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Head In The Clouds: Flying In Video Games
Denver, 12:29 AM
Wed Nov 25
55 posts in the last 24 hours
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Head In The Clouds: Flying In Video Games |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/09/09
As far as gameplay go, I really enjoy flying by repulsion such as the jetpacks in Pilotwings or Super Mario Sunshine (or in 2D: Cave Story with gun recoil). I guess it's easier to involve the player that way and make them feel the acceleration and the trajectory rather than with classic flight controls.
Motion sensing can also work pretty well, like in Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction or Flower.
About freedom of movement it is also important to once again mention Descent and its truly 3D design for both control and levels. I guess it's just too intimidating for modern players and, by extension, modern publishers. #flyinggames
11/09/09
@RicoTheSaboteur: Screenshot from Descent 2 key config screen. Yep: 12 (Twelve) buttons just to steer your ship. #flyinggames
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11/09/09
Eventually I got over my own boundaries and was able to set my sights on the stars and fly through space and to the moon fast as thought. When you move like that in a dream, the next day when you awaken you get an overwhelming sense of well-being and that nothing can stop you. Liberating, empowering and other big words.
11/09/09
11/09/09
nuff said #flyinggames
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11/09/09
Tribes was amazing. I've had trouble playing "smaller" multiplayer shooters since.
I used to play it all the time on my goddamn 4meg video card.
Learning to "ski" and to duel with a spinfusor are some of my best gaming memories.
Server-side mods were also great, like Renegades with its different classes. Placing tiny super precise laser turrets along the terrain so ski-ing enemies would get bugzapped on their way to our base...
But the Mortar was a fucking overpowered piece of shit :P
Oh, btw... Tribes will soon be a browser game: [playtribes.com] #flyinggames
11/09/09
I grew up on a very, very old DOS based World War One flight sim called Red Baron, and then later Red Baron 3d. Over speed made your wings break off, engine trouble and gun trouble could come out of nowhere and was at times unfixable. A good career could be cut short by one lucky bullet from nowhere, it could kill you or wound you to the point that your career was over. I lost many a pilot to that fate. Most of the early flight sims required a basic understanding of combat maneuvers, and tactics. And if you weren't flying with a Joystick/Rudder/Throttle combination you were at a disadvantage. Let alone if you were to venture online.
Online combat had a learning curve that was unbelievably steep. Some of the people had been playing since 1997. Last I heard the game still had a dedicated following so it wouldn't be completely unheard of to have someone who had played that game for 12 years.
Heck only reason I stopped playing was because I had to ge a new PC. Old Pentium 1 with 16MB of RAM and Voodoo 3 3000 was becoming too dated lol. Can't get it to run right on my new PC unfortunately.
I played that game for 7 years of my life and still blame it for my flying bug. I did find one very interesting thing when going for my flying lessons though. I did much better then I should have on my first instructed flight. I don't want to say I could jump in a 747 and go from East to West coast but I could fly that Cessna much better then most people on their first flight could.
Now it's all rail shooters, no tactics, powerups floating in the sky. Hopefully with IL2 sturmovik being released and hard games like Demons Souls we'll see actual flight sims make a resurgence #flyinggames
11/09/09
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11/09/09
It'd be one of those moments when two hundred missiles are blowing up all around you and you dodged every single one in a display of super ace skills that players gape in awe.
The closest I've had to that is when I managed to dodge and outrun four guys locking on to my Warhawk with the eight micro missile spam flipping over and destroying all four guys speeding right through them taking their missiles back at them. #flyinggames
11/09/09
11/09/09
I don't know why, but that "gaming moment" really affected me with a sense of flight and I still remember it to this day so many years later. #flyinggames
11/09/09
Anyone else share this horror? #flyinggames
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11/09/09
One of my favourite games for exploring the Z-axis was and still is the Battlefield games. There's nothing like dominating the skies and ground with a jet or gunship and the ability to do loop-de-loops only adds to the exhileration.
I'm looking forward to Dark Void too, it looks like it'll be a really solid game. #flyinggames
11/09/09
Give me a gun and someone elses face any day :p #flyinggames
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11/14/09
I loved Battlefield Vietnam I used to run over people in that Viet Helicopter. The American Heli I could never get the hang of however.
Really didn't like the flying in 1943 though seemed really cheap. Especially when such perfection was available in other battlefield titles. #flyinggames
11/14/09
11/14/09
I do want a good flight sim on the ps3 however. Im looking at you Ace Combat! YOU TRAITOR! #flyinggames
11/09/09
Then I remember flying in Superman64... it all gets a little hazy and violent after that...
Then came Star Fox (snes) and with it I regained my air-legs.
Then came ace combat, which made even flying mundane..
I'm now more of a "controlled falling" kinda guy. Be it Spiderman games or Infamous... #flyinggames
11/09/09
How can you forget about:
THE RINGS!
THE RINGS!
THE RINGS!
no seriously..... what did you use to forget it? Therapy? Electric shock therapy? A hammer to your cranium? #flyinggames
11/09/09
@Slagathorian: ...
Changed my life. #flyinggames
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Yes. Yes i did. #flyinggames
11/09/09
Or it was the fact that my mom got me the game and I was too scared for some reason to tell her it was crap. So I just sat there with a fake smile playing it, telling her it was awesome. Like a slow torture that makes the victim love their captor, I too began to love the rings and the endless green smog.
I think I'll take my pills now.
11/09/09
"I want to savor it" I say.
I felt like a huge jerk.
lol, oh yeah, the "kryptonite fog" that also looks suspiciously like something the developers threw in so they wouldn't have to worry about Z-buffers and draw distances. Oh we remember the green smog and cursed rings. #flyinggames
11/09/09
Makes you think though, what are things that we get that make them think the same thing,
"Why aren't you wearing that necklace I bought you?"
"Um, I'm saving it for a speeeeecial day!"
*barfs behind your back* #flyinggames
11/09/09
Flying into an invisible wall, however, cancels that out and dumps you somewhere into negative satisfaction. #flyinggames
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But I mentioned it because of it's true 360 movement. #flyinggames
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