Bargain Bin gaming part 3 (spoilers) and why I love health bars

Update on Blood on the Sand: I have hit at least one ramp and seen one chopper. Not killed one yet though. 
You can't really knock 50 Cent. It does what it says on the tin and it's so outrageous it might just work. 
 
Dark Void: I finally got to fly. Again, the vertical bits in this game are fantastic. They add an extra depth to the gameplay which hasn't really been exploited this way before. Unfortunately I'm still having problems with the control scheme. Granted I'm having to reprogram my brain into realising that the right analogue is no longer the camera when flying, but everything else is just seriously clunky. They also don't really give you enough ammo for the guns you can hold. 
 
My main problem with this game, and many other games since Halo is the lack of a health bar. I've said it once and it bears repeating now... 
I FUCKING hate games without health bars. Let me see how much health i have so i can make tactical choices. Stop regenerating health, or only allow a little regen. 
Resistance 1 is a fantastic example in my mind of how to do health bars right. You have 4? sections in your health bar, and once you lose a section you can't regen it. Health pickups negate take up the slack. As far as I'm concerned if you're playing a game..why pretend to be doing anything else.  
Immersion? So everyone is Wolverine and can spontaneously regen?  
Dark Void is how to do it badly. How much health have i got? Well..the screen is kinda swirly..25%? Ooo its gone kinda sepia..15%? I have no ability to be able to make tactical decisions in relation to it...which is needed when you have such a, i suppose at least., tiny health bar and 8 bullet proof wanna be geth attacking you.
 
I've been toying around with an idea, which in part owes a lot to Fear Factor on the psx...which i played yeeeeaaars ago. Instead of a health bar, why not have something like a..well a 'Luck' bar. In essence, you can only dodge so many bullets until your luck wears out and you die. It would force you to be more careful with your life. Other incidents during the game (press B to evade: Died) can lower or boost your luck level. 
I'm not gonna say this is more realistic, cause we are still playing a videogame here, but it would, at least to me, make more sense in the context of an FPS or Adventure game. Kojima used Psyche and Stress gauges in MGS4 to show how different stimuli on the protagonist would affect his shooting ability etc. Deadly Premonition has Sleep and hunger bars. Why can't we push the envelope a bit?  
Or is the the concept of 'health' so ingrained in gaming that it would be impossible to remove? 
 
In other news; this weeks bargain bin purchase was Bionic Commando £8.99. I also happened to get MGS Acid in the post this morning...and FFVII finally (sic) finised downloading onto my psp..so it's a trip down memory lane..

Update on Blood on the Sand: I have hit at least one ramp and seen one chopper. Not killed one yet though. 
You can't really knock 50 Cent. It does what it says on the tin and it's so outrageous it might just work. 
 
Dark Void: I finally got to fly. Again, the vertical bits in this game are fantastic. They add an extra depth to the gameplay which hasn't really been exploited this way before. Unfortunately I'm still having problems with the control scheme. Granted I'm having to reprogram my brain into realising that the right analogue is no longer the camera when flying, but everything else is just seriously clunky. They also don't really give you enough ammo for the guns you can hold. 
 
My main problem with this game, and many other games since Halo is the lack of a health bar. I've said it once and it bears repeating now... 
I FUCKING hate games without health bars. Let me see how much health i have so i can make tactical choices. Stop regenerating health, or only allow a little regen. 
Resistance 1 is a fantastic example in my mind of how to do health bars right. You have 4? sections in your health bar, and once you lose a section you can't regen it. Health pickups negate take up the slack. As far as I'm concerned if you're playing a game..why pretend to be doing anything else.  
Immersion? So everyone is Wolverine and can spontaneously regen?  
Dark Void is how to do it badly. How much health have i got? Well..the screen is kinda swirly..25%? Ooo its gone kinda sepia..15%? I have no ability to be able to make tactical decisions in relation to it...which is needed when you have such a, i suppose at least., tiny health bar and 8 bullet proof wanna be geth attacking you.
 
I've been toying around with an idea, which in part owes a lot to Fear Factor on the psx...which i played yeeeeaaars ago. Instead of a health bar, why not have something like a..well a 'Luck' bar. In essence, you can only dodge so many bullets until your luck wears out and you die. It would force you to be more careful with your life. Other incidents during the game (press B to evade: Died) can lower or boost your luck level. 
I'm not gonna say this is more realistic, cause we are still playing a videogame here, but it would, at least to me, make more sense in the context of an FPS or Adventure game. Kojima used Psyche and Stress gauges in MGS4 to show how different stimuli on the protagonist would affect his shooting ability etc. Deadly Premonition has Sleep and hunger bars. Why can't we push the envelope a bit?  
Or is the the concept of 'health' so ingrained in gaming that it would be impossible to remove? 
 
In other news; this weeks bargain bin purchase was Bionic Commando £8.99. I also happened to get MGS Acid in the post this morning...and FFVII finally (sic) finised downloading onto my psp..so it's a trip down memory lane..