• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Best Nukes In Video Games?

You can say this about literally any violence whatsoever in games, movies, TV.
Sure, if scale didn't matter. I've led a sheltered life but I have worked at a hospital (including a shift on July 4 so you can imagine what that was like), witnessed abuse firsthand and seen a gun fired at someone with intent to kill. I'm no stranger to gore or human brutality. I also have a degree in physics. And putting all those experiences together. . . I've no problem with FPSes or horror flicks, and I dearly wish people who had no idea stopped fucking around with their "serious" takes on nukes.

Scale matters. If the difference between a flame war on NeoGAF and someone getting shot up was this |----------------------------| big, then the difference between getting shot and a nuke, well, one pipe would be on this screen and the other would be in the next town over. So yeah, I have a high bar for any "serious" portrayal of nukes because I've studied them and they scare the ever living shit out of me. The nukes in movies and video games are downright cute by comparison, and I'm talking about the "serious" takes.

Scale matters. And most fiction writers have an entirely inadequate, absolutely pathetic sense of scale. Imagine the chair-gripping tension if you were fighting a final boss and it turned out to have one hit point. Unironically, totally seriously, the designer genuinely thought you'd be wow-ed by that and tell all your friends and make threads on NeoGAF about how scary that bossfight was. How impressed would you actually be? When I see conventional portrayals of nukes in fiction, that's my reaction, except the underlying threat is real so there's an offensive element to the incompetence.
 

Briarios

Member
Doesn't Dragonball have planets exploding?

Stop normalizing insane power levels.

I'm sure after you posted, you realized how ridiculously moronic your comment was comparing an anime to a legitimate threat to all life on the planet. But, hey, I'm gonna point it out anyway.
 
88c3b5c9a3f92f8d941d61aa51093ca5.jpg


In Mission 7 of Gundam 0079: Rise from the Ashes the enemy are attempting to steal secret nuclear weapons stored at Torrington Base. There are trying to unlock to dome where the weapons are stored.

Mission 7 Briefing

As a kid I wondered what would happen if I tried to blow up this dome.

So I stood there and shot it as much as I could. It took such a long time I wondered if it was invincible. Then and explosion sound and my radio emitted a sustained beep while a white light enveloped the outside into my cockpit.

This is a unique death that doesn't occur elsewhere as usually you screen cracks and a standard explosion happens.

It's such a small detail that wouldn't occur normally but it's in there.
 

nekkid

It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
Sure, if scale didn't matter. I've led a sheltered life but I have worked at a hospital (including a shift on July 4 so you can imagine what that was like), witnessed abuse firsthand and seen a gun fired at someone with intent to kill. I'm no stranger to gore or human brutality. I also have a degree in physics. And putting all those experiences together. . . I've no problem with FPSes or horror flicks, and I dearly wish people who had no idea stopped fucking around with their "serious" takes on nukes.

Scale matters. If the difference between a flame war on NeoGAF and someone getting shot up was this |----------------------------| big, then the difference between getting shot and a nuke, well, one pipe would be on this screen and the other would be in the next town over. So yeah, I have a high bar for any "serious" portrayal of nukes because I've studied them and they scare the ever living shit out of me. The nukes in movies and video games are downright cute by comparison, and I'm talking about the "serious" takes.

Scale matters. And most fiction writers have an entirely inadequate, absolutely pathetic sense of scale. Imagine the chair-gripping tension if you were fighting a final boss and it turned out to have one hit point. Unironically, totally seriously, the designer genuinely thought you'd be wow-ed by that and tell all your friends and make threads on NeoGAF about how scary that bossfight was. How impressed would you actually be? When I see conventional portrayals of nukes in fiction, that's my reaction, except the underlying threat is real so there's an offensive element to the incompetence.

It just seems like a silly argument to be making when gun and knife crime is rampant, is carried out by average people, and that's glamorised all the time.
 

