Draven

After watching the Doom 3 and Halo 2 trailers, I've decided that I am officially tired of cutscenes.

Even if they are using the game's engine, I would rather see the story advanced with you in control, like Medal of Honor or Half-Life. I don't want to watch pre-rendered footage that has the character doing things you aren't able to do in the actual game. It's unfair, and boring, since I really want to get to actually playing the game.

Watching those trailers, I found myself interested when it showed gameplay footage, but reaching for a skip button during the cutscenes. If I have an option to skip a cutscene I will.

What does everyone else think about them?

Groucho

I agree. I'm not a big fan of the cutscenes. I also liked the Half-Life approach that tells the story without them. If there must be a cut-scene I prefer it be done in-game rather than watching a prerendered movie.

PixyJunket

Oh man I could have a field day in this thread.

To be honest though, I'm much more sick of games that are predominantly cut-scenes getting so much ****ing acclaim. It makes me sick to see certain "games" winning Game of the Year awards and such when they hardly classify as a video game in the first place.

Joshic

I love seeing cutscenes when I'm playing a game. It shows that the developers put extra effort to raise production values on a game.

However, if I am demo-ing a game or previewing a game, I don't want to see cutscenes at all. In this case I want to see what the game is about, and in-game footage is the only thing I'm interested in.

Groucho

I would rather see that extra effort being put back into the game itself.

PixyJunket

Amen brotha.

Michael Corvin

I just hate when you see a commercial or a promo for a game and it is all pre-rendered cut scenes. Blah.

xmiyux

I like end game cutscenes or cutscenes between entire campaigns as a sort of cool reward for completing something big. Blizzard does this perfectly in my book - short scenes to set up a mission (like 20 seconds) and a bigger cool movie at the end of the game (or in the case of Warcraft III between the campaign switch of races).

I also don't mind the little short cutscenes in Age of Mythology either.... but short is the key... when it hits a full minute to a minute and a half with regularity i think it just delays me actually playing too much and becomes irritating.

finbogg

Personally, I like cut scenes if they're well done and are telling a larger story. I enjoyed the cutscenes in HALO for their ability to fill in the blanks and make a more complete story.

I remember the Tomb Raider series used to have really cool cut scenes that were fun to watch. These were really nice looking mini-movies, pre-rendered as opposed to the game engine stuff you see now. I'd prefer that most games go back to prerendered stuff since the game engines can't usually hold up.

I also like to be able to skip them though if I'm not interested.

Metal Gear strikes me as poor/overuse of cutscenes. I barely remember playing that game, since you spend most of you time watching the cutscenes.

Draven

Exactly. It gives you NO indication of what the game itself will look like. The cutscenes could be gorgeous but the game could look like tired ass.

Josh H

I love cutscenes, as well as they are well done and the story is halfway decent.

I like a good story in games, it helps me get immersed in the game and gives me a desire to play the game and find out what happens.

As I've gotten older, I have a hard time keeping interest in games that have no story and the point is to just try to get a high score or whatever. I've found myself watching movies and reading a lot more than playing games the past couple of years, and it's usually when a game with a decent story and great gameplay comes out that gaming will dominate my free time for a while.

I do agree about the ads featuring cutscenes only suck ass though.

menaz

I agree that developers should definately go back to prerendered cutscenes. Unlike some of you, I have always been a big fan of what you people seem to call movies and not games. Final Fantasy 8 always kept me going with its beautiful cutscenes. When I first started seeing clips from the PS2, I remember thinking "WOW, imagine what the prerendered stuff will look like" same thing with the xbox, but then it turns out everything got turned into real time stuff, which for me was a huge dissapointment, it doesnt give the same feeling prerendered stuff does.

Being a big Metal Gear fan, I MUST disagree with you:P I had a great time playing through that game and throughout the whole game thinking it was like I am in control of a movie.

illennium

Good game developers, like filmmakers and writers, are trying to tell a story and develop characters with actual human emotions. Anyone with vision knows that this is where games are going, that this is the only way they can garner a serious global audience spread across all demographics the way that films do.

Unfortunately, the technology is not at a stage yet where game developers can do that successfully using only existing game engines. Filmmakers deal with similar, though opposite problems. The question for a filmmaker is how to create a fake world in the real one using special effects. Video games have the fantasy world down, but have no grounding in real human emotions. When was the last time you actually believed that two game characters were in love?

Cutscenes are an effort to address this obvious shortcoming of video games. I'm sure that it's a stopgap measure until graphics engines are good enough to convey the developers' visions. Ironically, while the battlecry of the game enthusiast on this board is "gameplay over graphics," in the end it will be graphics that allow games to reach a global audience and elevate them from their current primitive state.

fujishig

Wow, you have to love Xenosaga then...

