Breaking the 'fourth wall'
- Thread starter Rob Sharona
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I say the best tutorials and such are when the characters talk normally and the instructions are told though dialouge boxes. Of course this methoid of tutorials only work if you let the player say when the box vanishes. I'm yelling at you GTA4. Toke me ages to get those controls down 100%. While I think immersion one of the most important parts of a game, i'm also fine with the breaking of the 4th wall if done at moment not related to the story or only semi-related, such as seperate tutorial levels, not tutorials during the actual game.
Black and white had some good ones if you left it.
"hey, where's the boss gone? Let's see if we can rock the monitor over!"
"hey, where's the boss gone? Let's see if we can rock the monitor over!"
Timesplitters FP did it here and there
but Conkers Bad Fur Day and Conker Live and Reloaded (generally the same game)
i'm not a big fan of it in games, but hey it makes it more interesting
but Conkers Bad Fur Day and Conker Live and Reloaded (generally the same game)
i'm not a big fan of it in games, but hey it makes it more interesting
This is going to sound a tad pretentious but bare with me.
No More Heroes as an entity is designed to break the forth entirely.
It's very existance serves to make the player think constantly about why he or she is playing the game, indeed why they even bought the game in the first place.
To this end there are constant in game reminders of the 'false' nature of the game world - post boxes folding flat when hit for example - these essentially, and deliberately, create the very antithesis of immersion.
The addition of blood to the American - and only the American - release of the game is also a part of this artistic device.
No More Heroes as an entity is designed to break the forth entirely.
It's very existance serves to make the player think constantly about why he or she is playing the game, indeed why they even bought the game in the first place.
To this end there are constant in game reminders of the 'false' nature of the game world - post boxes folding flat when hit for example - these essentially, and deliberately, create the very antithesis of immersion.
The addition of blood to the American - and only the American - release of the game is also a part of this artistic device.
I really enjoy the breaking of the 4th wall in the Paper Mario world, well sort of, I enjoy that they seem to know they're made out of paper. Or in The Thousand Year Door where Hooktail jumps into the bleachers and eats the audience. That made me laugh really hard.
I guess this is just Meta-game-fun not necissarily breaking the 4th wall though.
Though there is a priceless moment in Silent Hill 3 where you try and make the main heroine reach into a toilet, something the hero from Silent Hill 2 had been forced to do to complete a puzzel, at which point she turns and addresses the player, asking what kind of "twisted weirdo" would make someone do this kind of thing.
I guess this is just Meta-game-fun not necissarily breaking the 4th wall though.
Though there is a priceless moment in Silent Hill 3 where you try and make the main heroine reach into a toilet, something the hero from Silent Hill 2 had been forced to do to complete a puzzel, at which point she turns and addresses the player, asking what kind of "twisted weirdo" would make someone do this kind of thing.
Max Payne:
When hes in a lift, if you shoot the speaker thats playing the horrible elevator music, Max says "thank you".
Also Warcraft 3:
if you click on an orc enough times he says "stop poking me"
and does "the movies" count:
When you are at the award ceremonies
When hes in a lift, if you shoot the speaker thats playing the horrible elevator music, Max says "thank you".
Also Warcraft 3:
if you click on an orc enough times he says "stop poking me"
and does "the movies" count:
When you are at the award ceremonies
one of the best games for the gamecube. i highly recommend it for any survival horror fan, one of the few game cube only m rated gamesinfernovolver said:
Even better is when a game finds a clever way to NOT break the fourth wall.
In Quest for Glory 2: Trial By Fire, somebody gives you directions to a location, in terms of how many "skareen lengths" you have to walk. It's treated like "skareen lengths" are just a unit of measurement in the game world.
Fallout 2 (I think) had a great way of breaking the fourth wall to the player, but not to the characters. If you take on a side quest to track down somebody, you ask for a description, and they say something like "brown hair, brown jacket, blah blah." One of your dialogue choices is something to the extent of "that kinda describes half the people around here," in reference to the fact that the game re-uses generic sprites for most NPCs.
In Quest for Glory 2: Trial By Fire, somebody gives you directions to a location, in terms of how many "skareen lengths" you have to walk. It's treated like "skareen lengths" are just a unit of measurement in the game world.
Fallout 2 (I think) had a great way of breaking the fourth wall to the player, but not to the characters. If you take on a side quest to track down somebody, you ask for a description, and they say something like "brown hair, brown jacket, blah blah." One of your dialogue choices is something to the extent of "that kinda describes half the people around here," in reference to the fact that the game re-uses generic sprites for most NPCs.
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (or it may have been Chaos Theory. Yep, on second thoughts, I'm pretty sure it was Chaos Theory). In a nice nod to the fourth wall and the previous game (which I've established is 90% likely to be PT and/or the original) Sam is placed on a boat and talking via satellite to his boss.
Paraphraseognomy:
Boss Guy: Careful, Sam, these men are on high alert.
Sam: Lemme guess, two alerts and the alarm goes off.
Boss Guy: No. What do you think this is, a videogame?
Paraphraseognomy:
Boss Guy: Careful, Sam, these men are on high alert.
Sam: Lemme guess, two alerts and the alarm goes off.
Boss Guy: No. What do you think this is, a videogame?
I think they did some other stuff too, like when one of your party members leveled up he would say something like "I feel as if I've passed some arbitrary barrier and increased in power." And another, when you made him move a lot, would go "*huff* Need...more...action points..."end_boss said:
You clearly didn't play the one on the gamecube. It was constantly making references to your saved games and using and auto-pusher.Eagle Est1986 said:
I seem to recall one of the early discworld games doing this well.
If you clicked on the main hero (Rincewind) a number of times he would get annoyed and eventually take the pointer off you.
If you clicked on the main hero (Rincewind) a number of times he would get annoyed and eventually take the pointer off you.
Can't really think of any wall-breaking games, except one dubious case.
That game being Prince of Persia:SoT.
Each time you'd save, you'd hear the prince ask 'Would you like me to continue my story from hereon onward?', or something like that. Or, when you die 'No, that's not how it happened!'
Right before the final bossfight, you'll discover that he wasn't actually talking to you (I won't spoil it in case someone still wants to play that game; if you see it in a bargain bin: GET IT)
That game being Prince of Persia:SoT.
Each time you'd save, you'd hear the prince ask 'Would you like me to continue my story from hereon onward?', or something like that. Or, when you die 'No, that's not how it happened!'
Right before the final bossfight, you'll discover that he wasn't actually talking to you (I won't spoil it in case someone still wants to play that game; if you see it in a bargain bin: GET IT)
That's actually not breaking the fourth wall. In the game, the Prince is re-telling the story; what you are playing is a flashback as he describes it. When you die, it is explained as if the Prince told the story wrong. When you save, he's saying that he'll continue telling the story from that point later. It's actually a very clever way of NOT breaking the fourth wall, while at the same time justifying game conventions.Saphatorael said:
There's a game on the Nintendo DS called 'Contact' that both breaks the forth wall and maintains complete immersion in the game.
I think it's unique in that regard.
I think it's unique in that regard.
if the general tone of the title is humorous, then breaking the 4th wall can add an unexpected sense of levity. if however, the title is serious, then breaking the 4th wall is a cop out, an attempt to use self awareness to pre-emptively defend gameyness conventions or shortcomings within the title.