@excel_excel: You mean being allowed to wander about and watch the cut scene happen? That's just putting the camera on legs ;) As much as I love Half-Life, they're still basically cutscenes.

onidavin

@mistersneak:

As interesting as Half-Life's story telling methodology is, I don't consider leaving you trapped in a 10' by 10' area while things happen around you as interactive.

Koztah

Did anyone find the game challenging, or did you all just spin the right stick in circles and own everything in the room like I did? It didnt help that I couldnt read any of the advanced stick control symbols on my 27" sd tv.

CSat420

@Sparx: - "People don't care about your cutscenes Dyack, they care about the piss poor gameplay"

Indeed! And don't forget the craptastic camera!

dead_red_eyes

@karasu is my homeboy: maybe we should all just be more perceptive.

goboard117

@hotdamn: That's a choice that the player makes. I, on the other hand, tend to get immersed in games like that at don't try to break the immersion by jumping around, shooting stuff, and not listening to what the NPC's are saying. I'll react like a good little Mr. Freeman and ocaisionally move my mouse to nod or shake my "head" in response to my collegues.

FlashIV

@goboard117: That's not the point. I shouldn't have to wait 10 seconds to realize that the cutscene is over. I should just know.

karasu is my homeboy

@32brains: They aren't talking about Valve's cutscenes because Valve doesn't have cutscenes- that's the entire point. They have interactive and dynamic in-game storytelling which is what Dyack is supposedly espousing.

And people are calling out Too Human's camera and combat as schlock because they've actually played other games. Do you remember Ninety-Nine Nights? Yeah, its a generic crowd-combat clone that came out on the 360 over a year ago. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it looks better, plays better, and, most sadly of all, seems to have about the same quality of scriptwriting and voice acting as has so far been displayed by Too Human in its demo.

Yeah, that's right. I just compared Too Human unfavorably to Ninety-Nine Nights.

But maybe I'm just extra hard on this game because I like and want more space vikings in the world, and thus hold space viking related material to a higher standard. Otherwise, I probably just wouldn't care about this game at all, especially after the underwhelming demo.

I Think We're Property

This guy needs to shut F@ck up and let his game do the talking. Everyone expects this game to fail. So they can laugh at his face for suing the Unreal engine and hyping their game.

ryuart

ahh dyack, you need a hug !

Icyme

moving the camera around is interactive?!.. a cutscene is a like a short movie clip to me. let the director choose the best angle s/he thinks best..

i kinda lose focus if i have to do another thing while the cutscence is playing.. like, i may never see what happen during raiden's fight with vamp while i was controlling snake and blasting geckos.. was it awesome like the first one? maybe i should check youtube for that..

the_answer

MGS4 ruined me on cutscenes. So long as Too Human will allow me to skip them all w/ a button press and not have to go pause - skip three to five times per cutscene, i'm a happy dude.

burgerdog

@excel_excel: Yeah I'm pulling for Too Human too. Hopefully it won't be crap. Seems like they worked hard on it and hopefully it pays off.

I'm sure I must be in the minority here but I appreciate cut-scenes in games. They bring certain parts of the story in play in a way that if they're interactive will either be QTE or in some way that has less impact visually.

To each their own I guess...

excaliburps

Something like this was an integral discussion over Metal Gear Solid.
- offer dynamics
- reward the player
- give the viewer an emphasis of the scenario
- while keeping its audience interested to keep playing

Gears of War also tried out this design. But it missed something, Gears 1 may not have had a critical push, its charm though won many over. Plus its something to study, what type of audience they are developing content for, and why it will make them enjoy it as entertainment.

But taking into accord just how dynamic a piece of theater, as in contrast with a game. Would that set piece motivate someone further, or does it stop after the credits?

Another title to note, is Prince of Persia - Warrior Within. A catalyst surrounding its "change" was Ninja Gaiden. Something bold, fierce, darker, more mature. Whereas "Sands" was greeted to new players, no matter their viewpoint it felt like a storybook experience. But with Warrior Within, it took a darker turn because it needed the viewer to realize that its character had to face more of the world, as an outsider walking to take him over.

*With Two Thrones, he's come to realize after 7 years, his journey is complete. But the other echo of himself wants more power, thirsting for everything he obtains, but also control.

