Learning every day.

I bought Far Cry 2 awhile back and played it through a few times. I thought it was pretty impressive in regards to the open map, fire effects and such. The fire added an interesting element to the gameO opening up tactics like using the wind and a Molotov to burn through a camp. Or when firing an RPG and having a fire start in the long grass at your feet forceing you to run like hell.

I played it again the other day just for something to do and discovered some whole new things within the game to distract me from homework. I was ambushing some guys with a light machine gun in the middle of a scrap yard setup. A guy ran out into the open and I opened fire. But alas I ran out of ammo mid burst! after reloading I go to finish him off but lo and behold one of his mates is carrying him off!
After some experimenting with shooting to wound I found that some guys will kneel down and take pot shots at you with their pistol. Others will crawl away and find some cover and pop you with their pistol if you get too close. If these guys can hide long enough for a friend to come, they will get 'healed' and rejoin the fight.

This is an element of realism that can really add a lot of immersion during an epic firefight. It adds some nasty tactics too, like wounding a guy out in the open to draw his mates out. Although it's callous and evil to shoot to wound, the ability to do so really does help the games atmosphere. It can lead to grisly outcomes though. After one particular firefight I was flat out of ammo and had about 3 wounded guys lying around. Do I knife them and put them out of their pain? But have to hear their screams and see their faces as I do it. Or do I leave them to their fates in the African jungle. Giving them a chance to live or curse them with a slow agonising death if their mates don't find them? I had a hard decision my hands till I found some ammo and decided to put them down. Many games have only alive and dead versions af bad guys and many games with wounding ability's lack the realism and imersion granted by this game.

CoD: WaW had some brutal fire related deaths and bayoneting moments. But the wounding wasnt so prevailent and that game lacked the imersion factor for me. I think it was the bloody Russian sniper guy screaming at me all the damn time. I wanted so much to tell him to "Shut the hell up you tool, for the love of god!"
All the Americans did was complain or be supermen. Don't get me wrong, it was a fun game and decent multyplayer. Although my most played level was the on rails flying boat section which oddly enough had the highest imersion of a game for me. WoW was good for that too but everytime someone forgot they had a whole keyboard to comunicate with, it kinda ruined it for me. That and the people dressed in pink... so much pink armour in the first expansion. Well I shall finish complaining and just say that I look forward to the realism in many games these days. But it leaves me wondering if there is a limit we will get to with how real we can make a game?