It's sadly all a matter of keeping Xboxes profitable. Halo is Microsoft's golden goose and keeping it tied to only one platform means guaranteeing that platform will continue to be profitable. It's not a good thing for us consumers, but it's a wonderful business position.Originally Posted by The JG Man
Virtual Pilot 3D™ NEVER NOT SCAM!
It's a conspiracy!
lol! Oh No!
Thanks for the meaningful bump.
Since Microsoft doesn't even want to risk me giving them money, I just watched an LP. It looked pretty nice, probably not worth the price tag but I can see myself enjoying it. Kind of like modern CoDs in that regard, especially considering the several set-pieces they managed to throw in. Obviously I didn't play it but the gunplay looks solid, the semi-unique blend of health regen and arcade FPS run & gun is still there, most of my complaints are of secondary nature(weird pauses between spoken sentences, lightguns are just reskins of USMC guns, not enough technobabble).
Spoilers below if you care.
I'm torn on Cortana's death. On one hand, it took balls to do it I'm sure and it definitely is a strong way to take over a series and start a new trilogy. On the other, I keep thinking about Newt and Hick's death in Alien 3 which was just a dick move of a new director. Well, all that assuming that Cortana will actually stay dead; She's such an integral part of the series at this point that I wouldn't even raise an eyebrow if she was brought back(or a new Cortana was made who then assimilated the memories of the old Cortana from the space ether dimension zone).
Wonder how hardcore fans of the series reacted. Say what you want, but you spent quite a bit of time with her across god knows how many games there are. I guess it will be up to Halo 5 to really get it across that you are alone now. Doubt they will pull it off.
They put QTE in the game. This is all I need to know. It's dead. :P
Reading a few of these comments and hearing generally positive things about the Halo series, I thought I might try out the ones available for PC. Turns out, Microsoft don't even want me to buy those as they are not available on any digital store, not even Windows Marketplace. They do have a trailer for 2 though!
Uh, what? "Remastered Lightning" is indeed, "We had to take out HDR", but you forget the "But we added in the Global Illumination from Crysis 2 instead".
I'd crack up if they did Halo 4 for PC... Windows 8 only.
Okay, seriously? It's time to set the QTE record straight.
Games are interactive. I shouldn't use that word, but it's the one that conveys the point the fastest. You do stuff in games. You aren't supposed to just sit and watch stuff happening on its own in a videogame for long. You're not playing a videogame then, you're just watching a goddamn movie.
At the same time, you want cutscenes because they're cool and they push the story forward. So obviously, an ideal solution would be to combine interactivity with cutscenes.
I'm sure you can see where this is going; that's what most QTEs are supposed to be. Keeping you in the game, keeping you involved with what's going on on the screen, preventing from going into "passive mode" where you take your hands away from the controls and rest head on your hand just watching stuff happen. Because when you enter that mode chances are very good the videogame just fucking failed at being a videogame.
There are other benefits to QTEs. It keeps things personal, for one. Think of the final scenes of Modern Warfare 2 - it requires your input to shamble to Shepard, it requires your input to attack him, it requires your input to crawl for the gun, then it requires your input to pull out the knife out of your goddamn chest and throw it in his eye. All of this could easily be a cutscene. It would probably work out better as one too, from the drama perspective. But they left that interactive because watching a cutscene this long after spending twenty minutes of frantic gunning everything that moves would be anticlimactic and frankly speaking, boring. And it makes it more personal. Don't you feel better for *personally* killing the guy who betrayed you, killed your other self and started a war between USA and Russia instead of just watching it happen? Well, you don't, because you don't give a fuck about any characters in Call of Duty games or the gameworld in general. But the point still stands.
QTEs keep things videogame when they otherwise wouldn't be. They're a good thing and they're here to stay. Deal with it.
I think there's 2 QTE's in the game too, one at the start, one and the end. It's still very Halo-y.
I sense great anger in you Mohorovicic.
... I take the lives of a few to protect the lives of many. I commit acts of war to preserve the greater peace. I take no joy in killing, but make no mistake; I'll do what needs to be done. Because it's my job. It's my duty. My name is Sam Fisher, and I am a Splinter Cell.
When I'm watching a cutscene I want to be watching a cutscene. Being demanded to mash a button as quickly as possible or be insta-killed isn't good gameplay, it's annoying and stupid. QTEs are simply the developers taking the laziest way out of making a game actually a game.
Why don't you just press buttons on an unplugged controller while watching a movie instead? You'll have just as much fun and interactivity.
Virtual Pilot 3D™ NEVER NOT SCAM!
Nothing in the definition of QTE requires "mash buttons or die and re-try". They could be (and have been) implemented in far better manner, but for some reason allowing QTEs to affect outcomes (in other ways than "welp you died") is something that games tend to avoid.
Yeah. Good thing that's not how QTEs work then, huh?
