TotalBiscuit talks about storyteling in games

[Lazy Gecko]

Or more specifically, how most developers fail at it and can't play to the medium's strengths.



I've had problems with these things for more years than I can remember, and since the whole cinematic aspect really kicked into high gear this generation things have gone out of control and made me just about abandon the high budget side of the industry. Concerning QTEs, I think they've overall done more harm than good.
The concept of adding more interactivity to cutscenes isn't bad at all inherently, but the consequences have been more along the lines of developers thinking "we can't come up with any cool mechanics for this scene/boss fight, so let's just have the player trigger some cool pre-choreographed moves through QTEs". I thought we already established through games like Dragon's Lair that this stuff isn't very exciting.

[Anciena]

I watched this earlier today and must admit, I agree. I hadn't noticed it as being so bad to be honest, but now that I think about it, it's really annoying. Dragon's Lair is a great example there, and I do feel that most of the recent games play like this. Get to do stuff, watch a movie, wait.. Yawn a bit, do some more stuff.

I think we must turn to Indie developers to give us more of the "old school" gameplay and more interactivity, as they usually do not have the budgets to produce cinematics.

[Gunther]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but TB bitches about everything and the only reason he is bitching in this game and decided to make it a publicity stunt is due to the unskippable cutscenes. They are great and often tell the story the way the designer intend. If you don't play a game for story or skip cutscenes in games then this doesn't even concern you as it doesn't change what you do.

PS: Max Payne 3 is an absolutely amazing game and you should definitely try it, Don't let some moron on the net preach to you otherwise.

[Lazy Gecko]

Most online personalities who make a living off what they do usually have some schtick going which people may or may not like. If you don't, then I don't think their videos are for you.

That aside, I think the topic at hand here is a lot more interesting to discuss than whatever you might think of TB himself. I've been very frustrated at this trend to water down interactivity in games and I thought it was good that a high profile person raised awareness on the topic.

[Belize]

I do think that games are moving more and more towards the story being told by cutscenesc which are presented after a few actiony moment.

[bekilrwale]

I personally do not like long cutscenes that I can not skip, makes me feel too constricted.

[Poppincaps]

Honestly I agree with him to a point, but I don't think it is so black and white. The GTA games are all very cinematic, and that's one of the reasons people love those games, although when he was playing Max Payne it was like 5 minutes of him playing and 15 minutes watching cutscenes, which is pretty ridiculous I suppose. Some games overdo it, but I find that most good games find a good balance.

[Wolfbear]

I love cutscenes. Even stuff like Metal Gear Solid 4.

[Toccs]

It was a good to watch thank you OP.

[Deleted]

I agree with him, this is the reason why, for example, I hated Uldum in WoW.

[Edc]

I agree with him, this is the reason why, for example, I hated Uldum in WoW.

I loved Uldum, it just sucks you can't skip all of the cutscenes for some reason, after playing through a questline 5 times or more it really gets old :P

I don't agree with TB, but I see his point. I personally enjoy cutscenes so I don't see the problem with it. I guess overkill on them (havent played MP3) is a bad thing though.

[bals]

Yeah I agree somewhat with his points.
When I played xenosaga 1 a few years back it was torture getting through the first part of the game cause it's just like consistent story telling for a very long time.
Although he should listen to his own advice cause he could have seriously made that video 5sh minutes long instead of 20

[Deleted]

This thread is not about what you think of TB or his accent, please post regarding the topic at hand or find another thread to post in.

[Repefe]

Yeah. Playing good story is better than watching good story through cut scenes.

[Newbryn]

I don't mind sitting down and watching a cutscene so yea I disagree with TB, my only issue with cutscens are if I can't skip them, like if i have to redo a particular part of the game over I don't wanna watch the cutscene over again. On the whole qte issue I fucking hate qte's only game I thought did it right was shenmue, I'm not gonna add heavy rain or indigo prophecy to this, simply those can be considered an evolution of the adventure genre making them more interactive so they don't really belong in this particular argument.

[Deleted]

My guess is that he's playing the wrong games.

Many games I have played, especially on the PS2, wouldn't have had the same impact without their cut-scenes.

It really depends on the genre and the game, generalizing is aboslutely naive.

[Lazy Gecko]

If you're talking about games like MGS2, that's around when I first started feeling that passive narration in video games have gotten out of hand. If you must rely on turning the player into a spectator so often to get your points across, then you've failed as a game designer. Imagine a book (not graphic novel) where half the pages are illustrations meant to describe characters and environments to the reader. I imagine a lot of avid bookworms would be frustrated at this since the entire point would be to convey this stuff through literature.

Gaming is still very much in its infancy and we haven't come close to realizing its full potential. I think this becomes abundantly clear in games like Uncharted which aims for the same feel as an Indiana Jones movie, yet the only compelling thing they can think of for the gameplay is to shoot hundreds of bad guys which makes it pretty ridiculous when you try to compare it to Indiana Jones. This is because they haven't figured out how to narrate the rest of the game in an interactive manner that's also fun and engaging.

[Temp name]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but TB bitches about everything and the only reason he is bitching in this game and decided to make it a publicity stunt is due to the unskippable cutscenes. They are great and often tell the story the way the designer intend. If you don't play a game for story or skip cutscenes in games then this doesn't even concern you as it doesn't change what you do.

PS: Max Payne 3 is an absolutely amazing game and you should definitely try it, Don't let some moron on the net preach to you otherwise.

it's amazing if you like your game to have 50% cutscenes.. that you can't skip..

---------- Post added 2012-06-19 at 02:26 PM ----------

My guess is that he's playing the wrong games.

Many games I have played, especially on the PS2, wouldn't have had the same impact without their cut-scenes.

It really depends on the genre and the game, generalizing is aboslutely naive.

it depends HOW the cutscenes are made, how many there are, why they are there and if you can skip them..

[Bacon of Light]

If Max Payne 3 is made with skippable cutscenes, people will start noticing how short the campaign really is for 60 dollars.

[Fenixhart]

The guys over at Extra Credits have something to say on this regard as well.

http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/cutscenes