I felt for that type of story, and even now for Ninja Gaiden II. There is still the time to deliver storytelling, amiss the context of the in-game world is trying to say. Prove yourself, change the character, become someone heroic, or evil. Defy everything you've done from the beginning, yet strive to do what's right.
Isn't that what life is?

kadosho

What? The camera sucked and it didn't help that the damn right analog stick is more often used to control the camera but no, they had to use it for stupid combat! I constantly tried to use it to move the camera while playing the demo. Conductive my ass.

Xcite79

Everybody brings up Valve for their "cutscenes" when they really aren't that. The game everybody should be looking at for an example of ground breaking, and interactive, cut scenes is Indigo Prophecy. You often got control over dialogue and had to engage in QTE's. Still not perfect since cut scenes have no place in a video game, but a step in the right direction. And can everybody stop complaining about Too Human's camera already. If you're not skilled enough to hit the LB and reorient yourself to face where you want, then it's your own fault. And it's a demo for crying out loud, the combat is slower because you're at a lower level.

32brains

@Aye Mak Sicur: Are we seriously playing the same game. If you knew how to work the dang stick then you would know that gameplay is definately not slow.

As for the people who didn't figure out that the cutscene was over, why would you wait more than 10 seconds and not suspect something is up when your character hasn't moved for so long?

goboard117

Half-Life, Portal, and CoD4 are all on the right track. All they need to do now is give me the ability to "skip" some of the longer cutscenes by walking out of the room (over some mild protest from the NPCs I'm sure) and they've got it pretty much nailed.

BPLlama

@okrangerbob: But if they mapped the attack key to a button, that would no longer support their intricate "point in the vague direction of the enemy and the game will do stuff" gameplay.

I Think We're Property

Cutscene interactivity would be a nice thing to see in more games. I don't see thing going away because it almost like a "break" for the player to sit back and watch the story.

How cool would it be that during a cutscene a guy is talking, and you decided to "interrupt" him by punching him. He walks out/knocked cold and you miss some important information.

exkon

from the studio that sued the studio that brought u gears of war.

SamStride

I don't mind cutscenes. I just don't like it when you aren't able to skip them.

kojirodensetsu

Okay heres the deal. Give me alternate control schemes. Anything to make it so right stick is camera. Then I will buy your game.

Please don't think im bashing this, I really want it to turn out amazing so I can buy it at release. After playing the demo I liked the gameplay except I just could not get used to the whole "right stick to swing sword" thing. Just change it or make an alternate control scheme PLEASE. It isn't that big of a deal but it will make me happy, I promise <3

okrangerbob

I like cutscenes if there's actually something to them; if they're actually warranted.

In Final Fantasy XII (the only FF I've played) the cutscenes were the story. The gameplay and cutscenes were separate entities and I felt that while they were very well done, they needed better integration with the gameplay.

For cutscenes I like, I point to Ninja Gaiden (the original- haven't played the second). The gameplay is incredibly intense and cinematic as it is. I felt like I had complete control over the gameplay and the frantic action and beautiful animation was great. The cutscenes were incredibly over-the-top and fitting with the gameplay. Short but bloodily sweet.

So I find there's no answer to a 'guideline' or 'optimum' style of cutscene. You don't need to blur any lines if the cutscenes are enjoyable. That's all I want.

Krondonian

"...Too Human will use a dynamic, intelligent camera system that presents the in-game in a more cinematic light..." I hope that doesn't mean 'epic' camera angles while I'm trying to fight a boss or something.

Wolfers

lol I din't think they would let him talk again till after the game came out and sold 50ishK copies worldwide...my bad he talked again 40K copies worldwide :P

I just really think bringing up " blured lines " blah blah whatever of in game cuts should have been kept on the low ( i.e why is he talking again ) cause while I guess the gameplay of Too Human is up in the air I think just about anyone that watched the games intro movie had a hard time watching it between eyes rolling back in head. His version of epic dynamic storytelling comes off like some tween dork thats writing a fantasy novel thats full of uncool fights with the most pointless of details focused on for to long and things that are understood being drained of all life as they are overtly explained.

Anyhow nice to see he isn't fixing " problems " with the game and is just giving them fancy names to try and cover them up :P

spacecoffin2

The problem with cutscenes is not that you have to watch them, but that you see your characters performing tasks in a manner that is not possible for you as a player to perform. The motion of characters in smoother, the visuals (sometimes) have added filters which make it look better, but you don't get to take advantage of those things. So in a way, they take you out of the gameplay by showing you things that designers haven't been able to properly implement it the game itself. I'll watch it, but I also want to be able to DO it as well.

ibelli

I played this game at Comic-Con, and I can tell you from experience that the camera is about the dumbest thing in the entire game. The right analog stick is used for swinging your sword, so you have very little control over your view, and you end up spending half of the fights swinging aimlessly because you can't see.

