In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream...

But they can apparently hear you snarl, roar, growl and howl just fine.

So, Andrew got an X-Box for his birthday, and since then he has acquired many games; most of them first person shooters, all of which involve zombies, mutated humans, demons, mad angels and assorted and sundry creatures that seem to spend all their time jumping out from behind things. How they manage to surprise anyone is beyond me, because they never shut up. You can hear them coming a mile away.

Now I'll admit, I'm not a gamer anymore. I came of age when the Atari had just been released, but I never knew anyone who owned one, because they were so damn expensive. So if you played video games at all, it was at the Arcade or the skating rink. Hell, they even had them in the Student Lounge at the high school. Me? I preferred pinball.

My first introduction to real video games was when the boys were around seven or so. Since I refused to let their Nanny buy them an Nintendo (I'd already seen too many third graders turn into glazed-eyed zombies), we used to go to place here in town where you could rent a Nintendo and five games for a week for like $10. I remember mostly playing puzzle games, including one whose name I can't remember but really liked (I think it's name was Crazy Critters, but I called it Crispy Critters. All I remember is it involved rows of animals marching across the screen, and you had to line them up).

When they were 10, I let Nan buy them a Gameboy, and I actually played Tetris and Mario on it, and won both of them a good many times. She finally bought them a Nintendo for Christmas when they were 13, and I remember playing playing Earthworm Jim, and later Final Fantasy VII on it. Eventually, they upgraded to a Playstation Two, and most of their games became incomprehensible to me. Though I have watched Andrew play various versions of Silent Hill (the ones before the one that caused poor Delcat to have a seizure came out-I've warned him against that one, Delly).

But I just don't understand the monsters in the first person shooters. You'd think if they were trying to sneak up on people, they wouldn't make quite so much noise. But no, they're always screaming, chomping, wailing, or otherwise announcing their presence, to the point where it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

So. Is it for the dramatic effect? Wouldn't it be harder to kill these things if they snuck around silently like the monsters in Aliens? (Roger Ebert, in his review of Aliens 4, remrked that the Aliens seemed to have been bred solely to jump out from behind things)

As a non-gamer, I really do want to know. Because all that screaming is giving me a headache.

My take on it? It's because most gamers, especially FPS gamers since FPS games have come out of the grimy underground basement and are starting to be more casual, don't want a challenge so much as they want gratification and to feel good at something that makes them superior to something else. Like an unstoppable force. I suppose you could even go as far as to call it an outlet for rage, although most of the time it seems to end up the opposite. XD

Actually having sneaking creatures be silent and ram a new hole through your ass before you even realised it would both be incredibly frustrating, and also impliment a much higher degree of memory and repition to get past points in the game. If there's one thing I personally dislike in games, it's having to memorise where all the dangerous spots are by repeating the same part of a game over and over and over again.

Rabid Badger wrote:

But I just don't understand the monsters in the first person shooters. You'd think if they were trying to sneak up on people, they wouldn't make quite so much noise. But no, they're always screaming, chomping, wailing, or otherwise announcing their presence, to the point where it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

So. Is it for the dramatic effect?

It's different for different games. In a bad or mediocre game, it's just there to make the enemies easy. In a good one, it can be used to create atmosphere.

Take Left 4 Dead. Each kind of special infected has sound and music cues. This does alert the player, but it also raises the tension.



Hearing a witch's sobbing, or hearing the tank music suddenly crank up, is enough to set any player on edge. The psychological damage helps balance the benefit that it gives to the player.

Bioshock is another game like that. The slicers yell and scream and rant to keep the player from getting too comfortable when it comes to fighting them.

Quote :

Wouldn't it be harder to kill these things if they snuck around silently like the monsters in Aliens? (Roger Ebert, in his review of Aliens 4, remrked that the Aliens seemed to have been bred solely to jump out from behind things)

Aliens Vs Predator 2 is another good example of how to use sound in an FPS. Remember the movie Aliens, where the Marines had motion trackers? There were scenes where the Marines would be on guard, waiting for the aliens to come, while one Marine yelled out the reading from the tracker? Remember how the aliens always managed to take them by surprise anyway?

The game was a lot like that. Even though you could track the aliens, and even though they hissed and shrieked when pouncing, they would always manage to hit you from behind, or from some unusual angle that's hard to defend against. Aliens are one of the most common enemies in the game, but they are never robbed of their menace due to this.

Silence was also a huge part of multiplayer. Aliens with truly patient human players were every bit as tricky as the creatures in the movies. Imagine walking into a seemingly empty room, only to have your head taken off in one swift bite by the alien perched above the doorframe, still and silent like a gargoyle.

