On Audio Logs

[Pipotchi]

Only audio logs I ever enjoyed were from System Shock 2... that will forever be my favorite game.

Systems Shock 2's audio logs were absolutely amazing, mainly because a lot of them were done by not just generic space marines but civilian staff, medical autopsies, engineers. Quite a few refered to the protagonist running around the ship so they gave the impression that you were not the sole survivor but others were running about just as terrified as you were

Edit, now tell me that log doesnt put you one edge http://www.strangebedfellows.de/shocklog/032_LOG0211.mp3

 

[CopperBoom]

*snip*
Audio logs fail when they are like Doom 3, not making sense and also sounding like "Oh no, he took away my chainsaw and he is using it on meeeee!"

Truth!
It is so funny when a recording where they die is wedged somewhere where nothing is. As if recorded themselves dying, the murdering creature turned off the record button *immediately* following the kill before the screaming can die out, and some one else found it and decided they wanted to keep it hidden like it was the last jaffa cake at the market nestled in the mung beans.

 

[ben---neb]

something my serial bum chums Valve have always demonstrated very well.

Valve, oh Valve, we love you, we do.

Now give us Episode 3.

 

[snowman6251]

I think the best audio logs ever were the bloodstains in Demon's Souls. They aren't actually audio logs obviously but they're little things lying on the floor and when you activate them you see the story of someone else going through the same ordeal as you. You see their experience and unfortunate end. Best of all these are real people, not some random developer created characters and nothing adds to the atmosphere better than seeing another real person meet his end at the hands of the evil skeleton coming towards you that you should really start to pay attention to.

 

[mjc0961]

In Doom 3, you could go back to playing the game after having started the log, and it would keep playing as you roamed the halls of the complex. But as was stated about Bioshock, getting into a fight tends to drown out the audio log, so after you've gone through the menus to start it, it's easier just to stay there and listen. :/

 

[Brotherofwill]

Reminds of of a point David Jaffe talked about in the latest Bonus Round: There's lots of in-game behind the scenes story-telling, but most of it is really poorly implemented.

Audio-logs are a little distracting and unrelatable, but I guess a lot of people prefer them to reading. I like it when the game doesn't try to shove so much content down my throat and finds a little bit more subtle a way to get the story across. I tend to love minimal story telling like Ico or SotC, where you basically have to read the situation yourself without anyone telling you some shit about what'll happen, what has happened or something along those lines.

 

[Xirdarch]

I find audio logs to be a great way to immerse yourself in an environment, but they can't stand on their own. A good audio log need to be found in an area that doesn't have enemies constantly attacking, but still builds up tension almost like your going along the same path as the person who made the audio log.
I still find diary pages to be a more intresting form of interactive story telling, mainly because the seem to require alot more thought as there being wrote down.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Messages scrawled on walls, scraps of paper, maybe a recording or two, an offhand comment from one of the tweaked-out, long ago waved goodbye to the last shreds of their sanity survivors or one of the bads you're about to shoot up. Together they produce a unique exposition, unraveling the fates of those that came before, or why things are in disarray. Alone, they just kind of leave something to be desired. Variation from location to location makes more sense, as not every location has access to all the materials at all times.

[sub]Good news. I figured what that thing you just incinerated did. It was a morality core they installed after I flooded the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin, to make me stop flooding the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin. So get comfortable while I warm up the neurotoxin emitters...[/sub]

 

[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.

 

[Uncle_Brainhorn]

You don't even play as a white guy in AvP, which only helps further convince me you didn't even beat the Marine Campaign. The first of which was saying they gave up on the dark corridors halfway through, when you in fact go back to the dark corridors immediately thereafter.

As for audio logs, they're annoying and break immersion.

 

[Azabondiia]

Perhaps Shadowman (PC, Dreamcast, N64 and PS1), had a lot going for it. Main character : Black, not a beefcake, spent 50% of his time as a Zombie (in deadside and at night-time).

Visually you do see the aftermath of many nasty things (the playrooms level in deadside is a fantastic example of this)

The soundtrack is littered with hinting sound design nitted into the music that hints at past or maybe even future horrors.

Nifty stuff, and not an audio log in site.


However Shadowman 2 (2nd bumming as I affectionatly call it), didn't do any of this and failed to deliver the atmosphere of the first. - though it still didn't have audio logs

Despite having a number of flaws, Shadowman is full of atmospheric win.

 

[Nomanslander]

I think it would be more interesting if you came across one or two audio logs now and then instead of the way it's handled now in every game.

When there's like 50 thousand of them laying around, you don't get the sense of urgency of what's in the logs. In Bioshock I can already see in front of my eyes what's happened to the place. A bunch of logs telling me stuff I missed out on only begs me to ask "show don't tell!"

If the audio logs don't contain backstory vital to what happened, I don't really care.

 

[C_Topher]

Whaaat? No update on FSG:TG? Don't tell us you've given up, I was just getting interested. WHY, YAHTZEE?! WHY?!

 

[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.

 

[Shjade]

Well, this went about the length of most of his EP write-ups as far as I can tell. Maybe he just didn't have room for a game update this time? Relax, breathe, listen to some peaceful audio logs. ;p

 

[L34dP1LL]

I never understood why so many people (that includes you, Yahtzee) praise Bioshock that much.
It's basically a carbon-copy of system shock 2, there aren't many new ideas in the game, almost anything can be related to SS2.

 

[Eversor]

Actually, audio logs do work better than written-down stuff in such games, where you explore some place where shit hit the fan recently. "Blimey, there are zombies gnawing on my legs, oh my!" is a little bit easier to record in audio format, rather than doing the same in handwriting while said zombies are gnawing said legs. At such moments, they just work better than written stuff.

That said, I did feel they were a bit hit-and-miss in Bioshock. They worked well when the recorded thoughts were about research in progress, because realistically, that's what scientists do. However, when it was "Har har, dem suckas really fell for my clever plans! Ain't I a smug bastard?", it felt a bit out of place. Why even record that, really, other than for artificial exposition?

 

[Kross]

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.

 

[TheTovarish]

Only audio logs I ever enjoyed were from System Shock 2... that will forever be my favorite game.

I agree, they made sense in System Shock. Man was that game scary; "Nurse! Hold him down! Hold him DOWN! YYYAAARRRGGG!"

 

[TheTovarish]

*snip*

recorders aimed at kids (forget the name...something-boy) came out, EVERYONE had them and recorded the most random stupid shit.

I believe that was the Yakback.