Moose Biscuits

It would be extreamly painful...
This thread is making me consider picking up Fallout 4. I enjoyed 3 okay enough, the things I heard in relation to the change in story sound lame but I kinda want a game I can play on the PS4 where you can chuck nukes around like softballs.
 
I will never forget calling in my first nuke in MW2 online. As broken as that game was, the tactical nuke was one of the pinnacle of achievements in online games at the time.

Even when it was called against you, the weight of what just happened was communicated so well by the announcers, especially Spetsnaz when he screams through the comms your impending doom: "ENEMY NUKE INCOMING, IT'S OVER!"

If anyone's curious, here's a compilation of the voice lines when the nuke is launched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnERkBKoj3E

That was truly something special.
 

novenD

Member
As far as being the best depiction of nukes in games, Theatre Europe (A.K.A Conflict Europe in the later 16 bit port) is kind of unbeatable, honestly.

It's a strategy game from the late 80s that simulates WW3. Infamously, the game wouldn't allow you to use nuclear weapons unless you had an authorization code that you could only receive by calling an actual phone number.

Calling the number would play a prerecorded message filled with the screams of dying people before saying "If this is what you want... The code is Midnight Sun."

When you actually use nuclear weapons this usually happens.
 

Moose Biscuits

It would be extreamly painful...
Calling the number would play a prerecorded message filled with the screams of dying people before saying "If this is what you want... The code is Midnight Sun."

Haha, joke's on them, now I have the code! Suckers!

I remember playing F-22 Lightning 3 and that had a tactical nuke you needed clearance before you could drop. I would just run custom missions and drop it on my own airbase.
 

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
A story related one; Shin Megami Tensei.

After defeating Thor, he launches a nuclear strike on Tokyo and a 30 second timer appears on screen where you're essentially helpless. As it hits, you're teleported to an Abyss-like area until you're ready to return to post nuclear Tokyo—which is 30 years later.

wRzjDoK.png
KqFfqAU.png

JlqAto4.png
Js0W7if.png

I was gonna post thisss!!!! The tension and ridiculously WHOA WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING RIGHT NOW moment of SMT1's nuke sequence is my favorite. Espeically since it happens sooo early on just as you think you're getting the hang of the game. You might not actually see a blast but my god you feel it.
 
I'm sure after you posted, you realized how ridiculously moronic your comment was comparing an anime to a legitimate threat to all life on the planet. But, hey, I'm gonna point it out anyway.

Oh definitely. Without a doubt. You surely got me there. Thanks for going above and beyond and not getting sucked into this pattern of ridiculousness and hyperbole.

You deserve recognition on this video game forum, I hope you get it.
 
Sure, if scale didn't matter. I've led a sheltered life but I have worked at a hospital (including a shift on July 4 so you can imagine what that was like), witnessed abuse firsthand and seen a gun fired at someone with intent to kill. I'm no stranger to gore or human brutality. I also have a degree in physics. And putting all those experiences together. . . I've no problem with FPSes or horror flicks, and I dearly wish people who had no idea stopped fucking around with their "serious" takes on nukes.

Scale matters. If the difference between a flame war on NeoGAF and someone getting shot up was this |----------------------------| big, then the difference between getting shot and a nuke, well, one pipe would be on this screen and the other would be in the next town over. So yeah, I have a high bar for any "serious" portrayal of nukes because I've studied them and they scare the ever living shit out of me. The nukes in movies and video games are downright cute by comparison, and I'm talking about the "serious" takes.

Scale matters. And most fiction writers have an entirely inadequate, absolutely pathetic sense of scale. Imagine the chair-gripping tension if you were fighting a final boss and it turned out to have one hit point. Unironically, totally seriously, the designer genuinely thought you'd be wow-ed by that and tell all your friends and make threads on NeoGAF about how scary that bossfight was. How impressed would you actually be? When I see conventional portrayals of nukes in fiction, that's my reaction, except the underlying threat is real so there's an offensive element to the incompetence.

This reads like the ramblings of a manifesto
 
I was always disappointed of the Nuke in StarCraft. I was expecting massive devastation but it didn't even blow up the enemy command center. For something that takes so long to get in game I expected it to be stronger.
 

