Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Movies Media Entertainment Games

God of War Creator Hates Cutscenes 114

Posted by Zonk from the less-talk-more-play dept.
1up has a short piece talking about God of War creator David Jaffe's commentary on game cinematics. From the article: "Jaffe isn't saying players don't welcome this style, but claims it's not the best approach. 'It's almost like you appreciate the creativity but as a game it doesn't work,' he says in his latest video blog, citing Super Mario 64 as a good example of a game that works without cinematics. 'Obviously Mario 64 doesn't evoke a lot of emotion and political ideas, but it keeps you in the game.'" One of the reasons RE4 has been so well received, I think, is that it give you some interactivity during what would otherwise be a passive experience.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

God of War Creator Hates Cutscenes More

God of War Creator Hates Cutscenes

Comments Filter:

  • Best Example (Score:3, Insightful)

    by voice_of_all_reason ( 926702 ) on Thursday February 02, 2006 @01:29PM (#14627414)
    Xenosaga

    You don't so much play Xenosaga as help Xenosaga play itself
    • Metal Gear Solid 2 was also considered by many to be a long movie with little games stuck in variosu spots to hide the cinematics load times.

      I don't object to cut scenes at all, as long as they don't become the game. Here and there they can be like little Easter eggs, or rewards for accomplishing something. But if I find myself wishing for a pause key so I can go to the bathroom, they're gone over the edge.
      • I don't object to cut scenes at all, as long as they don't become the game.

        Agreed. I like to think of cutscenes as my tasty reward for completing missions. I've never understood why players think they're a "problem". Of course, a crappy game won't let you skip the cutscenes, and an even crappier game is nothing but cutscenes. But in those cases players need to understand that it's the game that's crappy, not the idea of cutscenes.

    • Re:Best Example (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Gogo0 ( 877020 )
      I didnt actually find this a problem, but mainly because I knew what I was getting into after playing Xenogears.

      I think that the people bothered by the endless cutscenes in games like Xenosaga and Metal Gear Solid are the people that are not particularly invested in the story. Games like Xenogears, with their endless story segments told in text, got me involved in the story and really prepared me for the "next generation of storytelling". MGS is really fun, and it is so story-driven that I enjoy the cuts

      • Re:Best Example (Score:2, Insightful)

        by heinousjay ( 683506 )
        If the stories were in any way original, I wouldn't have this problem of immediate boredom. What I don't like is that game stories never rise above the sort of tripe you can find on daytime tv.
    • Xenogears (for PSX) wasn't much better. 100-ish hours of my life sunk into that game, and many of them were cut-scenes and dialog sequences. On more than one occasion I found myself playing for only a few minutes and then having to slog through over a half-hour of in-game engine dialog scenes. Ack!
    • In Soviet Russia Xenosaga Plays You

      ok enough already, enough you hear! //hehehehehehe I love it really. O RLY. Maybe I shouldn't have shouted

      please type the word in this image: shouted
      random letters - if you are visually impaired, please email us at pater@slashdot.org

  • too easy (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Golias ( 176380 ) on Thursday February 02, 2006 @01:32PM (#14627443)
    Game companies love cut scenes. They are easy to make, they stretch "playing time", and they provide much prettier material for the marketing department than the actual gameplay does.

    I don't mind them so much, as long as I can hit a button to skip them. It's also nice if the planned it well enough so you watch the cut-scene while data is loading. (That seems to almost never happen anymore though. It's: wait for the cut-scene to load, watch cut-scene, wait for the level to load. That is t3h suck..)

    Then there are games like that dreadful Lord of the Rings series on the X-Box, which seem to be 90% cut scenes (and those are actually just low-ish resolution clips from the movie.) Bleah.
    • I personally feel that cut scenes are really only useful in RPG's, but only sometimes. I think the Final Fantasy series of games (the later ones anyway) did just fine with the cut scenes.

