Nice attention to detail

[PZ]

I was wandering around a civilian city this morning and a fight broke out between faction gunners and several groups of govmen.  After the fight I heard a strange noise that sounded like metal grinding against pavement and as I turned to investigate, that's exactly what it was - a facman (faction man) had evidently shot out the rear tire of a government vehicle and sparks were flying - this was the first time I'd seen an enemy vehicle driving slowly with a blown tire.

Seeing that reminded me that during chases, you can shoot out the tires of vehicles which can cause them to overturn (if you shoot out a front tire) and at least slow it down (if you shoot the rear tire)

[spaceboy]

oh man, I've seen that all the time (and had it happen to me)  both on races and missions, or just fighting govmen.  It's a great attention to detail.  I completed a race one time with the tire blown out, sparks flying  - there was not another vehicle to commandeer as I was on the tarmac at the airport.


another cool detail in the AI is I was hitching a ride on top of a car and I heard honking and screeching, up ahead two civilians had pulled over with a motorbike kind of in front of a car.  They had had some kind of incident and were arguing/talking.  I should have jumped off and listened, but I was anxious to get to my destination.  I just loved the fact that that happened.

I've also seen another video where a govman jeep pulled up and literally dropped off a govman, the passenger got out, then the jeep drove off.  No fighting was occurring, it was apparently just a soldier being dropped off for his patrol.  Cool.

[PZ]

Very cool space!  I love experiencing these kinds of things in games - kind of reminds me of SimCity where you never know what the civilians are going to do/say.

[JRD]

These little things are what add to imersion in a game and keep us coming back over and over...  :-X

Souless games like Modern Warfare 2 (meant to be eye candy and MP) would never caught our attention like that as once you finish it, you can be sure that a second go will be exactly the same  :-\

[Art Blade]

Which is why we generally prefer open world (or sand box) games to linear ones. :)

[JRD]

And yet, MW2 is a top seller for months... which shows how consumers are attracted by nice visuals, MP and shallow story.

Games like that, as I said before, are made to last in MP for a while and will be replaced by the next blockbuster this summer, just like a hollywood movie.

[Art Blade]

No gamer cares for details when playing online (MP) because it would only distract him and by that, get him killed. When I played online, I reduced the details to a minimum in favour of a lag-free play and a high frames per second (fps) count. Since I (re)turned to SP, I do enjoy every bit of detail and therefore I crank up those values, even if it means sacrificing fps and enduring lags. :)

[spaceboy]

No gamer cares for details when playing online (MP) because it would only distract him and by that, get him killed. When I played online, I reduced the details to a minimum in favour of a lag-free play and a high frames per second (fps) count. Since I (re)turned to SP, I do enjoy every bit of detail and therefore I crank up those values, even if it means sacrificing fps and enduring lags. :)

I disagree my friend!  You know I like both SP and MP so I'd say my opinion is at least not biased towards either.  The outstanding graphics and yes attention to detail (in the MP games I like) are a huge part of the experience for me.  I personally found MW2 MP watered down in gameplay, but Bad Company has such incredible detail and variety of situations it is top notch and the experience stands next to my favorite SP experiences.

I'll give an example from just the other night.  I was hunkered down on one side of a dusty road in some torn up building remnants trying to capture a control zone (flag).  I saw an enemy across the way who did not notice me.  He was strafing a bit and hard to get a bead on him as he also had some broken steel partially hiding him at times.  Just as he stopped and I trained my shot at him a tank rolled by (huge next to me in my crouched position) The detail on the treads were awesome, but more importantly after he passed the dust cloud that it kicked up was obscuring my view of my enemy.  And it wasn't just on or off obscured view, it was blowing/gusting in the wind and I'd get a glimpse for just a half second, frantically trying to spot him again, turning, watching my back, etc.  A totally great gaming moment with tons of detail.  I finally spotted him on the lower level of where he was, so I ran over and shot him with my pistol!

[JRD]

Great story spaceboy...
I guess the thrill in MP is to fight against an enemy that can think and act just like you did. I have nothing against MP, its just not my cup of tea.
But again, what bothers me in linear SP games like MW2 is that they are meant to be played once, the second time is a memory test.

[spaceboy]

true on the SP portions of many MP focused games JRD.  Even the SP portion of BC2 wasn't top notch (I liked the first games SP better).

Not all MP games (or even matches of the same game) are equal as far as how people are playing, how nice others are, but more importantly in how they act/fight.  Every match really can be quite different, even if it is just one awesome moment.

My real life friend and I were playing online together in BC2 and we hopped on an ATV to quickly get to the other side of the map.  We managed to run over an enemy and immediately launch off this huge jump.  It was hilarious!  We were laughing so hard at the combo of kill/jump. 

[Art Blade]

Maybe I was ignorant of the fact that there are different kinds of players. I do agree, space, that a MP game in a detailed environment is enjoyable, given you play it with friends and all of you are just having fun.

I was more thinking of high-level competitive play, where all that counts is a frag, not how nice the dust is. Then, if possible, you'd rather switch off dust so you can see opponents and frag them.

In that case, a MP game is a memory test, too: You need to know the map inside out, at all times, like being able to run around blind and still know where you are. And more importantly, where the opponent might be and knowing his options (paths, ways). That is a different game entirely, then, and I stopped playing like that long ago.

I'm with you, today I'd rather play for fun (hence SP) with all details than competitive without anything that makes the game worthwhile  :)

[spaceboy]

Oh, yeah I'd never last in competitive play.  and I don't really like shooting only MP games (like MW2) it gets old fast.  I really like big battles with vehicles, explosions, destructible environments, objectives.  I can play alone without friends and have a good time, but definitely its better if you meet a few nice folks to play with online - it makes the whole thing 100% more enjoyable.  Of course it's not all goofing off, we play to win, but it's not paramount.  Primary goal is to have fun and experience cool situations.

Definitely learning the maps is a huge benefit.  I try to do enough of that to know my way around, but I don't worry too much - as long as I get the gist of the map  ;D