I hate cut scenes in modern games

DevilRedeemed

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Was just watching the new GOW trailer for story mode and I felt nothing but contempt for the whole thing.
It's one thing to have throwaway scripts in movies, much of the time the cliche is there for one's amusement, films often are a way to pass the time etc.

With videogames we take it for granted nowadays I guess but the acting (voice acting and character portrayal) are pretty pathetic. Videogames are not films and when they try to be the uncanny valley comes into view, not just in terms of graphics but also what it is to inhabit the videogame world.

I think American companies have done much damage in this area. Story is taken way too seriously but at the same time cannot escape the cheap tacky melodrama it produces. It's like bay watch level narrative each and every time. Dialogues are horrendous and it's a massive shame as it goes some way to ruining what would otherwise be a brilliant experience.
Time and again it's the same dreary theatrics with fuck all for depth. And it's only getting worst with millennials being so uninteresting and all this material being made to cater for them/us

In my opinion videogame language is something very different from film. To be an effective film maker takes some skill, so it's very easy to make shit film like sequence in videogames. And it's all so fucking pretentious to boot.
 
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Tripredacus

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I wish more games had in-engine cutscenes. Such as, ones that are done in the same gamespace you are playing in. You know when the game has this type of cut-scene because you can "change" it. Two examples are Deus Ex and Soldier of Fortune II.

Overall, I don't care about a cutscene, they are ok. As long as there isn't a load, then play a cutscene, and then another load. They should load behind the cutscene. Some games can do it that way, some not.

But all cut-scenes should be able to be skipped if you want. Not being able to skip one is annoying. Even if it is just hiding a loading screen. If you are stuck at a certain point and have one of those games that has checkpoint saves, you can end up watching the same movie over and over.
 
M

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Tripredacus said:
I wish more games had in-engine cutscenes. Such as, ones that are done in the same gamespace you are playing in. You know when the game has this type of cut-scene because you can "change" it. Two examples are Deus Ex and Soldier of Fortune II. Overall, I don't care about a cutscene, they are ok. As long as there isn't a load, then play a cutscene, and then another load. They should load behind the cutscene. Some games can do it that way, some not. But all cut-scenes should be able to be skipped if you want. Not being able to skip one is annoying. Even if it is just hiding a loading screen. If you are stuck at a certain point and have one of those games that has checkpoint saves, you can end up watching the same movie over and over.
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Metal Gear Solid took cutscenes to a whole new level, and not in a good way. While I thought this cinematic approach to storytelling kicked ass on PS2, MGS4 was one step too far. I was literally falling asleep in front of my TV, waiting for the cutscenes to end, so that the game could save and I could go to bed.

"I'm 30 minutes into this one ... No point in turning it off now ... It's bound to end soon ..." NOPE! Twenty more minutes, and it's still going, and now you HAVE TO wait, because you don't want to watch that all over again, and you don't want to miss what's left by skipping the whole thing.

I generally don't have high expectations when it comes to cutscenes. They are what they are. Back on PS or PS2 they were a way for the companies to flex their CGI muscles. I've enjoyed Namco's and Square's CGI cutscenes immensely, but they didn't drag on.

Having things done in engine these days is a plus, for sure. It doesn't take you out of the game. Again, this is what made MGS cutscenes so good, when they weren't insanely long.

To summarize, I'm OK with pretty much everything, but it needs moderation.
 
@M

@M

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I agree with Shroom on that one. I've lost count of the games I've played where you have to spend like an hour "learning the ropes", most of which is usually really simple stuff anyway--I just want to play the fooking game! Put in a help menu or have the tutorial as optional. That's another thing I like about older games, you're just thrown to the wolves from the beginning, which is how it should be--play a little and learn what works and what doesn't yourself.

Cut scenes don't bother me too much as long as I can skip them after I've watched them once.
 
NeoSneth

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kids these days don't realize they are playing QTE movies
 
Tripredacus

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Dr Shroom said:
i hate fucking endless tutorials more.
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Or tutorials that you have to do exactly what they say. Like how the game is designed to prevent you from completing a task or leverl any other way than the way they want you to.
 
ggallegos1

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I don't mind cutscenes, as long as I have the option to skip them.
 
ForeverSublime

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Welcome to 1996?

The good news is that non-movie games have still been made since then, and will probably continue to be made for another 22 years. It's a shame what happens after that.
 
Dr Shroom

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M said:
I agree with Shroom on that one. I've lost count of the games I've played where you have to spend like an hour "learning the ropes", most of which is usually really simple stuff anyway--I just want to play the fooking game! Put in a help menu or have the tutorial as optional. That's another thing I like about older games, you're just thrown to the wolves from the beginning, which is how it should be--play a little and learn what works and what doesn't yourself.

Cut scenes don't bother me too much as long as I can skip them after I've watched them once.
Click to expand...

there must be some sort of middle ground. either make them completely optional or leave them out. try playing something like x-com apocalypse without having a tutorial.
 
Ip Man

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Morden said:
Metal Gear Solid took cutscenes to a whole new level, and not in a good way. While I thought this cinematic approach to storytelling kicked ass on PS2, MGS4 was one step too far. I was literally falling asleep in front of my TV, waiting for the cutscenes to end, so that the game could save and I could go to bed.

