TotalBiscuit talks about storyteling in games

[Newbryn]

I haven't played max payne 3, but if you cant skip the cutscens then I will agree that is a legitimate issue.

[Dezerte]

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.

Surely you're being ironic now?

Unskipable cut-scenes are definite annoyance for me if a) I'm playing a game with a generic story, I'm not going to be interested in the story & b) if I'm re-playing a game I might want to skip the cutscenes.

[Kickbuttmario]

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.

Hey guys, looks like we got someone who didn't watch the video!

You either agree with him or not. That's it. What's with you people who keeps bashing celebrities. I don't like Athene because hes a typical douche wow player. Do I go to his videos or threads and call him a loser, no. Why? Because a) I am too lazy for even that and b) I have other things to worry about .

[Poppincaps]

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.

This. Wolfsage knows what he/she's talking about.

[Adam Jensen]

I love playing a game with a good story. Am a fan of the ME series for that very reason. Before people chime in about ME3's ending, the story telling for the series, and especially in ME2-3, was spectacular upto those last ten minutes. A shame Casey Hudson let his pride get the best of him, but that's beside the point. The characters were well fleshed out, the cinematography was artistically done, there was every type of emotion throughout most of the series.

I like being in a living breathing world, taking the role of the hero and engaging in an interesting and well developed story. If the story is weak, then the action won't make up for it and I will lose interest in the game in a hurry. Games, especially RPGs, should be interactive action movies.

But I do not like unskippable cutscenes. I guess I'm strange like that. If I know the story though, I'd like to skip over the boring parts. And what really pisses me off, are the unskippable cutscenes that autosave at the start of the cutscene, right before a boss. Boss kills you and guess what? Gotta watch the cut scene again.

---------- Post added 2012-06-19 at 01:36 PM ----------

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

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

I disagree with his statement that games are all about gameplay and not like watching a movie. I'd rather have a delicate balance of both. It's about striking a balance. There's a such thing as too much storytelling and too little.

[Lazy Gecko]

I disagree with his statement that games are all about gameplay and not like watching a movie. I'd rather have a delicate balance of both. It's about striking a balance. There's a such thing as too much storytelling and too little.

But the point is that we should be able to tell a story through playing a game rather than becoming a passive observer through a bunch of cutscenes. Absence of cutscenes does not equal absence of plot. It just happens to be a very underexplored aspect of gaming, and viewing passive cutscenes as the only valid form of narration is very much holding games back as an artform.

[Adam Jensen]

But the point is that we should be able to tell a story through playing a game rather than becoming a passive observer through a bunch of cutscenes. Absence of cutscenes does not equal absence of plot. It just happens to be a very underexplored aspect of gaming, and viewing passive cutscenes as the only valid form of narration is very much holding games back as an artform.

It all depends on how well they've done. Half-Life 2 is famous (or infamous, depending on opinions) for having no cutscenes. Sure, its great because you never leave Freeman's perspective, but on the other hand, he also never speaks or gives any input. And being in a first person view, we never see even body language or expression. One might argue that the player's thoughts and expression's are Gordon's but it still makes those scenes rather awkward. Freeman is the protagonist of the series yet never says a word. Don't get me wrong, HL2 is a fun game and I liked its story, but its delivery was, as I said, awkward.

And again, back to the ME series, Bioware used cutscenes rather extensively. Starting in ME2, they were very cinematic, as I said earlier. And it worked for them.

[Chireru93]

I've been fairly bothered by the QTE's trend myself, I think the worst game I've ever played (I haven't "tried" games much because I've never had the money to, so I always got onto games via friends and bought the ones I liked and their successors), has got to be the latest Dragonball Z game, I think it was called Ultimate Tenkaichi. Now this is a fighting game, and it FINALLY had the option to create your own character (this feature almost made the game bearable for me, almost, but the stupidly hard QTE where I mashed my fingers to the point I couldn't hold the controller, and STILL couldn't beat it, and those on every boss battle, ruined it for me), and when I used say a Kamehameha, it felt powerful and would do some real damage to the surroundings, however, the fighting itself was aweful and you could only use power attacks a bit sparsely. The entire fighting mechanic revolved around getting an X-X-X combo (for 360 controllers) on your opponent, and then choosing either A or B button, and if you chose right you continued the QTE if not you failed, but it was all luck not skill. And very repetitive. The QTE itself felt cool, with my dashing all over the place, it felt like dbz, but the core fighting was aweful enough and the QTE's were literally in such abundance that it was basically a movie with QTE's, that I must say it is the only game I've ever returned to a game store ever (excluding games I trade in, this game I flat out traded back and got a refund of $50 in-store credit, what I payed for it).

anyways, rant over, I love games with good storytelling, like Assassin's Creed for example (lots of them on older gen consoles as well), but a lot of games lately don't seem to do it very well sadly.

