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Yep, thats my latest discovery that with some small thought seems to be very obvious from most games out there. I'll use examples in this post but you will probably realise there are plenty of more games like this out there with some valid reasons why.
We all know what I mean by environment in the game don't we? Well I'll explain for those that are to reluctant to admit it. The environment is everything that surrounds your character, everything outwith your control. From the weather and tracks in a race game to the layout of rooms in a game like Splinter Cell.
Most games have the odd switch you have to move, or door which you must pass through or find a key to unlock. The rest is all nice graphics that make up the surroundings. In race games you'll have the barriers and if you go off track the different surface will cause loss of control and speed. Racing games don't really fit into the post, very little interaction with the environment is required and would not increase the enjoyment of the game so from now we will just ignore them.
Lets take something like Resident evil, you work your way through the game solving puzzles, finding keys and blowing various creatures to bits with some impressive weapons. Now the main thing that annoys me is you stand before a rickety old wooden door that you could probably easily kick your way through yet you can't attempt this or even unload a few shotgun shells to allow you to pass through.
Sticking with Resident evil, how many times have you been caught without ammo for a certain weapon and found yourself running from some zombies, why can't you pick up some objects and improvise on the situation, smash them with some chunks of wood, an axe etc.
I know they want you to follow a certain path through the game and find the keys to open certain doors ect but surely with a bit of thought they could provide more interaction and a bit more destruction to the surrounding environment.
I always thought that firing a grenade launcher at a wall would cause a bit of damage or change to the wall, in this game no spread of fire or damage at all.
With todays technology I doubt much effort would be required to include options like this.
Take Red Faction, behind the story, characters etc there was one feature that everyone else has just overlooked. The GeoMod system which let you blow chunks out of surrounding wall, bored of using the door then blast through the walls beside it and be on your way.
I just can't see why more games don't use similar features.
Also with the likes of GTA VC you have a whole city to explore, yet only a few buildings are open to you for exploring and even at that the few are very basic and not worth entering unless you have too.
You can see that even with the little thought I have made while writing this that if you think about all the games you like chances are you could find some small problem areas to do with the environment and the lack of interaction with it.
This is something I think we could see big changes in sometime soon. Hopefully it is something developers will take seriously and not just overlook in a hope that not many care about it.
However I can see why it dosn't feature much. All the effort to allow you to blast your way through walls and doors, or to explore buildings or to help yourself to a few drinks from the bar etc will use up developer time and space on the game that could have been used for other areas that would maybe be better used by the gamers who play the games. In a perfect world we could have all we want and more, sadly we can't. But maybe a balance could be made with a bit of both included. I hope one day we see a lot more choice and effort in this area.
Anyway, aside from all this I shall plug my website Idea. www.whatgamerswant.tk
Got ideas on how to improve games, what you want to see in them and what should be left out then make your views heard.
We all know what I mean by environment in the game don't we? Well I'll explain for those that are to reluctant to admit it. The environment is everything that surrounds your character, everything outwith your control. From the weather and tracks in a race game to the layout of rooms in a game like Splinter Cell.
Most games have the odd switch you have to move, or door which you must pass through or find a key to unlock. The rest is all nice graphics that make up the surroundings. In race games you'll have the barriers and if you go off track the different surface will cause loss of control and speed. Racing games don't really fit into the post, very little interaction with the environment is required and would not increase the enjoyment of the game so from now we will just ignore them.
Lets take something like Resident evil, you work your way through the game solving puzzles, finding keys and blowing various creatures to bits with some impressive weapons. Now the main thing that annoys me is you stand before a rickety old wooden door that you could probably easily kick your way through yet you can't attempt this or even unload a few shotgun shells to allow you to pass through.
Sticking with Resident evil, how many times have you been caught without ammo for a certain weapon and found yourself running from some zombies, why can't you pick up some objects and improvise on the situation, smash them with some chunks of wood, an axe etc.
I know they want you to follow a certain path through the game and find the keys to open certain doors ect but surely with a bit of thought they could provide more interaction and a bit more destruction to the surrounding environment.