Woorloog

Banned
I was always disappointed of the Nuke in StarCraft. I was expecting massive devastation but it didn't even blow up the enemy command center. For something that takes so long to get in game I expected it to be stronger.

It is a weapon for breakthroughs, not annihilation. Also surprise nukes.

A very specific tactical niche. Enemy base defended too well? Drop a nuke there to scatter the defenders or wipe them out, or force them to respond otherwise. A mass of enemies approaching? Drop a nuke. It is better against units that buildings really.
 

Plum

Member
Sure, if scale didn't matter. I've led a sheltered life but I have worked at a hospital (including a shift on July 4 so you can imagine what that was like), witnessed abuse firsthand and seen a gun fired at someone with intent to kill. I'm no stranger to gore or human brutality. I also have a degree in physics. And putting all those experiences together. . . I've no problem with FPSes or horror flicks, and I dearly wish people who had no idea stopped fucking around with their "serious" takes on nukes.

Scale matters. If the difference between a flame war on NeoGAF and someone getting shot up was this |----------------------------| big, then the difference between getting shot and a nuke, well, one pipe would be on this screen and the other would be in the next town over. So yeah, I have a high bar for any "serious" portrayal of nukes because I've studied them and they scare the ever living shit out of me. The nukes in movies and video games are downright cute by comparison, and I'm talking about the "serious" takes.

Scale matters. And most fiction writers have an entirely inadequate, absolutely pathetic sense of scale. Imagine the chair-gripping tension if you were fighting a final boss and it turned out to have one hit point. Unironically, totally seriously, the designer genuinely thought you'd be wow-ed by that and tell all your friends and make threads on NeoGAF about how scary that bossfight was. How impressed would you actually be? When I see conventional portrayals of nukes in fiction, that's my reaction, except the underlying threat is real so there's an offensive element to the incompetence.

Now I'm interested; are there any realistic depictions of nukes out there?
 

Aleh

Member
Would Cleyra getting nuked by Odin in Final Fantasy IX technically count? It even has the mushroom cloud and all. I thought it was pretty epic.
 
Sure, if scale didn't matter. I've led a sheltered life but I have worked at a hospital (including a shift on July 4 so you can imagine what that was like), witnessed abuse firsthand and seen a gun fired at someone with intent to kill. I'm no stranger to gore or human brutality. I also have a degree in physics. And putting all those experiences together. . . I've no problem with FPSes or horror flicks, and I dearly wish people who had no idea stopped fucking around with their "serious" takes on nukes.

Scale matters. If the difference between a flame war on NeoGAF and someone getting shot up was this |----------------------------| big, then the difference between getting shot and a nuke, well, one pipe would be on this screen and the other would be in the next town over. So yeah, I have a high bar for any "serious" portrayal of nukes because I've studied them and they scare the ever living shit out of me. The nukes in movies and video games are downright cute by comparison, and I'm talking about the "serious" takes.

Scale matters. And most fiction writers have an entirely inadequate, absolutely pathetic sense of scale. Imagine the chair-gripping tension if you were fighting a final boss and it turned out to have one hit point. Unironically, totally seriously, the designer genuinely thought you'd be wow-ed by that and tell all your friends and make threads on NeoGAF about how scary that bossfight was. How impressed would you actually be? When I see conventional portrayals of nukes in fiction, that's my reaction, except the underlying threat is real so there's an offensive element to the incompetence.
I understand why people in this thread are coming back at you the way they are, but I kind of agree. Nuclear weapons scare me to no end. Watch some footage of old tests on YouTube, especially the later Soviet ones that were so large that supersonic jets that launched them were still in danger. It will scare you. At least it does be.

These things make the bombs launched on Japan look pathetically small (and we know how horrible that was).

I've rarely seen nuclear explosions in the media that come close to capturing this scale. Even the COD4 scene, what I think to be the most accurate game depiction, seems to underestimate the scale (although it captures the horror well).

