Since gaming news has once again ground to a halt in the wake of PAX, there hasn’t been much to talk about in the gaming sphere. Besides the usual talking points, of course: Skyrim is going to be awesome, is Nintendo ever going to fix the 3DS, etc.
We’ve talked about those things enough, so I thought I’d bring over a fun thread I saw on Reddit, featuring the ultra-hardcore Survival Game. Basically, you just pick which of these three equipment sets you’d like to start with if you were marooned on an island full of hostile dinosaurs a la Jurassic Park. It’s funny, because as much as I’ve played lots of survival games, none of those really asks you to survive in a realistic situation. Many video games don’t simulate that kind of thing very well, and even when they sort of do (like Minecraft), they don’t really require you to do everything the human actually needs to stay alive. Like eat, for instance.
Personally I’d take Option C, if only for the awesome survival book, since I’d be absolutely helpless on my own in the wilderness. It’s funny, because Option A seems the most “video game” to me, but is probably not all that practical. Unless you’re Turok, I guess. What about you guys? Which would you take? Go!
Source – Reddit
I’d take Option B because clean water is always awesome, and an easy fire-starter is great for any situation. And I’m pretty sure even dinosaurs are freaked out by fire. The SAS guide book is tempting, but I can go to the bookstore and read it now, before going on the journey that will get me stranded on the island.
Is that Reddit thread still going on, and is like a text-based adventure where the OP narrates what happens per turn?
Im going with B. I cant shake the fire starter. After watching survival shows, I know that fire is essential. The bad thing is, with B, if you can make fire, you should be able to boil water, eliminating the need for the pills. But the problem with that is that what would you put the water in to let it boil? The axe to me is one of the weaker WEAPONS but is great as a tool. Rope, fire, and a tool are the best combo, but with what we have, B seems the best. I would go with B.
Lets talk videogame here. This would be an amazing, possible game changing videogame.
Imagine it sets up a world, lets say its the size of Oblivion, maybe even bigger. Its a gigantic island. You have a time system, an AI system for the world and its creatures. I would want to make the game so that if I turned it on for an hour, it would run itself different every time I ran the game. So a very dynamic and independent AI system. Now put in the player with a set of survival options. They have to choose which ones. Set the time limit in there, and get going. Add in effects like Eddy mentioned. You need to eat, drink water, sleep. You can get sick. Make it so you have to make choices and survive. You could make multiple game modes. One that has maybe a time limit to survive, such as a month. Then have a mode where maybe its how fast can you find a way off the island by using certain tactics. Then do a survival marathon mode. How long can you last with conditions getting worse.
Add in things like the ability to alter landscapes, learning survival techniques, adapt to the environment and survive. It may be almost impossible, just because its hard to replicate certain things. Such as maybe your character learning to make rope out of something. It may be too obvious you can do it unless you approach it in a certain way. I feel like this could make a drastically game changing videogame though. WIth the right company behind it, it could turn into a game that could be considered truly epic.
It’s a very tough decision, they all have their pros and cons. Probably C, the guide will be helpful for making fire without proper tools and to know what is edible, the machete is a very useful tool, and the rope could come in handy, especially for making shelters. A would be helpful for self-preservation and gathering (hunting food & using knife to help get materials), but there isn’t anything there that would really help with basic survival. B would be really useful for basic survival, but I don’t like having an axe as a tool, it’s pretty much only useful for chopping down trees, chopping down trees (even little ones) takes a lot of effort, and you simply shouldn’t exhaust yourself when in extreme survival situations.
Sean’s idea is really good, but for a game like that to be any good (in my opinion) it would need to be EXTREMELY realistic, otherwise (again, in my opinion) it wouldn’t be a true survival simulator. I’m thinking 100% realistic. And we’re a bit far from having true realistic AI in videogames. There would also have to be ways to do (or at least attempt) anything the player thinks of, otherwise it wouldn’t feel like true survival. There would be so many thing running in the background for the AI, the weather… Everything! It would be any computer processor’s nightmare! Again, we are far from stuff like this in videogames.
But if a videogame similar to what Sean described is ever created, I would definitely play it. I would also add co-op, but it would have to be made so that the players would have to work together.
I was going to write a long explanation of why B is the best option and then Sean wrote it. And then he wrote more, and more and more, and I REALLY WANT TO PLAY THAT GAME LETS DO THIS
Well, knowing very little about the actual location OR the threats (i.e. will the hunting rifle even kill the bigger dinosaurs?) I would say B is the best option. Can’t really beat fire and water. I’m sure we’ve all seen a few episodes of Les Strouds’ Survivorman that would come in handy.
Have the SAS ever faced dinosaurs anyways? I don’t know… 😉 XD
The ideal situation would involve a combination of all three sets.
A focuses on personal health and a weapon with which to maintain that health in the presence of hostile dinosaurs. Also, knives work best when making precise cuts into food. The last thing you want spilling on your raptor drumstick are the contents of its lower intestines.
B focuses on the not-so-immediate demand for water and fire. I’d be wary of drinking water without some sort of purifier. Ask yourself: Does a dinosaur shit in the river? An axe works well for cutting down trees and forming a spiked perimeter. Also, a handy trick for climbing trees involves using an axe to make a handhold, then using lower cuts in the tree as footholds.
C might have the most information on survival. However, a 10′ length of rope isn’t a good length for making traps any more complex than a trip line. Good for climbing, but B’s axe would work well too.
I’d pick A. First-Aid and a rifle are essential for killing dinosaurs and a knife is best for butchering your kill. Also, a recently spent rifle shell is a great fire-starter with some dried leaves. Also, the freshest water (dino-shit free) would be found upstream.
I feel like with C, though, you could learn to make a fire well enough to the point where the fire starter would be useless. Plus I would rather have a machete over an axe, I think. Also, once you could start fires, you wouldn’t need the water purifiers as you could just boil the water.
And yeah, the 10′ length of rope is just totally useless. I probably wouldn’t want to tangle with any dinosaurs, either.
I wish I could take the med kit, a machete AND the book, haha.
Okay, I’ll run down the list
A. Knife has endless utilities as a weapon and a tool. Also I can make a pretty mean pole arm out of it if push comes to shove. I can’t make a medkit, and let’s face it, you’re going to hurt yourself on the expedition in one way or another, so this is a must. And as someone who has some fairly basic fire arm experience, (I know how to operate one and aim with some degree of accuracy) so long as it isn’t a dinky little .22, it would make an excellent long range hunting and defence tool.
B. The axe is really only important if you’re cutting down good sized trees, and the only reason you’re doing that is if you’re building a shelter, but why are you doing that on an island with readily available ruins to hide in? So chalk that one up. I don’t need the water purifying pills if I can boil the water. And finally, the fire starter would be a good tool to begin with, but give me a couple days, I’ll make a fire with my mind if I have to.
C. I’ll admit, the machete is REALLY attractive, especially if you’re out bushwhacking, but I can’t think of anything of importance that I could do with the machete that I couldn’t do with the knife, only with more precision. What am I really going to do with ten feet of rope that makes it more important than anything else on this list? Finally the SAS survival guide would probably be invaluable for the knowledge, but I’m a practical guy. I take things on HEAD FIRST! YEAH!
After all that Deadliest Warrior logic, I’m going with A.