I always thought that firing a grenade launcher at a wall would cause a bit of damage or change to the wall, in this game no spread of fire or damage at all.
With todays technology I doubt much effort would be required to include options like this.
Take Red Faction, behind the story, characters etc there was one feature that everyone else has just overlooked. The GeoMod system which let you blow chunks out of surrounding wall, bored of using the door then blast through the walls beside it and be on your way.
I just can't see why more games don't use similar features.
Also with the likes of GTA VC you have a whole city to explore, yet only a few buildings are open to you for exploring and even at that the few are very basic and not worth entering unless you have too.
You can see that even with the little thought I have made while writing this that if you think about all the games you like chances are you could find some small problem areas to do with the environment and the lack of interaction with it.
This is something I think we could see big changes in sometime soon. Hopefully it is something developers will take seriously and not just overlook in a hope that not many care about it.
However I can see why it dosn't feature much. All the effort to allow you to blast your way through walls and doors, or to explore buildings or to help yourself to a few drinks from the bar etc will use up developer time and space on the game that could have been used for other areas that would maybe be better used by the gamers who play the games. In a perfect world we could have all we want and more, sadly we can't. But maybe a balance could be made with a bit of both included. I hope one day we see a lot more choice and effort in this area.
Anyway, aside from all this I shall plug my website Idea. www.whatgamerswant.tk
Got ideas on how to improve games, what you want to see in them and what should be left out then make your views heard.
One of the best things about GTA3 WAS the interactivity.
Although most of the buildings weren't open, the streets were full of people and cars to play with.
Like El Blokey said, it's not the easiest thing in the world to make a game environment fully interactive but games are heading that way.
I expect it would take up a LOT of memory and processing power to handle so there might not be a major step in this direction until the next generation of consoles.
One step at a time, eh? :-)
Although most of the buildings weren't open, the streets were full of people and cars to play with.
Like El Blokey said, it's not the easiest thing in the world to make a game environment fully interactive but games are heading that way.
I expect it would take up a LOT of memory and processing power to handle so there might not be a major step in this direction until the next generation of consoles.
One step at a time, eh? :-)
It just seems so hard to do, to properly render everything in an environment, to program interaction with it (like in your Resi idea)...and Red Faction II, probably the closest we've come to properly interactive backgrounds, just makes the engine feel gimmicky.
But yes, hold out hope for Halo 2, if anyone can do it it may as well be Bungie.
But yes, hold out hope for Halo 2, if anyone can do it it may as well be Bungie.
Halo 2 will involve interactive enviroments and AI that will use the enviroment to its advantage.
Yep, thats my latest discovery that with some small thought seems to be very obvious from most games out there. I'll use examples in this post but you will probably realise there are plenty of more games like this out there with some valid reasons why.
We all know what I mean by environment in the game don't we? Well I'll explain for those that are to reluctant to admit it. The environment is everything that surrounds your character, everything outwith your control. From the weather and tracks in a race game to the layout of rooms in a game like Splinter Cell.
Most games have the odd switch you have to move, or door which you must pass through or find a key to unlock. The rest is all nice graphics that make up the surroundings. In race games you'll have the barriers and if you go off track the different surface will cause loss of control and speed. Racing games don't really fit into the post, very little interaction with the environment is required and would not increase the enjoyment of the game so from now we will just ignore them.
Lets take something like Resident evil, you work your way through the game solving puzzles, finding keys and blowing various creatures to bits with some impressive weapons. Now the main thing that annoys me is you stand before a rickety old wooden door that you could probably easily kick your way through yet you can't attempt this or even unload a few shotgun shells to allow you to pass through.
Sticking with Resident evil, how many times have you been caught without ammo for a certain weapon and found yourself running from some zombies, why can't you pick up some objects and improvise on the situation, smash them with some chunks of wood, an axe etc.
I know they want you to follow a certain path through the game and find the keys to open certain doors ect but surely with a bit of thought they could provide more interaction and a bit more destruction to the surrounding environment.
