Op Ed

[Sep 17, 2011, 12:15 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

truepcgaming - Visual Noise: A Criticism of HUDs.
Having a player’s health, ammunition, inventory, and abilities always visible is a staple of the gaming medium, but one that we may be better off learning to deal without. I make this claim based solely on the experiences of noticing that virtually all games get better without an always-on interface. I’ve managed to nix 90% of the unnecessary HUD materials off New Vegas through two mods, and the result is a game that is unquestionably more immersive, balanced, difficult, and above all, beautiful.

View

21.

Re: Op Ed

Sep 18, 2011, 04:53

Crustacean Soup

We need some augmentation. I can't touch, feel, smell. I can't detect acceleration, temperature, gravity, the ground vibrating as a super mutant saunters past my hidey-hole. All we get are sight and sound, which aren't perfect either. I have a little more than a 180 degree horizontal field of view. That isn't replicated in (most) games because it's hard to process projected onto a flat screen. The resolution isn't high enough. The lighting isn't right, shrubs aren't disturbed by an enemy's passage, birds aren't scattered, footprints aren't left. Audio is improving, but not every game has the sound effects nailed down yet, and the environmental effects are just plain incorrect most/all of the time. There's all sorts of little things you just take for granted IRL. I can't even move my character's eyes or arms to point an enemy out to my team mate. So yeah, I kind of appreciate the red blip telling me where the enemy is.

		Date	Subject	Author
	1.	Sep 17, 12:22	Re: Op Ed	Cutter
	3.	Sep 17, 12:37	Re: Op Ed	Kajetan
	4.	Sep 17, 14:01	Re: Op Ed	xXBatmanXx
	5.	Sep 17, 14:01	Re: Op Ed	[VG]Reagle
	6.	Sep 17, 14:06	Re: Op Ed	xXBatmanXx
	28.	Sep 18, 13:52	Re: Op Ed	[VG]Reagle
	8.	Sep 17, 15:11	Re: Op Ed	Warskull
	2.	Sep 17, 12:30	Re: Op Ed	Creston
	7.	Sep 17, 14:37	Re: Op Ed	m0deth
	9.	Sep 17, 16:14	Re: Op Ed	nin
	10.	Sep 17, 16:18	Re: Op Ed	Beamer
	11.	Sep 17, 17:07	Re: Op Ed	PHJF
	14.	Sep 17, 18:24	Re: Op Ed	Beamer
	12.	Sep 17, 17:49	Re: Op Ed	Dev
	13.	Sep 17, 17:57	Re: Op Ed	Caladell
	15.	Sep 17, 18:54	Re: Op Ed	Ray Marden
	16.	Sep 17, 20:13	Re: Op Ed	J
	17.	Sep 17, 20:48	Re: Op Ed	Jerykk
	19.	Sep 17, 22:37	Re: Op Ed	Asmo
	20.	Sep 18, 00:06	Re: Op Ed	MisterBenn
	18.	Sep 17, 22:35	Re: Op Ed	Rockn-Roll
>>	21.	Sep 18, 04:53	Re: Op Ed	Crustacean Soup
	22.	Sep 18, 07:47	Re: Op Ed	Kajetan
	23.	Sep 18, 09:16	Re: Op Ed	eRe4s3r
	24.	Sep 18, 10:01	Re: Op Ed	Slashman
	25.	Sep 18, 11:12	Re: Op Ed	Kajetan
	26.	Sep 18, 11:55	Re: Op Ed	DaHauns
	27.	Sep 18, 13:43	Re: Op Ed	yuastnav
	30.	Sep 19, 09:37	Re: Op Ed	eRe4s3r
	29.	Sep 18, 17:54	Re: Op Ed	Crustacean Soup