OpusOfTheMagnum

@soulcake: realism isn’t the issue, authenticity is. I played a lot of ArmA with a bunch of mods to make it far more realistic than it originally was. I’m down with realism, and know what it is. I shoot guns in real life, I know how they work. I know when they are portrayed in a way that isn’t realistic. I also appreciate when a firearm is authentic, in that it gives the impression of the real thing without being a perfect simulation of it (one button to reload, magically sorted ammunition counts, lack of parallax or scope shadow, no control over trigger pull... but it still does a pretty good job of making a video game version of the thing it’s emulating.

An example of authenticity that I appreciated that had little to do with realism: in one of the previous games, either 3 or 4, there was a revolver. There was essentially a very slight delay when firing it, likely emulating the heavier trigger pull you get with a double action revolver. Now, revolvers don’t have a delay when the trigger breaks, but a double action trigger pull will take more effort and force and probably time than a single action one would. That made the gun feel authentic to me despite it being a very unrealistic portrayal. Authenticity is sort of the VR thing where if done right even a very unrealistic game or experience can feel very believable. It still tricks your brain just enough to give you a sensation unique from simply seeing that in a 2D, fixed projection.

Authenticity isn’t about simulating the physical world.

@ghoti221: My personal view is gameplay compromises shouldn’t be treated the same as those that would put a female combatant in a place, a role, and a nationality that simply isn’t genuine or authentic to the setting they are portraying.

I think to some extent I would also argue that there is some level of ignorance on warfare of that era that makes many of the gameplay compromises less obvious to a lot of people. As someone who has pretty solid knowledge of firearms and other ‘tools of war’ that stuff definitely stands out to me. But I subscribe to a YouTube channel dedicated to weaponry of periods like WW2. I’ve played games that simulate to much greater extents those kinds of experiences. I’ve owned and fired weapons.

And for what it’s worth some of the examples you brought up were absolutely things that the community had a hard time swallowing because of authenticity.

Honestly if the wheelchair guy was in the game and that was the tone they were going for and I mean really going for, I’d be down. I loved Wolfenstein’s alternate reality of WW2 for that stuff. Wolfenstein meets Battlefield sounds awesome. But that isn’t what they are doing. And between the jarring meeting of authenticity and what is obviously not even remotely authentic and the reasons I suspect are behind these compromises it sits very poorly with me and from what I’ve gathered, many people taking issue feel the same.

For a lot of people, atmosphere is everything. The atmosphere in that trailer was in many people’s opinion, a limp middle ground between the authenticity displayed in the core of games like BF4 and BF1 and something like Inglorious Bastards, where the absurd was embraced and felt like it was a part of the identity.

Previously, BF had more of a Fury tone to it. Was it hyper accurate or realistic? No. It was an amped up version of reality that still managed to feel appropriate. Yes, the engine allows players to do ridiculous things, in some cases. But much of that was simply the game not limiting the player arbitrarily, mixed with creative player behavior that was honestly pretty unusual.

It’s not just “wtf why is there a girl.” It’s a number of things that combine together and the female part just happens to be a part that both sides are latching on to. I think a lot of those people would be interested in genuine portrayals that educated them about the fascinating things that happened in WW2.

You seem to be hyper focused on the element of gender but most comments I saw in the thread, like mine, took issue with things like the prosthetic arm, the biker jacket, and the cringe tone of the dialogue, etc.

A physics engine that lets you be on the wing of an aircraft (something that has been done in real battles, albeit with more physics involved that what something like BF is going to simulate) isn’t the same as injecting someone who wasn’t in a role in that setting.

Why is that okay and yet it’s not okay to have a white man portray a character that historically was not white? Not saying you feel that way but there is a general tendency of people to feel that way these days, and it seems backwards.

I’ve recently been granted an intense interest in hunting. I’ve been curious about it since the first time I saw a deer hung up in my grampa’s garage as a kid but at the time I was a pretty liberal, anti gun, anti hunting kid due to family pressure and influence. As I got older and I switched to the dark side, I’ve had a slowly building interest and eventually a desire to do some hunting.

It all really took off when I started a new job that would let me use headphones throughout the day and needed a new podcast to listen to, and started listening to the MeatEater podcast after discovering the folks from the show, namely Steven Rinella also has a podcast covering a lot of the same concepts with a healthy dose of biology and conservation.