      I have also seen one RTS game which uses cutscenes effectively, Dawn of War. The cut scenes in the story mode of the game actually tell you what's going on. Yeah, you can read the mission description, but you get a lot more info if you watch the cut scenes.
      • The final fantasy ones were nice since, you got to see things FMV so I found that kind of like a reward.

        as for RTS, didn't Starcraft use cutscenes well (I don't remember as its been too long since I played campaign mode in that game)
        • StarCraft used them too to sort of explain the story. What I meant when I said Dawn of War used them was in some cases you'd find out really important things about the mission if you watched the cutscene that you wouldn't know about if you just read the mission description.
        • Sure, the cutscenes in Starcraft were a lot of fun.

          "Thank god for cold fusion!"

    • Then there are games like that dreadful Lord of the Rings series on the X-Box, which seem to be 90% cut scenes (and those are actually just low-ish resolution clips from the movie.) Bleah.

      C'mon, there was plenty of mindless button-mashing in between the cut scenes....

    • I hate it when game companies advertise those cut scenes instead of the real game.

  • Just watching video games here... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by fishybell ( 516991 ) <.moc.liamtoh. .ta. .llebyhsif.> on Thursday February 02, 2006 @01:33PM (#14627452) Homepage Journal
    There isn't anything inherrently wrong with cutscenes. They help progress plot, they (hopefully) have aesthetical appeal, and they can give the player a short break from the game. The problem lies in when there are too many of them, or when they don't serve any purpose (no plot advancement, no flashy cg, etc).

    Also, problems arise when the ratio of game content to cutscene gets too high. Players don't want to watch their games, they want to play them.

    • You forgot one of the uses in God of War.

      BOOBIES!
    • There isn't anything inherrently wrong with cutscenes

      That would be true for movies. For games, they blow. They interrupt the flow of action. They mess with suspension of disbelief. They are a tool hoisted from a different media, and it shows.
    • Yep, I think Blizzard does a good job with cut scenes. I remember first playing Diablo 2 and thinking they were amazing. Also, Starcraft/Broodwar were pretty good as well at the time. I actually wanted to play more just to see the next cut scene in both of those. I can't say much for their other games, though as I haven't played them.
    • Personally, I don't play games because of plots, or the lack thereof. I hate watching cutscenes, and games that don't let me skip them are high on my shitlist. (I'm looking at you B&W/B&W2). If I wanted passive entertainment, I'd turn on the TV. Conversely, if there were little minigames between the acts of a movie or TV show which I had to complete in order to watch the next part, I'd be equally displeased.

      I guess there are people who do enjoy cutscenes, and likewise I don't expect them to disa
  • "God of War Creator Hates Cutscenes"

    Me too. I'll only play games where you can click through these. I won't play games where there is a clue or something else to be learned from these silly movies. (Warcraft III was a nice game in this regard. If you wanted to watch a little clip, you could, but if you just wanted to get back to the action you could skip all the weepy crap about this or that pointless character dying, etc.)

  • Use cutscenes with caution (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PIPBoy3000 ( 619296 ) on Thursday February 02, 2006 @01:36PM (#14627489)
    Having just finished Resident Evil 4, I'm not sure the cutscenes always worked well for me. Mashing a button repeatedly isn't always fun gameplay. Fortunately it was relatively rare and admittedly kept the tension up during what is typically a relaxing point in a game.

    Cutscenes are typically in place to move the plot forward or explain some complexity to the player. In general, there's a few ways that cutscenes have worked for me in the past:
    • Thief & Splinter Cell. In stealth games, you can often overhear NPCs talking to each other as you go about your business. Information is passed along, yet the action doesn't stop.
    • Sheer beauty. Some games have cutscenes that are almost a reward. The cinematics of Diablo were stunning and a fun point in the game.
    • Respite. In games that are non-stop action, having a cutscene to give the player to take a breath can be most welcome.
    • Short and Necessary Sometimes there's critical information that you simply must give to the player. Keeping them short and to the point works best.
    Where cutscenes don't work well is if the game forces them to be repeated upon failure, they're not skippable, and if they take too much time away from the primary gameplay.
    • Half way through reading the summary, I was already preparing to comment on Resident Evil 4 (until I saw the summary mentioned it!).

