More Transperancy of Limbs a la Jay Benson's Work

[higgsboson]

It never ever bothered me that you can’t see Gordon’s body, and that his hands don’t touch buttons and ladders… Sure, it’s unrealistic, but it’s not something that’s annoying or even noticeable, unless you specifically pay attention to it.

I think that the act of Gordon pressing a button is equivalent to you pressing E on your keyboard, which satisfies your expectation of seeing a finger press a button, for example.

Maybe in a game engine in 5 years we’ll see something much more realistic, but for now I’m sure this is nothing to waste coding time on.

Mirror’s edge is a good example, but then Mirror’s Edge is more realistic in terms of the human character you control. It’s more about you being skilled with your body, while Half-Life is you being skilled at thinking and aiming, which are more external to the body.

[AirRaid]

The reason I don’t want to see animations of hands pushing buttons and stuff is because it artifically ties the player to a spot for a couple of seconds. Look at any game that does this. Bulletstorm for example. You use a lever or press a button, your character slides magically into position and mashes the button, taking control away from the player while it does it. This goes against one of the main design points of Half-life.

[HumanParadoxx]

On Dark Messiah, the game allows you to see the protagonist’s body, and that didn’t ruined the fun.

[xalener]

@geekofalltrades

Apparently bobbing and jerking is the new standard in realism.

Who said he was aiming for realism?

[That_One]

And who said bobbing and jerking was a new stan-… oh wait…

[nate]

@AirRaid

The reason I don’t want to see animations of hands pushing buttons and stuff is because it artifically ties the player to a spot for a couple of seconds. Look at any game that does this. Bulletstorm for example. You use a lever or press a button, your character slides magically into position and mashes the button, taking control away from the player while it does it. This goes against one of the main design points of Half-life.

True, I certainly wouldn’t want a scenario where I press one button and get multiple actions performed by the protagonist (assassin’s creed comes to mind). Nor would I want triggered actions to project an artificial emotion upon the player. But alot of the simple/one note actions are done during subtle, relatively calmer moments of the game anyhow; and only serve to supplement the experience. In other words, it could work on a minimal level.

[TheeGoatPig]

I didn’t want to press that button with my finger. I wanted to press it with my gun barrel. Immersion ruined, I’m not playing this ever again.

This is why a minimalist attitude towards programming is better for immersion. The more stuff you start programming in to please one person, the more stuff you have to program in to please every person. Otherwise everyone will be upset that their idea of immersion isn’t satisfied, and that what is done instead is game breaking.

Duke Nukem Forever is a perfect example. Look at all of the immersion that they programed into the game. Now think of how poor the game is because half of the things that they programed in don’t work, and the other half don’t improve the fun factor one little bit.

Leave it as it is. Don’t fix it if it isn’t broken, especially when all of the fixes are broken.