Okay the previous statement was blatantly ignorant but this? You're just being stupid. Actually you're being double stupid because not only your argument doesn't work on any level, it's actually the opposite of what QTEs are for.Why don't you just press buttons on an unplugged controller while watching a movie instead? You'll have just as much fun and interactivity.
Too bad a lot of them actually do. Or prevent you from actually moving forward through the game - which in a way is almost the same thing.
It's not my fault you're too ignorant to realize the very base of any video game, and I'm certainly in no position to educate you on it.
So enjoy pushing buttons on a controller or keyboard, watching things happen, and being blissfully unaware that you are in fact pushing buttons on a controller or keyboard. It's OK, we won't judge you, you special snowflake you.
Virtual Pilot 3D™ NEVER NOT SCAM!
I don't like replacing cutscenes with quick time events. A lot of games don't seem to understand what makes cutscenes work, and most of my encounters with QTEs are just another type of ineffective or obnoxious cutscene. Having a grace period is a rather important part of any game; there needs to be a spot for you to rest both so you're more capable of handling what is to come and so the action can maintain dramatic effect through contrast. If it's all guns-blazing all the time, then guns-blazing stops being quite so exciting.
Less abstractly, for better or worse gamers are really used to cutscenes. It's downright disorienting when a game throws inconsistent QTEs at you in the middle of what you think is going to be a set-down-the-controller moment (I'm looking at you, Assassin's Creed II). That's not to say there isn't a space for "press X to continue" mechanics in games. But it's very difficult to make them so that they are a) relevant b) interesting and c) not frustrating. I really can't think of many examples. And if they don't satisfy all three of those conditions, there's usually a better way to implement the design goal. Unless the design goal is "use QTEs" or "make everything interactive because videogames" in which case there's something wrong with the design goal(s).
I really struggle to think of QTE mechanics that weren't frustrating/surprising, were relevant, and were interesting. I think Just Cause 2 had some QTE mechanics that were pretty functional. They were well paced so they weren't frustrating, they were relevant (hijacking isn't skill-based in the game, but it still requires time and attention, which worked for me; hacking a pipeline required being fast and taking down any nearby security forces first, which made plenty of sense, really), and they were sometimes interesting (you had to time it right, otherwise you might end up crashing the vehicle you're breaking into). There are other ways to do it that also would have worked, but the QTEs didn't seem out of place or bad to me.
Arkham Asylum/City has some good QTE mechanics and some bad ones. The whole "tap this button really rapidly to open a metal grate" thing sucked. It wasn't interesting, it was sometimes frustrating, and it was only sometimes relevant (it didn't always make sense that Batman would take a significant amount of time to get through the grates; there was already mechanical precedent for actions that took significant amounts of time after initiated through the controls ... that didn't require QTEs throughout.) Similarly with the "press grapple rapidly not to die" QTE. The idea is that the grappling hook can save Batman from pretty much any fall, and that Batman dying through falling is kind of lame. I'm on board so far. But the whole rapid tap? It isn't significantly more difficult, it isn't more interesting and it isn't more relevant than a "Press grapple once not to die" QTE. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the combat. It was easy against a decent sized group, but started getting difficult against a veritable mob. I felt like Batman in that sense. Aiming my punches one by one, struggling with a single opponent as in Zeno Clash ... that wouldn't be interesting or relevant when I'm playing as Batman. Batman can take down a lone thug easy.
That's my take on QTEs. Stuff like otherwise normal cutscenes with QTEs stuffed in? They usually don't feel interesting and relevant to me as a player. I'd be just as content/frustrated watching the cutscene in a non-interactive mode. The possibility of failing them, then, becomes an additional frustration with at best no benefit to me as a player.
Last edited by gwathdring; 15-11-2012 at 05:50 PM.
I think of [the Internet] as a grisly raw steak laid out on a porcelain benchtop in the sun, covered in chocolate hazelnut sauce. In the background plays Stardust’s Music Sounds Better With You. There’s lots of fog. --tomeoftom
I actually liked Assassin's Creed 2's QTEs. Aren't those the ones that say "press a button and get a slightly different cutscene"? Like Ezio dodging a vase instead of getting smashed by it, and then getting back up?It's downright disorienting when a game throws inconsistent QTEs at you in the middle of what you think is going to be a set-down-the-controller moment (I'm looking at you, Assassin's Creed II). That's not to say there isn't a space for "press X to continue" mechanics in games. But it's very difficult to make them so that they are a) relevant b) interesting and c) not frustrating. I really can't think of many examples.
IRT MOHOROVIC
She isnt dead dude.
She's in the Domain.
Last edited by Patrick Swayze; 15-11-2012 at 06:04 PM. Reason: just coz
Those are the only ones I've ever encountered. They seem to have very little to do with the game other than as you said, changing a cut scene a little.
Except when you don't hug Leonardo they change the game A LOT :'(
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