A Shootout For One

[5ilver]

The moment I realized I hate what cutscenes have become was when I played through Max Payne 3- the part with the boat, the hostage and the 5-6 bad guys. First time, I was convinced I had failed due to the shitty controls but no- apparently you're SUPPOSED to fail.


I think interactivity or lack thereof in this case is just a symptom of a larger problem. The way I see it, developers are trying to appeal to a broader audience which ends up losing them the core hardcore fans (because they don't feel like the game is made for them anymore).
Still, plenty of games are trying to satisfy that niche of hardcore gamers- Dark souls being an obvious example. The new Hitman and Dishonored also look promising.

 

[Kahani]

I think part of the problem is that games no longer have to be just games. Back in the day, a game was a game. You had a few blocky pixels that you're told represented something if you squinted just right, so all the entertainment had to come from actually playing the game. Now, however, games can look as good as, or better than, many films. Compare something like Crysis with the latest SyFy channel crap. So many games no longer want to be just games, because there's so much more they can do in the way of looks, story, and so on.

And remember, people like watching films. Think how much money has been made just in the last few years from films of shooting at aliens, giant robots fighting and superheroes generally superheroing. Obviously it's going to be pretty tempting to include that sort of thing in addition to the pure gaming because it's popular and you can. And the results speak for themselves, because it turns out that's exactly what people want to buy. Of course, the change isn't one way either. What's the best selling film of all time? A computer generated fight between aliens and robots on a fantasy world full of dragons and cat people.

Personally I like my films to be films and my games to be games, and I have yet to see an example where trying to do both at the same time didn't spoil both. But there's no point in my getting upset about it, because the simple fact is that I'm in the minority. Modern Warfare 3 wasn't just the biggest video game launch, it was the biggest entertainment launch of all time. By including all these film-like features in a game, we now have games that can actually beat films in popularity and profits. Even if you don't like some of the ways games have changed, you have to admit that's pretty big considering games are still often considered a waste of time fit only for kids and nerds.