Game reviewers are always complaining about unrealistic level design in First Person Shooter games set in military bases. How can it be, they ask, that these military installations are littered with crates, barrels and gas tanks that a games hero can climb on, throw, stack up or blow up. Do these level designers think we are stupid? Don’t they do any research at all? Shouldn’t they make just a little effort to create believable game levels?

Well it seems that the level designers were right all along – as shown by this photograph (click for a larger version). It was taken on a recent trip to a UK military base and sure enough the place was littered with barrels (conveniently close to larger containers), crates, pallets and, yes, even gas tanks.

I can assure you that, had I thought to take along my gravity gun, I would have had no trouble at all stacking up an assortment of containers in order to gain entry to any window or ventilation shaft and from there make my way to the secret research labs that I’m sure existed somewhere on the base. Not only that but the level designers are spot on with their architecture too. The buildings do all look like ugly square blocks with doors and windows cut into them and they are all bump mapped too.