No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no.
Alright, call it a blind, silly prejudice if you like. Unfortunately there are some elements of gaming my petty little mind is going to remain closed to until someone does ‘em well enough to convince me otherwise, and QTEs are right there at the top of the pile o’despicability. They’re just about palatable in the occasional console hack’n’slasher, but I really can’t imagine they’d be appropriate in a first-person-perspective Aliens game. I’m already having nightmare visions of hitting left, right, right, left, space in exactly that order to remove a ravenous Facehugger from my head.
I will stress I have not seen this in action myself. My histrionics may well prove entirely unjustified. However, my undying love for the first AvP game means I’m really very excited about Colonial Marines. That’s why I was so upset to spot this horror lurking within Games Radar’s brief summation of a playable build:
“It has quick-time events. But, fortunately, instead of huge button-icons appearing on screen and destroying the brooding atmosphere, subtle colour-coded tinges to the edges of your view will alert you to a required button press.”
I just have one question. How do I get out of this chickenshit glorified Simon Says minigame?
Okay, the colour-coded tints are a smart approach (though at a guess they’ll be geared towards the hues of an Xbox 360 pad), as they won’t entirely disrupt the tension and, if they really pull it off, could work on an almost subliminal level, but “required button press” makes me want to scream.
Still, it’s the work of Gearbox, and not some rookie studio who simply couldn’t work out a decent way to depict high-action scenes their control set isn’t otherwise capable of, so I’m mostly confident it won’t be as jarring as it sounds. Mostly.*
More positively, the promise of four-player co-op, confirmed as drop in and drop out, rather than static sessions, makes me tremble like an orphaned colonial pre-teen hiding in a ventilation system, as does talk of the Xenos’ acid blood distorting the environment. I’m already planning ludicrously geeky LAN parties.
*Actually, I’m not confident. I just wanted to say the quote. I can’t imagine any way in which Colonial Marines will be a better game for having QTEs, though you may. I’ll see if I can get a comment out of Gearbox on the matter – it’s the only way to be sure. It may be that they’ve genuinely devised a clever, relevant take on QTEs, or it may suggest a misguided desire to be “cinematic” has found its way into the game. I’ll be very happy for my knee-jerk panic to be proven foolish.
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An Aliens game that’s coming to consoles will suck anyway.
The tension in AvP (the original) comes from it being so damn difficult and the Aliens being so incredibly fast. A console game could never be made like that, the Aliens are hard as hell to hit with a mouse it would be impossible with a controller.
I’ll pass
“I remain surprised that it’s so lauded in RE4 – I found the game was strong despite its QTEs, not because of them.”
QTEs were just one end of the spectrum of context-sensitive actions in RE4. In most cases they were well integrated into the gameplay, and some of the bosses (El Gigante and the Verdugo) massively benefitted from them. Only the sprinting ones near the start were genuinely bad/incongruous.
And big fat LOLs at the guy who tried to play it with keyboard and mouse.
I have an image in my head of someone playing a Wii version of this and smacking themselves in the face with the Wiimote to fight off a ‘hugger. There’s your goddamn quick time event right there.
It’s all cross pollination, innit? QTEs are fine and dandy with gamepad in hand because your thumbs and fingers are within easy range of every button, unless you have teeny little hands.
In a PC game with configurable controls and, what, 102 different buttons, it’s a recipe for chaos. Never mind the bad design arguments, if I make the P key my “Point Index Finger” button cos I know it’s rarely used, but but have to quickly tap that button while alternately hammering the S for “Shake Fist Angrily” as well as thrashing the mouse left and right to simulate Tinternets Agnry Head Motion then, well, I guess I’ll be failing that QTE and buggering off to play the Wii version. And smacking myself in the face.
Didn’t mind the pseudo-QTE’s in Call of Duty 4 when attack dogs pounce or the stealth-kills in Prince of Persia : the Two Thrones. You had a fair chance at shooting the dogs who came barking and running at you from a distance. And in The Two Thrones, you could rewind or fight it out.
Basically just tapping the (one, logical) button at the right time when there’s an opening.
I like the IDEA of the QTEs in Call of Duty 4, but I think I pulled off at most two or three. Never could get the timing right, which meant far too many QTE related reloads and loads of frustration.
By the way, AvP 1 was a IMO a much better game than the sequel.. The eating scene was the only thing I really liked with it, other than that, I really hate it. Way too glossy and it never scared me.
You can’t play RE4 with keyboard *and mouse*….there’s no mouse support. It was the capstone of a truly terrible port.
Looks great. Sounds awful.
Regarding the face huggers, you would have thought the Marines would have figured out to wear full face helmets by now wouldn’t you? A cheap motor bike helmet would do the job.
You clearly haven’t seen Alien then. the facehugger that gets John Hurt breaks its way through the front of his spacesuit’s helmet which consists of a four or five inch thickness of glass (Or possibly space plastic!).
I only managed one. After the first few failures, I made damn sure I shot every dog before they were within so much as sniffing distance.
My problem with it was pretty much the complete lack of feedback, whether you’ve been successful or just a fat handed twat, until the final animation so I’ve still got no idea what manner of button presses the game wanted (be it mashing, instantaneously upon the icon appearing or waiting for some nebulous ‘right’ moment after the icon appears).
Quick-time Events are like Jumping puzzles – the second you encounter one you know they ran out of ideas.
The sooner this occurs, the more you know the game is fucked up in some way, likely beyond repair.
I can’t remember a single QTE where I was like “Awesome!” because I almost die to them the first time, pretty much every time.
Gearbox has heard your complaints and will replace the hated quick-time-events with stealth-action, timed, platform-jumping escort missions instead.
You clearly haven’t seen Alien then. the facehugger that gets John Hurt breaks its way through the front of his spacesuit’s helmet which consists of a four or five inch thickness of glass (Or possibly space plastic!).
That’s true, but I think Weyland-Yutani must have skimped on their space suit budget to produce such a flimsy helmet. Perhaps if it was made out of the stuff those stasis jars were in “Aliens”, nothing can break out of one of them, probably acid proof too.
I just have one question. How do I get out of this chickenshit glorified Simon Says minigame?
You secure that shit, Meer!
The worst QTE for me was Spider-Man 3…. Both the fights against the Sandman or Venom required PERFECT button sequence presses and if you failed on the very last QTE with Venom you die instantly and have to start the whole thing again.
Hey on the subject of COD4’s dogs. Remember the dog pack you are meant to avoid in the sniper section. Well I spent an hour deliberately taking them on … and I couldn’t beat them although I gave it a fair shot. Can’t remember the exact numbers but I’d get 7/9 and the last two would either get me or my sniper mentor. Just wondering if it was possible to beat them.
I will be voting against QTEs in the November elections.
Boo for QTEs.
I’ve got a QTE for you right here: It’s my fire button. It’s my panic button, for when aliens get too close.
They worked in Fahrenheit because it was made clear that you were entering a Simon-Says mini-game, they did not occur randomly as one offs.
In CoD4 they weren’t true QTEs because you always had to press the same logical button (knife). It never said, press left arrow, or press jump. Knife made sense.
On Colonial Marines in general, is there any reason I should hold out hope that this will be anything other than a console lead PC port? Gearbox have a good pedigree, but who knows nowadays.
Exception to the bad QTE rule (as I do feel as you guys about this, they are generally really bad…) is Indigo Prophecy. This game is essentially all QTE’s, and they pulled it off only because is is _the_ game mechanic.
At least, that is my opinion. I encourage people to disagree with me :)
Shane