I always thought that firing a grenade launcher at a wall would cause a bit of damage or change to the wall, in this game no spread of fire or damage at all.
With todays technology I doubt much effort would be required to include options like this.
Take Red Faction, behind the story, characters etc there was one feature that everyone else has just overlooked. The GeoMod system which let you blow chunks out of surrounding wall, bored of using the door then blast through the walls beside it and be on your way.
I just can't see why more games don't use similar features.
Also with the likes of GTA VC you have a whole city to explore, yet only a few buildings are open to you for exploring and even at that the few are very basic and not worth entering unless you have too.
You can see that even with the little thought I have made while writing this that if you think about all the games you like chances are you could find some small problem areas to do with the environment and the lack of interaction with it.
This is something I think we could see big changes in sometime soon. Hopefully it is something developers will take seriously and not just overlook in a hope that not many care about it.
However I can see why it dosn't feature much. All the effort to allow you to blast your way through walls and doors, or to explore buildings or to help yourself to a few drinks from the bar etc will use up developer time and space on the game that could have been used for other areas that would maybe be better used by the gamers who play the games. In a perfect world we could have all we want and more, sadly we can't. But maybe a balance could be made with a bit of both included. I hope one day we see a lot more choice and effort in this area.
Anyway, aside from all this I shall plug my website Idea. www.whatgamerswant.tk
Got ideas on how to improve games, what you want to see in them and what should be left out then make your views heard.
We all know what I mean by environment in the game don't we? Well I'll explain for those that are to reluctant to admit it. The environment is everything that surrounds your character, everything outwith your control. From the weather and tracks in a race game to the layout of rooms in a game like Splinter Cell.
Most games have the odd switch you have to move, or door which you must pass through or find a key to unlock. The rest is all nice graphics that make up the surroundings. In race games you'll have the barriers and if you go off track the different surface will cause loss of control and speed. Racing games don't really fit into the post, very little interaction with the environment is required and would not increase the enjoyment of the game so from now we will just ignore them.
Lets take something like Resident evil, you work your way through the game solving puzzles, finding keys and blowing various creatures to bits with some impressive weapons. Now the main thing that annoys me is you stand before a rickety old wooden door that you could probably easily kick your way through yet you can't attempt this or even unload a few shotgun shells to allow you to pass through.
Sticking with Resident evil, how many times have you been caught without ammo for a certain weapon and found yourself running from some zombies, why can't you pick up some objects and improvise on the situation, smash them with some chunks of wood, an axe etc.
I know they want you to follow a certain path through the game and find the keys to open certain doors ect but surely with a bit of thought they could provide more interaction and a bit more destruction to the surrounding environment.
I always thought that firing a grenade launcher at a wall would cause a bit of damage or change to the wall, in this game no spread of fire or damage at all.
With todays technology I doubt much effort would be required to include options like this.
Take Red Faction, behind the story, characters etc there was one feature that everyone else has just overlooked. The GeoMod system which let you blow chunks out of surrounding wall, bored of using the door then blast through the walls beside it and be on your way.
I just can't see why more games don't use similar features.
Also with the likes of GTA VC you have a whole city to explore, yet only a few buildings are open to you for exploring and even at that the few are very basic and not worth entering unless you have too.
You can see that even with the little thought I have made while writing this that if you think about all the games you like chances are you could find some small problem areas to do with the environment and the lack of interaction with it.
This is something I think we could see big changes in sometime soon. Hopefully it is something developers will take seriously and not just overlook in a hope that not many care about it.
However I can see why it dosn't feature much. All the effort to allow you to blast your way through walls and doors, or to explore buildings or to help yourself to a few drinks from the bar etc will use up developer time and space on the game that could have been used for other areas that would maybe be better used by the gamers who play the games. In a perfect world we could have all we want and more, sadly we can't. But maybe a balance could be made with a bit of both included. I hope one day we see a lot more choice and effort in this area.
Anyway, aside from all this I shall plug my website Idea. www.whatgamerswant.tk
Got ideas on how to improve games, what you want to see in them and what should be left out then make your views heard.