RANT: QTE's suck or are rather very annoying

So this is my first rant on my new blog space. I hope to post many more since that is why blogs exist...right?

So, what are QTE's? If you have been a video gamer in the last generation or the current one, these gems have been around for awhile. Known as Quick Time Events, a person playing a game will be prompted with a series of button presses during a static cut scene in the video game. This allows a player some semblance of control over an otherwise static cut scene in the game.

I call it teh suck.

The earliest game I can recall utilizing this was 1983's Dragon Lair. The whole game was controlled by QTE's set in an animated world. At the time it was the most amazing thing to watch, visuals on par with Disney movies. Playing it, on the other hand, was an exercise in patience, memorization, and frustration. There was no skill except to have quick reflexes and hope you pushed the joystick in the right direction- fast. If you missed it, you died and had to replay the entire sequence over. Fun, huh?

Don't get me wrong many games, good or bad, have utilized this game design choice. The alternative was to have the player sit and twiddle their thumbs while watching these little movies with nothing to do. When gamers complained about the length of cut scenes and the lack of interactivity they lost when these cut scenes showed up, game designers leaned on QTE's to fill the need. Hoping to make the cut scenes more interactive, the player can be engaged while the game moves through its narrative and tells it story. 

Now, I don't want to get into the argument over story telling in video games. I think we still have huge steps to take in that direction, but the current slew of games do a pretty decent job of telling a story be it through cut scenes or purely through game play.

Examples of games with cut scenes and QTE's:

   

        RE5            Tomb Raider       God of War

Those without:

   

     Bioshock          Half Life 2           Fallout 3

My main beef with QTE's is in its implementation. I had an argument with Beerjedi, a buddy of mine, who loved Resident Evil 5, sinking almost 40 hours playing the game over and over. I enjoyed the game as well, except for the very end of the game where a series of QTE's frustrated the hell out of me, marring the otherwise enjoyable experience I had. I think QTE's are used, more so than not, to cover up sloppy development and/or story. It is a way to get away with lazy story telling or adding artificial padding in a game. Used sparingly, it is but an annoyance. Extensively using it does not allow the player to play and when you penalize a player for not hitting the right button quick enough and starting you over after an extended period of button slapping (I am talking to you Prince of Persia), to start the whole process again can make gamers like me  crazy enough to jump out a window.

When a game spends a ton of time teaching you the mechanics of the game and empowering you through their control scheme and suddenly throws out all of the things you learned so you can now hunt and peck face buttons arbitrarily, can ruin the flow of the game. I don't know what the answer is, maybe keep QTE's down to a minimum or don't use them at all. They really don't add anything since we know we are not in full control of the character during these times. The worst sin is to harshly penalize the player not for misusing the learned mechanics of the game, but because they didn't press B,A,B,Y,LT,RT,X,X correctly and quickly. I think it's bullshit and I for one hate them.

Star Trek

So, this past weekend I warped into my local Cineplex and was wowed with the reboot of the Star Trek series.

Not that Star Trek...

...But this Star Trek!

I saw this movie last Thursday and then again on Friday- I couldnt get enough. I've been waiting for a real good Sci-Fi Fantasy movie to come along for a long time and the Grand-Daddy of them all delivered. This movie had great effects, a good story, humor, lots of action and half naked green aliens chics- you can't beat that! The best compliment to this movie is how enjoyable it is. Both times watching it, the audience was really into it. It even impressed my best friend who hates all things Star Trek.

For me, it was a great reboot. This movie is what I had hoped the Star Wars prequels could have been. I am one of the few geeks who are fans of both Star Wars and Star Trek. I love the fantasy of the former and the science of the latter. I don't want to fan the flames, but each of these series will be forever compared and fought over. With this fresh start, Star Wars is now looking aged and tired. Enough said about the Lucas flicks, JJ Abrams is a Sci-Fi savant and his Star Trek oozes with a modern sheen.

You can read plot synopsis' anywhere on the net (or better yet, go watch the movie) so I won't bore you with that. My emotions going into this movie were pretty high. I do like me some Trek. I am not a card holding, costume wearing Trekkie or Trekker, but I do own all the movies plus the Original Series and Next Generation DVD's. I am very familiar with the story lines and I am very attached to the characters. From the trailers, blogs, and rumor sites I trolled, I have to admit my expectations were pretty high. I knew it was dangerous, but I had similar aspirations for Nemesis which were crushed when I heard Data singing...yet again...WTF!

Sylar who??

So, after my first viewing, I was blown away. Abrams , Orci and Kurtzman had a daunting task in redefining a waning, some say dying, franchise. Trying to juggle the origins of beloved characters, tying the story together to not alienate a rabid fan-base, and making the usually closed world of Star Trek appeal to a mass audience. As I said above, the story was good (not great), but the writing was sharp and witty, which left the actors plenty of room to breathe life into the characters. The new crew of the Starship Enterprise really gelled and left me wanting more. Even with that, the movie didn't slow down very much. It was fast paced and exhilarating.

It was still Star Trek, but it was so much more. I don't know how the hardcore fans will react as there are many small character changes. I had no problems with them- though I am very forgiving with movie remakes or reboots that I love. But I think most Star Trek fans will agree that the movie had potential for complete suckage but what we got was a fantastic joy ride. I for one, cannot wait for the sequel.

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog page.

I moved from Blogger.com to Squarespace.com because I am intrigued and stupefied as to the power Squarespace gives you over designing a website. I am not a web developer and I don't know much about HTML or CSS, so places like Wordpress or Blogger were the places to go if I wanted to create an easy to setup and use blog experience. I stumbled upon Squarespace through one of the myriad podcasts I listen to weekly (TWIT -This Week in Tech) and checked it out. I fell in love so to speak with the power of their wizards for novice web designers such as myself to easily get a web page up and tweak every part of it if I wanted, from layouts to column sizes to you name it. What is particularly nice is the flexibility you get to move away from a robust blog to a full fledged web site with multiple pages that help you to really flesh out your site. So far, my experience has been good with it.

Squarespace is not a free web client- there are tiered monthly subscription rates depending on what you want to accomplish. I currently subscribe to the lowest tier possible. That may change as my site evolves, which I plan on. Check it out here @ squarespace pricing.

If you are a returning visitor, you'll find my previous posts from Blogger linked at the top right called Imported Posts.