'm not quite sure what I expect...

 

[GothmogII]

Well, that's just that series, and of course something to be expected of a game with Tom Clancy's name on it, I mean I can remember playing Rainbow 6 years ago, and god if it wasn't the most realistic if obscure in terms of ease of play game.

I'm not for drawing of any lines though, just let games be made, realistic or not. I still won't play the uber tactical shooters, but a lot of other people do find them enjoyable.
And, I do like high realism in some games such as Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth, or Deus Ex, in both of those the loss of a leg crippled you completely, and Deus Ex in particular, though the engine could not of course at the time muster up proper disorientation effects, if was still a pretty good try with it's red haze whenever a bullet happened to connect, but that effect is in almost all FPS'es these days. I can just remember jumping out of a hotel window to escape in Deus Ex, breaking both my legs in the process with no med kits, I had to slowly crawl all the way to a transition area before the mooks came after me, only to discover that I couldn't get up the steps out in my condition, needless to say I had to reload, and that was awesome stuff indeed.

 

[Kukakkau]

i consider realism the envirnoments. something you can look at and be like wow that is so well done
making games realistic would just lead to you take 1 bullet and roll on the ground in pain calling for a medic or some help. you step on a mine your legs are blown off and you cant move as your co-op partner looks on helplessly.
yea it wouldn't go too well

 

[Immiso]

Teach you to think twice before you get shot eh?

It is important to strive for realism in games, I would think, as that in turn would drive the technology behind the programs.

 

[Gxas]

I love a realistic game. Even if the premise isn't realistic, I still love the environment and physics to work like real life. I don't know about how realistic a game should be though. i guess when games become a one shot kill I'll get pretty pissed. Say you're playing CoD5 and they made it as realistic as possible so that you are shot and killed instantly. I mean, head shots are nice, but if you got shot once in the leg or foot and fell over and have to crawl around? That's a bit overboard to me.

 

[Aeviv]

If your going to try and make/call your game realistic, such as the Tom Clancy games, make them as real as you can/want, thats what those games for for.
However, games like Mercenaries or metal gear for example, you should be able to take direct hits from an RPG and get up, why? Becuase its fun

 

[CyberAkuma]

I concider realism to be when the game-mechanics are tied up to something realistic.

One example is implemented bullet physics in S.t.a.l.k.e.r: Shadow of Chernobyl.
They bounce off angled surfaces, they get affected by wind and gravety and firing without using the iron sights makes it really hard to hit anything.

I hear that they added a lot of realistic gameplay mechanics to Far Cry 2 with how the weapons and veichles work. I like.