Quick time events (QTEs). Everyone hates them, right? But perhaps they can actually serve a valid purpose both in terms of gameplay and narrative. Laserlemming examines in-depth how QTEs should and shouldn't be used, while comparing them to storytelling and gameplay techniques used before the humble QTE was popularised outside of interactive films, focusing mainly on their modern use in Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Solid 4, and Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy).
These are the games that championed ideas, mechanics and systems that would ultimately be a much bigger part of the gaming space in the future.
Kill Switch is one of my fav shooters from that generation, highly underrated in my opinion.
1. Indigo Prophecy - No
2. God Hand - Hell yeah. Still is. What a game. But Adaptive Difficulty sucks.
3. Metal Gear Solid 2 - Gameplay-wise, sometimes it was and sometimes it wasn't. The AI stuff was already Cyberpunk fair and Political Miss-information was old stuff as well. Furthermore, these themes don't really play out during the gameplay portions of the game. So they might as well have been a movie spliced into a game. Which is my main criticism of the MGS series. A lot of Talk and hardly any of it is part of the gameplay or affects it in any meaningful way.
4. Dark Cloud - Couldn't say. But Procedural stuff sucks 99% of the time.
5. Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow - The Xbox version sure was and kinda still is. The PS2? Not even close. The Asymmetrical MP was cool though.
6. The thing - The system was kinda cool in theory. In practice? Meh. But it should've been brought back for other games for sure, and expanded upon. At least some type of variation of this mechanic.
7. Final Fantasy XII - While the System was kinda cool. It did lends to your party playing on Automatic. Became monotonous after a while.
8. Kill Switch - Kinda. But Metal Gear, Splinter Cell and Winback already had it first. Then there was Time Crisis.
9. Mercenaries: PoD - You spelled Monster Attack way wrong.
10. Mortal Kombat: Deception: Tobal No. 1 or Ehrgeiz.
Good list, I would include Okami (brush mechanics), Viewtiful Joe (time & zoom mechanics)
The arrival of new Tomb Raider merchandise has offered a closer look at the updated Lara Croft character design.
Im going to miss the new lara croft design, i hope they don't change that much from the last game.
Man… her face gives me the heeby jeebies. I hope she looks better in game.
An upcoming Tomb Raider RPG planned for early 2025 shows more of unified Lara Croft planned for a new AAA adventure leaked as "open-world".
This is not the Crystal Dynamics you once loved - this is a sold publisher that houses maybe 10% of it original cast of employees - this game will BOMB !!!! F Embracer Group - they suck BALLS ! Basketballs
I am interested for sure. Embracer as a parent company has made a massive amount of mistakes and crappy moves but that doesn’t mean this dev team can not make a good game. If the game is good and has a physical copy I’ll buy it. Tomb Raider rpg in theory could be great.
I don't like the 'open-worlding' every franchise idea ... Tomb Raider needs to be semi-linear-ish ... or do segmented open spaces
The Unified timeline bullshit still sounds awful going off the rumours
You can't make Survivor Lara and Classic Lara the same, they have totally different histories and origin stories.
They actually want to say that Survivor Lara turns into Classic which would then erase Classic Lara's origin story with the plane crash in the Himalayas.
Also an open world game...sigh
I had hoped the love for the Remaster games would have pushed them to continue that timeline or do a new reimagined timeline where you play as Classic Lara surviving in the Himalayas for those 2 weeks before she found a small village for help.
I don't mind quicktime events. I think they're designed to make you feel like you have very little time to react (similar to how the character is feeling in the actual game). I wolf is jumping toward you... what do you do... you have to be fast and make the right decision or you'll die.
Plus, I have the tendency to put the controller down and sit back when a cutscene starts, but quicktime events keep me on my toes and make me pay attention to what's happening on the screen.