Weather effects everyone in a big way. It clearly effects what we wear, what we eat, how we behave and so on. Case in point today I looked out of the window and it was absolutely tipping it down. I worked a little while longer instead of taking my lunch and twenty minutes later it was blindingly sunny – London’s weather seems highly unpredictable right now – so I popped out for a nice sandwich. I know that’s a fairly boring example, but sadly my life isn’t quite as exciting or narrative driven as a character in a story. If only it were.
The point of that slightly rambling introduction is that the weather effects us in pretty significant ways. Sadly this doesn’t seem to be true in games, rarely do we see characters struggling with the weather. Almost every other aspect of the environment is now modelled with a high level of accuracy, but the weather is so often overlooked. Simulation and sports titles aside weather doesn’t tend to effect the player much beyond some particle physics blocking your vision.
Of course there are a few games that have done weather pretty well, I hear that the rain in Heavy Rain is impressive. However what I find in these is that, in general, the weather isn’t a natural part of the environment that really effects you, it’s normally used a narrative device. Take the snow level on Modern Warfare 2 for example.
I actually felt the snow was very well done, and lowered your visibility like in a real snow-storm. However it was in there as part of the narrative, it was part of the mission structure. No many how many times you play the mission through it will always be a snow storm in pretty much the same way each time. Wouldn’t it be more interesting if the storm ebbed and flowed like a real storm? Or if the other levels had weather that felt like it changed a little each time?
I can’t blame developers too much for this though. Whilst it would be very cool to have realistic feeling weather, rain and wind the slowed your stride or ice that made you slip, it just isn’t really feasible. We can barely model actual weather right now, creating our own weather with any level of accuracy or realism is probably vastly beyond what’s technically possible.
How do you feel about this? Would you like weather built in a way that makes things feel more realistic? Would dynamic weather patterns that really slowed you down and effected your character’s movement add anything? Or is this just another step too far towards realism?
DrNate86
Apart from affecting visibility I don’t think weather should influence much else in a game, except for sliding on ice or water in racing games and such. As most games see you fighting for your life in some respect, rain isn’t going to slow you down much!
bunimomike
But extreme weather (thunder and lightning) could distract you, which is great. You’d have to concentrate that much more. Soaking wet shoot-outs, etc. Blood trickling down in make-shift streams of rainwater.
Shifts in weather systems would change how you approach something. Even change your strategy completely depending on circumstances.
When it comes down to it, if used judiciously, weather could really help create a more realistic environment to game in. More importantly than that, it’d be a better gaming experience for the user.
Doncha fink? :-)