On Audio Logs

[Kilgorn]

one game i can think of that did logs well was fallout 3, it had audio logs too, but it made sense when you found a diary or whatever on a computer and maybe a recording on the desk too. Like in the dunwich building, it added a lot to the atmosphere *shudders* i soon as i went into that place i wanted to leave, but i couldnt bring myself to do so because i had to find out what happened.

 

[tkioz]

The one game in recent memory that used Audio logs was for me, Batman AA, not a horror game for sure, but it did it well. Finding those little cans containing patient interviews around the place was a great way to fill in the back story, and instil some subtle menace into some otherwise comedic characters.

 

[Booze Zombie]

Don't forget Yahtzee, in AVP you play a Latino-American!

So the guys who made the game aren't racist. They just think we're retarded.

... Damn them.

Damn you, I was going to oh-so0smugly point this out, as well.

Anyway, obviously not all of "the controllers" want mindless drivel and not all of them think we're stupid.
But quite a few apparently do.

 

[JPH330]

one game i can think of that did logs well was fallout 3, it had audio logs too, but it made sense when you found a diary or whatever on a computer and maybe a recording on the desk too. Like in the dunwich building, it added a lot to the atmosphere *shudders* i soon as i went into that place i wanted to leave, but i couldnt bring myself to do so because i had to find out what happened.

True, but I didn't listen to half the logs because it makes you pause the game and go into the data menu just to listen to each one. By the time I did listen to them, I was already far beyond the point where it would have had the most impact (ie. when I was actually inside the Dunwich building).

 

[LordWalter]

Extra Punctuation: On Audio Logs

What happened to all the paper?

Read Full Article

Hey!? Where is the mention of Fun Space Game: The Game !? I am actually extremely interested in playing it. Especially if it includes jetpacks and/or giant wolves that shoot lazers out of their mouths.

 

[RUINER ACTUAL]

Like Valve did for Half Life 1 and 2 with setting the scene, 4A Games does the same thing in Metro 2033- and it is amazing.

 

[UnusualStranger]

Yahtzee got it exactly right....Huh.

This is something more game makers need to understand. The little tidbits, like audio logs, can help in making or breaking a game. In Bioshock, it was about getting a feeling for what happened to the city before I had the chance to stomp around, painting a picture of what was going on.

However, in some games, I am noticing that logs have become idiotic.

"I wonder why I haven't heard from that explorer team recently. I heard there were aliens around, but they were marines. They should have been fine."

OK then, what happened to them dumbass? Maybe everyone flicked off their radios, and decided to stay in the dark cave for a long time. Camp out, ya know, enjoy the sights and sounds....
I kinda like the audio logs, because sometimes you do find em in lulls in the action, and its something interesting to listen to. However, if you can quickly answer all the questions, or possibly mysteries that the log is telling you, its not a damn log, its damn stupid and annoying.

Next, Yahtzee raises another point. Has gaming become too full of itself? Sure, I understand a business environment demands you stick with success, but I can at least hope the masses will eventually tire of the same "success" and the industry will have to innovate...right?

 

[PandyBear]

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

Sometimes i wonder if yahtzee actually plays games, and doesnt just Troll forums for complaints for the latest game he's meant to be reviewing. Hehe xD

 

[Tonimata]

I feel the need to summarise this article in one phrase.

GAME DEVELOPERS NEED TO SHOW, NOT TELL THEIR STORIES!

Seriously, it just feels patronizing to get the story told like it's bedtime. And none shall patronize me!

 

[ark123]

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.

I agree buddy but we aint never gonna see another good one again. Give up on hope.

 

[RJ Dalton]

I agree buddy but we aint never gonna see another good one again. Give up on hope.

ACK! MY HOPES!!!

 

[CyanLink]

I'm starting to get the same idea about the "them thinking we are stupid" thing. The other option I see is that developers want to explain everything... EVERYTHING. They don't want to leave anything to the gamer's imagination because it's the dev's game and they want things explained the way they want to explain them.

