Losing the plot...

corblimey

I'm getting increasingly about my fragile mental health. Am I the only one who can play through a game with cut scenes and plot points and have no idea when I get to the end what exactly has happened. It happens to me mostly when playing an FPS. I get to the end and I know I have to kill this guy because he's surrounded by other guys and he gets his own evil cut scene at the end, but I have no idea WHY I'm killing him.

I just don't seem to pay attention to plot points that are flung at me when I'm dodging bullets (as so many shooters seem to do these days) and by the time I get to a cut scene they're mostly about telling me where I have to go next but not why. I finished Resistance 3 last weekend and cannot tell you what it's about - oh I know the rough plot, but specifics are lost on me.

It's not ruining the fun of the games for me anyway, as with shooters you're pretty much shooting everything that moves and some things that don't, but I feel like I'm missing out on something important that the developers needed me to know

Is it just me? Is there a support group I can join? Am I just getting old(er)?

cherryghost

Eh... it means you're bored?

Korvanica

My mate skips all the cutscenes in every game he plays...

totally pointless.. half of any game is the story !

johnny_ultimate

Well it's mainly because game plots tend to be absolute rubbish, merely an excuse for getting from 'Killing Point A' to 'Killing Point B'. I've sat through all the cutscenes in some games and still completely failed to grasp what the point was. Others one can take to pressing 'start to skip' without any concerns.

That said, playing through the first few chapters of Uncharted 3 today shows how it should be done. Logical progression, witty dialogue, a genuine sense of characters and a general overall coherency that puts so many other games to shame. Sure, it's pulp fiction, and lacking in interactivity, but it also shows not all games need to consider story as an afterthought.

corblimey

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

That said, playing through the first few chapters of Uncharted 3 today shows how it should be done. Logical progression, witty dialogue, a genuine sense of characters and a general overall coherency that puts so many other games to shame. Sure, it's pulp fiction, and lacking in interactivity, but it also shows not all games need to consider story as an afterthought.

Yeah, I think Uncharted 2 was probably the last game I played where I actively enjoyed and was able to follow the plot. Maybe my brain is so highly evolved that it's able to reject nonsensical plots at source and is simply filtering them out. It's the only reasonable explanation

Mr. K

FPS plots are particularly poor; I hadn't a clue what was going on in most of the Halo games.

Sabre0001

Many of the recent CoD games, I've been lost in...Maybe poor story, maybe the switching perspectives, maybe I just didn't care enough!

johnny_ultimate

Mr. K wrote: »

FPS plots are particularly poor; I hadn't a clue what was going on in most of the Halo games.

Yeah, it's some generic sci-fi nonsense. It bamboozles me people buy novels based on it - it's hardly the most compelling fiction ever crafted!

Sabre0001 wrote: »

Many of the recent CoD games, I've been lost in...Maybe poor story, maybe the switching perspectives, maybe I just didn't care enough!

If I recall correctly, didn't a character come back to life in MW2 after dying in the first just because he was popular or something? I could be incorrect there, of course.

Grumpypants

Stupid video games have ruined my something something.... am

Lab_Mouse

some games are just made to have their cutscenes skipped i.e the likes of must fps's.

other games like the bioshock and deadspace series you dont want to,the story is great and it draws you in.you want to feel the background for game

Icyseanfitz

Korvanica wrote: »

My mate skips all the cutscenes in every game he plays...

totally pointless.. half of any game is the story !

as the new gaming generation would say, rabble rabble read a book lolzers :rolleyes:

i dont know whats happening in any of those fps stories (cod bf etc.), there so boring and cliched that i just cant give any attention to them, good story telling in games has gone to crap tbh, i blame the new multiplayer craze

Retr0gamer

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

If I recall correctly, didn't a character come back to life in MW2 after dying in the first just because he was popular or something? I could be incorrect there, of course.

Yep, the worst thing you could do in a sequel. See Advent Children which did it twice and ended up twice as ****ty as any other movie ever made.

DarkJager

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

If I recall correctly, didn't a character come back to life in MW2 after dying in the first just because he was popular or something? I could be incorrect there, of course.

No he didn't die in the first, he was still moving the last time you see him in it. P.s he's voiced by the guy in the "injury lawyers 4 u" adverts that plague daytime tv!

In response to the topic though, I find this problem with most movies I watch now. I think my brain prefers the immersion and interactive experience of a game and it's story over just watching a movie and trying to follow it.

Retr0gamer

He's last seen getting CPR. If it gets to that stage you're usually pretty much fooked in real life.

NunianVonFuch

Retr0gamer wrote: »

He's last seen getting CPR. If it gets to that stage you're usually pretty much fooked in real life.

