What happened to helmets?

[demotion1]

First, video games do not subscribe to the real rules of the universe. Second, no helmet in use today is designed to protect you from being shot in the head. One can certainly make a helmet that will stop a round of reasonable caliber but the end effect is you are still getting slugged in the head hard enough to give you severe brain trauma and lead to instant death. The only difference is you'd be slightly more likely to have the opportunity to have an open casket funeral. Smaller caliber handgun rounds can certainly be stopped by helmets and the wearer could expect to survive the wound but then one must consider the difference. Where a .45 ACP round (say from an M1911A1) has roughly the same kinetic energy as a baseball being thrown at 90 mph, a 7.62.51 NATO (say from an M240, M60, or any number of battle rifles) carries energy equivalent to being struck in the head by a baseball bat swung by a homerun champ. The reality is, the odds of surviving a gunshot to the head by a military weapon, even if wearing a helmet, is low. And any real chance of survival hinges upon the round not hitting squarely on the helmet (and as such not imparting all of itss energy on the wearer).

What helmets actually protect your fragile head from are things like shell fragments (they carry little energy but go through bone like it isn't there) and blunt trauma (hitting your head on something).

This. If you get headshot you die even if you wear a helmet.

 

[vrbtny]

If you've ever played Gears of War 1 or 2 then you'd know what happens if you wear a helmet.

I think it's just some sort of mysterious force in video games where, if you don't have an identity, bullets and other projectiles tend to fly towards you more often regardless of their original direction.

Lesson to learn from this: Go into war naked.

If all the characters from Gear 1 and 2 went through the game naked games sales to females would go up 70%

Seriously, imagine the abs on Cole...

 

[Serving UpSmiles]

Because it's a lot harder to make a character emote properly when all of their facial expressions are obscured by a helmet. Notice how most of the generic red shirts that don't have any character are almost always wearing helmets. It might seem a bit silly, but it's perfectly understandable.

I remember thinking that the guys in Black Hawk Down would be infinitely easier to tell apart if I could see their hairdos.

Finally! someone who agrees with me on this, i couldn't tell which bloody character from another, apart from the sgt guy who had the most interesting face.

 

[Saelune]

Two reasons. One, they rarely look cool. Not everyone can be Shao Khan. Also, as very clear in Gears of War, helmets give you "Redshirt" status.

Also, realistically, helmets protect your head, but can escew vision, so while not wearing it leaves your head open, it also leaves your eyes open which can make up for it. As a wise Akaviri (The Elder Scrolls) once said, "When you dont want to get hit, you just move out of the way."

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

More games should feature my favourite piece of safetyware - The High Visibility Orange Turban.

 

[ultrachicken]

I just found Killzone and Gears laughable as every other motherfroggy on the battlefield actually used intelligence and wore appropriate protection, yet still, they all get mowed down by gun fire or brutally torn apart in some way or form, yet, our heros over here who are one step away from just wearing boxers run through the battlefield unscathed.

How come Crysis Nomad and Master Chief were smart enough to wear a helmet?

Nomad and Master Chief are intelligent, that's why. The protagonists from Killzone and Gears are... simple.

Anyways, it's hard to read the emotions of main characters when they have helmets on. I would suggest they give them different helmets and have them take them off during important plot points, but I'm no developer.

 

[viranimus]

Aside from the game standpoint, real life physics.

They limit visibility and mobility.

They are useless in protecting against a bullet and in most cases useless to protect against shrapnel. Their only real benefit is defending against slightly less harmful debris such as debris from structural collapse.

In a medieval setting they can be penetrated with peircing weapons, and in the case of blunt and slashing weapons having your head encased in metal protecting against blunt damage will usually produce a vibrating resonance that would only serve to disorient you and leave you more prone to more damaging follow up blows.

 

[Laser Priest]

Because it's a lot harder to make a character emote properly when all of their facial expressions are obscured by a helmet. Notice how most of the generic red shirts that don't have any character are almost always wearing helmets. It might seem a bit silly, but it's perfectly understandable.

This, aaaand...