Metal Gear Solid 4 comes across as the perfect example of this. In a game made by a normal person, finding your first gun might go something like this: You see a dead soldier with a gun next to them and you pick it up. While not particularly imaginative or compelling it's just a gun you want and that should be enough. Hideo wants to put together a organization of underground weapon dealers and goes over how they get past the security features and how the weapons work with the nano robots and what the weapon dealer's favorite soda is and blah blah blah blah. Two things Hideo 1. We will just fill in the blanks ourselves and 2. We don't give a shit. The moment you make nano robots that improve a soldier's ability and then make a whale sounding thing that messes with them; we don't need to know how they interact.

However I do see where this mentality comes from. I've seen so many think tanks in forums where people with too much time on their hands talk about the most miniscual details from there favorite form of media and after going over several different theories they have to have the question answered. Whether to increase their e-penis by being proven right or just being a little too into whatever it is they care about they demand that the people behind the project fulfill the gap. In conclusion, I blame the internet.

 

[Omrosa Samosa]

no idea if this has been mentioned already because I haven't read the entire comment stream yet, but one game where I thought the audio logs had potential was Batman: Arkham Asylum. The tapes of inmate interviews could have given a greater insight into the villains of Gotham (especially to gamers not familiar with the DC universe)and I personally thought they would have added greatly to the atmosphere and experience whilst working your way around the island. This WOULD have been the case if it weren't for the obvious dross each inmate spouted in the tapes. They told you nothing other than a bunch of cliches related to each character, like Joker's random jokes and Croc's cannibalism innuendos. YES YOU LIKE EATING PEOPLE WE GET IT!
If the conversations in the tapes had more substance then maybe they could've improved the narrative of the whole game. Alas, an opportunity missed i feel...

 

[GodKlown]

I can take or leave either written or recorded logs. Frankly, if the game does such a bad job of telling a story through the visual spectrum or through gameplay, a few horribly recorded pieces of info are not going to be the saving grace. But this all calls back to where developers put their priorities in gaming. It has to look as pretty as possible, but not make a lot of sense. As long as everything is loosely tied together in a messy narrative spoken in the introduction, then everyone should be happy.
In Mass Effect, nearly every new thing you touched got its own entry in your log, describing what it is and/or the history behind it. In Prototype, you were required to learn as much as you could about the plot behind the game through ingesting people with information to finish your Web of Intrigue (which sounds like some lousy Spiderman game to me) just to earn an achievement.
I'm willing to accept that different people have different reasons to entertain themselves. If I wanted to listen to someone drone on about their lives and what is going on, then I could sit online and listen to podcasts. If I wanted to sit and read a shitload of text describing something or postulating about events, then I could... oh wait, that's why I come to these forums. Just because you stick a randomly generated nobody into a game does not equate with them getting ample opportunities to run their mouths off about how life in this virtual environment sucks while they are cleaning toilets on an abandoned space station full of demonic alien life forms. Give it time before both written and audio logs are done away with and replaced with video logs... you know, like cut-scenes. Oh well, already screwed up that prediction.

 

[THGhost]

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.

Of course you can. Anyone that can't multi-task can't be a very good gamer.

 

[sketchesofpayne]

Yahtzee, Actually the need to beat players over the head with story can be warranted. Half-life had subtle story, but your dipshit friend Matt didn't get it and won't shut up about it.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Best use of audio logs? The Malkavian Primogen, Doctor Grout, in Bloodlines. His slow and steady descent into rampant paranoia while you explore the Escher-esque house really doesn't prepare you for the point where

Spoiler

You find out that he isn't actually paranoid and has sealed his wife's corpse ina giant bell jar to protect her

 

[Hexgnome13]

Honestly, Borderlands had one of the funniest sets of audio logs I've ever seen. Even though the game didn't have much story, listening to Tannis go crazy while completing grinding fetch quests did lighten things up a bit.