Military Game Comparison
[ Home | Games | Weapons | Pictures | Terms ]

[ Eye Candy vs. "Fun Factor" | Weapons Effectiveness and Realism | Extent of "Real" ]
by Will, Jong, & Phil
ICAM 130/VIS 149 Fall 2005




There is a wide array of video games based on military or military operations. Though games based on the military have been around for quite some time, it is only recently that video gaming technology has enabled companies and players too realistically represent the weapons and operations to a reasonable extent. Most of these games are first-person shooters, though there others as well.

Games such as Contra have been around for decades, yet in the earlier stages of gaming weapons, characters, and abilities were nothing close to realistic as limited by the available technology. This has changed very much in the past decade and what we seek to discover is exactly how realistic these games have become. Of course no game could (yet) reproduce the feeling and setting of real life, what is represented in these games - weapons, life, abilities, uniforms, vehicles - all indeed try to convince the player that what is shown on the screen is accurate.

We have taken a few examples of some of the most popular games currently to study. Perhaps some players don't simply want a 100% realistic experience, but rather something only similar to real life, while others crave a nearly identical experience and play a different game.