Cutscenes Are Gaming's "Failure State," Says THQ Exec

[Baresark]

I partially agree with him. There are lots of times when cut scenes are inappropriate. But people are over thinking this. There was a time when I used to look forward to a good cut scene. Part of me also looks forward to a grand game ending. In a good RPG, I want a grand ending with an incredible cut scene. If I have invested 60+ hours into a game that I loved, I want the big payoff (FFVII anyone?).

I agree with Danny Bilson and both of you. Most cut scenes are terrible. For example, when they take you out of the normal view into some fixed camera angle to watch a scene where YOU have no control over what you will do. Terrible.

I think there is such a thing as a well done, and by extension, poorly done cut scene. I hate cut scenes where you basically watch a conversation between your character and another (this is done ad nauseum in the Kingdom Hearts game). These are a pain, and they don't need to exist at all. But, as far as good cut scenes are concerned, I like to think of PS1 era JRPG. One game that stands out in my mind is Legend of Dragoon. This game was your standard fair JRPG, but the cut scenes were incredible. They literally used them as a very effective means of conveying a part of the story better than any gameplay could (at least at the time). The scenes were fast paced, exciting to watch, and those scenes in particular were very well done. The secret, as you pointed out along with Bilson, is to have them short and sweet. They shouldn't just watch two characters sit around, and they shouldn't be 10 minutes long either. Though, there have been a few times where something like that worked really well. Those are exceptions, not rules though.

I agree that they have gotten somewhat out of hand. I don't need to watch a scene with two guys talking at bar. How useless such things are. A well done cut scene can progress the story way better than a lot of gameplay attempts have been able to do.

OT: Bilson is 100% correct in that last part. The story telling aspect in video games has a long way to go. Most games would flop as a book without the gameplay to back them up. But, that is what video games are, more so than a means to tell a story. I do not agree with his broad statement that cut scenes are a failure in the game industry to effectively tell a story. I just think the balance needs to be worked out.

 

[Baresark]

Bottom line is, some people like cutscenes and think they help make games better. Others disagree. It's all a matter of opinion, regardless of who says it. Whether it's you, or me, or some douche exec at THQ. And I'm not just saying that he's a douche because I disagree with his statement. I'm saying it because he states it as a fact. And because he has the "THQ Exec" status, suddenly makes him an authority? Screw that.

/|\ This!!!!! /|\
After everything I said, I had a hard time figuring out why I didn't like what the guy said.... But you hit the nail on the head. I don't agree with the guy. But he DOES treat what he says as fact, and that shite is so damn annoying.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Cutscenes allow the devs to include content in the game that would otherwise be unable to be included due to restrictions of the game engine. Back in the way back when, cutscenes were like a reward for finishing the game. I miss that in most new games.

 

[Supp]

Also, what about Blizzard's cinematics?! How can you do that during gameplay? Particularly the Warcraft 3 human intro cinematic? How could you get rid of that, and still have a great game?

It would still be a great game, just missing one of the best parts. Personally, I enjoy Blizzard's cutscenes. 100% of them aren't there as filler, but merely to be awesome.

 

[Bakuryukun]

I have yet to find a cutscene that is too long that I get impatient with it on my first viewing, and I've played Xenosaga and Metal Gear Solid 4.

I've never had a problem with cutscenes, I for the most part enjoy them, I'm actually not a huge fan of the alternative of standing around while some guy just talks to you with a blank expression on his face, or listening to some audio logs and stuff like that.

 

[Paragon Fury]

The Konami and SQEnix ninjas have already been dispatched.

You will be apprehended and re-educated, Mr. Bilson.

 

[Michael826]

But Blizzard has such a talented Cinematics department.

Amen.

 

[Porecomesis]

Cutscenes can be the source of cutscene incompetence, especially when the character can do something extremely stupid and you can't do a thing about it because the cutscene wasn't programmed for the weapon you were holding, like in Dead Rising 2. This is where games like 'Half-Life 2', 'Bioshock' and 'Call of Duty 4' shine.

On the other hand, if you're going for the Half-Life approach, your character can't respond to anything, so it turns into Non-cutscene incompetence.

On to another hand, you may have games like 'Assassin's Creed', where you are doomed to wonder around a very small room for an ungodly amount of time.

Games are finicky things that you have to be careful of. QTEs are to cutscenes what Active Time Battling was to turn-based combat, so we may be able to get somewhere yet.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

a cut scene can make a game great or it can be annoying, it really depends on the context, the ones in bayonetta were pretty awesome..... I cant think of any examples that just sucked.... I guess the laughing scene from ff10... or the huge amount of story that metal gear solid games love to insert before you can actualy play but really I kinda like more story and its hard to tell that ingame with out making you just stand around and wait

for instance

in one you have to stand around and wait, in the other you have something neat to watch, you can skip both but the "interactive" one isnt really more immersive

That is a very good case.

