QTEs eh? Very sticky wicket in my opinion. Some games do them right, some do not. In my opinion, Ravesoft's X-Men Origins:Wolverine does a decent job at utilizing pseudo-QTes and making them feel meshed into normal gameplay, mostly because unlike The Force Unleashed, Wolverine feels like an unstoppable badass the entire game, so when you use one of those moves, it doesn't feel out of the ordinary.

Gotta say I agree with you on the entire concept of what you're on about. A lot of games now are becoming more and more movie-like for no reason at all, and it bugs the hell out of me.

I agree. It was kind of strange how you used the exact same GTAIV footage twice, though.

Hey, I don't hate QTEs. I don't mind Heavenly Sword's implementation of them because I can't imagine doing that in-game in a way to make it interesting. The Force Unleashed thing was pretty bad (mostly because it snapped your character to a certain spot), but again, I'm not sure if they could easily make a system where at a certain time attacks will actually cut the AT-ST into pieces. I mean, of course they could, but would it be time-efficient? Probably not. And I'd prefer a QTE in that case rather than it getting down to low health, and I punch its leg, and he gets chopped on half.

I agree.

Stranglehold should have atleast been mentioned.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp-Vu3XwEWg

Worst header ever.

Go back to 2005.

The Destructoid Anti-Cutscene Consensus is getting weirdly dogmatic. Did a cutscene kill your dog or something? Did you get dumped by a quick time event in junior high school? Of all the things to rant about in video games and you're concerned with the specific buttons you get to press or not press in order to blow up people/things heads. Odd.

I think generally you're right about this, but I don't think the executions were out of place for GTA 4. GTA 4 never really allowed you to put much of your own personality into the character, they instead forced you take on the personality of their character. Even though I was controlling Niko I always felt like a distinctly separate entity from him, so watching him do his own thing every now and then never seemed jarring or awkward.

Another possible example of good cinematic gameplay, as defined here, might be the ultras in SFIV. When you land an ultra, you're not controlling the individual moves anymore, but you still did all the work to set it up and hit the opponent with it so you still feel accomplished.

Really, as I think about it more, this could pretty much be said for any super in any fighting game, except for Alpha-like custom combos/Genei Jin/etc, since in those you're still responsible for each individual move.

So, since you don't like how Splinter Cell Conviction lets the game make the kills for you, I'm curious what you thought of VATS in Fallout 3...

Totally agree about how BC:R handled it. You really had to have beaten Hitler, and only then did it show the sweet head explosion animation.

Honestly, most developers are probably pressured to do this because of how bored the player gets with prerendered actions for each press of a button in normal gameplay of action/combat games. X is slash, Y is punch, etc, Most players have already seen what combos do to what characters, and it probably leaves the game experience empty to most. In action/combat games, most players have already defeated/killed a foe, and bosses/story relevant fights usually only amount to bigger enemies with larger healthbars. Most players wouldn't feel an emotional connection to the character they are defeating, or care what repercussions this may cause or how big this fight is to the character in the game, so developers hand them cut-scene like gameplay, like qte's. It kinda spices things up.

Also, good video. I hate them too.

WHERE IS YOUR HANDSOME FACE ???

i think having to flick target on the mark & execute move is a really good idea!

Personally I think QTEs and half hour long cuscenes suck balls. If I want to WATCH something I'll put a DVD on. I'm supposed to be PLAYING a game, I want to feel like a badass and do badass things, not see my badass character do cool stuff with little to no requirement for me to do anything, that isn't fun or awesome.

The idea of breathtaking, cinematic set pieces in games is great, yeah, but not when I'm just sat watching them like I'm actually at the cinema.

I guess this is a result of how costly and time consuming it is to model and render things in modern games. In a some cases it just isn't feasbile or realistic to offer the player full control, though a lot of the time it's just down to lazy and/or unimaginitive developers.

Good points REV. The new splinter cell looks so delicious though.

The Krauser fight actually sort of pissed me off, primarily because I was REALLY goddamn bad at it. I had to keep redoing it to the point where whatever emotional impact or tension it might have had was replaced with a sort of mild, frightened irritation.

That's actually one thing I think the Wanted game did really well. When lining up a curved bullet directly to someone's head where it gets all cinematic following the bullet as it hits the target. Also those "rushing" scenes where it's suppose to be like that corridor run through the plant in the movie. It's like a cutscene, except there is a timer, and everything slows down some and you(the player) have to not only hit the trigger, but you still have to aim too.

Also, MGS really does use cinematic "gameplay" in clever ways.

Ughhh new Prince of Persia, couldn't stand that thing. QTEs can be pretty rad when done right at times, but normally I really do wish I could have more control.

I don't hate QTE's, because there are games out there that use them wisely.
But i disagree with you on the Splinter Cell M&E Rev, when you're talking about the Bionic Commando ending you said that it was a well done cinematic gameplay, because it was just a little "wall", just a couple of seconds and done. I think that this is exactly what happens at Splinter Cell: Conviction, of course there is cinematic gameplay, but they are very quick and i think they actually improve the action of the game, they're just little walls.

Oh, and great rant!

Wow, you used my picture... you really didn't have to...heh. And there had to be some haters. It is the internet of course.

I think that QTE's work when the player actually "earns" it. Pressing a button in time or repeatedly doesn't really satisfy the player when the game just does something awesome anyway. For example, RE4 and 5 are examples of quick input actions which look pretty sweet but you don't really feel like you accomplished it. Games where the player does majority of the work (for example, a slightly difficult command) and then you see what happens for succeeding in the input of the command makes you feel a bit more interested into what's going on.

There was that bit in Heavenly Sword where you play as the other woman or whatever and you fire the arrows in slow-mo and direct them by moving the PS3 controller via. SIXAXIS, which was vaguely cinematic and kind of satisfying.

Anyway, great rant. Can't wait to see the next.

And no pic this time. :)

This is pretty much preaching to the choir, no one likes QTE's, they're kind of the bane of a lot of modern videogames. God of War is the only game that has been able to get away with it for so long and only because they've been fair enough at melding the QTE's with the actual gameplay mechanisms so it all feels like one fluid movement. I thought the GTA execution cutscenes were kind of disjointed, and I agree - a better death animation would be cool. Like, say you shoot your mark in the face, and its really graphic and violent and Niko says something about it or about some sort of remorse or lack thereof after you do it - and say instead you shoot the mark in the leg, and then he grabs his leg and starts saying things to Niko that further extend the scene - you would have control over how much you really wanted to hear from your character, or you could even just leave him or her gimped and if you ever ran into them again, the injuries you brought upon them will continue to be readily apparent. That would be fucking awesome.


Also, something looks different about you Anthony. New tie?

Yes, shooting people in the head with homing cannonballs in heavenly sword helped make the game :D