Poll: Cutscenes vs QTEs

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

I'd prefer cutscenes, because the only games I know that pulled off QTE's right, are God of War and RE4. Plus, if a cutscene is good then it's far more enjoyable than just being able to control your character during it, despite how limited you are. See "Assassin's Creed" or the radio sequences in Gears of War, and some moments in Half-Life, etc. CoD series is the only one that's done this right, but it usually shoves you in a position where it's stupid to not look in the direction of the cutscene, etc.

If half-life gets some kind of "Nodding recognition" then it would be 1000000X more awesome.

"Hey gordon, need a medkit?" *move mouse up and down* "Here ya go."

 

[Phoenix Arrow]

I'm simple minded and enjoy pretty cutscenes. Throw in some cool lights or some purple and I'll be satisfied.

The CS in Half-Life were very good. You just sort of walked around and Eli or whoever would be talking to you as you collected supplies, stared at the Vortigaunts eye or looked at the map if you felt like doing it properly.
I don't understand why a lot more RPGs don't do this. Let's take FFVIII for some character names, Rinoa is chatting away and you get 4 text options flash up. You hit the button for what you want Squall to say, but if you take to long then it just goes on regardless.

 

[AceDiamond]

I think Quick Time Events can be used right (Force Unleashed I think did a great job by having each button in a QTE chain performing the same function as it would normally, "Y" shooting lighting for example), but there are few games that do use them right.

 

[Janus Vesta]

Cutscenes are good if they are short and to the point. 2-3 minutes at most. No 90 minute cut scenes (MGS4 I'm looking at you.) There should not be a long exposition with nothing to keep you interested. If I want to watch long plots filled with exposition I'll watch Star Trek (and I do.)

QTEs are used far to ften in a wrong way. QTEs are random things which appear 3 or 4 times in a game. For QTEs to work they need to be a core part of gameplay and be frequent. Most importantly they need to stop being 'Press X to not die' at most they should take some health away. If QTEs are used they sould follow the normal control scheme (jump is still jump). It doeesn't matter if QTEs are long or short (though long ones should slow down for button presses.) The most important part should be showing the player something cool and having them interact while not holding there attention at the bottom of the screen. Most importantly QTEs should be COMPLETELY OPTIONAL, press select/back to enter a QTE when a button prompt appears on screen, don't press it and you take care of the situation normally.

TL;DR - QTEs are misused, cutscenes suck and HL method is the best.