Forget a cinematic camera, how about making one that works for gameply?

mattigus

I don't really care about interactivity. The cutscene is designed to transmit plot and story info in a convenient way in a short time, and a lot of times you just can't do this in real-time with the game engine. You get "talking head" syndrome where you just stand around waiting for the NPCs to stop jabbering, without any of the pluses of cinematic camera angles and cuts.

It also fixes the player's attention. It's no good to make a mindblowing ingame sequence if the player is currently in a sniper duel behind a wall and can't see it. Even things like mike chatter from friendly NPCs can be overlooked if the pace is hectic enough, or worse, the volume of the voices isn't balanced with the game volume.

I'd say don't worry about interactivity, just make sure you transmit story well. If anything I'd like more cutscenes simply because they let players pace themselves better, and don't get fatigued from battle after battle.

raiseplease

People don't care about your cutscenes Dyack, they care about the piss poor gameplay

Sparx

Will all his articles be about "how awesome Too Human is gamers just don't understand it and the gaming media is killing the industry please buy Too Human"?

hagridore

@Mitch Cumstein: No offense, my friend, but when you have to play another game--by a different publisher-- that's been known to feature an even more busted camera, just to temper your eventual disappointment with Too Human, that's a bad sign.

wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!

Oh, is that what you call a camera that violently shifts to a different angle for no reason whatsoever?

PlayItBogart

I think of games like God Hand, No More Heroes, and the DMC series, where the cutscenes were rewards. Good rewards.

Based on the demo, I think it's fair to say that Too Human is just one long cutscene with occasional, semi-random stick movements and button presses, plus some seriously over-zealous use of the ugly stick.

jeangrae

Too Human's camera bother you? Try this....1. Play through Ninja Gaiden II the week before you play Too Human. That is it. I am actually serious about this. I had been playing NG2 for a couple weeks up to the Too Human demo. I had no problems dealing with the camera, which ended up making me love the game. And I was actually on the "skeptical" side prior. Kinda hard to explain because the games are so different, but after playing Too Human I kinda got the "Crackdown orb hunting" feeling that was so addicting. Toss out the story, toss out the graphics, cutscenes, audio, dialogue etc., and what is left is addictive fun gameplay. Not saying the visuals, sound, story etc., are bad or good. I just know it was fun.

Mitch Cumstein

I really want Too Human to come to PC, just so I can use the mouse for a free roaming camera, sorta like Hellgate did and follow a 3D Diablo. I did find myself fighting the camera a bit in the Demo, but still really enjoyed it. Too bad my 360 just RROD on me yesterday morning, it's on the way to Texas, just hoping I get it back by Too Human's release.

dozerking

For me Valve nailed this in HL1.

superbabyproject

I went in with an open mind, but I lasted like 10 minutes with the demo yesterday, and a good portion of the reason was the camera. No thanks.

lionkitten

I would prefer dynamic, intelligent gameplay tooo, but that's just me. I don't get how after 10 years of development, someone didn't say, "Maybe this right-stick-to-attack scheme kind of blows."

Oh well.

TrueCrime

Meh. So many cutscenes drag on wayyyy too long for me. Somehow in almost every single game where there is non-skipable, drawn out cutscenes, I end up having to turn off my console mid-way cause I have to go somewhere.

And I saw someone mention Assassins Creed's cutscenes. I found that to be a gimmick. Maybe I had a certain bias cause it didn't make any sense how suddenly your not being chased anymore, that there were so called 'glitches' which somehow let you see things from a different viewpoint, and instead your surrounded by blue shit. Oh yeah and every damn discussion was the same.

Now Half-life- that's a whole different story. Can't more developers start doing this type of storytelling?

paeper

Someone get Dyack a copy of Super Mario 64. Now there's an intelligent camera system.

DaveKap

"But in-game, Too Human will use a dynamic, intelligent camera system that presents the in-game in a more cinematic light, at the same time being conducive to good gameplay."

Clearly, Dyack is using that smug asshole game developer version of the dictionary, where truth doesn't matter and "dynamic, intelligent camera" is synonymous with "jarring, game-breaking terribleness."

