Comments on: Why So Serious?

By: Jay

Jay — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:21:33 +0000

“I would presume involves an awful lot of screaming and a sort of hideous bacon smell”

I work in a burns ITU. It’s usually more like burnt hair and petrol. Can’t wait to try out that resus sim, anything that could potentially get me out of being made up as a burns victim for junior doctors to asses next month has got to be worth a look.

By: Wisq

Wisq — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:30:13 +0000

@Gap Gen: Most of the various simulation games are like that, yeah.

I’ve done ground-combat sims, air combat sims, sub combat sims, and even train sims. In each case, I’m amazed by both the level of realism, and by the serious communities that have sprung up around them.

OpFlash and ArmA are a special case, since the company that makes them (Bohemia Interactive) actually makes a “Virtual Battlespace” (VBS) simulator that they sell to militaries for training purposes. It’s used by many armed forces and academies around the world.

In a sense, the “civilian” side of their operation (games for us to play) acts as a testing ground and extra funding to help them improve their military simulations. That was a little more apparent in ArmA, which was fairly buggy on release. Still, most people have the sense not to complain — Bohemia Interactive is still doing us something of a favour by having a “game” version at all, beta-quality or otherwise.

By: Satsuz

Satsuz — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:38:48 +0000

That Age of Ecology sounded pretty interesting actually. The Serious Games Showcase & Challenge site didn’t have a link for it, oddly. So I used some quick google-fu and tracked it down. Playable in the browser, gonna try it now.

Play it here.

By: Man Raised By Puffins

Man Raised By Puffins — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:49:40 +0000

@ Alec: Good good, just testing. ¬_¬

By: Gap Gen

Gap Gen — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:28:55 +0000

ArmA is scarily serious in that way, too. Reading Dyslexci’s (sp?) website reveals quite how serious the simulation is.

By: Heliocentric

Heliocentric — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:19:30 +0000

Project Reality taught me to be a more efficent insurgent…

Taught me that to defeat a stronger force to rely on ambushes and confusion, roadside bombs, civillian human shields and that a 50cal mg can easily waste a transport helicopter.

Thats a bad thing isnt it.

By: Freudian Slip

Freudian Slip — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:08:06 +0000

EDF… mmmmmmmmm. Sorry about that, any mention of EDF and I start to drool like a freak.

By: Jonas

Jonas — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:00:06 +0000

What the hell is Geo Location? Is this basically a game about finding the terrorists?

By: HidesHisEyes

HidesHisEyes — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:09:41 +0000

CF:DA is a Swat4 mod, yeah, although I can’t play it because apparently I’d need the gold edition?

I’d say Project Reality was pretty serious if mods count.

By: AndrewC

AndrewC — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:57:24 +0000

Geocommander sounds horrible. Where’s the torture simulator?

By: Alec Meer

Alec Meer — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:45:38 +0000

Mr Puffins – the reference was entirely deliberate.

By: Pod

Pod — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:44:00 +0000

The “Emergency” and “Fire Cheif” series of games were great. Sure, they were both buggy as hell, but saving lives has never been so much fun.