A similar situation, for me, was the perceived difference in the way your teammates interacted between Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. In the former, they only spoke in Elevator rides, turning normally banal, glorified loading screens into hilarious skits that added great depth to the characters and gave you reason to care for them.

The sequel also had those great bits intra-squad banter..... but they talk whilst walking aorund on the citadel which is an obnoxiously loud place to begin with so if you kept walking, you wouldn't hear squat. So you have to just stand there like a moron, and eavesdrop on their conversation for 5 minutes (give or take).

...QED I miss the elevators

 

[Twilight_guy]

That's a pretty bold statement. Nobody is going to contest that cut-scene techniques need work and story telling mechanics can be greatly enhanced but laying down a blank fail on them is going to get you in hot water. Especially when you consider that cut-scenes can be modernized to remove the lack of control and achieve gameplay while still having the basis of a cutscene and thus disprove that notion of unable to act in cutscenes.

 

[Nouw]

I feel like Bioware has pulled off cutscenes pretty well, Mass Effect sort of gave you a way to control the cutscene and develop your character further...
Also, I dont remember THQ making an incredible amount of games.
The last one I remember was the game based on the Spongebob movie...yeah, exactly...

Oh I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of the many games THQ published, and the Spongebob movie game is quite good thank you.

I guess I agree with the general statement that devs should work harder to not use cutscenes instead use their biggest advantage of control.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

So this guy is telling me that the awesome opening fight cutscene in P3 was a 'last resort"? Or...you know what? He is wrong. In some games cutscenes are an integral part of the narrative and work quite well. In others, not so much. It is case by case. But cutscenes are in no way inferior to any other method of video game storytelling.

 

[Kakashi on crack]

Have to agree with Logan here. Cinematics aren't bad all by themselves, but when used over-frequently, or when someone has a super-long cutscene that takes up more than 30 seconds, maybe a minute, it gets old.

 

[El Camarado]

Like anything, cutscenes can be done well, and they can be done poorly. Sturgeon's law is in effect here just as much as anywhere else.

Cutscenes can serve as a way to progress in the narrative of a game, get the player psyched up for climactic gameplay moments, or serve as a breather to get things calmed back down after said climactic moments.

But, usually they just feel as if someone came out of nowhere and just ran up to you while you were doing something you enjoy, bear-hugged you really tight for about 10 minutes, and then let's you go to continue what you were doing before. And, sometimes, if you mess up what you are doing, the person will repeat the whole process.

In other words, they tend to break the flow of the game, be poorly executed and painful to sit through, and tend to be quite long. And, while most games do not have cutscenes that have to be repeated if you mess up/die, the few that do have made cutscenes somewhat infamous.

 

[Noctis_XZ]

I don't know where to begin with this statement or the comments some of you have posted. I'm rather conflicted actually.. I agree in a way, video games should be able to tell a story effectively without taking control away from the player at all. The only problem is that so far that "way" hasn't presented itself yet.

The problem for me is that most games today like to do away with cutscenes and in there place use audio recordings.. etc. With that, for me at least, it only makes the game and it's story even more frustrating. It doesn't really work in my opinion.. in my case, when I come across these audio/video recordings like in Dead Space 2 I find myself stopping just to hear what's being said or see what's going on and it honestly just makes the game less enjoyable.

Perhaps it's just me and my need to understand the story better.. are any of you like that though? Do you find yourself stopping in these types of situations? I always find myself asking the game as if it can talk back why it couldn't just have a few two or three minute cutcenes instead of listening to 100 audio recordings when I'm only going be standing still anyway for the most part. Visuals can only improve what's being told through the audio..

Let me state that I think the audience that plays games as a whole has become extremely impatient in general.. a simple load screen that lasts a minute is enough to drive some people insane. What happened? Cutscenes are NOT detrimental to video game story telling in anyway.. and where this idea came from that they do only convinces me even further that people have just become simply so lazy and impatient that they can't be bothered to read text or watch a cutscene simply because they lose control for what is most of the time only 3 minutes tops.

Don't get me wrong.. if a cutscene lasts for over 4 minutes tops, granted they are few and far in between, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that in my opinion. That seems reasonable to me but I'm not someone else.. I'm sure there will be someone telling me that's way to long for a cutscene.

It all comes down to patience at this point in my opinion rather than how the medium as a whole should strive to tell it's story.

 

[commodore96]

I like cutscenes, especially in FFX I thought they were rewarding after beating a huge boss and you get some awesome mini movie