This game is so close to being good it hurts, but it won't be, because this studio is having delusions of grandeur rather than good camera-design ideas.

DaPress

You wanna know how to implement good cutscenes? Play Metal Gear Solid 4. Yes, they're long. But the seemless transtition from cutscene to gameplay is outstanding. Never before has a game achieved such perfection in cinematic storytelling. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Dyack.

Lazlo

I can see interactive cut scene becoming the norm come next year or something.

Dayvie

@Helioz: Eh, HL2's system only works because it's a FPS, they close off the space so you have to be in the room that the talking is happening, Freeman is given no personality and responses, and the amount of interactivity with the closed environment is minimal.

I mean, it's definitely not an easy dilemma - you want to let the player have an interactive experience, but still present the scene in a cinematic, coherent way without having the player do something completely stupid and ruin the moment. You accomplish this by severely limiting the kind of interactivity the player has in the scene - you can't affect any of the characters in HL/HL2 in a cutscene, and you walk very sloooowly in cutscenes in Assassin's Creed.

I actually prefer the reverse technique, where you're still fully in the game but you're presented story elements via small audio/video clips, a la Bioshock tapes. It feels more genuine than the faux interactivity of "wow, I can still walk around in a cut scene! <dies>".

Datheron

Even though MGS4 has long cutscenes, but the transition from a cutscene to gameplay was the smoothest one ever seen in a game. I was totally impressed by that.

venkat55

@GrrSnort: I feel so much better that I wasn't the only one who did that.

BlackMage66652

@Helioz: Definitely. I think Valve does it best right now. Between the Half-Life series and Portal, they have gotten the delivery of story and even cinematic content to the player without ever taking away player control down to an art.

I Think We're Property

Denis Dyack is.. how should I put this.. an opinionated fellow. I don't know how many of you actually listened to his thirty-odd minute rant on the "1Up Yours"-podcast a couple of weeks ago, but it got messy.

With all due respect, because he is a talented designer, he does have some Deker Smart'ish ego-issues. While someone like Molenyx can get away with over-hyping his games, because he's a friendly guy who'd never go toe-to-toe with someone in an internet flamewar, Dyack happily engages in heated discussions on the 4chan forums, making him an easy target when he starts promising amazing things he can't actually deliver.

He basically needs to stop bashing other games and realize that negative previews aren't part of a global conspiracy to crush the human morale and destroy common decency.

Nico8332

people keep bringing up valve, but I think jumping around like an idiot while people talk to me is not beneficial to the gameplay.

hotdamn

Dyak Confirms! Too Human gameplay as stilted and uninvolved as cutscenes!

endaround

@wanion: my dog was running in circles everytime i flicked through the menu. it nigh on made my ears bleed. agreed.

3inst3in

Forget the cut scenes. How about an in game camera that does not openly despise the player?

Spilt_Milk

we've already seen examples of too human's cutscenes in the demo. there was nothing especially extraordinary or different about them. regular ol' cutscenes.

3inst3in

The camera in the demo was terrible. Why can't I just look at the thing I want to look at? (bonus follow-up: and why is that still such a common question even though it's the 21st century?)

But what's really awful about the game is those horrible little sounds it makes in the inventory menus, these squeaky, brain-scratching little sounds that punish you for wanting to switch to a better weapon.

Too bad Too Human wasn't released a console or two ago. It might have made an impact.

wanion

So this is the same dynamic camera that's the single biggest gripe about the demo? Because no offense, Denis-- I don't care at all about the cinematic quality of your presentation, if I can't see what the fuck I'm doing when my hands are on the controller. I hope you're started ironing those owned by NeoGAF patches on all your shirts and jackets, because you're running out of time.

wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!

Closest people who came to this so far is either MGS4 with the ability to view a cutscene interactively or non-interactively by multiple angles AND reward the player or Assassin's Creed with the ability to still control Altair during cutscenes and give limited player control over dynamic camera angles.

But... Dyack... You're just saying you want to use a preset camera for certain scenes with player control? Regardless of what you do it's still a computer controlled camera, which will almost always lead to frustration...

I dunno, I guess I can't really be too judgmental without experiencing it first hand.

art_zombie

Cutscenes are good when are well made and belong to a good game and story, things i didn´t found in too human demo, so i don´t think they achieved what they wanted...

