A tentative discussion on game innovation and the FPS genre.

[Eejit]

I still haven't played a FPS to equal Wheel of Time in terms of gameplay/weapon-world interaction. The multiplayer was ace back in the day too. Decent story in sp as well.

 

[Warbie]

Personally I really don't see what more can be added to ingame FPS 'combat' beyond what either FEAR or Crysis deliver in terms of kinetics & atmospherics tbh.

I'm not really talking about kinetics (by that you mean hit reactions and stuff blowing up?) and atmosphere, more how to overcome tricky situations. A simple example would be noticing your foe wearing body armour and aiming for the extremities rather than the body. Or you could switch to your magnum and off him with one shot to the heart. Something as basic as this can add so much. Now add a few more simple gameplay changing additions and suddenly you have layers of depth and combat that goes way beyond holding the cursor over a bad guy and pushing a mouse button untill they fall over.


//edit - I was going off on one

 

[Vegeta897]

Okay I laughed at that image so much.

 

[Kadayi]

I'm not really talking about kinetics (by that you mean hit reactions and stuff blowing up?) and atmosphere, more how to overcome tricky situations. A simple example would be noticing your foe wearing body armour and aiming for the extremities rather than the body. Or you could switch to your magnum and off him with one shot to the heart. Something as basic as this can add so much. Now add a few more simple gameplay changing additions and suddenly you have layers of depth and combat that goes way beyond holding the cursor over a bad guy and pushing a mouse button untill they fall over.

What you described sounds not that far off from my experience of Halo tbh, where in certain weapons were a better choice against certain enemies (Shotgun for flood, etc, etc). Sure detailed armour might add a degree more depth to it, but the reality is, short of using a sniper rifle on an unsuspecting target, how often to you get to choose your shot in an FPS?

 

[Sparta]

I'm not really talking about kinetics (by that you mean hit reactions and stuff blowing up?) and atmosphere, more how to overcome tricky situations. A simple example would be noticing your foe wearing body armour and aiming for the extremities rather than the body. Or you could switch to your magnum and off him with one shot to the heart. Something as basic as this can add so much. Now add a few more simple gameplay changing additions and suddenly you have layers of depth and combat that goes way beyond holding the cursor over a bad guy and pushing a mouse button untill they fall over.


//edit - I was going off on one

The problem with that idea is that it makes the game incredibly easy for people on PC's and could prove incredibly frustrating for people on consoles who have to deal with auto-aiming already intregrated into the game.

What i'd like to see (as well as the Ninja Gaiden thing i mentioned earlier) is FPS games make certain badguys fight differently than that of the average cannon fodder. I'd love to see more of those special ops bastards from Half-life and enemies that constantly keep me on my toes. But i think i've already said that haven't i?