Well since I still don't have a game to work with, yet a ton of icons lying around I decided to throw together a quick mock up screenshot.

Thanks to the iconers who's work is showcased here; Watkins, Maverick and Quicksilver as well as whoever donated the metallic floor and walls as well as the generators.



Opinions?

My first proper blog entry...

Is there such a thing as too much realism in game? To clear things up before I even get started, I’m talking FPS games, not The Sims and games like that.

Back in 2001 my good friend Zac bought a new FPS game called Operation Flashpoint. I'll admit, it was really fun, although only because the custom map editor was so simple to screw around with and have tons of fun. The singleplayer campaign kinda sucked and was buggy. It's main feature was it's close attention to realism. There was no "Arcade Mode" in Op Flash, it was straight realism, but let's not dwell in the past as all the points I can make about Op Flash are coming up.

Recently, I somehow ran into an article about a new game coming out May 1st called "Armed Assault", I didn't really pay much attention to it but decided to do a quick scan through of the article as I'm a big fan of the war games, especially the early Battlefield series (Screw 2142 though). I soon reached a point where I decided to stop scanning and read it intently. This happened when I read the phrase "Armed Assault is the unofficial successor of Operation Flashpoint." Suddenly all I could remember was the fun I had playing that game with my friend Zac. I finished the article and checked out their website (After giving Zac a call). That's when I saw that they were taking the realism to the next level.

I checked out the Features page and there was some cool stuff but nothing newsworthy and when I was checking out another page I noticed they had a "Did you know" section that stated interesting features about the game each time you refreshed. Here's what I found.

"HDR Lighting effects: ambushing an enemy with the sun in your eyes leaves you at the disadvantage. Think smart, fight better!"

Wow... that's kinda cool but may get annoying.

"Ballistics and even bullet deflection (ricochets) for machine guns are accurately simulated in the game."

Nice! But just one more thing to worry about when I'm trying to have fun.

"If you see a distant explosion or shot, it takes a while until you hear it as well. If a building is between you and an explosion the sound will be muffled by the obstruction."

Okay, I have to admit that is cool.

"As time passes, weather and daytime changes influence scene lighting and shadowing as in the real world."

Once again, cool but I'll hate sitting there waiting for the rain to stop to start killing again :P

"Walking across the island on foot from one end to the other takes 45 minutes real time."

Cool, but is that absolutely necessary?

"Church bells ring on each hour."

Come on, you're just looking for things to brag about!

"key battles of the conflict that can last several hours"

Cool but I hear the save system is a wee bit shoddy so watch out.

"Real constellations and tides: ArmA's great depth even includes such features as fully simulated star maps, lunar cycles and tides. Watch where you park your vehicle, soldier!"

WTF! I can understand tides but who the hell is going to be looking up at the stars saying "Hey, Orion should appear a lot closer to the earth from here... those bastard developers ripped me off!" While you're taking fire from the rest of the gamers who don't care about Astronomy.

I think this is going way too far when it comes to realism and it all seems a bit unnecessary. I will however, admit that I am intending to give this game a chance because that's the kind of person I am :P

Opinions?

Well I finally decided to stop being cheap and actually purchase a BYOND membership. I figured I should probably be a member for when DWL comes out as well, maybe get me a little more respect from the players.