Poll: To Skip or To Pause

[Delock]

This question has been bugging me for awhile, and it's always come down to what sort of game I'm playing. Being someone who buys new and replays the hell out of shorter or just sometimes quicker paced games, I love to be able to skip cutscenes when I'm returning to a game for the gameplay. However, when I'm playing a long RPG or any other game where the time commitment is serious and I don't particularly enjoy having to postpone dinner for the sake of a cutscene but refuse to miss out on the story, the ability to pause them is a godsend.

However, if I were to choose between the two, I value the ability to pause more than to skip.

What about you fellow Escapists? Which option is a must have?

 

[krazykidd]

To pause them is more important . But i never skip cut-scenes ever . To skip cutscenes is like skipping pages of a book . You COULD do it but why would you ? Even when you have to rewatch a cutscene because you are replaying a game or because you died at a boss is a good thing . For the former , we would you replay it but want to skip some of the content? Do you re-read a book only to skip the pages you don't like? And if you died at a boss , well the obvious solution is to not die , and since most games don't have a penalty for death, i find at LEAST having to rewatch a cutscene an adaquate punishment . Even so , when you read a book and don't understand a part , you reread it.

All this to say , pausing> skipping .

 

[Zhukov]

Skip, obviously.

If I have to leave the room and miss a cutscene I can just load a save.

Yes, that's potentially frustrating, but it's not as bad as having to watch the same poorly written cutscene for the tenth time because I died.

 

[endtherapture]

Ah The Witcher 2 has both, what a perfect game.

In cut scenes you can just click escape and the in game menu comes up so you can pause it. Plus all are skippable. How great.

 

[Zhukov]

Ah The Witcher 2 has both, what a perfect game.

In cut scenes you can just click escape and the in game menu comes up so you can pause it. Plus all are skippable. How great.

The skip function in that game didn't work for me half the time.

I had to watch the first big monster show up like seven times, because I couldn't hear that one lady shouting, "Use the krygusrtbgh spell!"

 

[Andy Shandy]

It can't be that difficult to have pausing the cutscene set to the Start button and have something like the Select or Back button set to skipping the cutscene, surely not?

 

[Delock]

It can't be that difficult to have pausing the cutscene set to the Start button and have something like the Select or Back button set to skipping the cutscene, surely not?

I myself absolutely love the ability to do both, but I don't need to skip cutscenes unless we're talking JRPG length ones as much as I always seem to need the ability to pause them. It's like how certain games also allow you to replay cutscenes, which I really don't need but it's nice to have (in these circumstances, you need to be able to skip them in the cutscene viewer section as I remember once getting "trapped" in one of these because it wouldn't let me exit until the selected scene was up and the cutscene in question was just long enough to make this annoying).

 

[TehCookie]

To pause them is more important . But i never skip cut-scenes ever . To skip cutscenes is like skipping pages of a book . You COULD do it but why would you ? Even when you have to rewatch a cutscene because you are replaying a game or because you died at a boss is a good thing . For the former , we would you replay it but want to skip some of the content? Do you re-read a book only to skip the pages you don't like? And if you died at a boss , well the obvious solution is to not die , and since most games don't have a penalty for death, i find at LEAST having to rewatch a cutscene an adaquate punishment . Even so , when you read a book and don't understand a part , you reread it.

All this to say , pausing> skipping .

Yes when finished with a book I will go back and just read my favorite parts and when I'm playing a game I like to go back and just play my favorite parts (I'll often have a save before it so I can just jump right into it as well). As for the dieing and having to rewatch it I say HOLY FUCK NO I HATE YOU YUNALESCA!!! *ahem* sorry about that, but having to watch a 20 min cutscene before a boss is infuriating. You may call it punishment, I call it a waste of time (I was a casual gamer before popcap /hipster).

Still I like Bayonetta's way of having both.

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

It can't be that difficult to have pausing the cutscene set to the Start button and have something like the Select or Back button set to skipping the cutscene, surely not?

Or, crazy notion, have a submenu in the pause screen, one button for skip, the other for un-pause

 

[The_Lost_King]

To pause them is more important . But i never skip cut-scenes ever . To skip cutscenes is like skipping pages of a book . You COULD do it but why would you ? Even when you have to rewatch a cutscene because you are replaying a game or because you died at a boss is a good thing . For the former , we would you replay it but want to skip some of the content? Do you re-read a book only to skip the pages you don't like? And if you died at a boss , well the obvious solution is to not die , and since most games don't have a penalty for death, i find at LEAST having to rewatch a cutscene an adaquate punishment . Even so , when you read a book and don't understand a part , you reread it.

All this to say , pausing> skipping .

