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Hellboy Director Hates Game Cutscenes
- Thread starter vansau
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Hmm depends what game it is. Cutscenes can be incredibly cool, take any major Final Fantasy epic battle sequence/set piece for instance. Some are just awesome or help develop the plot/characters etc.
I think it's amusing that he is speaking with Ken Levine on this, a guy who makes games with minimal cutscenes. I'm sure the next interview will be with Gabe Newell...
I think it's amusing that he is speaking with Ken Levine on this, a guy who makes games with minimal cutscenes. I'm sure the next interview will be with Gabe Newell...
Just to make sure this gets seen:
If you are going to post a summary from Eurogamer of an interview from Irrational, please make sure you do more than skim that summary. The details you claim Guillermo Del Toro "teased" about his game are actually Ken Levine recommending Bastion to the director. Greg Kasavin is not writing Del Toro's game, and the quote was not only not Del Toro's but about Bastion rather than Insane. Readers who don't check your sources are going to be seriously misled.
If you are going to post a summary from Eurogamer of an interview from Irrational, please make sure you do more than skim that summary. The details you claim Guillermo Del Toro "teased" about his game are actually Ken Levine recommending Bastion to the director. Greg Kasavin is not writing Del Toro's game, and the quote was not only not Del Toro's but about Bastion rather than Insane. Readers who don't check your sources are going to be seriously misled.
I don't dislike cutscenes. What is with all this cutscene hate? Done right, I actually like them. What I dislike is unskippable cutscenes. No, not the show here on the Escapist. I mean cutscenes that I can't pause or skip right over with a button press or two. Those are annoying when I'm on playthrough #7 or having to fight a particularly annoying boss for the fifth time. Just as bad as unskippable cutscenes are those "This isn't a cutscene, see you can move while they talk" cutscenes that you have to listen to for a whole 10 minutes before you can play again. Give me a skippable cutscene any day.
"Of course, details like an actual release date have yet to be revealed."
But it's good news so far
But it's good news so far
Hell he's right. I never liked cutscenes, every truly great game escaped massive use of them. I would like to see the way of storytelling used in his game.
That pretty much sums it up. I like del Toro's movies, but I can't agree with him about a fit of nerd rage, and I don't appreciate the suggestion that gamers are only gamers if they hate cutscenes. Partnering with Greg Kasavin was probably a good idea, though. If they're on the same page about how to do game narrative, there's a better chance that they'll make a solid game with a good story.Madara XIII said:
Personally, I like cutscenes. I even liked them in MGS4 and FFXIII, but The Witcher 2 contains my favorites. They can certainly be done poorly, but the simple fact of a long cutscene in a game is not necessarily a design failure.
EDIT: I'm not a huge fan of QTEs because I have to pay so much attention to button-pushing that I can't enjoy the animation. What a waste sometimes.
Good on you for pointing that out. I'm off to read the original. Thanks.Concealed said:
EDIT: And now that I've listened to the full podcast that inspired The Escapist's article...what del Toro said is not as inflammatory or dismissive as reported. I'm relieved, but I should have checked before commenting. My bad. Also, Escapist, you need to do a correction.
I never got the cut-scene hate because there perfect for the more dull aspects of story telling like two people having a chat or doing exposition because you can splice in flash backs and do stuff with the cinematography to make it more interesting than just looking at some guys face (looking at you half life)
Granted I wouldn't want the game to show me a cool action sequence when I could be you know playing it or too use them as the primary storytelling tool that would be silly after all (looking at you MGS4).I guess what I'm trying to say is that cut scenes have a place its just maybe they've been used in the wrong way
Granted I wouldn't want the game to show me a cool action sequence when I could be you know playing it or too use them as the primary storytelling tool that would be silly after all (looking at you MGS4).I guess what I'm trying to say is that cut scenes have a place its just maybe they've been used in the wrong way
Cutscenes are going to stay a part of games. That's a fact. And they aren't ALL bad. There are times when it is very appropriate to use a cutscene over something else. It can reinforce the notion that you are not always in control of what's going on. You can't stop or even react to everything. Why would you try to limit the tools you can use in something? It's like saying we'll never use brick again for anything when making buildings.
Mew thinks him is over simplifying things.... you use cut scenes like events in a film that are A not action IE dailog is going on or B doing big effects. For big effects there's rarely a real need to do it as a non player controle4d event.
A good cut-scene, used judiciously, can actually enhance some of the story-telling in the game, and, as one commenter mentioned, it can be used to give the gamer a chance to rest hands and nerves after a particularly arduous period of gameplay. The problem comes with "too many" and "too long", while providing insufficient advancement of the story or plot. They're just there to show off the new render farm(I loved FFXIII, particularly because I loved the story pitting the dictate of providence against free-will, but even I have to admit the game could have done with some significant editing to trim it up a bit).
I make it a point not to skip cutscenes the first time I play a game (only exception being MGS4, naturally). But then again, if you make your cutscenes unskippable *glares at God of War 3* then I can see how it can be a problem. It's like "Yeah yeah, I know all this shit already, can I play now?"