Puddy's Gun Review (of Freedom)

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Oh hey there! Didn't see you come in. So you want to spread freedom? Well, you came to right place. I wanted to spread freedom too, so I went to a gun club with a few of my coworkers while I was in America. Here are my weapon reviews. In all seriousness, a lot of us make action games and it was actually really helpful to handle a few guns in real life. I can definitely recommend it - even if you are like me and don't necessarily want to make "realistic" games. I'll start with a handgun review and get back with the heavier artillery later. :cool:

Handguns

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From start to finish: P226 --- Glock 19 --- Beretta 92FS --- CZ75 --- S&W 357 Magnum --- Colt .45 Variant (don't know exactly... what am I, some nerd?)

What I learned: Handguns are much, much harder to fire accurately compared to rifles. A pistol is held in front of you and it is up to you as a shooter to keep it steady and pointed straight (easier said than done - you'd be surprised). In a lot of games, the iron sights of a pistol are just glued to the center of the screen - even when moving. If I designed handgun mechanics I would consider putting more emphasis on weapon sway (similar to Last of Us) and maybe include an option to hold breath - which is usually reserved for sniper rifles in games.

Review: Most of the pistols were very similar in how they handled. There are a few subtle differences. The Glock, which uses a plastic weapon slide where the other handguns have a metal one, had a very jerky kick after each shot - it was easy to get back on target though. The 357 revolver was a lot of fun to fire but you were reminded that revolvers are highly impractical, with a low capacity and slow reload (reload animations for revolvers in games are consistent and fast, something I think is hard to do in real life and under pressure). My absolute favourite was the Colt .45, it just felt right. It had an easily-loaded magazine, but only holds 7 rounds. The kick was hard but manageable.

I'll be back with: Assault Rifles, Battle Rifles and Other Weapons!

Okay, while I'm digesting my lunch I'll get to part 2:

Assault Rifles[/b]

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From left to right: M4 (tested with ironsights, red dot and ACOG) --- IMI Tavor (red dot) --- Steyr Aug (red dot)

What I learned: Assault Rifles are really, really easy to fire. The weight and ergonomics of the weapon help you to keep it lined up and helps control the recoil. Of the three rifles above, the two on the right, the Tavor and the Aug, are bullpup assault rifles. This means that the magazine/firing mechanism is behind the trigger, which leads to a shorter and more compact weapon (without sacrificing barrel length). You instantly realize that ergonomically, this is not ideal. The weapon becomes rear-heavy and very clunky if you want to hold it with one hand (during a reload for example). Furthermore, reloads are slowed down cause the magazine is a bit awkwardly placed near your armpit. More knowledgeable firearm experts have the same sentiment. In game balance terms, bullpups should probably be balanced to be better at being more maneuverable and accurate (compact size with long barrel) with their weakness being reload speed primarily.

Review: The M4 has to be one of the best weapons ergonomically that I have tried. It is very easy to grip and aim with and reloads are super-smooth. I tried aiming using iron sights, a red dot sight and the ACOG sight. The red dot sight made it incredibly fast to aim the weapon and get a clear target picture. The ACOG, which is a scope, was incredible easy to use. You did not have to try and find the "sweetspot" where things aren't blurry, you immediately found it and saw everything crystal clear. Of the bullpups I was more impressed with the Steyr AUG. It was pretty comfy to use even if the magazine was a bit clunky to load - but it wasn't too bad (the Tavor was terrible). Oh, and the fucking recoil on the AUG. It was very peculiar. It wasn't a sharp, jerky recoil but more of a smooth movement that was very easy to control. It was very, very strange and everyone who tried it commented on it.

More coming!

Beck: Word! You cannot hold your hand near the gaps surrounding the cylinder. Gas WILL escape! Anyhow, now it's time for...

Battle Rifles/Heavy Assault Rifles/Designated Marksman Rifles (take your pick)

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From left to right: FN FAL --- SCAR H --- M14 --- Dragunov (american copy)

What I learned: These guns, which fire full rifle cartridges (7.62×51mm NATO for the first three and 7.62×54mmR for the Dragunov), pack a seeeerious punch. Getting quick follow-up shots is much harder as the sights jump up quite a bit after each shot, much more so than regular assault rifles. Some of these weapons support full-auto, but you need to be an experienced shooter to control it and even then you will likely opt to stay in semi-auto. Most of these weapons are older and were designed in the 50's and 60's, which is noticeable as a lot of the sights, mag-release buttons, levers and/or handles are a bit clunky and don't have that modern touch. The exception here is the SCAR H which is very user-friendly and is pretty much a beefed up M4. The way games portray these weapons hit the mark for the most part, except perhaps in some games where their full-auto mode is a bit too controllable.

