'Modern' games wanting to be movies so damn much.

[Kevin Hamilton]

This isn't anything new, and more a function of me being an old man, but yeesh have games from the last few generations of things gotten bad with this.

Just as an example I picked up the PS3 version of Dead Rising 2 on the cheap earlier in the night. Played for a half hour and think I got five minutes of actual gameplay in between twenty five minutes of cutscenes.

And of course, this is the norm with games now. I mean hell, the Metal Gear Solid games at various points you go: "Ok, great, this cinematic looks beautiful.. but it's been forty five minutes. Am I going to get to shoot something again at some point?"

Don't get me wrong, the writing, graphics, acting etc are EXPONENTIALLY better than they were when I was a kid and when games first started coming out (I was born in 78 kids. I'm an old man yellin at a cloud); and there are some incredibly immersive, fun experiences to be had in games of the last fifteen years or so. No argument there at all. In fact, the games as art thing really began when technology enabled creators to create interactive stories in a real way.

But, I dunno; old games are just more 'fun' to me. "This game is called Space Invaders. It's about invaders. They're from space. You shoot them to keep them from invading."

Obviously that's an example taken to a facetious extreme, but you get my point.

Eh, what can I tell you, my favorite game of all time is and shall remain Mike Tyson's Punchout!! and it never got beyond: 'figure out the patterns of these outrageous stereotypes, and then beat the shit out of them'.

Maybe it's just ME who is simplistic.

[Heartbreaker]

I know you mentioned Metal Gear Solid already, but I blame Hideo Kojima.

This also gives me an excuse to diss Kojima.

[BrodietheSlayer]

Comics are guilty of doing the same thing, which, I think has taken a lot of what used to make comics so special away from them. For example, thought bubbles. You used to be able to tell a LOT of story using those, as well as making the reader care about the characters more. Now everything is expressed almost entirely in dialogue, which just isn't the same. Comic creators all think they're making movies on paper now, which is sad, as there is a lost art in the old school way of writing comics that just isn't used anymore.

[Bub (BLM)]

I'd play an old sidescrolling Konami beat-em-up over just about anything modern if given the choice. I have enjoyed a few modern games, but like you said, "game" implies that I get to play, not watch.

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

Meh, it doesn't bother me. I like the old "get from the left of the screen to the right of the screen" games fine, but story helps, and modern games just tell better stories.

[Kevin Hamilton]

See it just depends for me. Something like Red Dead Redemption hit just the right mix of story and gameplay. I liked the cutscenes there because they added to your adventures as John Marston rather than took you out of it.

I'll confess though, the story is WAY secondary to gameplay for me in general. I've been playing a lot of Sinistar lately (hence the avatar). The story there? There's this big monster/spaceship named Sinistar. He lives. He hungers. Runrunrunrun coward. And then maybe blow him up if you can.

[Fade]

Sons of Liberty was pretty ridiculous at times..

I dunno. I'm not a hardcore gamer like I used I be..but I played one of the Call of Dutys (man I'm old) on the PS4 a few months ago an hated how cinematic it was..

I long for the "simpler games" too but PS2/3/Xbox/360 had some awesome games as well that I loved.

[wakko]

Depends on the game really. If it gets me engrossed then I don't care if it has a long cinematic. A good story always pulls me in. Now if the story is not so good but gameplay is fun, yeah keep the cinematic short.

[lockedontarget]

Games are in a better, more varied place than they have ever been. There are all kinds of modern games, from cutscene-heavy to old school arcadey stuff, and everything in between.

[Fundertaker]

Well, that's really more of certain AAA publishers being run by suits that only know two ways visual media can make lots of money (cinema and TV) and none of them are interactive. "Show don't tell" is something that every film maker should have engraved in their minds, the same way "let them play, don't show them" should for game makers. Unfortunately, AAA game makers have very little freedom in what they do nowadays (what with the suits in charge having to please the investors that put millions into the games).

[Powerline]

I don't entirely mind the "games trying too hard to be movie" thing as long as you know going in what you're getting into and if the gameplay has some substance. I'm no fan of Uncharted, but the draw of that series is the story, and even when it has long cutscenes the story and gameplay are good enough to keep people suckered into it. I'm sure there's other series like that, but that's the most jarring example I can think of.