I like prerendered cutscenes in RPGs. I think people tend to forget that we used to have to scroll through tons and tons of text instead of being able to just watch a scene (Xenogears was infamous for this). I do hate not being able to skip them, though, especially if you've already played through it once before. I also wish that some games had an option to go through all of the cutscenes after you finish the game.

The Franchise

I don't mind cut-scenes but I hate (HATE) it when you can't skip them. It sucks when you play part of a game, get to a boss cutscene, die and then have to rewatch the boss cutscene before you fight him/her.

That's what I don't get about people who "hate" FF or MGS games. You can skip the cutscenes if you like and still play the game. Granted I would say the cutscenes add a lot of emotion to the character and draw you into the story more. I loved the scene in the first MGS where sniper wolf died in the snowfield. Brilliant and very emotional. Some of the expounding in FFX was a bit much but it still let you get closer to the characters as opposed to reading text boxes.

Draven

I've never really thought about it, but I don't actually play games for the "story" anymore. I'm not sure I ever did.

I mean, I played through a lot of RPGs in my time, Dragon Warrior on my NES and FFVII on my roommates PS1, but it was mostly just to see the cool spells and weapons you get towards the end.

I'm playing Golden Sun right now, but I am skipping through the dialogue as fast as possible. I haven't gone out of my way to read the computer screens in Metroid Prime, because I really don't care what happened, and if a datastick doesn't have a code in Splinter Cell, I don't make a point of reading it.

One of the reasons I've been enjoying Battlefield 1942 so much is that you are a participant nearly 100% of the time.

I guess I am saying that I personally enjoy gaming as a way to test my own abilities (like problem solving, skilled shooting, whatever) rather than getting wrapped up in a particular story.

I want the characters to stop talking so I can start playing.

Kainan

Again someone saves me the time of typing. I can think of 2 games for sure that bothered me and they were highly acclaimed games. One has the initials FFX and the other has MGS2. Hmm.. wonder what these movies.. I mean gamese could be.
I personally like cut scenes as a reward for conquering a level or something like that but I don't want a cut scene every freaking 5 minutes! My son was so irritate with MGS2 that he started asking me if something was wrong with the game. It was like you move two steps and get a movie, move two steps and get another movie. UGH!

Oh, and that is a VERY good point about needing to have the ability to skip them. If you have to play a level 20 times then you are more ticked to see that killer cut scene than you are glad.

Joshic

This is probably the most insightful and well-written post I have ever read on this forum. kudos to you illennium

menaz

FINAL FANTASY 8!

Lastblade

Metal Gear Solid 2, that's about as bad as it gets.

menaz

All this talk about MGS2 is making me want to play it. I am going to go throw that in right now and play through the movie for my 50th time, and enjoy every minute of it.

Groucho

The bottom line for me is this: I like videogames as interactive entertainment. If I want to sit and watch a movie, I'll pop in a DVD.

uteotw

I don't like 'em much either, MGS got old for me, but I didn't mind The Getaway nearly as much (although I also HATE it when you can't skip 'em if you want). The Enter the Matrix scenes are awesome, because they're movie-like and not that long (and they're fully skip-able).

Josh H

I can understand that. I'm by no means a hardcore gamer, and could care less whether I'm good at games or not and have no real desire to test my ability.

I play games to relax and unwind, much like the reasons I love to watch movies and read, so I prefer a game that's not too taxing on the hand eye coordination and also has a good story.

I do like puzzle solving and exploration elements though, I don't mind extending some effort there. I just don't get a lot of enjoyment over fighting a boss umpteen times to get the pattern and timing down just right.

TOPDAWG

Damn right bother I'm playing Xenosega and I love RPG's but god darn this thing is boring me to darn death. I mean holy crap lit me at least read what people are saying I don't need a in-game movie every time someone talks more then a min. Also I hope the new MGS has less movies cause the last one made me almost go to sleep sometimes. Damn it KONAMI watching two darn heads talk for a hour is darn boring.

I think the first MGS on PSX had the prefect mix of game and cut-scenes for a movie type game. Also I don't agree with you on the halo2 thing if they follow the same pace the the first halo did then it will be just fine. Halo had the prefect mix of game and cut-scenes.

Also your right all movies should skip-able and if you don't watch them you should still be able to follow along with the story pretty much.

PS. The above is what I think and does not state true fact.

PPS. Wow seems my spelling is getting a little better now hot darn. Wow I was thinking this forum would censer damn I must have used it in my post like 10 times I fixed it now :P Sorry about that kids.