This Video Articulates Perfectly Everything That Is Wrong With QTEs

Quick time events: Interactive cinematic glue or lazy game design? Whether you call them /”quick time” or “quick timer” events, everyone has an opinion about their place in contemporary gaming. If you’re on the fence, this video from “TheHowAbsurd” should put you firmly in the “hate it” camp. Warning: The clip contains an insane amount of spoilers — the specific games can be found below.

I’ve never been a massive fan of QTEs, mainly for the points the video raises. You spend all this time playing a game, it teaches you its mechanics, allows you to practise them until you’re as prepared as possible for the final fight and then, well, the preparation is rendered irrelevant as you plod through a series of boring button presses, maybe failing a few times in the process, until… victory!

True, it might be a bit exciting the first time as the game designers are given free reign to orchestrate every aspect of the encounter but, beyond that, it’s like watching a cutscene with glorified continue buttons.

Unfortunately, the video itself dispenses entirely with any sort of spoiler warnings, so if you’ve yet to finish Far Cry 3, Battlefield 3 or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, this video will upset you.

Quicktime Events and Terrible Bosses! [YouTube]


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