      I'll comment anyway:

      I just beat RE4 for PS2 yesterday (been playing it quite a bit for the past few days). I really enjoyed the game and I think that the interactivity in the cutscenes was a major high point. I enjoy a good narrative in my single player games and RE4 had a pretty decent one. By requring me to interact with the cut scenes, I focused on the cut scenes a lot more.
      • I think I have mixed feelings about it. I loved RE4 in general, and thought it a great story with lots of unique environments and interesting gameplay. I guess I just found the "press the right button really fast" option to be not very interesting after awhile.

        Perhaps that's just me. I like an element of strategy and thoughtfulness in my gameplay, rather than just pure reflexes. Overall, though, RE4 is a great game.
        • It's not just you. I loved the game, but the cutscenes (and especially the "interactive" cutscenes) were the low point for me. The real gameplay is what made the game, not forcing you to push buttons during the cinematics.
    • Wing Commander: Gives you your mission briefing, updates you on the latest scuttlebutt, advances the story, rates your performance, hands out promotions, and advances the story. All in the cutscenes. :-)

      That being said, I hated their "choose from a list of really bad responses" thing that they added to later games. If a choice has to be made, make it in flight, not in the cutscene. Doing it in the cutscene just halts the action and reminds you that you're in a video game.
      • Wing Commander 2 was the pinnacle of that series. The perfect amount of cut scenes, good plot, good action, good graphics.

        Although I did find a lot of enjoyment in dominating the killboard and medal ceremonies in WC1.

      • That being said, I hated their "choose from a list of really bad responses" thing that they added to later games. If a choice has to be made, make it in flight, not in the cutscene. Doing it in the cutscene just halts the action and reminds you that you're in a video game.
        I agree with the last sentence, however I was actually OK with the cutscenes in the later games. IIRC, depending on what you said to people early on in the game made a difference of whether or not they helped you later in the game. IIRC
        • I loved the cutscenes, just not the options. Taking your example with Racheal. If you made her mad, that would just pave the way for going out with the greasemonkey. Not exactly an earth-shattering choice. In WCIV, however, you had to make a choice in the cockpit as to whether or not you'll fire on Eisen. If you do, you follow the Lexington thread. If you don't, you follow the blow-up-the-Lexington thread. That's a nice option. Very seamless.

          The ability to chose the Intrepid's missions was also a nice touch
    • I personally think that Half-Life executed cutscenes perfectly. Only once did the game actually take away actual control (end of Apprehension), and yet there's so many sequences (the "we are pulling out speech" in Surface Tension hangs in my mind) that would have led to some FMV crap by any other company.
    • I'm a big fan of cutscenes, myself. IMHO, one of the best parts about the Soul Reaver series was that the cutscenes were a sort of reward. You got a chance to take a breather and watch more of the intriguing story unfold with awesome voice acting to boot. In fact, I played those games through faster than I normally would just so I could see what the next scene was!

      However, in games like Resident Evil 4, I was very surprised and pleased with the inclusion of interactive cutscenes. There are times where I
      • I'm not sure if i'm going to spell this rigth, but does anyone recall shenmu on the Dreamcast?
        that game was just a joy to play and jam packed with interactive cutscenes, lots of fun, if a bit short.. and sadly the 2nd and 3rd parts never came out on dreamcast.. or outside the asian area i think ?
    • You forgot three others: System Shock 1 & 2 and Eternal Darkness. The first two told their story as you played, through logs and emails and general creepiness as Shodan addressed you directly (aside from opening and ending and death and a smattering of random cutscenes). Telling a story that way was good.

      ED simply had cool story, the most of which was told through in-game cutscenes. Telling a story that way is good too.

      The point is that it's easier to just tell the story and hope it'll entrance the play

  • Again I say, FINALLY! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by TheNoxx ( 412624 )
    Cutscenes are another plague of the game industry. There is a very simple rule that game makers need to follow much more often: Never take control away from the player.

    People need to do whatever they want in games (or they'd watch a movie), but very few game developers realize that really open games are what sell the most (GTA anyone?).