Aside from the game standpoint, real life physics.

They limit visibility and mobility.

They are useless in protecting against a bullet and in most cases useless to protect against shrapnel. Their only real benefit is defending against slightly less harmful debris such as debris from structural collapse.

In a medieval setting they can be penetrated with peircing weapons, and in the case of blunt and slashing weapons having your head encased in metal protecting against blunt damage will usually produce a vibrating resonance that would only serve to disorient you and leave you more prone to more damaging follow up blows.

This.

Helmets aren't the pinnacle of protection and they certainly do no favors for the character animations.

 

[SalamanderJoe]

Isn't this basically made a joke in Gears 2?

B.Carmine: You know the helmets have a filter right? If you wore a helmet, you wouldn't have to breath in the dust!
Dom: Yeah but I wouldn't see snipers so well would I?!

 

[Steel_crab]

Wore appropriate protection

Hurr Hurr Hurr

Please continue.

 

[Aurgelmir]

Its governed by the same logic as female armor: Some parts of you are just invulnerable. Females just have more spots than men

 

[SomeBoredGuy]

I don't know, but I would love if more games did it. I love games that include helmet HUD instead of just magic floaty HUD.

 

[tahrey]

I guess it's the same effect that I experience firsthand with my motorcycle helmet on. You become The Stig. You are an anonymous, non-human object, rather than an identifiable person. People fail to connect with you as one of their own. There's not so much a lot of hate comes your way, as utter indifference.

vs, say, the rider I had a shout at from my cage on the motorway earlier today because they were getting in everyone's way, riding a 600 NSR round the bends slower than I take them on a 125 commuter. They - bizarrely - had an open face helmet (must have real thick contact lenses in...) so became an abusable idiot rather than a soul-less automaton.
(Still don't know if it was a guy or girl though ... their features were a bit squashed, no hair, couldn't tell a proper outline...)

 

[tahrey]

Its governed by the same logic as female armor: Some parts of you are just invulnerable. Females just have more spots than men

"Break out your AP rounds and aim for the nips and the foo-foo... that's their achilles heel. All other parts of a female soldier are invulnerable. That's why they don't bother to cover them; that and the distraction element. Hell, why do you think there are disproportionately more of them than there are - heavily armoured - guys?"

 

[4li3n]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure running into battle without the appropriate safety measures and safety attire will most likely result in your death, so this has lead me to wonder why game characters in 3rdPS and FPS titles are now no longer wearing helmets. Does thier sheer badassness prevent them from being headshot (which I know is not true because I've headshot in multiplayers (which probably wouldn't have happened if they wore helmets)) or are they just foolish?

Helmets' main purpose is to protect from ricochets and shrapnel, they won't save you from a head shot from most modern weapons...

And as we've seen in video games ricochets and shrapnel just don't happen, while their weapons appear to be more powerful, or at least more gore making then regular weapons. So Helmets are pointless except as fashion accessories.

 

[IndianaJonny]

Hmm, I like the social etiquette/battle practicality thing the Dragon Age games do where characters wear headgear in combat but don't wear them in conversation. DA probably isn't the only game that does this but it's the one that springs to mind.

 

[RowdyRodimus]

I would play any game, ANY game if it had this helmet in it:

 

[Super Toast]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure running into battle without the appropriate safety measures and safety attire will most likely result in your death, so this has lead me to wonder why game characters in 3rdPS and FPS titles are now no longer wearing helmets. Does thier sheer badassness prevent them from being headshot (which I know is not true because I've headshot in multiplayers (which probably wouldn't have happened if they wore helmets)) or are they just foolish?

What are your opinions on this phenomenon?

PS: Don't take me 100% seriously, I just thought it would be interesting to bring up.

Helmets are only useful against shrapnel. They have a 0% success rate of stopping bullets.

 

[ThisIsSnake]

Most armies from the industrial era never bothered with helmets, until WWI when they found out how dangerous it was to fight other people with guns whilst wearing a fluffy hat.

Also helmets tend to divide people up into the two main categories, Boba Fett or Stormtrooper