Cut scenes. Some love them, others loathe them. In games like Metal Gear Solid, players sit and watch as cut scenes push the story forward.
Near-mythical game designer Tim Schafer reckons games need to look beyond cliched fantasy and science fiction inspirations in order for the industry to reach a broader audience. Is he right?
Satisfied with how upcoming thriller Heavy Rain looks? Don’t be. Not one to be complacent, developer Quantum Dream says the eagerly awaited game still needs lots of work.
Been some big(ish) names doing video game voice work of late. Robert Downey Jr. Ron Perlman. Kristen Bell. But are they really doing the work? Heavy Rain creator David Cage doesn’t think so.
Don’t expect to see the heroine of Heavy Rain leaping through the air in some abominable mash-up of Cirque du Soleil and The Matrix. The game’s director tells 1UP it’s simply about “normal people.”
Quantic Dream’s David Cage, the creator of Indigo Prophecy who’s currently at work on Heavy Rain, often has good things to say about emotion in games, and in a recent interview with Gamasutra, he’s leveling a critical eye on the open-world structures of MMOs and wondering what “emotional value” players are really getting out of them.
He first contrasts sandbox gaming in general with the deliberately-constructed “rollercoaster” of linear games:
“From the time you’re in the line, you go in the back of the rollercoaster and through the tunnel and everything is defined. We knew while you were waiting how to make the stress grow, how to make you feel something, get you scared, make you feel better, et cetera. This rollercoaster is being conceived by someone to optimise the experience”.