That said, this is an interesting discussion, and I find the many game examples interesting.
 
I understand why people in this thread are coming back at you the way they are
Oh, I do too. They don't know. That's the problem. It's not their fault so I ain't hatin', but that is why I'm getting these kinds of reactions. They think they're thinking in relative terms but don't realize the difference between an apple and an orange and the effin' Moon.
 
None of them are done right. An accurate view of a nuke blast would be this:
1040x693_94_1_c_FFFFFF_f76e839a9189a0c37114dee6d861c332.jpg

. . . and that'd be the last thing you saw before it literally melted your eyeballs.

Stop using nukes in fiction like they're OP conventional explosives; it's normalizing the wrong concept.

I think you're missing the point of video games.
 
Now I'm interested; are there any realistic depictions of nukes out there?
There have been earnest attempts, such as Kuroi Ame which IIRC (it's been a while, I could be wrong) avoided direct portrayals of the explosion itself. That might be the smartest move because I'm not sure if this is even one of those things that directors can do justice. I didn't set an impossibly high bar to be hyperbolic; it's the nuke itself that defies understanding.
 

Ivellios

Member
In terms of perception, yes, to a terrifying extent. Most people think of nukes as really big incendiary grenades that happen to make mushroom clouds because science(?). That includes elected officials these days. They may not think they're underestimating nukes, but that's Dunning-Kruger for you. I'd rather we not learn how wrong we are the hard way, but I think the more Hollywood and video games nerf the perception of nukes, the easier it will get for elected imbeciles to use them.

Not to derail the thread, but I can't recall an instance where any video game gave me the impression the designer knew the slightest fucking thing about nukes. There's room in the world for absurdity, OK, so I'm not talking about Worms or Dragonball per se. If the story's taking itself seriously at all though, these things are fucking horrifying. An earnest portrayal of nukes should be causing GAFers to post things like, "After seeing that I couldn't sleep for three days," or, "Which more scary: the best survival-horror EVAR or a mediocre nuke sequence?" And if you can't pull that off. . . for the love of pants, don't try. Or just stick to making DB episodes.

You really think the wrong usage of nuclear weapons on movies and videogames will have any influence whatsoever on the people who actually have the authority to launch a nuke?
 

Glowsquid

Member
The nuke in Battletanx and its spinoffs (Thunder Tanks and WarJetz) because it kills everyone on the map. Everyone, as in, including you.
 

Rookhelm

Member
Cod4 and fallout 3 are great obvious ones, but I like the one in Saints Row 4

You're basically a super hero in that game. The last ability you unlock is the nuke power.


You fly to the ground like Superman and when you hit the ground, it basically causes a nuclear explosion, killing everything in like a block radius
 
As the world turns to the topic of nuclear war, let's reminisce and share our favorite nuke moments in video games.

Which game has your favorite nuke and why?

Which nuke has the best graphics/use in a game?


For me, I'll always have a soft spot for StarCraft 1. Who can ever forget the perfectly timed and placed nuke by a ghost with those heartwarming/terrifying words "nuclear launch detected". If it wasn't your launch, there would be a frantic panning around the map trying to locate the ghost asap. If it was your launch, it was a nail biting wait hoping the nuke got off before being discovered.

When I first thought of this topic I went down the rabbit hole a bit. Goddamn there are a lot of nukes in video games!

Call of duty, fallout 3
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
Theatre Europe on the Spectrum all those years ago.

You had to dial a real phone number for the launch code which back nearly 35 odd years ago was a thing!
 

nekkid

It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
You really think the wrong usage of nuclear weapons on movies and videogames will have any influence whatsoever on the people who actually have the authority to launch a nuke?

This is what I'm thinking.

When there's a genuine argument to say that gun and knife crime is affected by glamorisation in media, someone chooses to find that acceptable, but that the influence of nuke glamorisation has a more meaningful impact on the populous? A populous that can do nothing about it, no less.
 
Top Bottom