This was inspired by something Rob said in the CoD4 thread and I want to know what Massassi's opinion on realism in games is.

Personally I think the strive for ultra-realism in games is a load of bull****. When I play a game I like more arcadey gameplay, physics etc. What the hell is the point in playing something where you can crash a car at 100mph into a building, snap half of the character's bones and play the CPR minigame, or the 300 million full realism WW2 simulator, now with extra nazis? Go watch a movie already!

Where the **** is the imagination?

Depends what you like, I guess. I love GTR2 for a racing simulator. If I want to play an arcade-ish game, I play something else. *shrug*

I like both. I do think that in cases where games have an unrealistic setting (i.e. sci-fi or fantasy), internal consistency rather than realism ought to be the goal.

I lean towards realism and/or remarkably explained suspension of disbelief.

For example I'm not gonna whine about a certain character having an insanely huge sword in the world of fancyass mages, effeminate supersoldiers and inbred flying chickens. If I want to do something ultra-realistic, I go outside.

Thats a lie and you know it.

My mistake, I don't really go outside to buy some food. I play Refrigerator Tales XVII instead.

XVI was better.

XVI was for weeaboo emo pansies.

:saddowns:

I reject your reality and substitute my own.

It really depends on what type of game it is. For instance, I love the loads of realism in a flight simulator, but I think that over realism on something so simple such as how to fix a jam in your gun is stupid, unless you plan on joining the army anyways.

Realism is actually better than it sounds...

Yes.

Ultra-realism is acceptable until it impedes gameplay.

I haven't played an ultra-realistic game that I actually liked. I did play some racing game on the PS2 or something where if you even just barely clipped another car or a building, the car would explode into a million pieces. It was so fakking annoying I wanted to blow up the console.

i think STALKER and Battlefield 2 are good examples of realism in fps games. STALKER had a good inventory system where you could only carry so much weight before you lose stamina and it had weapons that degraded after you used it too much. battlefield 2 had the best accuracy deviations and weapon damages (to a point) and movement.

BF2 was much more arcadey in nearly every other regard. :/

You guys are simplifying the concept of 'realism' far too much. Realism isn't a single quantifiable characteristic.

Americas army is a lot less arcade style than most shoot em up games, thats what makes me like it, but then I again I stopped playing a while ago due to boredom. 8 months straight burns me out.

I'm not entirely following why liking a realistic sim or FPS means you're a moron. You can't simply "go outside" and "kick in a door, throw a grenade, and triple tap the guy coming through the other doorway" without serious consequences in real life. I like ultra-realistic games, I also like "arcadey" games. I don't really prefer one over the other, it just depends on how well made the final product is. I can't stand arcadey games that introduce elements that don't makes sense, and I hate when a game tries to pull off realism and drops the ball.

I like it either super realistic, or stupidly fake, i tend to find i struggle on games that are a half way house like CoD, either has to be rainbow 6 / AA style realism or UT style mash em to death.

I've actually gave it a second thought, and I don't give a crap, as long as its fun.

(You should try the realism mod for CoD1)

It depends on what I'm in the mood for. Sometimes I want to play Serious Sam and sometimes I want to play Splinter Cell. Now, I also think that too much realism can be a bad thing if it impedes gameplay for reasons that aren't your fault. For example, it would be horribly annoying if Sam Fisher were to tire over the course of the level because I can't do anything about it like I would be able to do in real life (exercise more) and there's nothing I can do to fix it in the game (breath deeper, rest, drink water, whatever)

i like rogue spear and ghost recon

I've never really been a big fan of in-game realism. I play CSS, and if it weren't for all the rtards I play with it would be unbearable. I love that every time somebody gets knifed I can count on hearing, "SHANK A B****!" or "SURPRISE C***F**!" -- but that gets old fast too.

I'd much rather play an immersing game that completely suspends realism but has a GREAT story, than an ultra-realistic game that takes time to get good at. Frankly, I don't have much time for gaming anymore as it is, so if I have to work to get "skills" in order to play and not suck at it, I don't really want to do it.

...but CSS isn't very realistic. I can see what you're saying, but why'd you have to use CSS as your example of "realism"?

True, CSS isn't very realistic. But I used it because it was an example of how (in)tolerant I am of realism. If it weren't for the community, even that would be unbearable. Sorry, I didn't emphasize that.

CSS is unbearable because it's a water-downed game, it has nothing to do with "realism."

I disagree. It works perfectly as an example for my point because it's about as realistic as I can stand before I absolutely hate a game.

I don't like war games. I'd prefer if EVERY enemy were non-human. I'd prefer to have ungodly strength, stamina, and agility. I love the ability to carry a myriad of weapons at all time and revel in the fact that my character will be perfectly versed in ALL of them with 100% accuracy and proficiency.

I like ridiculous puzzles thrown about with reckless abandon. I love character development that ALMOST makes all of the crazy ridiculous crap going on around me seem halfway plausible. I like being one step behind the main boss until an epic end game that when I finish it makes me want to just do it again because I kicked his *** so hard he'll feel it before the level reloads.

Basically, I want every game to be Doom or Halflife 2.

What kind of realism are we talking about anyway?

A realistic game in the sense that it's based on a realistic setting with realistic weapons? I'd even put Half Life in that category, in spite of the aliens and fantasy weapons you get later in the game.
Or are we talking about a game that's realistic in the way your character handles, where he has limited strength and stamina, can carry only a few items and most likely dies after being hit once. I don't have any example, that's set in a fantasy world, at the moment, but there should be some RPG that fills this category.

That said, I made my answer based on the first "realism" and tend to like unrealistic games, like Unreal or some rediculous adventure. I want my weapons and characters to be over the top.
Of course, there are exceptions as the fun factor of a game doesn't only depend on realism.

I'd say that's accurate.



And that's ultrarealism. Alternatively, it's not a game, it's a realism simulator. I prefer games to realism simulators, Unreal is a pretty good example (fun and not really realistic) of that.

ahahaha shut up that could never get old god damn thats funny for the CS crowd.

as far as realism goes i would get pissed off if i had to feed, water and clean out my pokemons every 500 steps.

Clam Digger
"Oh you gonna love this boy. Tyrone calls you up and ya know in the game and he says I can dig more clams then you stupid, and you gotta say na aa boy, and you all gotta race down to the beach with your buckets and your shovels, and, the object of the game, is to find parking."

I like a mix of the two. Something that's so fake just gets gimmicky and annoying. Something that's too realistic becomes a quickload-fest for me.

Call of Duty is exactly the sort of game I love. Realistic setting, somewhat realistic weapons, but not realistically difficult. If games were made 100% realistic, they would be difficult as ****.

Oh god, flashbacks...

I like realism as far as exploding cars

Not so much a fan of "YOUR WEAPON HAS JAMMED"

agreed.