This has been a pet peeve of mine since I started playing video games with guns in them: the game designers or developers don’t understand how semi-automatic weapons work. See, every time you squeeze (not pull) the trigger of a semi-auto gun, a bullet is fired out of the barrel, and the force of that bullet being fired is utilized to eject the spent casing, load another round into the chamber, and ready the weapon for firing that round (if you’re interested in the different mechanisms for doing this, check this out).

So as long as you have one round in the magazine when you fire, you will have another round loaded after for you (provided there isn’t a jam). If you fire your last round off, most semi-automatic weapons will eject the round and prepare the gun for easy reloading by keeping the chamber open. If you’re firing a pistol, the slide will stay back, and if you’re firing a rifle, the charging handle will stay in the back position. Pushing the slide forward is what will load the next round into your chamber. If you have a completely empty gun and you haven’t fired any rounds, you’ll have to pull the slide back on a pistol, or pull the charging handle back with a rifle.

The point of this rant is this: I’m sick of seeing games where when you reload a weapon with a round in the chamber, you work the action to get another round in the chamber. This would cause the unfired round to be ejected and a new round to be chambered. I’m playing Fallout 3 and every reload animation is the same, regardless of the ’status’ of the chamber. I’ll fire 15 shots out of my Chinese Assault Rifle, reload (with a chamber in the round, ready to fire) and watch as my character chambers a round even though there is already a round in it. Irritating to me.

In fact, the only game I’ve ever seen address this is Rainbow Six: Vegas. It’s actually a tactical issue: If your magazine holds 12 shots, and you fire six of them, then reload a fresh magazine with 12 shots, you’ll actually have 13 shots, counting the one already in the chamber. For a discussion on this, please see Hollywood Homocide, Leathal Weapon, and my ass.