You reach a point in a game where you have to choose between two paths. The paths do not cross and there is no way to replay either path. Perhaps the game is a Single Player Online game, meaning you cannot just load from a save point.
Path One: Through the secret military base, containing strange experiments and cool weapons. Plenty of action and lots of retracing your steps to find routes that allow you to exit into the canyon. There are no vehicles for you to use and there are NO outdoor sections.
Path Two: Over and around the military base. Plenty of coastline vistas, with drivable vehicles and airborne enemies. There is no action inside and the gameplay is all about finding the vehicles and using them to best effect. This path features plenty of helicopters and rocket launchers.
Poll Questions 3 is this:
Which path would you choose Indoors or Outdoors?
On a related note, setting this question made me think about how a game designer could control the effects of a choice made. You can read more about it here:
No Turning Back?
Well, the results are in and it proved to be the closet poll yet.
Votes: 65
Indoors: 51%
Outdoors: 49%
I wonder whether the results would have been the same before Half-Life 2 was released?
Regarding the marvellous architecture that can be found especially in actual games I prefer outdoor
Depends on the game (not specified) and how well the vehicles and airborne enemies work. However I usually prefer outdoor for the visual appearance and the ability to actually see 😉
Based on the descriptions given, indoors sounds more interesting and varied. I find outdoor levels tend to blur together a little compared to well defined and constructed indoor location anyway (I assume we’re talking about a game that’s well-designed in the first place here 🙂 ).
Then again, my favorite themes usually involve a blend of natural and artificial, but I guess that’s different from “outdoors and indoors”.
BTW, the link to your “one episode a month” articles seems to be broken.
Fixed, thanks.
As with all these polls you just have to make an educated guess. Assume that the quality of gameplay is the same, just different.
indoors levels in my opinion, I dont like chasing stuff for miles around massive fileds of green that my poor little laptop cant render properly anyway…
This one seems to be the closet of the polls so far. Only another day to go before it closes.
I have ideas for another two polls and I’ll probably think of more but if anybody has some ideas please contact me and we can discuss them!
i have an idea but it may require a 3 question poll or something along that line.i need to work it out on paper first then I will email you my idea.
Philip, I know that your are against mod or map that have according the games have no scien-fi relationship (ex Hearts of evil, wanted both for HL) I think it could be a subjet for a pool also: should they be, Not? don’t care?
also could you have 2 pools together? i’m just thinking that you may remove them to fast
It’s always a balance between giving readers what they want and doing what you enjoy. If the site was run and maintained by a group of people then if everybody agreed about adding new content then that would be fine. However, at PP I do all the work (With help from kind readers like yourself) but if I had to add things taht I don’t enjoy then I would lose inteest in the site.
The poll are not for me to find out what readers want. They are to find out about what people enjoy when playing games.
The site’s content won’t change very much over the next few years. Unless I start to enjoy other game genres!
I was thinking of having creating a detailed survey but that may have to wait until the new year.
I only want to have one poll running at a time.
I think one week is about right. I know not everybdoy visits every week but any longer and it doesn’t seem active enough.
I even considered limiting the number of votes. FOr example if the poll has two options than it would stop after 51 votes have been made. The idea was to encourage people to vote quickly and also for them to get into the habit of visiting as soon after fridays as possible.
Outdoors (I wonder if that changes your vote ratio)
I found Half life to be utterly claustrophobic after a while. The outdoor areas were refreshing.
Alright, to start I dont really like when games make you chose which way to go without being able to go back but I honestly would take the outdoor, but if I could I would
save the game at the fork in the road and play through both because when they make you chose to go one way you are missing out on a whole part of the game, a whole part of the game is missed and the only way to replay it besides my little trick, is to replay the whole game back to the fork and then play the other way 😛
You are missing the point of the poll. Of course, everybody would save and play both, the poll is really asking you which you prefer.
I choose indoors. Simply because there is a larger diversity of indoor environments. Normally outdoor environments consist of two options.
Streets.
or
Grass.
Admittedly I am simplifying it a bit. You cant deny HL2 has an overwhelming amount of concrete.
Indoors, because I seriously dislike taking down airborne enemies (and much prefer the Nova Prospekt style of combat). Without having to take this fact (really, the fact of gameplay — obviously the most important factor) into consideration, I would choose outdoors, because it is less claustrophobic (I hugely liked the outdoor sections of Half-Life, for example, where you approach the Lambda Complex).
Given the choice you have outlined, I would take the indoor route because it sounds more interesting to my inner explorer. And I like the sound of the strange experiments. I do get a great feeling of satisfaction puzzling out the ways and means of getting to the next section. And clearing away the Combine is always nice, unless they have “Hunters”. Then it’s just plain scary!
Outdoors has the best scenery but you often have to travel too fast when being pursued to appreciate it! As to the helicopters; here I would welcome more realism and a bulletproof umbrella!
The reality of the rocket verse the helicopter battle is that of the latter’s destruction if the missile is accurately targeted. I just get annoyed when it has taken so long to bring down a combine chopper; I have lost count as to the number of rockets I fired!
How about Gordon Freeman getting an ACV or hovercraft for those all-terrain excursions.
Outdoors.
HL2. From the moment you get the buggy, along Highway 17, through Sandtraps and all the way to the Nova Prospect cells.
Magnificent.
Both, out side if there are good hiding places.. Inside I like dilapidated buildings, scoobydoo creepy basements.. secret and hidden tunnels..
i will choose the indoor path,because in indoor we can see our enemies from front but in outdoors they can attack me from any side they want..