Daisuash

More developers need to take a nod from Valve and Half-Life 2 in terms of cutscenes. I actually enjoyed the majority of the dialog in the Half-Life games, even though being forced to listen to Kliener and Alyx's banter before getting my HEV suit the 5th time got pretty old.

Helioz

My problem with Too Human isn't with the camera. I never pushed the thumbstick intending to look around - I was trying to kill stuff. My problem is that when I pushed the stick to kill stuff, it didn't happen. Stuff didn't get killed. The combat is much too slow, and it feels like a chore to come up against a group of enemies. What's worse is meeting one of those large walking metal things. The controls are too heavy to actually jump in and fight it close up. I spent alot of the time playing the demo shooting everything with some kind of assault rifle, since that let me react fast enough to what was happening around me.

Aye Mak Sicur

Does that mean that it'll be better than in the demo?

Also, apparently Dyack's idea of "blurring interactivity" is to make it so that at the tail end of some cutscenes, the character switches to player control without any indication or prompting, so that the player has the awesome gameplay experience of nudging the character forward all of three feet to trigger a return to real gameplay.

Frankly, they might as well have just prompted the player to press x to finish the cutscene.

I Think We're Property

I don't mind cutscenes, just so long as there aren't too many of them and I can skip them. You just need to find the balance.

And yeah, Half Life 2 did the whole "cutscene" thing very well, but that would hardly work for every game.

Platypus Man

Wow. His last paragraph is made of fail.

Yeah, they blurred gameplay and cinematics, to the point that half the people who tried the demo didn't know the cinematic was over and that you could control the character.

And yeah, they try to make the camera epic looking and at "artistic" shots, but in the process the camera becomes your biggest enemy in the game.

"But you can control the camera!" Yeah, using RB and the right analog stick...but you fight with the right analog stick. So, imagine the mess that arises when you need to control the camera most.

I wanted so much to love Too Human and anticipated it for months.

No way.

karasu is my homeboy

Agreed, Half Life 2 had many, many "cut scene" moments without having to take control away from the player. I guess the downside is that Gordon never has any input or opinion, which leads to a pretty bland and, besides killing things, a main character that contributes virtually nothing to the narrative.

mistersneak

I couldn't focus on the article cause this man just kept staring at me with those smug-but-creepy eyes.

paeper

Yeah, in the demo the line was so blurred that in that doorway Baldur stayed still for 5 minutes before I realized the game was finally playable after 5 minutes of ham-fisted dialog. Yeah, way to blur the line. I love you, Dyack, just not your game. Bring me Eternal Darkness 2, please.

GrrSnort

I really don't mind cutscenes, to be honest. I mean MGS had very long cutscenes that I was itching to skip, but on the whole I enjoy them. The one reason we need to keep cutscenes is that when we have extended sections of dialogue between characters that takes place while we're still playing, we can't skip that after dying for the hundredth time in the next room.

I love cutscenes; who's with me?

Aye Mak Sicur

Well you've got me rootin for ya, Dyack, even if I haven't managed to get into your demo. I still have faith you'll put out a good game.

offsafety

"we've managed to blur the line between what people would consider a cut scene and what people consider in-game."
Phh! Valve did that years ago!
But this dynamic, intelligent camera marlarky has me confused.....c'mon Too Human...don't be crap!

excel_excel

@aboganza: agreed. I'm not expecting much from this game, especially when he says stuff like that :/

ghostadv

I didn't have any issues in the 8 or so hours I've put into the TH demo (I've played all five classes a couple of times each).

I was playing with the Isometric view, though, so that might have made things easier on the eyes. It felt right with 1) the game being Diablo-esque, 2) the shooting, 3) the sliding and comboing, and 4) the large masses of enemies.

I've tried using closer angles for combat, but I immediately pull back to Iso. It just feels right.

GorbyGipper

@goboard117: I'm with you. I see all these complaints about the demo and i just shake my head in disbelief. Seriously, you're complaining that you're too stupid to realize the game has started? I don't recall having this problem at all. Also theres no way in hell you would call the combat in this game slow if you knew what you were doing. Its the same ol' story, people just want to smash buttons and not have to adjust to something different.

sniper13x

is it just me, or do these guys at silicon knights talk about Too Human as if it was cutting edge in 1998? Seemless cutscenes, dynamic camera, branching skill trees, more than *3* classes, two player co-op. :sigh: this game sounds like it would've been awesome back when diablo and starcraft and half-life *1* came out.

aboganza

@CSat420:

That is exactly what i did...destroyed everything with one hand, me and my mate tried it. Highly unimpressed with the game, sorry Dyack. Cut scenes were annoying as well, why put so many in a demo?