    The best way to do cutscenes I found was in the old "Way of the Samurai" game, where you could just walk away from someone talking to you most of the time, or tell them to
  • It'd be nice if I could have an effect on the cut scene. We're almost at the point where cut scenes animation is only a little better than the in game graphics... so why not render part of it and then let me have my choice of reactions and follow up with ending cut scenes based on my reactions.

    But all in all, I hate cut scenes. I go to the movies for that.
    • We're almost at the point where cut scenes animation is only a little better than the in game graphics

      except when they're worse than game graphics. pre-recorded stuff at a resolution lower than I play the game makes me want to puke.

      Some newer games start to integrate cut scenes into the game engine. For example, Guild Wars, all cut scene stuff is rendered on the fly, with the characters that are participating (i.e. your character, with all the trimmings (armor, hair style) the same as when you're act
    • Part of what I loved about the Fallout games was how the final cut scenes and narration were _entirely_ dependant on how you'd played the game. Blowing away the (long deserving it) Overseer was a welcome surprise, and getting the "good ending" for the Necropolis in Fallout 1 took some real effort. Even though the endings were stills faded in and out with voiceover, they really provided the kind of closure to the game that a final cutscene ought to.
  • ...it depends.

    I hate cutscenes that interrupt gameplay. Especially when they do so in an unrealistic way (I'm in the middle of a battle and I trip the cutscene, rendering my character temporarily invulnerable as monsters hack away at me). These days, these are usually pre-set scenarios rendered by the normal game engine.

    Back in the day, when FMV was possible but before 3d engines were as advanced as they are now, cutscenes were great milestone rewards. During a break in the gameplay, after the player ha
    • ALL cutscenes should be skippable at ANY time. There's nothing worse than replaying a game and having to watch cutscene after cutscene that you already have memorized.

      -Oser
  • (Bear in mind that I play games almost exclusively on PC, and only play a handful of any given year's releases...I'm hardly authoritative)

    Command & Conquer: Generals: Because you can't skip them, and you have to endure some 2+ minutes of bad voice acting and lame action at the beginning of every mission. One quickly learns to save after every scene to avoid repeating them.

    Doom 3: Because some genius at id decided that every time you see a creature for the first time, the player should be forced to stand

  • Cutscenes AKA PUOP (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Stavr0 ( 35032 ) on Thursday February 02, 2006 @02:05PM (#14627845) Homepage Journal
    Nothing wrong with cut scenes per se, just like there's nothing wrong with showing previews on a DVD. The problem is UNSKIPPABLE cutscene and DVD ads.

    (-1 obvious)

    • The only good DVD ads are the kind of DVD ads that don't load automatically but are available in the menu.

      I want a DVD that jumps straight to the menu, and when I play the movie doesn't bug me with FBI warnings or any of that crap. I've seen that text a million times, I don't read it. No one does. Link it in the menu where someone might actually look at it if they feel the need and get on with the movie.
      • I had a DVD with multiple FBI warnings and disclaimers, where not only could I not fastforward them, but I could not even stop the disc from playing until they were finished. I would turn the DVD player on with the disc in the machine and I could not do anything for about a minute.

        I'm convinced the movie industry is trying to run itself into the ground. How retarded do you have to be to design DVDs that behave this way? I can't imagine how terrible these new Blue-Ray or whatever discs are going to be.

  • had me fooled.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Lord Bitman ( 95493 ) on Thursday February 02, 2006 @02:07PM (#14627869)
    This is really surprising, considering God of War was nothing but one continuous barely-interactive cutscene. (all the gameplay of a slide projector, woo-hoo!)

    This is not a troll. Have you played God of War? At what point did you think you were playing a "game" instead of sitting through a cutscene?
    I am not talking about cinematics, I am not talking about scripted events, I am talking about the game itself. The "game" was a cutscene.
    • of course it was all scripted. What makes a beat'em up cool is how much cool stuff you can do in each scene, and God of War had tons of it. If you want to see how a good beat'em up is meant to be played go here [bisqwit.iki.fi] and download the Streets of Rage 2 run. Gezz, next thing you'll be saying Space Invaders was a bad game because it was all scripted!

