Umbrellas: Where is its presence in gaming?

I need an umbrella!!!

I wanted to tackle a subject that I think game developers need to implement more often in their games…yep good ole umbrellas! I know you may be like “Out of all the things to request” but hey I think it goes a long way in bringing immersion. Think about all the video games you’ve played that had rain and said to yourself  “MAN! If I only had my trusty umbrella”. Where is it’s presence in gaming?

I found it ironic to be writing this article in the mist of Hurricane ‘Sandy’ and Storm ‘Athena’ (stay safe) . As I alluded to earlier it may be a crazy question  but over the years it bothered me of it’s lack of presence and as I gamed over the years I noticed  a lot of games have rain but not a lot games have umbrella representation.

Now action games like Uncharted or God of War get a pass, especially because it’s dripped in fantasy; mainly the latter but games like Heavy Rain and Grand Theft Auto I feel could’ve, an can (looking at you Grand Theft Auto V) really take advantage of such an experience. You see, these games are perfect for that type of visual because of the nature of these games — no pun — they’re rooted in reality and when you have reality you can implement how a human would react to reality aka real weather conditions. In Heavy Rain’s case dealing with real people in a real situation; GTA — built around a living, breathing city that has things like stop lights, toll booths, weather, sleep cycles, day-night cycles and so on and so forth.

I need an umbrella too!!!

Now I know everyone doesn’t carry an umbrella when it rains– even in real life, shoot! I even leave the house a time or two w/o an umbrella, either because I didn’t have one, the one I have is broke,  didn’t listen to the weather, or just plain forgot —  point is I understand just because it’s raining it doesn’t mean every single person I see walking down the street would be equipped with an umbrella, but atleast have the option to bring one with you. Imagine being able to leave your virtual house and have the ability to bring one with you. Even the animation of seeing your character holding an umbrella up, I think that’ll be sweet; something rarely seen — if ever seen in gaming especially this generation and if any generation could’ve made an umbrella animation look good it would have been this generation.

Even the newly praised game, Watch Dogs from Ubisoft you see the main character walking around in the rain with his trench coat but no umbrella. Also in the beginning of Heavy Rain’s  intro  you get teased, I believe people are seen walking around carrying umbrellas but when you actually play the game they’re nowhere to be found. Now it’s understandable for Ethan Mars (the main Character) not to carry an umbrella (a bit of a spoiler) when he runs frantically to look for his missing son but when he goes to pick up his son from school prior to the incident it would’ve made sense and been nice to see him carrying an umbrella, especially to protect his kid from the storm. Even a hoodie would’ve been acceptable (LMBO). Not only does he not have these things but he’s wearing a leather jacket albeit it looks cool but we all know not the best jacket for rain conditions.

Bottom line it’ll be nice to see and I think umbrellas are sorely missing in gaming, it could bring another level of immersion and realism seldom seen. Would you like to see umbrellas have a greater presence in gaming? CCU wants to hear from you.

Update* Funny, upon searching for a picture for this article and finding the picture I wanted; apparently Daily News agrees with me. Check out their picture — included a funny caption at this link.