Aaronosuke

@GorbyGipper: ummm... Wasn't the only selectable class in the 360 demo the Champion?

... you did really play the demo, right?

I Think We're Property

The Too Human demo really sucked... I usually finish my all demos/free games being the cheap ass that I am. I just couldn't finish the Too Human demo. The gameplay boring, camera angle sucked, cut scenes uninteresting.

Tons of people mentioned HL for good story telling examples, I agree, and I will mention Bioshock for a game with good storytelling (not the ending). In fact, the audio tapes tell a good story without even using cut scenes. Portal too, doesn't have much cut scene and still delivers top notch story telling.

darvos

@karasu is my homeboy: I'm surprised you even watched the cutscenes. I skipped them, the dialogue was so bad and the story was so boring.

peAr nectAr

If the camera in the demo was any indication, no thanks.

I mean, there were some neat ideas with presented with it - and I appreciated that. But the camera during combat was often frustrating.

sir_carrot

I think the real problem with stories in video games, which includes this topic about cutscenes, is that video games cannot re-create reality and players don't really want games to re-create reality. If you give the player the ability to interact with a virtual world, more often than not the player will faff about rather than role-play.

Take GTAIV as an example. I bet when the writers decided to give players the ability to date criminal girlfriends, watch virtual telly and peruse the virtual internet for virtual pornography, they were assuming that the players would role-play and become truly immersed in Liberty City. And yet I've seen so many people claim these elements to be boring departures from the main game, where they are happy to steal cars and crash them. Faffing about is clearly more fun than developers intend it to be.

As long as the action in a video-game is directed, through cutscenes or fixed gameplay mechanics, the inability to faff about forces the player to focus on the narrative and become immersed in the story. If you want immersion in a virtual world, then the story needs to take a back seat.

Raian1

I never thought cutscenes were such a big deal. I've never minded them, but you can almost always skip over them. I don't think there's really any gamers out there who just scream in anger whenever a cutscene takes away the interactivity.

M-26-7

As other people have pointed out, Too Human's camera is really terrible. But here's my issue with Too Human's cutscenes. In the demo at least, most of the cutscenes are flashbacks, and despite that fact, any armor you equip is also present in the flashback. So forget interactivity, and "blurring lines" nonsense. I'm immediately removed from the experience whenever I notice my armor has the ability to time travel.

@sniper13x: While I agree with you in regards to being too stupid to know the cutscene is over, the combat and camera are fucking terrible. It's not slow, I'll give you that, it's just bad. And it IS a button masher, just in a new location. Going into a fight, I wanted very much to swing that analog stick around like you would in "skate" to pull off combo, but I quickly learned to attack in one direction, I just had to repeatedly push(mash) the analog stick in that direction. Any time I wanted to act out the sword swings with my thumb, my character would slide across the room (ugly animation btw) towards an enemy I didn't know was there because the camera is shit. The sword swings are so lavish and elaborate, and I'm simply pressing up,up,up,up. It feels like the guy's on autopilot.

On the way into a fight, you can also fire your gun(s) by simply holding down the shoulder button(s) and having played a lot of Syndicate Wars the same day, I can tell you both games have the same targeting system. You aim in the direction of the enemy and just assume the reticle will appear. Somtimes it doesn't and you shoot the ground next to your target. Syndicate Wars came out in 1996.

Also, the cyberspace sections sucked. "You now have the ability to push" immediately reminded me of Pokemon.

Bluecell

We are now being told that the "Dynamic, Intelligent Camera" can be turned on for using during single player as well as multi-player modes. When one player defeats another online (while the special camera is activated) it will be called a "Dynamic, Intelligent Camera Kill", or "D.I.C.K." for short. A little messege will pop up on the screen of the player who was defeated, saying "You've been D.I.C.K'ed!".

CheckersMcGavern

@I Think We're Property: Wait, I see now on wikipedia that various hacks and glitches all the playing of all the classes, despite them being normally locked. I apologize and retract my statement.

I also point out that its amusing that the Silicon Knights programmers' relationship with demos continues to be abusive. I bet that their demo code calls them up at 3am to scream how much it hates them and then pleads for them not to leave.

