# Why do recent games act like theatrical movies



## androidmuppet (Jul 25, 2013)

Thats a very big problem with todays video games, It's stupid that a video game company wants their games to feel just like a theatrical movie. 

For no reason Dan Aykroyd said the Ghostbuster: The Video Game, "Is essentially the third movie.", people should not make games try to be movies the story parts are rushed just like in the Ghostbusters game cutscenes.

What makes it worse, recent video game commercials try to act like theatrical movie trailers.

Commercial 1.

Team Rocket theme

Commercial 2.

Team Rocket theme

The game developers should stop treating video games like there theatrical movies.


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## Mider T (Jul 25, 2013)

No they shouldn't.


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## androidmuppet (Jul 25, 2013)

Mider T said:


> No they shouldn't.



Well it's stupid, games are just games and should not have overly cinematic cutscenes.


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## blakstealth (Jul 25, 2013)

But it makes the game more attractive.


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## Mider T (Jul 25, 2013)

androidmuppet said:


> Well it's stupid, games are just games and should not have overly cinematic cutscenes.



Don't go into the game-making business, your judgement sucks.


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## androidmuppet (Jul 25, 2013)

Mider T said:


> Don't go into the game-making business, your judgement sucks.




Well I think it's very stupid for video games to be cinematic.

1.The cutscenes are rushed and try too hard to act like a theatrical movie.
2.The company would focus more on making the game feel like a theatrical movie rather then a video game.
3.Video games are not made to be movies your supposed to play them not watch them.
4.The Idea of making video games cinematic just to get people to like the game is stupid.


Games should not be seen as cinematic art.


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## Doom85 (Jul 25, 2013)

Yes, let's limit the artistic creativity of games, that's always a good idea, right? 



> Games should not be seen as cinematic art.



Well, too bad, ever since about the PS1/N64 era games have started to come out that people argue can be considered art, so go back and live in the 80's I guess.


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## androidmuppet (Jul 25, 2013)

It's a really stupid trend, making the cutscenes act very cinematic is a waste of time, another problem that the cutscenes try to take long but end up rushed and half-assed, the gaming company wanting an emotional impact for the game. Video Games are supposed to be just normal games not "Games trying hard to act like theatrical movies".


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## Doom85 (Jul 25, 2013)

They do make an emotional impact, just this year alone Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us has given me more emotional reactions than any film this year has in comparison.

Video games can be whatever the fuck they want, developers are free to make what they want because they're the ones in charge not some random dude on the Internet who wants to set games back two decades.


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## Lord Yu (Jul 25, 2013)

Just stick to Half Life if you don't like cutscenes.


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## androidmuppet (Jul 25, 2013)

It's such a waste of brain power for game developers to make video games be very cinematic.

Other examples.

Number 1.

Team Rocket theme

Number 2.

Team Rocket theme

Number 3.

Team Rocket theme

Number 4.

Team Rocket theme


They treat the games like damn movies.


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## 8-Peacock-8 (Jul 25, 2013)

This is a terrible thread and the OP is making me think he just realized games are acting like this now.


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## androidmuppet (Jul 25, 2013)

These days video games try way too hard to capture the style of a theatrical movie with cinematic cutscenes, games are just something to play not to be watched like a damn movie. These days it's overkill because the company tries so hard to use a big budget and thinks games could be equel to movies. Games are much better having more focus on gameplay rather then being heavy on story that has too much cinematic cutscenes.


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## Mider T (Jul 25, 2013)

androidmuppet said:


> It's such a waste of brain power for game developers to make video games be very cinematic.
> 
> Other examples.
> 
> ...



I realize now that you're a troll.  What about Resident Evil 4.


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## Xiammes (Jul 25, 2013)

> Why do recent games act like theatrical movies



Deal with it, nerd.


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## androidmuppet (Jul 25, 2013)

Mider T said:


> I realize now that you're a troll.  What about Resident Evil 4.



Not trolling just complaining thats all.

There are too much games to list so I just listed four of the many 100 hundreds of games that have overly cinematic cutscens.


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## Mider T (Jul 25, 2013)

Nope, you're trolling, it's obvious now.  I dunno how I missed it the first few posts.


