FPS Games
I don’t like First Person Shooters. There, I said it. I’m sure I’ve pretty much alienated 3/4 of the American gaming industry with those words, but I just don’t like them.
I remember playing my FPS game, which was Thief: The Dark Project. My first question was “why the hell am I holding my blackjack so close to my field of vision?” If you actually noticed when you hold anything, it’s never up to your line of sight. It’s down below, part of your peripheral vision and blurred. If you actually held things consistently to your line of sight, your biceps will hurt like there’s no tomorrow. This effect was always jarring to me, and even more so when I wound up venturing beyond my Thief trilogy and fingered my way into the Darkness demo.
Firstly, the field of vision where your guns were placed were annoying, as usual. Secondly, the guns are held like they’re being pointed at each other. I’m sure it’s supposed to facilitate the illusion that you’re pointing two guns at a single enemy (hence, the cross-eyed type effect) but all I saw was your wrists in a rather painful position. Thirdly, why the hell are those weird black things up in the corner? If they truly emerged from my shoulders/spine, they’d be either above my head or beside it, not jamming itself in front of my eyes and blocking up the screen. I think game industries have attempted to remove the clutter by removing the inventory screen and health bar, but all they’re doing is still mucking stuff up by adding BIG SPESHUL THINGS to oogle at for the next 10 hours while you play the game.
A few other dumb reasons shall be listed here under what can only be described as ‘human realism’. I can’t see my feet, I don’t walk naturally (either my gun hand moves, giving some semblance of weight shifting, or I just drift through straight on), and for some reason, I always feel shorter than everyone else. Everytime I look at the floor it seems to be just 10 centimeters away from me, and especially so when I’m walking up a hill. My jumps are crap, partially because I can’t see my fucking feet, and the character jumps like a wuss anyway. It feels kinda odd to see your character constantly get gun upgrades and is able to shoot bosses 10 times his size, but he still can’t get himself over a rooftop.
Despite all these things that subvert the effect of realism, I feel unnaturally attached to the character whenever I play any FPS game. I feel like I am the character, right in the middle of the setting, wherever it is. This, unfortunately, plays up the tendency for me to conserve my ammo whenever possible. It’s a habit I’ve consistently had. Open up any FF saved game of mine and you’ll see my inventory maxed out, and I never use them. Same goes for Tomb Raider. All the nifty guns are saved for the ‘rainy day’ that never comes.
I remember stepping into Halo 2 for a while, and whenever I shot someone, it would always be in single, individual shots. My friends were always yelling at me to keep shooting.
Them: Why the hell are you always shooting in short spurts?
Me: I want to conserve my ammo!
Them: Enemies drop guns! You can take them!
Me: I know, but what if they drop those stupid guns like that plasma pistol or whatever? I’ll be out of ammo and armed with a lousy gun!
Them: -___-”
So I wound up shooting everything in sight, as per their instructions. Predictably, I ran out of ammo and died. Yeah, thanks.