I Think We're Property

@I Think We're Property: The classes are timelocked. You can open all five by playing with the clock.

mwoody

Am I the only one that really loves cut-scenes. I love going to the movies and I love playing games and so when I can have both at the same time that is great. Mind you I prefer movie like cut-scenes to in game ones. I love a good Square-Enix cut scene. You can make the graphics look really good when it is prerendered. So for me I love those seeing them in game and would like to see those scenes more in my games too.

BlackIceJoe

Bah, I'm still getting this, it's gonna be a fun romp.

jello44

That smug little picture they keep using everytime he comes up in the news sure isn't helping my perception of him.

Frologic

As long as he gives us the ability to skip the damn Valkyrie cut scene in the full game I'll be happy. Its so aggravating to have to sit there and watch that crap every time you die.

Wubbytoes

@venkat55: 100% agree with you there. i have never seen such seemles transitions from cutseen to gameplay in my life. and the camera when your fighting the B&B's while on Big mama's bike. Amazing

limitt_45

Interaction kills Immersion.
Why?
Because if you can mess up the story you will mess up the story!

Garo

Ok the demo had about one of the worst cameras I've ever used. In fact the inability to control the camera just about guarantees I won't be buying this title.

If SK is touting the camera a feature in any way, that can only mean trouble for the rest of the game.

Slorg

While I wasn't frustated with the camera in the Too Human demo, the attack system did come off as pretty random. What they should have done was look at the control schemes for games like God of War, and ask how they can implement that kind of chaotic 1-vs-100 feel without the camera ruining it.

I think Cameras-on-Rails systems (such as DMC) would have worked much better than their "intelligent" camera system. Every player wants to focus on a different thing while playing -- either give them all the same angle, or give them complete control over it.

Despite that, it's freaking Diablo in cyberspace. I'm still getting it.

alzheimers

Dyack's a great game designer - like Molyneux. His ideas may not make it to his game, but he knows what it SHOULD have which is already an advantage. His actual games... eh. I liked MGS:TS, and to Molyneux's credit Populous mostly worked.

Denis, quit Molyneudling and get back to work! I swear, he's gotta be one of those guys who has a brilliant idea once in a while and then spends 6 hours a day in front of the water cooler...

fuchikoma

Blur the line? You mean by all gameplay stopping, and me sitting and watching a video of the characters that I have no control over outside of combat? Come on, he's trying to get excitement going for his game, with features that every other game has.

Too Human, now with ground-breaking controller support, to play, you have to insert the almost futuristic optical disk into your console.

Go play some HL2 and tell me what blurs in-game and storytelling.

Talleh

This guy needs to spend less time giving interviews and making video blogs and spend more time on making a game. Too Human's a crap fest. Every single one of them should be hanging their head, it looks like a PS2 game and plays like a crap PS1 game.

SirUrza

@I Think We're Property: I understand that Valve doesn't have cut scenes, I have played video games before. I am merely making the point that for those who do like cut scenes, more interactive ones are the way to go. If you look at the Half Life and Bio Shock approach to story telling, it's drastically different than a more directed story, and that's still to be seen whether or not it is better, worse, or just different. And again, you are judging the quality of Too Human before the game is out and saying it's worse than N3. You know, you could probably be a games journalist.

32brains

Sorry, Dennis, I ain't feelin' that happening in Too Human, at least from the demo that is.

Biguhtree

@Dyack: You know that the demo did the exact opposite, right?
In the "cutscenes" right in the beginning, when that robot/alien/whatever looks at you and the view changes to its perspective, the controls change relative to the viewpoint.
You walk form south to north, approaching the bridge, camera changes to alienrobotview, you keep your thumb on "north" on the LS aaaand you run north, relative to the changed viewpoint. WTH? 10 sec. later, the same thing happens again, only even better - you either run into a boulder (using the same technique) in the former west which you dindt intend to, or you run into the boulder the alienwhatever is standing on, because you cant see it, from its pov.

Its not that big of a deal to me, honestly, as long as one is quiet about it I can really easily live with that, but when you tout the bug as a feature its not right.

Yes it is a demo, (to me) one of the better demos in a long time (nice and long, gameplay and cutscenes, ..) and I know that a lot of things can be still changed (especially that camerathing i just went on about, i imagine), but come on, if that is one of the major fetures, een one you talk about AFTER the demo.. i think i just talked my point dead.

otoh:
I really liked the demo. really. besides my (to be honest - provoked) ramblings just then.
me likes a lot. do. will most likely buy.

/night out :)

nightshade2541