    • Re:had me fooled.. (Score:2, Insightful)

      by snwcrash ( 520762 )
      How do you figure that? God of War had a great deal of different game play components, it had platforming, puzzle solving and a great deal of combat, including finish move "mini-games". There were a few cut scenes, but not really all that many compared to some games in the genre.
    • At what point did you think you were playing a "game" instead of sitting through a cutscene?

      Did we play the same game [metacritic.com]? How about when you were pulling some of the most entertainingly gruesome combos ever seen on any game? There were hordes of varied enemies to battle with the greatest combat system I've ever seen in an action game. The whole game wasn't very long (most action games are pretty short, aside from RE4), but I don't remember many cutscenes.

    • Re:had me fooled.. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by SlayerDave ( 555409 ) <elddm1@g m a i l .com> on Thursday February 02, 2006 @03:12PM (#14628565) Homepage
      God of War was nothing but one continuous barely-interactive cutscene.

      Did you play the same God of War that I did? Because the one I played was highly interactive (except during the real cutscenes, of course). I loved God of War because it had a great mix of solid graphics, exciting combat, non-obnoxious platforming, exceptional level design, and moderately-interesting story. I found myself interacting with the game quite a bit, and, in fact, I found myself unable to progress or even stay alive if I failed to interact with it.

      What counts as interactive for you? Having a seizure while wearing a Power Glove, standing on a DDR dance pad in front of your EyeToy, and playing Guitar Hero with your feet?

    • I have played God of War, and while it was linear, it was still very much a "game". Learning new moves and stringing combos together was really fun for that genre, and being able to kill different enemies in different ways to get life or mana instead of experience was a nice touch. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I want to play it -- so I have to disagree with you, this game has fantastic gameplay. Have you played God of War?

      And I find it funny that David Jaffe doesn't like cutscenes, when

    • Re:had me fooled.. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by -kertrats- ( 718219 )
      Define cutscene, because I have no idea what you're talking about. God of War had continuous action, varied gameplay-hell, even the cutscenes were interactive (finishing moves on boss battles would have been cutscenes on any other game, but you actually got to control them in GoW). The only game that did anything close was RE4, and God of War really did it better.
  • Depending on the type of game, cutscenes serve completely different purposes. Square games are almost interactive movies - lovers of those games play them largely for the plot and characters revealed in the cutscenes. Strategy games with cutscenes (ex: Alpha Centauri, Red Alert) have them serve mostly as a 'reward' for accomplishing a goal. That means they need not necessarily have a plot, but they have to be flashy and rewarding or else they'll be skipped every time. Still, there are better ways to rew
  • Half Life 2 had exactly 2 cut scenes, one at the beginning to put you in the action and one at the end to take you out. All the information normally given during a cut scene was achieved through player interaction with npcs, monitors or other props. This is surely the way ahead.
    • Exactly. HL2 is exactly what this guy was talking about. HL2 SHOW you the story. Cutscenes TELL you the story. Big difference.
    • Except for the fact that during these 'player interactions' you were normally locked in an area so you were more or less forced to listen to the droning NPC. You could run off to make them shut up, but then you couldn't trigger the follow scripts and proceed with the game. (I once caused HL2 to glitch by bypassing the Bugbait tutorial and had to reload a previous save.)
      • i think that bug was only in the warezed version (or was patched early for the legal version)

        it was a real bitch to re-do huge parts after breaking the AI scripts
    • In response to one person: It wasn't a temple, you idiot. It was a damn skyscraper. Maybe someone plays too much Zelda?

