10 lies video games tell us about outer space

Don't worry, we only mention space toilets once

Words: Andrew Groen on October 25, 2012

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dcbernman - October 25, 2012 11:39 p.m.

Would be nice if you guys could caption those screenshots so we know where they are from. I know most of them are recognizable, but number 10 looked interesting and I had no idea where it was from.
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theintellectual - October 26, 2012 1:12 a.m.

Not in the hollywood sense of the word where every explosions looks like a big petrol bomb, but flash vaporization from lasers and nuclear weapons will still put on a heck of a light show, though it'd look a lot more like the flash from somebody's camera then a fireball. Think the beginning of Starwars episode 4 then the beginning of starwars episode 3. Also, igniting fuel lines and oxygen from crew compartments would probably still cause flames here and there, though it would be brief.
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bass88 - October 26, 2012 2:58 a.m.

Regarding "Cross-galaxy communication is super-duper easy" I suggest a film called Voices From A Distant Star. It deals with this issue in a most depressing manner.
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bass88 - October 26, 2012 2:59 a.m.

I'm sorry. That's Voices Of A Distant Star.
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gopher1369 - October 26, 2012 5:01 a.m.

Arthur C. Clarke?
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BladedFalcon - October 26, 2012 5:11 a.m.

Yes? what about him? Popular science fiction author, yes. Other then that, are you suggesting he has actually met aliens? :P
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winner2 - October 26, 2012 6:14 a.m.

Question....how good do you think the video games made by the aliens might be? I bet they have some fun stuff.
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thomas-morrisroe - October 26, 2012 7 a.m.

I think no. 10 is from Bulletstorm, but I could be wrong.
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Zeedar - October 26, 2012 8:01 a.m.

One thing, in all sci-fi, that annoys me: sound in space. There should be none. No roaring engines, no loud explosions, no pew-pew of lasers. OK, it doesn't really annoy me, because space battles would be really boring without the sound effects, but it is still factually incorrect.
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Zeedar - October 26, 2012 8:14 a.m.

That part in ME2 was awesome, but it was also incorrect. If you were to shoot a bullet into empty space, it would most probably never hit anything, because the universe expands faster than the bullet goes. Unless your projectile is like really-really fast, it probably won't hit anything. I can't list any sources, because I don't remember where I've read it, sorry about that.
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SentientSquidMachine - October 26, 2012 8:16 a.m.

kudos.
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SentientSquidMachine - October 26, 2012 8:22 a.m.

Seriously, the stuff that lives in deep sea trenches are so incredible. The bio-luminescence, fish that are 85% a mouth full of huge razor teeth, and just some of the "ugliest" freaking things that you could begin to imagine. I'd like to see a game use that setting. oh and dolphins do try to talk to humans. And when you record what they say and play it back to them, their speech changes as if to try to move the conversation along...which is amazing.
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theintellectual - October 26, 2012 8:32 a.m.

I hate to be one of those guys, but MA rounds from a dreadnought's main gun travel at 1.3% of the speed of light. I think that's what I'd call 'really really fast'.
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JarkayColt - October 26, 2012 10 a.m.

Lots of really interesting points here. Most of the "lies" are pretty common sense but you never really think of them as such until listed in isolation like this. By which I mean, science fiction contexts often do a very good job of making these things seems plausible. That's all that matters, right? I mean, it is FICTION after all. It's hard to predict the future, so the easist thing to do is describe something unfathomably impossible, like hurtling a huge chunk of metal through space. So, basically...is it any wonder why none of it makes no sense? Not really. And would you have it any other way? No. I mean, stuff like the visibility of space phenomena is pretty unjustifiable even now, but, well, artistic license, right? If people can lie about how stuff on Earth is percieved who says we can't do it with space? :U
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Andrew Groen - October 26, 2012 10:19 a.m.

So true, and yeah devs definitely have artistic license to do whatever they want. And I hope they continue being imaginative with space. The danger though is when they stretch the truth subtly (as in the case of their depictions of how space looks). People who don't have any other source of science information can end up getting fact and fiction mixed up. It's harmless, but it's also important to set the record straight. Because like it or not, fiction is often people's only source of factual info.
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Andrew Groen - October 26, 2012 10:22 a.m.

Haha This is a great thought. But I think they'd probably suck. Video games only work for humans because our brains get all happy when we do certain things. Our brains loooove audiovisual feedback, and they looove overcoming obstacles through strategy. A lot of that is a product of our upbringing in the fricken jungles and savannahs so who knows if they even have games at all. I'd bet their awesome tech *could* specially craft something for us though.
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Andrew Groen - October 26, 2012 10:23 a.m.

I'm going to watch that so hard you don't even know. Thanks for the recommendation. I'm all about that kind of thing.
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Andrew Groen - October 26, 2012 10:26 a.m.

From what I've read, we can occasionally communicate with dolphins through things like touchscreens and whatnot, but generally we have to wait for them to be interested. More often than not they just want to dolphin around all day bein dolphins without much care for hoo-mans.
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Andrew Groen - October 26, 2012 10:29 a.m.

I'm of the opinion that everything rules. I'm a universe enthusiast.
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MidianGTX - October 26, 2012 11:34 a.m.

Those "bands of gas" usually don't even have a colour. It's all added by NASA afterwards for the purpose of visual clarity. Most space photography is black and white and when it comes to the really distant stuff there's a lot of infa red and ultra voilet light caputred that would be completely invisble to us anyway.
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