Nintendo Okie

Video games are becoming very cinematic. I remember playing games like Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII on PlayStation and thinking, “this is like controlling a movie.” Looking back now, those games may be a little dated in technology but the cinematic quality is still present. It didn’t take long for developers to realize that game players may start getting bored during their lengthy story sequences. Thus was born the quick time event. QTEs quickly became common place in games but since E3 has ended I have been pondering if QTEs are still relevant.

Two games at this year’s E3 are to blame for this article, Tomb Raider and Need For Speed: The Run. Both games were shown off with live demos. While they both look really fun, I felt uneasy about the amount of QTEs they contained. There are two sides to the QTE coin. The advantage, they allow developers to easily produce complex set pieces in games that would normally have to be left out or restructured. The disadvantage, control is taken away from the player producing a disconnect that cheapens Read more…