Tell that to the Stath and the Crank series But the door was really left open for him to come back it's a pretty common TV trope http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CPRCleanPrettyReliable

Personally I have this problem with many games as well. I think it's because it seems too much like a different experience when you're watching the cut scenes and most of the characters involved are only present within these scenes. That's why Uncharted works so well as it integrates the characters and story into the gameplay so it never feels separate. Any of the CoD games after Modern Warfare were guilty of this but also didn't really make much sense, especially MW2 as even when upon replaying it I grasped the fact that they were

using the sub to launch nukes while pretending to be Russian

I didn't get the point of it and it just seemed like a totally illogical thing to do. So I kept holding it in my head waiting for clarification which never came til it all became a jumbled mess.

For the same experience watch Transformers 3. Then try and explain the plot of the first 90 minutes before the action starts. Gibberish!

Skerries

try playing Metal Gear QTE without skipping the cutscenes

hooradiation

corblimey wrote: »

I'm getting increasingly about my fragile mental health. Am I the only one who can play through a game with cut scenes and plot points and have no idea when I get to the end what exactly has happened. It happens to me mostly when playing an FPS. I get to the end and I know I have to kill this guy because he's surrounded by other guys and he gets his own evil cut scene at the end, but I have no idea WHY I'm killing him.

I just don't seem to pay attention to plot points that are flung at me when I'm dodging bullets (as so many shooters seem to do these days) and by the time I get to a cut scene they're mostly about telling me where I have to go next but not why. I finished Resistance 3 last weekend and cannot tell you what it's about - oh I know the rough plot, but specifics are lost on me.

It's not ruining the fun of the games for me anyway, as with shooters you're pretty much shooting everything that moves and some things that don't, but I feel like I'm missing out on something important that the developers needed me to know

Is it just me? Is there a support group I can join? Am I just getting old(er)?

"Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important." - John Carmack.

Remembering this makes life a lot easier.

Kiith

hooradiation wrote: »

"Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important." - John Carmack.

The man knows his stuff, but I couldn't disagree with him more on that point.

Retr0gamer

That statement held true a few years ago but not anymore. John Carmack was hit with it in interviews recently and acknowledged that he doesn't believe it anymore.

Deadly Premonition is testiment to that. That was one ****ty game but the superb writing and story meant it was one of the best and most compelling games I've played this generation.

I really don't mind playing a game with a crap or negligible story as long as it realises it's a bit ****. Games with terrible writing that think they are some kind of masterpiece annoy me. GTA4 and Heavy Rain would be two examples of this. And yet I still managed to enjoy them quite a bit so seems there's so truth to that statement. I'm confused.

I think videogames have become so diverse now that it's wrong to dismiss them as a poor storytelling device. I've played a lot of games with bad gameplay mechanics that have been saved by great story and writing, osme of which I'd rank as some of the best games ever in my opinion, for example Silent Hill 2.

ShadowHearth

Mr. K wrote: »

FPS plots are particularly poor; I hadn't a clue what was going on in most of the Halo games.

Bioshock.

hooradiation

Kiith wrote: »

The man knows his stuff, but I couldn't disagree with him more on that point.

I think he's right.
Mostly I don't care why I'm doing something in a game, just that doing it is fun.

penev10

I find if a story doesn't engage me in some way I'll rarely finish the game unless the gameplay mechanics are particularly good.

Most FPSs don't do it for me for those reasons - very limited plot/characters and the mechanics havent changed much in 2 generations.

Retr0gamer

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Bioshock.

Pfft, I think you'll find you mean System Shock 2.

Icyseanfitz

i grew up with proper rpg's so story is central to my enjoyment of a game, i like been taking to a different place as opposed to just shoot the bad guy or collect the shiny coin

ShadowHearth

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Pfft, I think you'll find you mean System Shock 2.

not this **** again.....

Retr0gamer

Just cold hard facts :P

johnny_ultimate

Bioshock is the game story about how all game stories are ****.

You have to give it a point or two for postmodernism, even if it ultimately becomes what it's satirising.

noodler

Both Bioshocks are very well done.

Minervas Den DLC on number 2 was very good as well.

Opinicus

Half Life and its sequels certainly go to show how investment in a story can engage the player to the extent that they can become completely immersed in the story (however far fetched it is!). Half Life was to my recollection also the first game where there were no cutscenes per se, just scripted events which added to the immersion.

GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas while not being totally original stories did excellent jobs of involving the player.

Chavways

When I played the Black Ops campaign for the 1st time I didnt have the foggiest what was going on.The story was so complicated.

I did enjoy all the killing though.

Retr0gamer

I knew what was going on. It was fairly obvious from the start Ed Harris was interrogating.