Stolen Pixels #214: X, A, B, Win!

[The Wooster]

I thought Mass Effect 2 did them pretty well, with lots of "Press X to be Badass"

I found nine times out of ten I would hit those reflexively and end up being a complete goat fucker by accident.

Cries of "oh shit I didnt mean to do that" while the smell of burning flesh wafted through the air were common during my playthrough.

 

[RejjeN]

and then go do something actually fun, like watching the grass grow?"

Come on grass grow! Grow, grow like you mean it!

 

[MasterSplinter]

I went to read the first experienced points and was baffled to discover Shamus started to complain at stuff right of the bat. I assumed he started young, positive an naive to become the grumpy self we know now with the passing of several years.

Heh...

One day a game will come along that actually makes QTE look good. Indigo Prophecy came close, but then it had that section where a character was talking, and you have to do some QTE to represent the another character focusing on what he's saying... you know, that thing that I'd like to be doing? Consequently, I have no idea what was said during that entire scene, but I guess at least my character knows what's going on.

Was it the part of the autopsy? I know what you mean, i tried to do both and totally sucked. I always thought that was strange, the police (the character you play) had to pretty much make the entire analysis on his/her own, then why have a forensic doctor there at all? Isn't it his job to do it?

 

[Acalla]

God of War III at least puts its triggers in the corners and sides of the screen, so once you work out which prompt is which, you can then watch the scene and just use peripheral vision to tell what button to press. But I'm not sure that's actually better.

I agree with the way GoW3 handled it. If you are going to have them in your game, and lets face it, they don't seem to be going away, at least make it so I don't have to look down at the controller to remember which button to press.

 

[Mstrswrd]

One day a game will come along that actually makes QTE look good.

God of War III did it pretty well, using the edges of the screen, so that you can focus on the game instead.

Though the early God of War games also did it well, they fell into the trap of having the button be a huge overlay in the center of the screen. GoWIII, you barely even noticed them. You just kind of instinctually pushed them.

 

[Dhatz]

it's not healthy to mix laughter with anger, I always have to cough after i laugh, and boy did I cough!

If you make your players paranoid that you're going to make them press arbitrary buttons to not die in a bloody cutscene, they're going to be watching for prompts and not the scene, duh.

I would like to have QTE midcutscene only if it was stopped time and i could chose which one to do.

 

[V'icternus]

This is the one AND ONLY way the Wii version of this game is better. The Wiimote motions are always the same, turn and push, and it's piss-easy, even when locked in a lightning showoff with the Emporer.
So you always get to see what you're doing.
Problem being that it's on the Wii, so comperatively, it's still shit, and nothing that isn't in a cutscene looks very good at all!
...Except the aformentioned lightning showoff, and maybe some of the more fantastic force powers. (But they lose their charm when you use them for the four hundred bazillionth time.)

And all they have to do to make them marginally better is make TWO options flash up, and not have a time limit on them.
...And not have them in cutscenes.
Y'know.
Turn them into gameplay.

 

[MazzaTheFirst]

I liked the system in Brutal Legend. While not really a QTE, you had to hit specific keys in order as a slider crossed the screen to activate an ability. (Guitar solos.) While doing this solo your character would perform an animation and a big light show would explode around you. At first you need to see the keys you are pressing and miss most of the solo eyecandy. But if you get good at it you can memorize them and press the right keys off by heart. So only near the end of the game I actually started seeing all the cool animations they perform.

It was always the same sequence and always the same animations, so I really liked that overall.

 

[JonnWood]

Prince of Persia: Two Thrones, allowed you to sneak up on most mooks until the screen distorted a certain way, press a button to initiate the QTE, and, and it would start the animation. Press the correct button when the Dagger flares and the screen flashes, and the animation continues. Fail, and your opponent recovers and throws you off, now alerted to your presence, as are any of their friends in the area. You get to watch the cool animation, you're still technically playing, and there are no distracting onscreen prompts. Or you could just slash them to bits the normal way. Up to you.

Arkham Asylum had a similar system, with the flashing icon that appeared over foes' heads that tells the player they should hit the counter button, and the upcoming Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is supposed to have something similar.

 

[Azmael Silverlance]

i just noticed someting interesting at the bottom of the comic strip....copyright the escapist....

So if someone put this around on the internet you guys can actually sue them?

 

[Alpha1Niner]

So true and it bugged me to no end. Took me awhile to get the pattern down just so I can see how the fight went, especially the boss battles. -_-

 

[EpicPancakes]

Honestly they could change the cinematic fight to an 8-bit fight while i press the buttons and i wouldn't even realize it xP

 

[Kajt]

Hehe... so true. Happens to me all the time.

 

[Hyperactiveman]

Best QTE's I've played in... Mechassault 2 [Hacking using the suit armour]

Not just mashing buttons but using sequencing and doing it quicker than you opponent.

 

[MGlBlaze]

They're especially awful in horror games. In F.E.A.R. 2, instead of being helpless against ghosts, its a quicktime event to kill them. And Dead Space 2 seems to be going the QTE route.

Listen up designers, I AM NOT SCARED IF I HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OVER EVERYTHING!

That's known as 'paradox of control' and is one of the first fucking things they teach you as a game designer, at least in the course I'm doing. In order for the player to get immersed in the game and feel in control, some control actually needs to be taken away (there's the 'paradox' bit). As you mentioned, needing to do something other than a damn QTE would be far more effective; it would give things a greater sense of threat and would heighten the tension the player feels. As it stands it's just "Oh, I press this button and everything's fine again".

It should be something more like: "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU- DON'T LET IT GET CLOSE."

 

[samsonguy920]

I have to wonder how many QTE's are thrown in because of time crunches in developing?
"We got two weeks left to release, but we have four sequences yet to program, what do we do?
....
....
Screw it, just make em quicktime events."

 

[khoryos]

It's another thing I think Shenmue got right - Command QTEs.
At certain points in Shenmue II - often during fights - the screen would freeze, a very distinctive tone would play, then it'd flash a sequence of buttons.
You hit them (or not!), things resume and you perform the relevant action.

 

[BlackKraken]

Recently played resident evil 5 again and got annoyed by the damn QTE's, especially the "mash the button faster than is humanly possible, to not die" ones. (Thankfully there are only a couple of those.)

Not as bad as 4's though, they were a special kind of taking the piss.

Although it did occasionally do the opposite to the comic and actually make you pay more attention to the cutscene.

 

[Kojiro ftt]

A thousand times YES. This is why QTE sucks so hard.