      But more to the point: Half-Life and HL2 did have places where you'd stop and listen to people, but those were few and far between. The "cut-scenes" really weren't -- you were exactly as in control as Gordon was, this just happened to be "not at all". And it was interesting to see a story told mostly by living through it, and this one was very well done, but it depends what kind of st

  • My 2 bits (Score:4, Insightful)

    by |/|/||| ( 179020 ) on Thursday February 02, 2006 @02:16PM (#14627967)
    IMO cutscenes can be used effectively, but we all know that they can also be very, very bad. A couple of games that I've been playing recently, Shadow of the Colossus (totally awesome game) and POP:two thrones, provide some good contrast.

    POP has pre-rendered cutscenes that are often unskippable. Shadow of the Colossus has cutscenes that are rendered in-game and are skippable. These two differences have a huge effect. Of course unskippable cutscenes are annoying, especially after you've seen them 5 times, but also annoying are cutscenes in which the entire world suddenly looks completely different. Especially obvious in POP was when you went from the opening movie to the in-game graphics. The graphics are good, but they don't look like the pre-rendered stuff. Really lame.

    Shadow of the Colossus handles cutscenes well, but I think they could still be improved. Yes, everybody wants the option of skipping cutscenes, but I think a lot of people want to watch them, too. How come I can't pause the game during cutscenes? What am I supposed to do when a 5 minute ending movie is playing and somebody knocks on the door? I either don't answer the door, or I beat the game again later so I can see what happens. Lame.

    My suggestions:
    1. No pre-rendered cutscenes
    2.Ability to pause the cutscene and bring up a menu with the option to skip

    Why are these not universal in modern games? Does anybody disagree with these preferences?

    • me.. for one game:
            Starcraft.

    • POP has pre-rendered cutscenes that are often unskippable. Shadow of the Colossus has cutscenes that are rendered in-game and are skippable. These two differences have a huge effect. Of course unskippable cutscenes are annoying, especially after you've seen them 5 times, but also annoying are cutscenes in which the entire world suddenly looks completely different. Especially obvious in POP was when you went from the opening movie to the in-game graphics. The graphics are good, but they don't look like the

      • Yeah, I had to watch that cutscene way too many times myself. POP:TT is a good game, but the unskippable cutscenes are really unacceptable.

        I know you could just look on gamefaqs if you really wanted to get past those 2 guys, but I'll give you the strategy anyway -- stop reading if you want to watch that cutscene a few more times and figure it out for yourself. The trick is to attack the guy with the sword, then dodge the other guy's big axe attack. Axe man will be stunned for a few seconds, so run around

        • The trick is to attack the guy with the sword, then dodge the other guy's big axe attack. Axe man will be stunned for a few seconds, so run around behind him and start a speed kill. Should only have to do it a couple of times.

          Yeah, I kind of figured that out after some random attacks, and had it confirmed when I googled for a walkthrough. But I still can't manage to do it without getting smacked around. Got tired of watching that same damned cutscene, so I took a break "for a few days". That was over

    • I'll second the Jak and Daxter comment, but...

      There are some cutscenes which are just amazing to look at. And they are pre-rendered.

      I can't really decide which I like better, but I want my cutscenes to look good. On PC games, I usually prefer in-game graphics, because they look better as my computer gets better. On the other hand, they won't get much better than a pre-rendered scene. I can run Quake 3 at 1600x1200 at some 200 frames per second, and I can tell you that it really won't look any better, ev
  • I'm not a big gamer, but I do play occasionally. The best use of cut-scenes I've seen so far was in Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. The cut-scenes were never too long, never too often, always skippable. The creators of the game never stopped the game to load a cut-scene. It would be triggered, it would play, and then it would go immediately back to the game. The player never has to wait on loading except when loading a saved game. The Two Thrones also uses a small cut-scene every time the Prince switches
  • I hated the way cutscenes work in RE4. Sure it gives you some interaction, but It was kind of surprising. The first couple of times I would set the controller down, grab my drink and see "SMASH (A)", and then WTF I'm dead? It wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't made it look like such an obvious cutscene with the fans camera angles/pans/wipes and whatever. Having to go back and do everything over just because I wasn't paying attention to the usual dull cutscene was kind of annoying.
    • It does keep you alert, though. Normally, a cutscene kills the pacing of a horror game like RE. Because they kept you on your toes the whole time, it made the game that much more immersive. I liked it.
  • There's one point in Fable with what seemed like 15 minutes of cutscenes in a row... each loading separately. After a pretty intense set of battles, I don't want to be bored into putting the game down once it's just gotten good. - Bad>

