Cinematics and Tutorials in the gaming industry - A step too far?

[AlouetteSK]

Cinematics aren't really too horrible from my experiences, unless one decides to screw the player over by either:
A. Giving characters "cutscene powers" that are unavailable to the player.
B. Forcing an event that the player could have prevented had it been regular, i.e. plot-induced stupidity / sudden character death even though you spend the last hour doing just fine vs enemies. (e.g. Kingdom Hearts 2 with characters struggling against a few heartless.

Tutorials on the other hand are largely dependent on the game. Having them skippable / optional is always a plus. On games with tons of shortcuts and commands, these are very welcome. But having them shoved into games all the time just to railroad the player for the first section is annoying. I do not need to relearn how to dive under obstacles and sneak. Just let me do it without sicking the Navi-equivalent on me.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

The ever-classic "Not a cutscene, you can walk and stuff, but we'll spout dialogue at you in the meanwhile (I believe this was pioneered by Half-Life, though it was better done in #1 then later on) where you end up teabagging the NPC and doing crab-dances while waiting for them to shut up.

I hate this method of story telling/dialogue. If I really can't do anything besides walk around, why not have a cutscene with good framing and such? Movies have proven good cinematography works and pulls the audience in. Hearing dialog between 2 characters from a zoomed out camera looking at basically 2 still characters is not better than a cutscene. Cutscenes aren't evil.