Rabid Badger wrote:

She finally bought them a Nintendo for Christmas when they were 13, and I remember playing playing Earthworm Jim, and later Final Fantasy VII on it.

Okay, this is the point where I cracked up.

Verandering wrote:

Actually having sneaking creatures be silent and ram a new hole through your ass before you even realised it would both be incredibly frustrating, and also impliment a much higher degree of memory and repition to get past points in the game. If there's one thing I personally dislike in games, it's having to memorise where all the dangerous spots are by repeating the same part of a game over and over and over again.

Oh god that was the one thing that about made me put down Beyond Good and Evil. I really fucking loved that game, but the forced stealth sections were murder.

Kitbug wrote:

Oh god that was the one thing that about made me put down Beyond Good and Evil. I really fucking loved that game, but the forced stealth sections were murder.

Sometimes you could plan your route before you started, but there were a few rooms that were just too big; you had to get halfway through to see what the second half was like and then you'd inevitably die. I was relieved to be done with the Slaughterhouse.

Mostly the game was way, way too short.

Well, in Dead Space, EVERYTHING is making SOME FUCKING NOISE ALL THE TIME!

So you're always on edge, wondering if that noise is just the ventilation, or the horrible mutant THINGS in the ventilation. And sometimes you'll hear the monsters off in the distance and they won't actually show up in the room to eat your face. And sometimes you'll hear sometime that sounds vaguely out of place, nonchalantly turn around in curiosity and HOLYFUCKSHOOTITSHOOTITSHOOTIT!!1! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Not to mention, because the TV and speakers are in front of me, no matter from which direction the baddy is approaching me, I hear it coming from the front, so it doesn't give away its position as bad as it should.

Lysander wrote:

Rabid Badger wrote:

But I just don't understand the monsters in the first person shooters. You'd think if they were trying to sneak up on people, they wouldn't make quite so much noise. But no, they're always screaming, chomping, wailing, or otherwise announcing their presence, to the point where it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

So. Is it for the dramatic effect?

It's different for different games. In a bad or mediocre game, it's just there to make the enemies easy. In a good one, it can be used to create atmosphere.

Take Left 4 Dead. Each kind of special infected has sound and music cues. This does alert the player, but it also raises the tension.



Hearing a witch's sobbing, or hearing the tank music suddenly crank up, is enough to set any player on edge. The psychological damage helps balance the benefit that it gives to the player.

Bioshock is another game like that. The slicers yell and scream and rant to keep the player from getting too comfortable when it comes to fighting them.

Quote :

Wouldn't it be harder to kill these things if they snuck around silently like the monsters in Aliens? (Roger Ebert, in his review of Aliens 4, remrked that the Aliens seemed to have been bred solely to jump out from behind things)

Aliens Vs Predator 2 is another good example of how to use sound in an FPS. Remember the movie Aliens, where the Marines had motion trackers? There were scenes where the Marines would be on guard, waiting for the aliens to come, while one Marine yelled out the reading from the tracker? Remember how the aliens always managed to take them by surprise anyway?

The game was a lot like that. Even though you could track the aliens, and even though they hissed and shrieked when pouncing, they would always manage to hit you from behind, or from some unusual angle that's hard to defend against. Aliens are one of the most common enemies in the game, but they are never robbed of their menace due to this.

Silence was also a huge part of multiplayer. Aliens with truly patient human players were every bit as tricky as the creatures in the movies. Imagine walking into a seemingly empty room, only to have your head taken off in one swift bite by the alien perched above the doorframe, still and silent like a gargoyle.

He's got both Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, and I had noticed the differences in the way certain things sounded, but I didn't realize you could identify them by their sounds. I suppose I could've asked him, but you really don't want to interrupt Andrew when he's playing a video game-it makes him get all pissy.

Rabid Badger wrote:

She finally bought them a Nintendo for Christmas when they were 13, and I remember playing playing Earthworm Jim, and later Final Fantasy VII on it.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Badge. Stop. Just...stop. Stop trying to do anything even remotely related to gaming. Please. It hurts.

Kitbug wrote:

Oh god that was the one thing that about made me put down Beyond Good
and Evil. I really fucking loved that game, but the forced stealth
sections were murder.

Really? 'Cause, uh, the AI on that game was hit-and-miss...

Seiran: Bleh, gotta heal. (selects food item)
Jade: (stands upright to eat it, directly in front of the guards)
Seiran: OH SHI--
Jade: (drops down again)
Guard: It's nothing!
Myself: ...did you just have a lunch break in front of two armed guards and not get caught?
Seiran: APPARENTLY??

...really hit-and-miss.

Well they always hit me. :|