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## androidmuppet (Jul 25, 2013)

Mider T said:


> Nope, you're trolling, it's obvious now.  I dunno how I missed it the first few posts.



WTF?, whats your problem?.

I was complaining why companies make games cinematic and why it's annoying and thats what you say to me?.


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## Kagekatsu (Jul 25, 2013)

Well, let's just say your opinion is kind of in the minority as most of us feel developers making games cinematic actually adds to the experience, though of course, its your opinion of how effective it is.


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## Takahashi (Jul 25, 2013)

androidmuppet said:


> Well I think it's very stupid for video games to be cinematic.
> 
> 1.*The cutscenes are rushed *and try too hard to act like a theatrical movie.



So games shouldn't be cinematic because the cutscenes are too rushed?  For one, all games with cutscenes are not equal, there's massive fluctuation between what can and has been done between different games.  Second,  your first point seems rather contradictory, and seems to imply that games being cinematic is acceptable if a lot of time is spent on them. This is then contradicted by your second point...



> 2.The company would focus more on making the game feel like a theatrical movie rather then a video game.



So what is it then?  They need to spend more time on them, but don't spend more time on them?  Or have no cutscenes at all?  Well that's pretty stupid.  In-game exposition can work, but it's hardly universally superior to per-rendered stuff.



> 3.Video games are not made to be movies your supposed to play them not watch them.



Stupidest thing I've heard all day.  You're placing a restriction on a medium that allows for more freedom than any other.  For what reason should we consider cutscenes or cinematography inherently bad and ill-suited for video games?



> 4.The Idea of making video games cinematic just to get people to like the game is stupid.



Never mind, *this* is the stupidest thing I've heard all day.  If people like cinematic games, then making games cinematic is the antithesis of stupid, stupid.  



> Games should not be seen as cinematic art.



There's absolutely nothing holding them back from being seen as such.


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## lacey (Jul 25, 2013)

_Recently_? You must not have played any Metal Gear Solid game. Or any Final Fantasy game, for that matter.


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## St. YatōKiri_Kilgharrah (Jul 25, 2013)

The Last of Us would be severely boring without all the cutscenes.

If I want to play something cinematic I'll play something like Shadow of Collusus because I really hate how Uncharted/Heavy Rain-esque alot of these "cinematic games" are. It flows like shit.

Otherwise I'd rather play things like Pikmin.


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## Gaiash (Jul 25, 2013)

androidmuppet said:


> Well it's stupid, games are just games and should not have overly cinematic cutscenes.


There's nothing just about games. Games are a format and if you have a cinematic story that suits a game more than a movie then as long as you do it well I see no problem. Not all games are like this, that's the thing about games they come in all shapes and sizes. Just because cinematic gaming is a style you're not a fan of that doesn't mean they should not be made.

I don't like war shooters but I understand there are those who enjoy that genre and by taking them away you take away someone's favourite games, someone's reason they became/are a gamer.


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## MCTDread (Jul 25, 2013)

I could care less to honest. Just so long as the game keeps me entertained and is fun. As long as it serves it's purpose it's all good.

In fact I encourage some more games to use this approach. Take a page out of Naughty Dogs book. That's how you do it.


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## St. YatōKiri_Kilgharrah (Jul 25, 2013)

So you're fine with half of TLOU being retilled nonsense with bad AI? IMO Uncharted is better than TLOU.

The one thing all of you people seem to validate is Steven Spielberg's opinion that games break any sort of connection with the character in these types of games when you regain control of the character. To a certain degree he has a point but he misses something absolutely fundamental about gaming itself.


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## MF NaruSimpson (Jul 25, 2013)

ignore mider t.

it's a trend, in a year the trend may have changed or not, but it will be definitely have changed in a few years.

also, these cinematic games are the convergence of technical capability and all other sorts of skills (music, acting, story writing, etc..)

maybe u prefer mini games or ipad games.


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## Doom85 (Jul 25, 2013)

The ally AI in TLOU could occasionally be bad but other times they were really helpful, and the enemy AI was excellent. This was the rare stealth game where the enemies actually seemed intelligent and not idiots who would forget your existence too quickly or just stand in one spot forever.