I do think you can try way too hard; Metal Gear Solid 4 was such a stretch in that department it became totally ridiculous. The gameplay in that was excellent (even though the stealth element could be abandoned outright if you were simply good enough at the shooting mechanics), but it would often go 20-30 minutes without gameplay, and sometimes it might be multiple 20-30 minute cutscenes separated by maybe a minute or two of gameplay. That's straight unacceptable. I get Kojima thought it would be his big sendoff and that you have the urge to do everything because you won't get that shot again (in theory), but that was sticking the Q-Tip in too far. And to be honest, many complained about MGS 5's lack of story and cutscenes, and I know a lot was cut, but after 4 force-fed SO MUCH story down the player's throat, I thought the whole idea of the tape player and being able to listen to supplemental story elements on it on your own time (even while playing the main game) was a direct response to those critics, and I honestly thought it was a great call.

Another one that got me in this way was Persona 4 on the PS2. I picked it up on the super-cheap from a local thrift store (for about $2.50, and at the time Persona 4 was going for literally over 10 times that online and in the specialty secondhand stores), and being a guy that collects old games and always hearing good stuff about Persona (specifically 4) I felt so damn sure the game would be awesome. Boy howdy, was I blindsided by how much story was going on at the start. I still have the text strings with a friend of mine which pretty much turned into "It says I've played 2 hours and I've had, like, 1 tutorial fight and haven't been able to explore outside my house" "2 hours and 40 minutes in, my second fight" "You remember how FF7 had a battle before a word was even said? We're FAR away from that". And it probably doesn't help that I'd seen the anime series and knew the game's major twist, but I just hit a point where I was just spamming X in the cutscenes in a constant state of wanting the game to get on with it. And eventually the game stops with the hand-holding and lets you run free and has all kinds of options, but once I hit that point my interest was just straight-up gone.

[The Thread Barbi]

I neither have the time nor the patience to sit through cinematic cutscenes anymore.

I want to get right in, mash a few buttons, and have a few minutes to myself, and then it's back to the real world and responsibilities.

[xCompackx]

MGS 4 was definitely the one time where it felt unreasonable. It sucked too because the gameplay in MGS 4 was really good and if the cutscenes weren't so unbearably long, it might've been one of the best games on PS3. It's not horrible as is, but I've only played through twice.

[BayleyTiffyCodyCenaJudyHopps]

It's especially prevalent in a lot of recent AAA titles, and a bit understandable given how graphics and technology have advanced. So yeah, I can see how developers would want to strive for a "cinematic " experience.

Though a lot of independent games with smaller budgets can also have detailed narratives. Undertale's a prime example.

[CMPunkyBrewster]

L.A. Noire and Max Payne 3 are completely unplayable messes because of all the cinematics, IMO. I heard such good things about both of them, but to me they just felt like weird movies that I kept having to push buttons every 10 minutes to keep them going. Every once in a while, I'd think I was going to get to do something aaannnnnd...nope, just had to walk to this other area to trigger the next movie sequence.

A lot of games are turning into that kinda shit. Give me Splinter Cell any day.

[GuyOfOwnage]

Maybe I'm just a simpleton when it comes to gaming, but I find modern games just way too complicated.

[A Platypus Rave is Correct]

Depends on the type of game.

I love me some RPGs and they more or less live and die on their stories.

By the same token some like the later final fantasy rely far too heavily on Cutscenes to tell it where you get something like 5 minutes of gameplay for every 20 minutes of video.

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

The Last of Us had plenty of cutscenes that lasted for a while between gameplay but I thoroughly enjoyed it because it felt like a journey/movie. Metal Gear solid series tho is the best "movie" I ever played, kind of wish there would of been more of the longer cutscenes in 5.

[agent817]

As much as I love the MGS games, I remember thinking that the cutscene that went on between the fight against the Metal Gear Ray models and the fight against Solidus was just ridiculous. Hell, there was a save point in the middle. I remember looking at my VCR clock way back when and was all "When will this part end?" At least in MGS4 you had the ability to pause in the middle of a cutscene.

Then again, you also had The Getaway which had cutscenes that were not skippable unless you had already completed the mission and replayed it.

[Malcolm]

I kinda feel the same way. Even video game commercials are glorified movie trailers now.