Ammo Systems In Shooters Are Infuriating And Insane

From the puzzling shotgun incompetence of Master Chief to the severe lack of pocket-space in Homefront, disgruntled gamer Dave ‘Mack’ McConkey has suffered through the most infuriating ammo systems that the shooter genre has to offer. Here, he sounds off on the issue – and suggests how things can be improved.

[cl1983]

Fallout has the system correct.you can only carry so much weight, and even a well maintained gun has to be repaired more often then the older the gun becomes, and the more the gun is used.

[vortis]

I agree. This is the same system used in Jagged Alliance: You can have as many guns as you can hold. I think that system makes sense and was also used in Killing Floor.

[vishant101]

For someone that plays gears a lot i can tell you, there is no reason to complain about ammo the guns have a huge clip size and ammo caps are high also the amount of ammo you find lying around is tonnes you will never run outta ammo in the campaign unless playing 4 player co-op insane.

[Drake117]

Good lord some of the things people will complain about.

[grailly]

this guy doesn't know what he's talking about... 90 rounds is already quite a few rounds to carry into combat if you have an assault rifle. you do have a few pockets, but one goes for grenades, one for gas mask, then I still had one for my glasses/food/camo makeup/flashlight... you can only carry 3-4 more clips if you want to be fully loaded.

[madjedi]

The guy is probably basing this off of always full auto hollywood movies and video games, not reality.

[hazelamy]

whether you agree with the article or not, i don't have strong opinions either way, it was a damn entertaining read.

[madjedi]

Entertaining, more like waste of time/author is a dumbass article, not every game needs infinite ammo for every weapon. This guy must have pissed himself playing the ps1 resident evils, where ammo is in short supply, and your always scrounging for more.

I think the modern soldier still carrys 100+ pounds of gear on him, since many of these games try to mimic reality/dependant on the game, is it surprising you have max ammo caps that isn't in the hundreds for every gun.

[hazelamy]

well i got some laughs out of it, that's entertaining in my book.
i'm not saying whether he's right or not, because as i said i don't have a strong opinion either way, i said it was entertaining.
and to me it was.

[Mad_Mack]

I love how I get lambasted for commenting on the non-realistic games, by commenters who are using the realistic games as a counter argument. I actually think that BF3 or MW or whatever actually have the ammo requirements right.

As for those who think that a real soldier will go into battle with 90 spare bullets, here is some numbers for you to crunch:

The standard loadout of a British soldier in Afghanistan will walk out the gates of his FOB carrying (at a minumum) 6 magazines (180 rounds) plus a bandoleer with another 180 rounds, plus additional ammo for the section or platoon support weapons (link ammunition for the GPMG/LMG, mortar bombs for the 51 or 61ml platoon mortar, grenades for the UGL, additional loose ammo for their rifle etc.)

Finally, I am not confused by Hollywood portrayals of fire fights. A soldier firing on rapid fire (single shot, 2 rds per second) will empty a mag in 15 seconds. With six full mags a soldier will be out of ammo and have to re-bomb his mags in less than three minutes. On auto, they could burn through their ammo in less than a minute (in theory, not accounting for the time it takes to reload).

It is true that a soldier carries over 100+ pounds of kit, but actually a lot of this is ammunition. I can give you a detailed breakdown of a riflemans kit on patrol in Afghan if you wish. But I tell you it does not include a ‘gas mask’ (which incidentally have not been seen since WW1 – soldiers these days use respirators when faced with a CBRN environment). Idiot.

[SJPFTW]

cool story armchair general. and in both COD and BF3 your not limited to just 90 bullets. You can have max 180 in COD or 200+ in bf3 depending on perk. its called balance, if they came out with more by default there is no use for perks and the support class(BF3).