    Bezerk for Dreamcast played very smoothly with hack & slash action scenes, and healing your numb hands with solid story. Being a fan of the show, it was cool that the game worked itself out to be an extra final episode of the show. - Good

  • What, no mention of Halflife yet? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Ahnteis ( 746045 ) on Thursday February 02, 2006 @02:41PM (#14628262)
    That game is legend for having no cutscenes. It's mentioned in so many stories/interviews about/with Valve that it's almost cliche.

    No cutscenes to take you out of the story. You ARE Freeman. Not watching him.

    Now to be fair, I DO enjoy (well done) cutscenes in single player RTS games, but that's more due to the nature of the game.
  • Gah, ever since FF7, I've always been annoyed by cutscenes that are vastly superior to in game graphics. Here I am, playing my pixelated avatar when a cutscene intervenes and it just teases me with all it's glorious detail, emotion and realism. That said, as far as cutscenes go, I think it just depends on the game type and the player.

    Sure, cutscenes are pretty, they're easier to make (the developer doesn't have to worry about handling adverse behaviour from the player) and they are a convenient way to mov
  • One thing i absolutely hate about those cutscenes is that they can't be cut! I really wish i could press the start button to skip the scene with the bosses. I nearly memorized that fight between the prince and the axe/sword monsters.

    *growl*
    (prince draws his sword)
    (prince gets hit from behind)
    *growl!*
    "Well, i have to admit, i didn't expect that..."
    (monster grabs sand and burns the grass around the arena)
    (boss fight begins, until you get killed and have to continue the game, to see the stupid scene over and over)

    At least the Ubisoft guys could've put a "Skip cutscene? Yes/no" dialog.

    On the other hand, for games like Final Fantasy X, I absolutely LOVED the cutscenes. I just kept playing so I could play more cutscenes and see what happened with the story.

    See, it's all about if the cutscenes contribute to the story or not. AND if you can skip and later replay them - but PLEASE, PLEASE... allow me to save between cutscenes!
    • Yes! And you didn't even mention the worst part - the Prince ends up getting in this battle to begin with by being hit with one lucky shot despite HAVING THE POWER TO REWIND TIME!

      Unfortunately, instead of being able to rewind time and AVOID THIS ENTIRE BATTLE, since the ambush in a cutscene you and The Prince have to partake in the absolute lowest part of this otherwise stellar game. I found that galavanting around the rooftops was quite cool since you nearly always had a 'lifeline' in the dagger if you

  • Most games include pre-rendered cut scenes, and even if your character is "part" of the scene, you're usually watching from the camera's point of view, and the rest of the action happens just like the script says.

    I have been playing "Need For Speed: Most Wanted" for a few weeks now. One of the pieces that I have been enjoying is the cutscenes, which actually include my customized car in them. They are done on the fly, and aren't necessarily the same each time you watch them.

  • Max Payne (Score:2, Insightful)

    by comp.sci ( 557773 )
    Well done cut-scenes using the in-game engine.
    Advanced the plot, great cinematics, fun to watch, easily skippable.
    That's how they should always be!
  • It really depends on the game that the cut scenes are in. Final Fantasy for example has a cult following for its cut scenes because they are just THAT cool. That is a game that I honestly wouldn't mind playing in "interactive-movie" form. I think there are many gamers who would like "interactive-movies" with good graphics. It would give you more value and last you longer than a regular movie.

    • I think there are many gamers who would like "interactive-movies" with good graphics.

      That's what the developers of FMV games in the early 1990s thought. Where are they now?

  • I'm probably one of the few who have been pleased by the lack of Japanese developer support for the original Xbox.

    This has absolutely nothing to do with prejudices but rather trends in game development that are simply a turn-off for me.

