Playing a computer or PC game that immerses the player into its folds is an experience that gamers talk about for years. People still talk about Legend of Zelda for the original Nintendo System and there was nothing remotely realistic about it but the storyline and world was immense and sprawling.
We want to do more than just control a character and have a world and story force fed to us. We want to control the world, make the world. We have a need to grow within the confined of the game. Point A to point B just does not cut the mustard anymore we want to explore and interact.
How do software companies create games that are this immense? How can they possibly hope to achieve a semblance of realism in their PC and console games? There are several factors that, once they all are put together, can create a game that is perfect in all things.
The writers of games have a very ominous task. They have to weave a story that just isn’t good, but fantastic. The story has to be able to be understood as well as be full. There can be no holes in it and the plot has to be tight. Characters have to be properly represented. There is nothing that cannot be written in the world of PC or Console games.
Combing tremendous sound with the story, chiefly voice acting, really adds the sense of real people doing and saying real things – if the acting is good of course. Other sound effects like guns firing, doors opening and closing and any type of psychologically damaging auditory effects are all gold. The game, The Suffering, is a great example of sound effects that could be mind warping. Clive Barker’s “Jericho” and “F.E.A.R” are also top shelf examples.
Games today pride themselves on great graphics. The ability to create the most realistic, visually enticing world possible is one of, if not the most important, goals of game publishers today. If the game is set in the present time then New York should look like New York – as it is. If the game is in the past, say medieval Europe then there better well be castles and they better look like castles. The only time graphics should differ from the period in which the game takes place is if the storyline dictates it.
The final thing to look at to consider that grand achievement of realism in any game is how you, the player, interact with it. Of course you have the standard controller butt hat only goes so far. Enter gaming pistols, power gloves, dance mats and anything even remotely connected to the Wii. Heck, you even have musical instruments now. But can you FEEL the game? In the past – no, but now you can.
The gaming vest, a state of the art peripheral currently for the PC, allows you to feel certain games including Medal of Honor Airborne and F.E.A.R Platinum. The vest, resembling military style, is worn and stuffed with packs that get filled with rapid air to give the feeling of gun shots, punches, kicks and other moves. Combine graphics, sound, feedback controller and a gaming vest to Clive Barker’s Jericho on the PC spells awesomeness for any gamer wanted to be truly immersed in a game.