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## Buskuv (Jul 25, 2013)

He's right, guys.

There have been no more than 20 or so games in recent memory, all of the Uncharted 3.


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## Mider T (Jul 25, 2013)

NarutoSimpsonUltimate said:


> ignore mider t.
> 
> it's a trend, in a year the trend may have changed or not, but it will be definitely have changed in a few years.
> 
> ...



Why ignore me?


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## Buskuv (Jul 25, 2013)

MCTDread said:


> I could care less to honest. Just so long as the game keeps me entertained and is fun. As long as it serves it's purpose it's all good.
> 
> In fact I encourage some more games to use this approach. Take a page out of Naughty Dogs book. That's how you do it.



While the thread starter is a goober, I'd prefer less emphasis on cinematic hand holding.  It may look cool, but I'm not doing it.  Saying 'copy Naughty Dog' usually means 'make it like a movie' without doing what makes their games good, so I'd prefer that not to be a thing.


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## MF NaruSimpson (Jul 25, 2013)

Mider T said:


> Why ignore me?



spazzing at his opinion, yeah, ignore


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## St. YatōKiri_Kilgharrah (Jul 25, 2013)

Doom85 said:


> The ally AI in TLOU could occasionally be bad but other times they were really helpful, and the enemy AI was excellent. This was the rare stealth game where the enemies actually seemed intelligent and not idiots who would forget your existence too quickly or just stand in one spot forever.



Know I know you're full of shit because that is exactly what enemies do.


You need more FEAR


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## MCTDread (Jul 25, 2013)

Dr. Boskov Krevorkian said:


> While the thread starter is a goober, I'd prefer less emphasis on cinematic hand holding.  It may look cool, but I'm not doing it.  Saying 'copy Naughty Dog' usually means 'make it like a movie' without doing what makes their games good, so I'd prefer that not to be a thing.



.... Good point.


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## Zen-aku (Jul 25, 2013)




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## Hyperion1O1 (Jul 25, 2013)

Cinematics are nice but the focus of the game should be on the game itself, not the cinematics.

Also, making the cutscenes unskippable is the worst crime in itself.


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## Doom85 (Jul 26, 2013)

St NightRazr said:


> Know I know you're full of shit because that is exactly what enemies do.
> 
> 
> You need more FEAR



Except they didn't, once you're spotted enemies will remain in alert, and only a small handful of the few hundred human enemies in the entire game remain stationary.


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## St. YatōKiri_Kilgharrah (Jul 26, 2013)

They'd see you then wander off^


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## Doom85 (Jul 26, 2013)

St NightRazr said:


> They'd see you then wander off^



That's not right, you have to change hiding spots before they lose track of where you are.


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## Sephiroth (Jul 26, 2013)

I think Torchlight 2 does a great job for recent games of being a fun game first and not caring about story or cinematics.

However, there is always Nintendo for these things, the story is rather unimportant in most Nintendo games and its all about gameplay.

I'm not against games all about gameplay like Torchlight or ones trying to tell a compelling story on top of good gameplay like Metal Gear Solid 4, I would say I'm against games trying to tell a story first and not making sure the base gameplay is solid and fun though, so I understand where you come from, but Uncharted is really cool.


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## Zen-aku (Jul 26, 2013)

Hyperion1O1 said:


> Cinematics are nice but the focus of the game should be on the game itself, not the cinematics.
> 
> Also, making the cutscenes unskippable is the worst crime in itself.



That implies that Variety is a bad thing.


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## Gnome (Jul 26, 2013)

Games shouldn't be tied down to any single idea being good or bad. Sometimes [thing in game] is good for the game sometimes it's not.


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## Hyperion1O1 (Jul 26, 2013)

Zen-aku said:


> That implies that Variety is a bad thing.



Not really. Games should be focused on games, cinematics should only be the cherry on top. After all, gameplay should be top priority and the aesthetics comes next.


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## Xiammes (Jul 26, 2013)

Hyperion1O1 said:


> Not really. Games should be focused on games, cinematics should only be the cherry on top. After all, gameplay should be top priority and the aesthetics comes next.