Review: Of this batch, my favourites are the the SCAR and the Dragunov. The SCAR works really well because it's a modern rifle and it just feels right at home in your hands. The Dragunov is an AK-derivative that is remarkably timeless and I thought it handled well. The M14 was pretty nice too, but the reload is a bit trickier, I like it's character though. I absolutely hated the FN FAL as it had the most annoying iron sights I've tried (which were hard to even use when you were wearing hearing protection) and the reload, safety and fire selection felt really clunky and outdated.

Quote from Sprony

Bookmarked this thread for it's pure awesomeness!

:cool: Well, I won't keep you waiting for the last part!

Assorted Weapons

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From left to right: Winchester Rifle (lever action rifle) --- Lee Enfield (British WW2 bolt action) --- K98 (German WW2 bolt action) --- Remington 870 (pump action shotgun)

What I learned: These weapons are a bit mixed, so I'll specify which lessons apply to what weapon. One thing that unifies all of them is that you DO NOT want to be reloading them under pressure. All weapons are loaded on a shell/bullet basis except the bolt action rifles which can be loaded using clips (which aren't really user-friendly either). Since games mostly loop a perfectly swift reload animation, you can sometimes get fooled into thinking the reloads are relatively painless. Also, follow up shots were tricky with all guns except the shotgun as it is hard to keep aiming while doing the lever action and it is nigh impossible when working the bolt action. Also, the recoil of the bolt action rifles wasn't as bad as I thought and their weight and sturdiness helped to keep them stable.

From a game design perspective, you can definitely look at what the action (pump/lever/bolt) does to the player's aim (should the sights just be glued to the center of the screen or should they move/sway while performing the action). Also, the time inconsistencies when loading these types of weapons can also be looked at and in a game the reload time could perhaps be influenced by player skill or simply be adjusted with small, random time variations (so each bullet/shell doesn't take the exact same time to load). Depends on what game you are making. In a lot of games you just want it to be looped and consistent. They're games after all. These kind of advanced mechanics are maybe best reserved for realistic games and survival horror ("ah, shit shit come on get the last shell in").

Review: Working the actions of all of these weapons was incredibly satisfying but my favourites were definitely the bolt action rifles and the shotgun, especially the former - there's just something about bolt action rifles (Call of Duty 2 nostalgia)! Of the bolt action rifles, I definitely preferred the german engineering of the K98. Much easier to load new rounds, it felt better to hold and the sights were a bit easier to use. The R870 shotgun was soooo much fun to use. We only fired slugs, which are one solid projectile, as opposed to buckshot, which is a bunch of smaller pellets. The recoil was fucking intense. And seeing the smoke evaporate and a spent shell casing flying out after each "pump" was so badass. The Winchester was fun but I thought it lacked a bit of kick - after all, it fires a relatively small round.

Anyhow, that concludes my reviews, I hope you've enjoyed reading 'em!

Yup, a mobile phone can not in any way capture the oomph of the heavier rifles. At the range most people were firing handguns and when we fired the first dragunov-round everyone flinched and turned their heads.

Quote from austinweiss13

That's not a Dragunov SVD btw, its a VEPR by the looks of it. The difference being the VEPR is an AK variant while the Dragunov is an exclusive design. Both are cool rifles nonetheless.

Yes, that's true, it was casually called a dragunov in the store but the look of the top cover supports your theory.

I still think, for the vast majority of users, that a non-bullpup reload is way smoother, especially in real combat situations. You want the movement to take place a bit further out from your body and away from your kit (vest, magpouches etc).

Yeah, you are totally right. What I meant was that it was maybe a bit less tricky to find the sweetspot than with other scopes I've tried. I dunno. Felt right. And we did exercises out on the range (not in the gun club) where we drew from "patrol stance" (gun lowered, not at the ready) and went straight to a firing position, was very easy to get your bearings with the ACOG. I was surprised.

Yeah, the SCAR 17 was the easiest to control of the 4 heavier rifles that we fired.

Nah, none of that stuff unfortunately. Don't really have civilian applications I guess.