[Deleted]

It's quite simple, having too many cutscenes is annoying because... I want to play a game, not watch a movie with a 5 min break every 15 min of movie where I actually move my mouse a bit. That's all there is to it.

For example, look, I know Dragon Age isn't a very loved game, or so I've heard, but let's see: in the so called "cutscenes" I have my own choice, I can even attack people at random with no talking at all or I ca be the nicest person ever. It's my character, my choice, my story. Then we have situations like Uldum, since I gave that example. I go, I plant some bomb then... cutscene with my walking back. Why? Maybe I wanted to kill more guys, maybe I wanted to take a bath in the river. So then some bombing, going back, killing some guys... then curscene again? come on? It doesn't even show me anything useful, just me walking back, what a waste of time!

As I said, if I play a game, I want a game, I want to chose, even if I chose stupid stuff, like I don't want to kill monster X because he looks like he's crouching over a smaller monster and I concluded it's his child and I feel bad for it. Sure, maybe it's a dumb reason, but it's my choice.

[Theodon]

I do enjoy cutscenes to a point, but too much of anything is...too much. Having a game that has cutscenes for every plot development in a story can be overdone, but on the other side of that - not having any cutscenes - doesn't leave me feeling like I'm in the story. Cutscenes done right can enhance the immersiveness of the gameplay and make for a very enjoyable experience, but it needs to be done right.

Seeing a main baddy in a full FMV rip through a town is a great way to make it feel like going after him to smash his face in is going to be fun.

[Zogarth]

When i play a game it is because i want to play a game, not watch a movie. I do agree that cut scenes is good sometimes, and getting rid of them entirely would ruin many games, but sometimes they are used too much. A game I like to mention here is The Witcher 2 where there are quite a lot of cut scenes, but not rly that many, and every time they were used, it was to show things that the engine could not normally do. I also played Max Payne 3 and i really disliked the game because of the many cut scenes... They did it too much.

[Leonard McCoy]

I like many others here enjoy story in video games. It helps give the game the appeal of a good book or a movie. It keeps you playing because you want to see what's up. DA:O is an excellent example of story done well in a video game. When DA:O came out, I literally had 100+ hours in the first week alone. Going through the game on one toon for a bit then going back to do origin stories. It really helps grab you and pushes you to play that extra hour to see what's coming ahead and what's gonna happen to your guy and his npc buddies along the way.

Conversely I find that if a game lacks a decent story or plot I really have no motivation to play it. Games that fire the imagination through story telling are my favorites because they do exactly that. They make you think and they make you feel. I really should give max payne a try. Next time I get some money I'll give it a spin. It sucks blockbuster went under, can't really give anything a try anymore.

[Lillpapps]

I really love cutscenes in games. I only play RPG games and for these genre I really like that when you play you develop your character and the cutscenes tell the story. I like to see games as another version of books or movies and I only play RPG games for the story.

Maybe thats why I really like Final Fantasy XIII.

[ara]

Cutscenes, and moments where the game takes away the control from you is fine as long as they are skippable. Crysis (1) for example did a great job at this, while Crysis 2 locked you down into unskippable uncontrollable segments or made you walk slowly while a guy talked to you all the time. Guess which one had the biggest replay value to me?

[vazar_da_priest]

I like cinematic type games.



but i don't think i like the on rails style of the call of duty games


but ya from what i just saw max payne has WAYYYYYYYYYYYY too many cut-scenes

[Voidgazer]

Didn't Extra Credits do the very same episode some time ago?

Anyway, they're both talking about how story in games should be interactive, because of the nature of video games media itself. In other words, they're just stating obvious.

Honestly I can't imagine how anybody with at least a half of a brain couldn't realized that alrady. It's not like they're bestowing some revelations or anything.

[Bellentino]

I think cut scenes are good to an extent, but when there's too much of it, there's a problem. They should be there to help move the plot along, not become another "movie". I really don't like those "quicktime" events where you gotta press some random button at the right time.

[Hoticehunter]

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.

FFX really needed a "skip cutscene" button. That one really long cutscene right before the boss lady where Yuna's supposed to get her final aeon by sacrificing a party member and the boss fight was really fucking hard so you were likely to watch the same cutscene multiple times? Ya, that was just annoying.

[steveyboy]

Seems people like to bash any youtube celebrity and go with the less known people so they feel special themselves.

Anyway on topic...... Cutscenes............. Long ass cutscenes as I saw in max payne 3 which I can't even skip?

Thats just stupid. Hell most the time I play the game for fun. Game that does story telling well which doesn't have cutscene after cutscene is Deadspace.