No gameplay shouldn't always be top priority, it depends on the type of interactive video they want to make.

Though I do agree, if you want to tell a awesome story through a video game, you shouldn't make it so what ever gameplay there is tiresome to play through.


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## Slice (Jul 26, 2013)

I have a friend who is just like that. He doesnt read the manual, skips the intro cinematic and (in general) instantly drops a game if cutscenes are not skipable.
He doesnt ever know a single thing about the story of games he plays.

I never understood this. I love me some cinematic games and its not like there arent any other types out there.


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## Gnome (Jul 26, 2013)

Hyperion1O1 said:


> Not really. Games should be focused on games, cinematics should only be the cherry on top. After all, gameplay should be top priority and the aesthetics comes next.



Even games like Dear Esther? Or The Walking Dead?


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## Yagami1211 (Jul 26, 2013)

androidmuppet said:


> Well I think it's very stupid for video games to be cinematic.
> 
> 1.The cutscenes are rushed and try too hard to act like a theatrical movie.
> 2.The company would focus more on making the game feel like a theatrical movie rather then a video game.
> ...



The concept of "trying too hard" is really something I don't understand.

MGS4's cutscenes are rushed ...
Heavy Rain's cutscenes are rushed ...
The Last Of Us' cutscenes are rushed ...

I'm not sure I'm following.

If you want to tell a good story, there is obviously things you can't tell in gameplay.

I know some people like this, dude finished MGS4 without even knowing what it's about.


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## Hunted by sister (Jul 26, 2013)

Cinematics and cutscenes are fine. Shit like "Max Payne 3: A Movie" are not. There's more fucking cutscenes than gameplay in that "game". That shit has to go and never come back.

//HbS


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## Malvingt2 (Jul 26, 2013)

St NightRazr said:


> *The Last of Us would be severely boring without all the cutscenes.*
> 
> If I want to play something cinematic I'll play something like Shadow of Collusus because I really hate how Uncharted/Heavy Rain-esque alot of these "cinematic games" are. It flows like shit.
> 
> Otherwise I'd rather play things like Pikmin.



Man, I fucking agree with this 100%


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## Unlosing Ranger (Jul 26, 2013)

Needs more ingame cutscenes.


Gnome said:


> Even games like Dear Esther? Or The Walking Dead?



More of a case of the gameplay complimenting cinematics.
They are just fancy choose your own adventure games after all; at least the walking dead is.


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## DragonSlayer (Jul 26, 2013)

Games are interactive media. Whether they focus more on cinematic storytelling or gameplay or whatever else is completely up to the developer. Story, characters and atmosphere are as important as in any other medium.


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## Buskuv (Jul 26, 2013)

My biggest probably is that we're still having a hard time using gameplay to tell the story, rather than something you do between cutscenes.


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## Unlosing Ranger (Jul 26, 2013)

Dr. Boskov Krevorkian said:


> My biggest probably is that we're still having a hard time using gameplay to tell the story, rather than something you do between cutscenes.



Because the players are too stupid to do that for a on average 8 hour game.


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## Jon Snow (Jul 26, 2013)

It worked in Half-Life and to an extent Assassin's Creed.


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## MF NaruSimpson (Jul 26, 2013)

go back to 1980s 'dragon's lair'  ,  cutscene after cutscene with button presses in between.  if you think this is a problem it's been going on since gaming began


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## Buskuv (Jul 26, 2013)

NarutoSimpsonUltimate said:


> go back to 1980s 'dragon's lair'  ,  cutscene after cutscene with button presses in between.  if you think this is a problem it's been going on since gaming began



Yeah, because it's not like Mario or Sonic are well recognized next the glorious monolith of pop culture that is Dragon's Lair.  Step up, senpai.

It was a cool series (I mean, Don Fucking Bleuth), but it has, unfortunately, been relegated to pop culture nods and cutaways on Family Guy.  A fate worse than death.


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## WolfPrinceKiba (Jul 26, 2013)

Dr. Boskov Krevorkian said:


> My biggest probably is that we're still having a hard time using gameplay to tell the story, rather than something you do between cutscenes.