What if I don't want to watch the horrid cut scenes from Max Payne 3. They are the reason I won't get Max Payne 3. If I ever di in any other replays I would want to skip those monstrosities. They look horrible and annoying. I couldn't even sit t hrought the intro without wanting to punch whoever's Idea it was to do that.
Skipping. Especially for anything on a console because you can pause using the ps/xbox button. If I have seen this cutscene 1 million times and I am sick of it I want to skip it.

 

[evilneko]

Deus Ex Human Revolution is the first game I've played with the ability to both pause and skip cutscenes. I definitely wish it would become a standard feature.

 

[ThePS1Fan]

Red Dead Redemption had both pausing and skipping if I remember correctly. It is a great idea to have both.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

To pause them is more important . But i never skip cut-scenes ever . To skip cutscenes is like skipping pages of a book . You COULD do it but why would you ? Even when you have to rewatch a cutscene because you are replaying a game or because you died at a boss is a good thing . For the former , we would you replay it but want to skip some of the content? Do you re-read a book only to skip the pages you don't like? And if you died at a boss , well the obvious solution is to not die , and since most games don't have a penalty for death, i find at LEAST having to rewatch a cutscene an adaquate punishment . Even so , when you read a book and don't understand a part , you reread it.

All this to say , pausing> skipping .

have you ever dealt with this?

dreadfully annoying:


that is almost 2 and a half minutes long, not to mention getting back to it, such a pain in the ass playing it on a harder mode. all your doing is being a pain in the ass if you can't skip it after seeing it once.

OT: being able to do both, but i think it's better if you can only skip after you've seen it once (either in new game+ or if you died and had to go to last checkpoint/save)

sometimes a piss break tends to troll you right at a cutscene, or the phone, so being able to pause is absolutely needed.

(btw, i reread some of my favorite books all the time, and i usually always skip pages, especially journal logs or anything along that mumbo jumbo. Seriously, i've flown through books at 2+ books a day pace with this method.)

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Unskippable and unpausable cut scenes are pretty much a sin and can destroy speed runs of a game. The only other thing up there is quick time events in a cut scene randomly without any warning.

 

[BartyMae]

Skip. Going from Twilight Princess to Skyward Sword was extremely jarring simply because of your inability to skip dialogues and cutscenes. Which is ironic, because I wouldn't have minded not being able to skip in Twilight Princess, (seeing as I actually *like* that game and its dialogues and cutscenes), but I really, really wanted it in Skyward Sword.

Pausing? Would be nice, but I don't think I would hardly ever use it, so don't care too much either way. Actually, I get really, really annoyed when you try to skip a cutscene and it pauses instead, (ala Half-Life). But that's just me.

 

[Raggedstar]

Snip and enter Riku vs Sora cutscene clip

This.

THIS is the reason why we need skipping cutscenes. ALWAYS. I could get killed, make my way back to the room, chat with my friends meaningfully about how I got my ass kicked, fetch a snack, and then have time to spare to get your controller and get your ass kicked again. Not being able to skip cutscenes is a BIG reason why I haven't touched this game since. LONG ASS CUTSCENES that you can't skip (even after seeing them once). Unforgivable.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Snip and enter Riku vs Sora cutscene clip

This.

THIS is the reason why we need skipping cutscenes. ALWAYS. I could get killed, make my way back to the room, chat with my friends meaningfully about how I got my ass kicked, fetch a snack, and then have time to spare to get your controller and get your ass kicked again. Not being able to skip cutscenes is a BIG reason why I haven't touched this game since. LONG ASS CUTSCENES that you can't skip (even after seeing them once). Unforgivable.

exactly, if it was a simple "you died. reload?" and it reload's you to the beginning of the boss battle or the few seconds of cutscene before the battle starts, i'd be fine with it, but NOOOOO, having to sit and wait just to get your ass kicked apparently is lot's of fun in japan.

a shame really, that game is so much fun, but god damn if that doesn't get annoying, especially if you replay it.

 

[Lilani]

It can't be that difficult to have pausing the cutscene set to the Start button and have something like the Select or Back button set to skipping the cutscene, surely not?

I was thinking the same thing. It is rather frustrating to get interrupted by something while watching a very important cutscene, and it is also frustrating to have to watch cutscenes you've seen a million times before.

 

[Quaidis]

I want to skip a cut-scene if I'm forced to repeatedly go through it (or it's like Metroid: Other M). I want to pause a cut-scene if I'm watching something long and epic, then some jerk enters the room to talk about their coffee not being the right flavor while I learn the true secret of Fiora. *shakes fist*

But additionally, I want cut-scenes to enter an 'extras' menu where I can re-view them at any time during a game. So, if I get past a cut-scene and I missed part of it or something crucial happened and some asshole decided at that very moment to tell me about this author I've never heard of, I want the ability to go back and re-watch it at leisure.