On Audio Logs

[ninjajoeman]

Now im wondering what if some of the scientists that you found dead in half life had audio logs...

wait now that I think about I do believe one did(with the barnacle and stuff...technically it was a hologram) Also why shouldn't they have some. I never even noticed the water and the boats I just thought they were destroyed and washed up on shore (realizing later on how idiotic that is). Also l4d's writing on the wall is basically an audio log with writing as the words, I think at least.

but now I am just trying to make Yahtzee wrong, and I do a terrible job at it.

 

[Lucane]

It's the future's Facebook/Twitter variant? Being isolated on non-civilian locations or secrective cities might merit a lack of a system similar to the internet. So maybe a log you can say that's as tough as a plane's black box would be a reasonable way to post thoughts during through the days/weeks/months.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

I personally like Borderlands' audio logs the best, mainly because they take the absolute piss out of the whole trope of leaving audio logs, when the woman starts to give her audio recorder a name and personality. That's what always struck me as being odd about audio logs: granted, people write that way in their diary, but unless as Yahtzee says paper is completely absent I can't see why people would choose to record their thoughts instead of writing them down. It feels too much like they're talking to themselves.

 

[Jaebird]

Yahtzee does realise that you CAN play AVP whilst listening to it's audio logs, right? Obviously not...

But, can you pay attention to them while doing so? Not everyone can multitask in that fashion.

As far as audio logs go, in my opinion, as long as they add to the fiction, like BioShock, then it can be done competently.

My main issue with games that let you play while listening is that if you move too fast, you often will come across other dialog that will play over the audio log (or the audio log will play over the other audio). Which results in me standing around in one spot listening to it anyway.

Same thing happened to me while playing Arkham Asylum. In some cases when it happened, I would stop in an area that was empty, and go back to play the log again.

 

[Mass B]

Too bad you never played ODST, Yahtzee, or you could have mentioned the spectacular execution of audio logs in it. The story is related to the plot, and actually does have ties to the main plot, but is more about a character you never see (duh, audio logs) who has plenty of personality. She is trying to get to her father at the ONI Building, avoid the corrupt police commissioner who wants to rape her, and just not get killed. Oh, and

Spoiler

The police commissioner gets ripped to shreds, literally, however, he kills her father.

And all of this is explained by the Superintendent AI being in control of the city, therefor allowing you to get them via it.

My thoughts exactly. I thought the audio logs in ODST were well done in that you could play while listening, and they actually connected to each other, forming an interesting story. I was surprised to find myself disappointed by the end of the game because I didn't find all of the logs!

And don't get me started on written "we're about to die" notes.

I think Oblivion did a good job averting this, one diary you find on a Fighters Guild quest that sent you to a Troll infested cave had a final entry ending with "I hear trolls." This gives me the image of him putting the diary down after that and making his last stand.

OT I found I agreed with this a lot, I personally love audio and written logs in games if they are used well, I find myself collecting a few then checking them all out at once when I wish to take a break from actually getting anywhere.

I also like to take an occasional break from gameplay to read these things, especially in oblivion where there is so much interesting material to collect and read.

 

[Retroshotv1]

I'd like to see a mainstream game these days about a man in a top hat jumping down a toilet.

We already have that, roughly, only his name is Mario, it's a personalized painter's cap, and the pipes are simple allegories to the can, rather than actually being the can.

...I assume. Oh dear God.

Im not 100% sure but I think he may be referring to jet set willy, but he didnt jusmp down a toilet, Im not sure id like to know what hes talking about though

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

When I did my own review of the first FEAR game a few years back, I kind of harped on this point. Almost every other game that has done the "audio log" thing has made it seem ridiculous. I mean, in the first Bioshock, there are the corpses of a couple on a park bench- next to a ten-pound reel-to-reel tape recorder on which the guy brags about hoping to score with the girl. He brought that along with him? Don't get me wrong, the voice acting in System Shock 2's audio logs was frickin' sweet (look up Korenchkin's "Glory to the Many" recording sometime... STILL can't listen to that without shuddering), but is everyone's first reaction to Bad Shit Going Down to begin recording detailed reports of said Bad Shit, and then indiscriminately drop those recordings in their wake like extrememly heavy breadcrumbs?

The first FEAR handled it the best off all, I think- I'm far more inclined to believe that, during an invasion of heavily-armed supersoldiers, people just didn't get around to answering their voicemail.

 

[Fuhjem]

Top-Hat man jumping down a toilet? Your wish is my command!

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Hey Yahtzee, will you be having audio logs in your new space game your making?

The first FEAR game had good audio logs, they were messages on answering machines, they didn't spell everything out for you but as you progessed all the little messages came together slowly and in a way that helped the game along.

 

[Kurt Horsting]

As i said before, arcade AVP > all the other avps combined. Nothing like being a cyborg ninja blowing up aliens in half with a giant ki blast. (And how many times must I mention Arny with a machinegun arm that pile drives aliens to their deaths?)

 

[Mr. Gency]

Also, why does everyone feel the need to record every slightest thought that crosses their minds

That's my question about blogers.

 

[Mr. Gency]

Yeah, not much point to audio logs if you have to open a menu to play them. Fallout 3 did that too. It didn't over or inapropriately use them, but you had to go into your pip boy to hear them.

In Batman Arkham Asylum audio logs could be listened to during gameplay or in a menu (in case you didn't want to risk a it being cut off, and that has happened before).

I don't know where I was going with that statement.

 

[Aurora219]

I just started playing through Doom 3 again two days ago, so this strikes home like hell. I can't even be bothered with the audio logs half the time, but then I die for not grabbing the surplus medkits. Damn that hard difficulty setting.

 

[Midniqht]

I like the way Bioshock does the audiologs because it's non-intrusive. The issue I always saw with text (aka Yahtzee's pen & paper) was that the user never really wants to stop and read all of it. Example: I ended up skipping a huge majority of the codex stuff in Dragon Age, and even most of it in Mass Effect 2(as most of that is redundant from the first game as well). Audio is just more convenient for the gaming purpose, even if it does just serve as background noise while you blast away whatever is coming to get you. Sure, sometimes it makes sense to have it, and sometimes it doesn't but there's no gain without a little cost. Why did sir mcfuckface leave me an audio log about the monster in the next hallway? Answer: I don't really care - it's at least mostly entertaining & informative.

There are proper ways to go about it

 

[DeadlyYellow]

I'm a bit confused by how BioShock was a risk. It seems like the typical shooter only with (heavy) aesthetic changes, which is about the only thing that seems to separate shooters anymore.

 

[dead_rebel]

Ok Yahtzee, I understand you're a critic and all, but are you at the point where you just complain about EVERYthing for the sake of it?

I respect your opinion and all; you seem to have good taste, but sometimes you make me so depressed about gaming I wish I were born a pear.

 

[RJ Dalton]

You know, text logs never bothered me that much. In fact, I really loved them in Deus Ex. You didn't have to read them (except when they contained password information, which in that case you found the info quickly and even then didn't need because the game usually had other ways of completing the objectives), but if you did want to take the time to read them, you could find out so many interesting things about the world and what was going on in it.

Thats probably a good use for them, making them unimportant but having stuff about the world in them. Like most notes you get on RPG journals.

And you even found the logs in places that made sense. On computers, on or in desks, on dead bodies, in newspapers lying on desks, tables or next to toilets. Deus Ex was awesome.

 

[XerxesQados]

But what excuse do the citizens of Rapture have? Is everyone just taking notes for their future autobiographies?

Well, given that they'd have to be self-centered Objectivists to move there...yeah, probably.