Which is one reason why Majora's Mask is such an amazing title. It does just that near perfectly, yet its way of doing things never caught on.

Going by the thread title I expected to agree with the opening post but he doesn't want cutscenes at all really, while I was just more thinking he wanted more games that shouldn't be focused on them to cut down on them.


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## St. YatōKiri_Kilgharrah (Jul 26, 2013)

Seriously, Uncharted 3 is boring to watch anyway lol.

The old Xenogames are do it completely badly, the cutscenes and the gameplay is completely divergent. Its a much different and jarring feeling than say something like how Actraiser switches between two gameplay styles


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## Zen-aku (Jul 26, 2013)

Hyperion1O1 said:


> Not really. Games should be focused on games, cinematics should only be the cherry on top. After all, gameplay should be top priority and the aesthetics comes next.



not for  every  game.

Different games wan't to be different things.

Different gamers wan't different things


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## Hunted by sister (Jul 26, 2013)

Gnome said:


> Even games like Dear Esther? Or The Walking Dead?


I don't exactly see how you can call Dear Esther a game.

//HbS


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## Overwatch (Jul 26, 2013)

Hunted by sister said:


> I don't exactly see how you can call Dear Esther a game.
> 
> //HbS



It's an interactive storytelling experience.


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## soulnova (Jul 26, 2013)

androidmuppet said:


> Well I think it's very stupid for video games to be cinematic.
> 
> 1.The cutscenes are rushed and try too hard to act like a theatrical movie.
> 2.The company would focus more on making the game feel like a theatrical movie rather then a video game.
> ...





RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN


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## Xiammes (Jul 26, 2013)

> A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device.



Something as simple as a visual novel is a video game.


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## Hunted by sister (Jul 26, 2013)

Overwatch said:


> It's an interactive storytelling experience.


Holding down "forward" is not what I call interactive. It's as interactive as KMPlayer, or even less so. What are you interacting WITH, exactly?


Xiammes said:


> Something as simple as a visual novel is a video game.


I always thought visual novels were actually something separate from games... the only "game" elements are savepoints, but you have that in paper books as well, it's called a bookmark. Choices? Oh yes, there were nonlinear paper books as well. Them being software? Everything you see on your screen is software. Except dead pixels.

I thought they were usually put in the "games" category to simplify life.

//HbS


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## bigduo209 (Jul 26, 2013)

I don't mind games being cinematic, _buuuut..._


-There should be enough interaction and improvisation in the gameplay's scope to justify or offset its linear narrative.

-If not, the game should offer narrative changes or alterations to the course of events that the player mostly decides from beginning to end.


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## Overwatch (Jul 28, 2013)

Hunted by sister said:


> Holding down "forward" is not what I call interactive. It's as interactive as KMPlayer, or even less so. What are you interacting WITH, exactly?
> 
> //HbS



I was being sarcastic. Dear Esther is pretty much the Medal of Honor: Warfighter of it's genre.


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## steveht93 (Jul 28, 2013)

I have no problem with cinematic video games. It depends on the execution. Developers should take more cue from naughty dog combining fluid,addicting ,and fun gameplay with in game interactions to craft their experience. 

Games that rely on gameplay only become more limited like pikmin for example. You need more things than game mechanics to keep a gamer interested.

Games like MGS and kingdom hearts for example wouldn't be as well known today and have the cult following they have without their story combined with gameplay.


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## Naruto (Jul 28, 2013)

androidmuppet said:


> Well it's stupid, games are just games and should not have overly cinematic cutscenes.



Games have a wide array of genres and subgenres and appeal to many different tastes.

Some games should be cinematic, absolutely.

Not all of them.

But then again, no games should follow hard and fast rules.


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## Hunted by sister (Jul 28, 2013)

The problem is that they usually get it wrong.

//HbS


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## WolfPrinceKiba (Jul 28, 2013)

steveht93 said:


> You need more things than game mechanics to keep a gamer interested.




Maybe some gamers but certainly not a majority, otherwise Mario and a good deal of classic games wouldn't be so loved. Kind of funny you bring up Naughty Dog when their most iconic franchise is Crash Bandicoot, which has little in the story department.

