Why cutscenes are a detriment to video-games.

[Steve]

Not too long ago I was with a friend chilling and he was playing this game collection called .hack GU/Last Recode which had a few games in one and its what inspired me to make this post because that game feels like its 75% cutscene and is basically a movie. The title is click bait because I do not believe that cutscenes are actually bad for gaming but I got you to click so it worked so here's my case, cutscenes in games love to stop the flow of a game with pre-rendered eye candy that distracts from the core of the game and messes the pacing a whole lot I feel the same way about incessant tutorials. This often turns some games into absolute slogs because you're being jostled between cutscene all the time and you're watching more movie than game instead of being in the character. Games with excessive cutscene or tutorial are also annoying to replay because only about 40-50% of games have skippable cutscenes in my experience even then you shouldn't have to skip the game's content just so you don't have to die of boredom. A big part of why the valve (singleplayer) games are so good is because of their void of cutscenes. Of course I do recognize that they have their place in the industry and can be used to good effect in games (in-engine cutscenes >) but they do not tickle my tip and I see them as a general negative if not a little crutchy in the gaming industry but I would like to hear others on this.

 

[chuj]

TODD HOWARD YOU WICKED WICKED DEVIL

 

[chuj]

also kojimbo is a major offender in this case a lot of sony exclusives copied his style of putting tl;dw cutscenes in his games but he overdid himself in death stranding, you have to watch like two hours of cutscenes before you get to the gameplay and those cutscenes have practically zero exposition

 

[FukkenUsername]

I used to love it when i button mashed to skip a cutscene only for my character to immediately do something stupid because i pressed punch/shoot/rape

 

[Steve]

also kojimbo is a major offender in this case a lot of sony exclusives copied his style of putting tl;dw cutscenes in his games but he overdid himself in death stranding, you have to watch like two hours of cutscenes before you get to the gameplay and those cutscenes have practically zero exposition

I was gonna specifically call out Kogima and eastern games in general for their abuse of long basically short movie like cutscenes that either are a waiting or spam-a fest but I decided to hold that thought because I really couldn't back it up. The Sony part is 100$% true though their games are just movies these days its why game journalists love them so much.

 

[chuj]

these days

it's been like that since ps3 era, you're probably too young to remember heavy rain being a huge meme (press x to jason) and the staple of everything wrong with sony games
the order 1886 was hyped to be he title that's going to sell ps4 but it was a short shitty interactive movie with long ass cutscenes and zero replayability, which made a lot of people angry because it was one of the first ps4 games to release with the higher prices, and offering like 5 hours of gameplay tops

 

[Steve]

it's been like that since ps3 era, you're probably too young to remember heavy rain being a huge meme (press x to jason) and the staple of everything wrong with sony games

I know of Heavy Rain but I haven't played it or anything it always just looked like a playstationified telltale game so I never gave a shit for it. But when you frame it like that it has been a good while now, it really has been 15+ years since the Xbox360/PS3/Wii era, time moves on I guess.

 

[LW97]

PERIOD.

 

[portia]

I dislike online games that last 3 minutes but takes 10 minutes to get a game started.

 

[theonewhoclaps]

but they give me time to fap

 

[Illuminati 2.0]

Not too long ago I was with a friend chilling and he was playing this game collection called .hack GU/Last Recode which had a few games in one and its what inspired me to make this post because that game feels like its 75% cutscene and is basically a movie. The title is click bait because I do not believe that cutscenes are actually bad for gaming but I got you to click so it worked so here's my case, cutscenes in games love to stop the flow of a game with pre-rendered eye candy that distracts from the core of the game and messes the pacing a whole lot I feel the same way about incessant tutorials. This often turns some games into absolute slogs because you're being jostled between cutscene all the time and you're watching more movie than game instead of being in the character. Games with excessive cutscene or tutorial are also annoying to replay because only about 40-50% of games have skippable cutscenes in my experience even then you shouldn't have to skip the game's content just so you don't have to die of boredom. A big part of why the valve (singleplayer) games are so good is because of their void of cutscenes. Of course I do recognize that they have their place in the industry and can be used to good effect in games (in-engine cutscenes >) but they do not tickle my tip and I see them as a general negative if not a little crutchy in the gaming industry but I would like to hear others on this.

Have you ever played Final Fantasy X? It's a fucking nightmare with hours of cutscenes you can't skip even in the remastered version. I decided I'm not going through that torture of having to save after 10 minutes of endless talking.

 

[Kleetus]

"Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important". John Carmack was so real for saying this.

 

[Sleepy]

It depends on the game, I just played Disco Elysium which is basically just a massive 30 or so hour textwall and loved it. The real problem is games trying to be "cinematic" (i.e anything made by naughty dog). If you're making a movie game, just make a movie.

 

[Jimmy Rolfe]

I will burn Insomniac to the ground

 

[Tech Noir]

Disco Elysium which is basically just a massive 30 or so hour textwall

A make your own adventure book masquerading as a video game. And a good murder mystery novel.

 

[Sleepy]

A make your own adventure book masquerading as a video game. And a good murder mystery novel.

the player choice is what makes it a game and not just a walking sim

you can make good story based games they just have to actually require input from the player

 

[Quence]

This is one reason why FPS games became so popular. Not much waiting around for boring filler - they get right to the action.

 

[Jimmy Rolfe]

This is one reason why FPS games became so popular. Not much waiting around for boring filler - they get right to the action.

>When you realize the yearly installations of Cock off Doody are actually better than most of the modern fecal matter that gets produced.

 

[Tech Noir]

modern fecal matter that gets produced

EXCUSE ME?!

 

[Jimmy Rolfe]

EXCUSE ME?!
View attachment 86230

Nigga I said most. Smoke some weed.

 

[Quence]

>When you realize the yearly installations of Cock off Doody are actually better than most of the modern fecal matter that gets produced.

Except this year’s CoD offering. No one seems to like it.

 

[Jimmy Rolfe]

Except this year’s CoD offering. No one seems to like it.

Id still take it over the cutscene, cleaning MJ's house, miles dressing up like daft punk and playing guitar hero simulator that is Marvel's Spider-Man 2

 

[Quence]

Id still take it over the cutscene, cleaning MJ's house, miles dressing up like daft punk and playing guitar hero simulator that is Marvel's Spider-Man 2

Fair enough

 

[Crassmeister]