On the underpowered-ness of Video Game Machine Guns

Machine guns are pretty effective in real life, as far as I can tell. Probably an order of magnitude more effective at dealing damage than a pistol of the equivalent caliber. While playing Halo 3 recently, however, I was again reminded of the continuously ridiculous underpowering of automatic weaponry. If they make the game too easy, reduce the available ammo! Nothing is more maddening than unloading clip after clip into someone, only to realize that you're apparently firing papier mache bullets. If it takes one hundred rounds to kill a giant enemy crab with an MP5, it should take 100 rounds to kill it with a 9mm Glock.

The three worst offenders I can think of amongst notable/quality games:

3)The original Halo: Three headshots with the pistol equals death, but you can unload a clip into the torso of enemy soldiers and watch them shrug it off. I didn't, and don't, particularly enjoy the "reload dance" that is required whenever I don't manage to kill an opponent at close range with the default machine gun. The problem has been somewhat eliminated in the most recent entry-- not by improving the machine gun, but by making the pistol worthless.

2)Gears of War: I gave up on Gears of War multiplayer for one simple reason -- the ridiculously underpowered machine gun. You basically have to abandon the machine gun for the shotgun in multiplayer, and the "dodge and blast" strategy required for that particularly weapon takes away what could have been a fantastic tactical experience. It's not fun unloading a clip at point blank range and watching an opponent approach and kill you with one blast. Fenix looks muscular enough to carry some real ammo, damnit!

1)Far Cry (on the Xbox/Xbox 360): Far Cry takes this problem to a whole new level. I tested this out in co-op mode. Two or three shots of a Desert Eagle to the head will kill you. About four or five from a silenced (!!!) 9mm will also do the trick. How much machine gun fire can you absorb? From the regular machine gun, at least a full clip. Even if you're dual wielding, forget it. The biggest noob mistake is thinking that the machine gun was worth a crap. I can't count the number of times some moron with the default machine gun would charge and "light me up" thinking I was stuck with a dinky silenced pistol. This quickly would turn to howls of incredulous anger as I would pop them a few times in the head. Ridiculous.


Who got it right (more or less): The Call of Duty series seems to have the best pistol/machine gun balance out there. Meaning that the pistol completely sucks.