Its a sad day in gaming when someone says that gamers need more than just great gameplay to be kept interested.


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## steveht93 (Jul 28, 2013)

WolfPrinceKiba said:


> *Maybe some gamers but certainly not a majority*, otherwise Mario and a good deal of classic games wouldn't be so loved. Kind of funny you bring up Naughty Dog when their most iconic franchise is Crash Bandicoot, which has little in the story department.
> 
> Its a sad day in gaming when someone says that gamers need more than just great gameplay to be kept interested.



That's how it is. most high profile games this gen incorporate a story line and cinematic cutescenes in the package. And they do better than their gameplay centric counter parts. Except for games like angry birds,fruit ninja,and minecraft that don't sell at 60$ prices. 

And you leave me scratching my head by bringing crash bandicoot since that is a ps1 era game where the situation was extremely different back then. And it awakardly helps my argument because naughty dog shifted to more cinematic games this gen. 

Mario is not really a good counter argument by the way. Show me a single platformer that does half of Mario's numbers on another platform?


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## WolfPrinceKiba (Jul 28, 2013)

What you are arguing then is not that gamers need more than great gameplay to keep interested, just that games that offer more then that usually sell better. I don't see how Naughty Dog wanting to try different kinds of games exactly helps your argument. You taking a shot at Pikmin(probably because of your silly argument over Pikmin 3's sales in other threads) wasn't a good argument either, as Pikmin doesn't have standard gameplay. It is a unique type of RTS and at least with the first game, actually offers quite a bit more then just great gameplay. It may not have cinematic cutscenes or be in your face with story but that doesn't mean it doesn't have good storytelling(Olimar's diary entries).


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## steveht93 (Jul 28, 2013)

WolfPrinceKiba said:


> *What you are arguing then is not that gamers need more than great gameplay to keep interested, just that games that offer more then that usually sell better.* I don't see how Naughty Dog wanting to try different kinds of games exactly helps your argument. You taking a shot at Pikmin(probably because of your silly argument over Pikmin 3's sales in other threads) wasn't a good argument either, as Pikmin doesn't have standard gameplay. It is a unique type of RTS and at least with the first game, actually offers quite a bit more then just great gameplay. It may not have cinematic cutscenes or be in your face with story but that doesn't mean it doesn't have good storytelling(Olimar's diary entries).



They are related. A story brings more interest in a game franchise and it feel like a more complete package than games that sometimes don't. But that also depends on the type of games as well.


 As for the naughty dog thing,they abandoned the gameplay only centric gameplay to a more story focused games. You mentioned crash bandicoot but you have to remember that video game resources and development where different back then than now. 

Taking shots at pikmin? How ridiculous  I just used it as an example  and no,my argument in the wii u thread is not silly since I was right on the mark  but let's not bring that up now.


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## WolfPrinceKiba (Jul 28, 2013)

People having more interest in one type of game doesn't mean that there is a lack of interest in other types. You argued that gamers need more than just great gameplay to keep gamers interested, which really just isn't true just based off of story based games being more popular. There would need to be an apparent lack of interest in games that focus on gameplay and very little on story, which there isn't.


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## steveht93 (Jul 28, 2013)

WolfPrinceKiba said:


> People having more interest in one type of game doesn't mean that there is a lack of interest in other types. You argued that gamers need more than just great gameplay to keep gamers interested, which really just isn't true just based off of story based games being more popular. There would need to be an apparent lack of interest in games that focus on gameplay and very little on story, which there isn't.



Please elaborate more good sir!


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## Buskuv (Jul 28, 2013)

Did someone, in complete seriousness, use Kingdom Hearts as a good example of an engaging and compelling storyline?  Did I miss something?


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## WolfPrinceKiba (Jul 29, 2013)

Dr. Boskov Krevorkian said:


> Did someone, in complete seriousness, use Kingdom Hearts as a good example of an engaging and compelling storyline?  Did I miss something?


Steve never actually said that KH's story was in any way good, he only said that its story is a large reason for its popularity, which I agree with and its something that should be rather obvious to any gamer even somewhat informed about the series.


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## Buskuv (Jul 29, 2013)

I'm plenty aware of the game's... fanbase.


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