Ever since the release of Pong in 1972, the gaming industry has evolved into a media format that allows an individual to interact in a world of art along with the technology to bring our imagination to life. In a sense, it bridges the gap of visual images and personal creativity.
Most of this has been made possible due to the advancement in technology that allows developers to push the limits, especially those in the early years of this decade. Elements such as sandbox game play, bullet timing, rag-doll physics, destructive environment, and realistic violence has set the standards of gaming.
Sadly, the latter two improvements have possibly been the most underlooked features that were revolutionary to gaming.
The concept of a destructible environment had been a dream of gamers for a while until the release of Red Faction in 2001, for the Playstation 2. This followed with Red Faction II in 2002 for all consoles and the PC.
For some reason, there were no more games released that allowed players to blow up their environment until 2008, with the release of Battlefield: Bad Company.
Imagine how much more fun games like Battlefield 1942 or Grand Theft Auto IV would have been if players could have blown up their environment.
These games would have also benefited from more realistic violence with the GHOUL engine. This was revolutionary software first introduced in the game Soldier of Fortune, released in 2000, later improved in Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix, released in 2002.
Like the idea of destructible environment, the concept of realistic violence has been under utilized by the gaming industry. The last game to feature such real world violence was Soldier of Fortune: Payback back in 2007, which became an embarrassment.
Hopefully with the release of Red Faction: Guerilla and Battlefield Bad Company 2, the game industry might begin to take better notice of how destructible environment improves the game play.
As for realistic violence, there may have been hope for Soldier of Fortune: Payback had it not sucked. For now, gamers will have to wait for a new installment that lives up to its original legacy.
