Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Demophobe]

When will we get dismemberment in a game?

I am tired of seeing grenades blow right on top of a character, his fully intact body flying through the air with graceful, realistic physics, but no meat hanging off them. If these guys are tough enough to deal a rocket to the face, how do mere bullets hurt them?

I am not a bloodthirsty individual, but if we are going for realism, then let's do it! The Brothers in Arms series for one would have been far more powerful if there were dismemberment.

Anyone remember the game Kingpin? An old game, but it had 'pain skins' or textures that would show on a character when they were injured. That was one of the few games that has even neared the idea, save GTA, but that was just corny. Right-angles, monty-python blood spew...too goofy to count. Rune had a cool thing...you could sever a limb then use it to beat the other players! That was neat, but the distant 3rd-person perspective and the complete lack of blood made it again, just sort of goofy.

Q3A had some form of dismemberment; a few bits of meat and a big blood explosion. Cool, but still very 'game-ish'. UT is the same; lots of hamburger and quivering pants, but no real dismemberment.

In a sense, it may actually do a service to the side who wants things to stay sanitized for the sake of children,. Right now, they see a guy take a bazooka in the face, and still look complete, save some blood. If they were to see his head removed, loads of goo, bits of grey matter and skull (Jules!), they may have a clearer understanding of the consequences of such an action.

Even in a new game like FEAR, we see lots of splattered blood, but the characters remain intact, even when hit point-blank with a rocket!

As I said, I am not a morbid person and can't bear to watch true violence of any sort, but this is a game. What's the answer to protect kids? (the question that is bound to come up in a discussion like this) I don't have the definitive answer. Better parenting, tighter control over age restrictions, codes for parents to 'unlock' gore levels (a la Kingpin)? A good debate question, but not really the Pandora's Box I want to open in this thread. (though if it goes that way, meh...)

Anyhow, what do you think? The former paragraph aside, is dismemberment a desireable thing in gaming? I say yes!

[Demophobe]

Real Matter.

Postal 2. A bit over the top.

Apparently Jaws: The Video Game features 25 points of dismemberment in it's "dismemberment engine", but it still looks really cartoony.

Interesting article on the subject from an Australian point of view here.

One has to wonder if America's Army would be less effective as a recruitment tool if there were full dismemberment.

[Bulsajo]

What was the recent game that was banned in Australia? I'm pretty sure that had dismemberment of some sort...

[cubanlord]

I am definitely about realism. In Quake 4, they show the poor soul getting his limbs cut off and having artificial ones put on; pretty gruesome really. I imagine that gaming companies actually place restrictions on themselves. They want to avoid the NC-17 rating so that teenagers under the age of 17 can still purchase the games; kind of like what happened with the Leisure Suit Larry Series.

Man.....after playing F.E.A.R. and Quake, one has to wonder, "Is there anything else they can throw at us?" Then again, I am sure we were saying that back in the Quake 1 days.

[Demophobe]

Imagine the possibilities if FEAR were equipped with dismemberment!

One could easily "disarm" (har!) their opponent and use them for cover as a hostage, or to get information. It would be cool to shoot those dudes who hide behind things in the legs and see them actually behave as if they had just had their leg removed from a high-powered salvo. They would fall to the floor, but still be able to push themselves around a bit and fire from down there.

I dunno, but Far Cry seemed to have a touch of that. If you tag a guy in the leg, he was first pulled back that way, and second, never regained full mobility from the injury. No "pain skin", but there was definately AI for the hit location awareness.

The strategic implications are really endless, even with one's character having the same problems. I know that in Rainbow 6, you lose mobility if you are hit in the legs. Likewise, if you recieve a head injury, you can't aim well at all.

These are steps in the right direction, IMO. Yes, devs want to sell the games to kids and in Wal-Mart, so they keep the gore down. Also, the additional textures needed to render the pain skins or local damage may make the games much larger in size (more CDs) and require more horsepower from the PC. However, all of this seems to be a tradeoff that I would put up with.

What we need is a company with the clout of Id software to bite into this, say to heck with Wal-Mart, make a code for unloackable gore (solves the age thing and puts the responsibility with the parents) and run with it. Id are the perfect candidate for such an endeavor; they are already known for being pretty gory, Carmack has the smarts and gamer-savvy to implement the idea well (in terms of how it could benefit gameplay, strategy, etc...) and they certainly don't need Wal-Mart behind them to sell a million copies of a game.

[cubanlord]

[rawiri]

Check this out, Definitley nsfw!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvTwb5FCgAM&NR

[cubanlord]

[bellum99]

[Demophobe]