Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Zero Punctuation: Uncharted

Posted by _J_ at 5:27 PM

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15 comments:

_J_ said...

Spoiler Alert: The Bad Guy Dies.

I don't know what the fuckwits on Kotaku were bitching about this review was delightfully insulting, accurate, and entertaining.

And FUCK quicktime events.

February 27, 2008 at 5:33 PM
Roscoe said...

Ghee hee hee.

February 27, 2008 at 5:40 PM
_J_ said...

I really like his approach to spoilers.

February 27, 2008 at 5:47 PM
Mike Lewis said...

And FUCK quicktime events.
when was the last time you played a game with quick time events?

February 27, 2008 at 5:58 PM
Mike Lewis said...

i was totally weired out by the live action bit.

February 27, 2008 at 5:59 PM
_J_ said...

I played that Resident Evil Wii game over Christmas break. It had quick time events.

February 27, 2008 at 6:01 PM
Roscoe said...

yeah, they're a bit more along the lines of his QT events are okay, if you merge them with gameplay, and make them somewhat common or expectable.

February 27, 2008 at 7:52 PM
MA17 said...

BITCH, THIS AIN'T A CUTSCENE! PRESS A! PRESS A! YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO SMOKE A BOWL! YOU STILL PLAYIN! JUMP, GYPSIE!

February 27, 2008 at 10:26 PM
_J_ said...

"You don't need to load it. We did that shit for you."

Indeed.

February 27, 2008 at 11:51 PM
Unknown said...

Bitch, Zombie's in the room! His axe is on fire! He killed your parents! Shoot him in the head! SHOOT HIM IN THE HEAD!

February 28, 2008 at 2:00 AM
_J_ said...

Yeah...

I hate quick time events.

February 28, 2008 at 9:29 AM
MA17 said...

God of War was the game that really made me aware of what we're apparently calling quick time events, and I still appreciate the idea, especially as implemented in that game because they were something of a required Mortal Kombat fatality. You fight the hydra and bring his health down and then you press buttons in a certain sequence and utterly fuck his shit up. That's awesome to me because it mixes the player interactivity and cinematic elements of the sequence whereas other games typically keep them separate (fight the boss, then a cutscene takes over and you see him die spectacularly). Well, they used to. Before QTEs became a fucking fad.

Now that there are different kinds of QTEs, I think I can safely say that there are good ones and bad ones. The good ones make sense, don't come out of nowhere, and allow the player to fail without serious penalty and bad ones surprise you and kill you when you fail. Umbrella Chronicles had those, and are what Jay is talking about, and they're basically a GAME OVER: CONTINUE? screen that only gives you a half a second to put another quarter. It's not very fun because rather than giving the player something extra, they're there to take something away, that is, end the game.

Resident Evil 4 had good QTEs (mostly), and I would say that there were even times when they enhanced the gameplay, especially in the sequence with the mutant salamander thing that would knock you out of your boat, and you had to mash A and B repeatedly to get back in. That frantic button mashing complimented the panic appropriate to the situation very well.

I think what I'm getting at is that QTEs can expand the way in which the player interacts with the game via context unique moves, but sometimes they become "press A to not die" exercises which are absolutely a bad idea.

February 28, 2008 at 4:09 PM
Roscoe said...

The massive mutants with the tendrils out their backs are another good example..

is that El Gigante? or is that the name of the Chainsaw dudes? You know..the things where the wolf helps you out the first time?

and you take shots at the thing until the wormy things come out, and you QT -run up it's back and start chopping away at them until it dies.

February 28, 2008 at 5:04 PM
Unknown said...

Best QT events ever? Dragon's Lair, oh yeah!

February 29, 2008 at 1:08 AM
Roscoe said...

Space Ace was better!

February 29, 2008 at 2:38 AM

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