    The PS2 is notorious for games with cutscene overload. In-game cinematics are adored by many developers in Japan (who tend to develop for the PS2 more than any other platform), to the point where many were miffed at the lack of Blu-Ray or HD-DVD on the Xbox 360 simply becau

  • mafia (Score:1)

    by Fraew ( 10491 )
    mafia would have been a hard game to make without them, the cinematic aspect is a big aspect to it, if everything is in mirst person all the time its harder to deliver movie style dynamics
  • Fable really laid on the cutscenes thick, to the point where they seriously affect gameplay. Somehow certain game publishers think that if a cutscene is rendered using the in-game engine it detracts less from the experience. Why they think that I can't imagine. The Fable would have been more enojoyable without all the slowdowns IMHO.

    To me, a cutscene is analogous to a narrator moving the story of a play between acts (with some visuals, I guess, but do they match the imagination?). I don't know about you
  • I'm primarily a PC gamer, though I am exposed every once in a while to a console game. I remember playing one of the Metal Gear Solid games once. I started the game, sat through a 3 minute cut scene, played for literally 15 seconds, then sat through another cut scene. I simply quit playing. It was a bad movie interspersed with a bad video game.

  • Screw you guys (Score:4, Insightful)

    by StocDred ( 691816 ) on Thursday February 02, 2006 @04:19PM (#14629187) Homepage Journal
    Screw you guys. I love cutscenes. I love experiencing a well-told story with theatrical elements interspersed throughout the gameplay. When everybody dumps on cutscenes, there's this underlying assumption that no game does cutscenes well. I say many do. Right now I'm enjoying the heck out of Fatal Frame 3 (PS2)... a game that definitely has a story to tell, a story that I get to live out during the playable portions. The cutscenes aren't obtrusive, they don't appear every three steps, as most cutscene-detractors like to parrot. They're well-placed, they tell the story in ways that could not be done if I was playing 100% of the time. So fuck you guys who are out there bitching about them. There are plenty of games for everybody's tastes out there.

    You know what I hate? When guys like David Jaffe stumble ass-backwards into public domain Greek mythology, staple GWAR armor onto everything, dump blood eveywhere, and call it the greatest IP since the world cooled. Maybe if you could tell a story that wasn't completely obvious and boring from the first half-hour (as God of War was), then maybe you'd have more use for cutscenes.

    • Agreed. Cutscenes exist to move the story along, to provide you with narrative when interactive elements aren't appropriate. Make them skippable so you can pass them the second time around, sure, but anybody who goes "GRR! CUTSCENE!" and mashes START to skip it in a strong, story-based game is missing half the point of the game.

      Now. It your game is NOT strongly story based, and the cutscenes are poor quality, I can see skipping them. But they are not innately evil, and like any tool in the game designer too
  • If the industry moves away from cut-scenes, then we'll never get our regular dose of "Bullshot" video game hype!

    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bul lshot [urbandictionary.com]

  • All I want to know is--did he really need to use video to tell us how much he hates cutscenes? I was expecting maybe examples of well-done games in the video, at least. The content of the video blog entry would have been better-expressed in text.

    ...so I gues, on reflection, I hate vlogs for the same reason I hate cutscenes: in the overwhelming majority of cases, the informational or emotional content would have been better expressed some other way.

  • A light sprinkling of non-interactivity here and there is fine. It strings the game together and provides you with a quick breather before you get back into the action. The Grand Theft Auto games do it well, for instance.

    However, crap like the Metal Gear Solid "games" get it all wrong. When MGS2 came out, it was being hyped to the skies, so I rented it to see what all the fuss was about. I was a bit baffled to find that it was a series of incredibly stilted dialogues with two-minute interactive portions
  • I love um personally. Without um, a game can get dreadfully tedious. I see cutscenes as a reward to gameplay. Finish a level, rewarded with a cutscene. Akin to a game ending...would you people also do away with game ending FMVs? I don't play games to monotonously repeat the same cycle of actions on a slightly different map/board. I enjoy a good story with a good plot and some cool FMVs add to the experience.

Slashdot Top Deals

It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct one.

Close