Edge arcade
Keep quick time events quick
Ian Davis
Issue date: 9/23/09 Section: The Edge
I'm a fairly dedicated player of video games. I try to buy the ones that offer a lot of replay value, and at least attempt to rent titles that look great, but short. I notice a lot of trends in the games I play, and in the industry as a whole, and one in particular annoys me to no end.
Way too many games these days use quick time events as an easy out, and just shoehorn them into games in place of mechanics that would require any extra work on the part of the developer.
If anyone doesn't know what I mean, let me explain. Any time you have to match button presses to displays on the screen, or mash one button rapid-fire to break out of an enemy's grasp, you're taking part in a quick time event, or QTE.
A great number of current games have these, titles like "Call of Duty," "Gears of War" and "Devil May Cry." They've become an industry stand-by, and more and more games showcase them every week.
They aren't necessarily a new development, though. Getting stuck in pitfalls of all kinds in many NES games would spark a seizure in many a child, their fingers spasming across the controller in an attempt to free their hero from whatever predicament he was in.
Hell, even ancient arcade games like "Dragon's Lair" were just one big quick time event. Directions popped up on the screen, and the player had to match them. That was it. Very revolutionary at the time, actually.
The current trend of including QTEs wasn't bad at first. They simply served as little breaks in the action, and completing them would reward a player with bonuses to health, magic or things like that.
Now QTEs are included in so many games, they've become cliché. Where once they dotted games here and there as little cinematic treats, they are now a tiresome distraction.
So many games use QTEs as quick fixes for problems that it's ridiculous. Even one of the best games of this year, "Batman: Arkham Asylum," is guilty of it.
Batman is a very stealthy guy and travels through a lot of heating ducts to get the drop on his enemies. Every time you go into or out of a new duct, you have to remove the grate, understandably.
Way too many games these days use quick time events as an easy out, and just shoehorn them into games in place of mechanics that would require any extra work on the part of the developer.
If anyone doesn't know what I mean, let me explain. Any time you have to match button presses to displays on the screen, or mash one button rapid-fire to break out of an enemy's grasp, you're taking part in a quick time event, or QTE.
A great number of current games have these, titles like "Call of Duty," "Gears of War" and "Devil May Cry." They've become an industry stand-by, and more and more games showcase them every week.
They aren't necessarily a new development, though. Getting stuck in pitfalls of all kinds in many NES games would spark a seizure in many a child, their fingers spasming across the controller in an attempt to free their hero from whatever predicament he was in.
Hell, even ancient arcade games like "Dragon's Lair" were just one big quick time event. Directions popped up on the screen, and the player had to match them. That was it. Very revolutionary at the time, actually.
The current trend of including QTEs wasn't bad at first. They simply served as little breaks in the action, and completing them would reward a player with bonuses to health, magic or things like that.
Now QTEs are included in so many games, they've become cliché. Where once they dotted games here and there as little cinematic treats, they are now a tiresome distraction.
So many games use QTEs as quick fixes for problems that it's ridiculous. Even one of the best games of this year, "Batman: Arkham Asylum," is guilty of it.
Batman is a very stealthy guy and travels through a lot of heating ducts to get the drop on his enemies. Every time you go into or out of a new duct, you have to remove the grate, understandably.
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