"I'm 30 minutes into this one ... No point in turning it off now ... It's bound to end soon ..." NOPE! Twenty more minutes, and it's still going, and now you HAVE TO wait, because you don't want to watch that all over again, and you don't want to miss what's left by skipping the whole thing.

I generally don't have high expectations when it comes to cutscenes. They are what they are. Back on PS or PS2 they were a way for the companies to flex their CGI muscles. I've enjoyed Namco's and Square's CGI cutscenes immensely, but they didn't drag on.

Having things done in engine these days is a plus, for sure. It doesn't take you out of the game. Again, this is what made MGS cutscenes so good, when they weren't insanely long.

To summarize, I'm OK with pretty much everything, but it needs moderation.
Click to expand...

funny thing is, i was recently watching a metal gear solid 3 walkthrough to see the gameplay, and it took like five videos to show some gameplay. it just seems like the gameplay is added to give the cutscenes a break.
 
DevilRedeemed

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ForeverSublime said:
Welcome to 1996?

The good news is that non-movie games have still been made since then, and will probably continue to be made for another 22 years. It's a shame what happens after that.
Click to expand...

But in 1996 you didn't have The Last of Us which made everyone explode with ecctacy over how beautiful the emotion conveyed was. It's a load of bollocks, a new form of political correctness.
When it was the new thing then it was interesting. But it has since become a crutch and a way for videogames companies to try and flaunt their wares as the new alternative to movies. And they are not. The voice acting and dialogues nowadays, not in 1996, are horrible because we are no longer experimenting with this feature. The innocence is long gone.

The tutorial thing is so true too. Horrible alternative to the game manual
 
ForeverSublime

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DevilRedeemed said:
When it was the new thing then it was interesting.
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It sucked then, too. It wasn't interesting. Discs were torture enough for people used to carts that loaded immediately. Cutscenes were just fine for people used to RPGs that moved at a slower pace, where the action itself was essentially a cutscene to everything else you do in an RPG. Not great for people accustomed to Punch Out! "Movie Games", "You're playing a movie", all things said 20 years ago.

Perhaps preservationists will exploit hacks or make tools to skip crap. TiVo for games.
 
FAT$TACKS

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Back with the very first GOW game, that really pissed me off.

Got to the end boss and had to watch a too long scene before the fight start, and you can't skip it. Then die and go to fight again, same thing, have to sit through that shit again. I turned it off the third time and never played another GOW game again.

I think It was FF8 maybe I played also that had so much watch this crap animation on the PS1, that I turned it off too and never played another FF game.
 
GohanX

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Bogard said:
funny thing is, i was recently watching a metal gear solid 3 walkthrough to see the gameplay, and it took like five videos to show some gameplay. it just seems like the gameplay is added to give the cutscenes a break.
Click to expand...

MGS3 actually has probably the best balance in the whole series. The videos are probably the first part of the game, which is a failed mission that kind of works as a tutorial/background for most of the rest of the game. When you get to the real mission it's not bad if you stay off the radio. The end has a lot more, but the end sequence is so awesome it's perfectly fine.
 
NeoSneth

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If you take them out, then all you are left with is the game, and modern games are not really that entertaining.
 
pixeljunkie

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Dr Shroom said:
i hate fucking endless tutorials more.
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This all the way.

On the one hand they can be annoying, but I am old and I actually enjoy the story aspect of games almost as much as the action itself these days. Uncharted, Last of Us, etc would suck without those cutscenes imo
 
DevilRedeemed

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I get some of these points, but cutscenes in my opinion tend to water down the experience way too much. Nothing left to the imagination, everything revealed and plus you are at the mercy of the game creator's interpretation of all events.

Sublime, back in the mid 90s I think the novelty factor made it a lot more forgivable is my point. We young people used to be amazed by digitised voices years before, so canon dictated that all extras where welcome intriguing additions in the development of what was now a promise of interactive entertainment the like hadn't been seen before. So when companies had new ways of narrating it was brilliant. But with the birth of AAA titles things became standardised and made to fit the mold. So I guess what I'm mostly expressing here is a dislike for the production values of modern AAA titles.
Yes, jadedness is a factor here I admit
 
Heinz

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I don't mind cut scenes but then I'd only play one game a year that has them.
 
Tripredacus

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Dr Shroom said:
there must be some sort of middle ground. either make them completely optional or leave them out. try playing something like x-com apocalypse without having a tutorial.
Click to expand...

I have played worse. Europa Universalis III. F that game.
 
Cylotron

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I can't say it's "because I'm old now" as I've always felt this way. Anytime there's a developer intro, main intro, cut scene/video, anything at all... I just start pressing keys like crazy trying to bypass all of it. Even when I beat a game, I don't particularly care to see what the ending movie is.
 
C

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I just skip them for most games. I played Assassin's Creed Origins and the Hitman season recently and skipped every scene I could; didn't feel like I was missing out on anything at all. For franchises I love like Metal Gear, I watch them all though.
 
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