Things explode, probably

January 26, 2011 8:07 AM

You have played Warhawk on PS3, and want to help my wife write her novel in which the game features in one scene. C'mon inside!

I know nothing about the game, which is why I'm punting to you guys. Here are the details of what she needs to know:

"Specifically, I've got two characters playing the game in offline multiplayer mode. One is much better than the other (faster reflexes + more experience), but is deliberately letting the weaker player win. She's trying to be subtle about it, so she's not just sitting there doing nothing, but she's probably also missing shots on purpose, or not counter-attacking when she could (or as quickly as she could), or letting herself get hit when she doesn't need to. And while I can spell out that much, that's all very vague; what *specific* things would be happening in the game, that might eventually clue that weaker player in to the fact that their opponent isn't even trying? In the scene, I've got them playing for maybe half an hour before it becomes painfully obvious that the stronger player is losing on purpose; I need to know what could happen in that half hour."

posted by ook to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Is it important to the plot that the game is actually Warhawk?

I'm thinking that an entirely-fictional game where the author has complete control over the subtleties of this sort of stuff might be better, and more accessible to the audience who maybe hasn't played Warhawk before.
posted by jozxyqk at 8:28 AM on January 26, 2011

Best answer: There's kind of a rock-paper-scissors dynamic in Warhawk between the turrets, the ground vehicles, and the air vehicles. The turrests are strong against the air vehicles, but weak against ground, the ground vehicles are strong against turrets, but weak against air, and the air vehicles are strong against ground and weak against turrets. In theory, if your more skilled player avoided the turrets entirely and was careful to let the less skilled player win the air-to-air duels, he could give him the illusion of winning. If the less skilled player then got an opportunity to use a turret to take out an air vehicle, it would become obvious that the more skilled player was letting him win.

That said, I do agree with joz that you should use a game that you're more intimately familiar with.
posted by Oktober at 8:42 AM on January 26, 2011

Best answer: I haven't played in a long time, but I'm pretty sure when you kill someone you can pick up their backpack full of whatever weapons they had. You could have the weaker player score a kill on the stronger player, with the stronger player wielding a pistol, and then, upon picking up the backpack, discover that the stronger player was not using his rocket launcher or machine gun or other, much more powerful weapon, instead of the weak pistol.
posted by Grither at 10:03 AM on January 26, 2011

Agree with jozxyqk that you should pick another game. Warhawk isn't like golden eye or something. The offline multiplayer is kind of a drag because the maps aren't really suited to 1v1; they're too big and if you die, you spawn back at a control point, which, in the worst case, can be minutes away from where your opponent is by foot. And if you don't know the map well, you may not know where the nearest car/plane is.
posted by juv3nal at 2:43 PM on January 26, 2011