I won’t be able to hunt this year most likely as I’m expecting to get my ship date for basic training and will most likely miss the hunting opportunities of interest in my home state of Washington, between basic and shipping to my first duty station. But I intend to start making plans for next year once I find out where I’ll be stationed to try my hand at nabbing my first harvest of game meat, most likely either deer or wild hog. I need to work on my marksmanship anyway so it should work out nicely.

Just curious if there are folks who hunt or who have hunted, and would love to hear stories about good hunts or how you got into hunting, or your favorite game meats and meals!

Disclaimer: I’m not interested in debating firearms or the ethical questions of hunting. Hunting is a massive part of conservation of wildlife in our country and does a great deal of good at protecting our wildlife and wilderness areas. And it’s a heck of a lot more humane than the vast majority of animal products consumed by the population. That’s as far as I’m interested in going in this thread! Anyone trying to derail will get at most a response from me pointing back to this statement.

@lego_my_eggo: That is the strangest bot ever if that’s the case, especially with the response.

Are we close enough to consider this an E3 mystery?

I think it’s purely a talent issue in smaller titles and risk adversity/focus testing in bigger titles.

There are some unique challenges that the medium brings with it but there are also unique opportunities .

Yes it does, I have gone back to that game a few times and loved it every time. Would love to see an iOS port of it actually.

@soulcake: why is it okay for red orchestra to be authentic but not for Battlefield, despite Battlefield having a much longer track record of being authentic?

I go to Red Orchestra when I want the next step in realism. But it’s not a mainstream game that will appeal to the BF community as a whole. This is a big swing for a mainline BF game.

My argument is: if you want women and fake arms and cricket bats in WW2 BF games, why not make it a Bad Company prequel and do it well? Because I’d be down with inglorious bastards level of quality in a sideline game but I, and quite a bit of the BF audience, want to see authentic first. Then I’d be happy to see the people who made Bad Company such a charming and enjoyable set of campaigns do something new.

TLDR: stop kink shaming us.

@ghoti221: I’ll say a few things: first of climbing on the wings is a byproduct of the engine, not the design. Single handedly driving a tank while controlling it’s turret is a gameplay conceit because few people would be engaged by just being a driver. I’m a mil-sim guy who doesn’t mind being just a driver, who learned way more about combat medicine than I ever expected to playing ArmA with an advanced medical add on. Authenticity isn’t accuracy or realism. It’s the impression of both however. And the history enthusiast in me cringes at some of this stuff. The shooter side of my brain cringes at the idea of any sniper being an amputee who has no ability to drive the rifle back in their shoulder or manipulate the weapon with the level of finess often needed.

If people were concerned with realism they would complain about respawns, revives, ammunition counting, ballistic models, vehicle simplicity, etc. Realism and 100% historical accuracy isn’t the question, authenticity is. I view those as being very different.

I also mentioned that I would be stoked to see females in roles that were more authentic, specifically mentioning Lady Death and soviet female snipers.

As for combat support roles, in most at least western forces very few if any ever held in the presence of, let alone took up, arms against the enemy. Women played a huge role in WW2 from manufacturing to support roles in and around the battlefield. However they were not combat medics. They were not smart allecky British amputee snipers.

And as for non Caucasian combatants, I and many others have no issue with that and in fact I want to see more theaters of WW2 they took part in represented in games just because they don’t get the attention Europe gets and they are really interesting to me, especially Africa and the surrounding theater.

I’m not denying that there are some people who just use it as an excuse to push their prejudice. But I don’t believe it is even a major minority especially in this community. It’s disappointing when someone feels the way I do and is automatically assumed to be pushing some sort of prejudice. The reality is women had very few combat roles outside of certain forces and usually then it was out of necessity for forces. The reality is being any kind of rifleman (or woman) would be incredibly hard with a prosthetic arm. Etc.

Are there image quality issues? Can you put up a screenshot? Does it look like low settings, or something worse like artifacting? Have you insured things like the refresh rate is set properly? Do other games have issues? Do you know how to fully remove and reinstall video card drivers? Does the game run properly using the laptop screen?

I think that’s harsh for Randy. There were circumstances around Colonial Marines and he had to put on a smile and run his business.

Peter on the other hand always goes bonkers pitching his games to the public.

I met Randy at my first PAX. He was super friendly and genuine, signed my Borderlands poster and chatted with me and my friend about the game while we waited in line. He always seemed like a passionate guy, but also comes across a lot more genuine and less nutty than Peter.

I like Randy better personally but Peter is more entertaining for sure. Both seem like good guys honestly.