Thursday, June 9, 2011

It's A Game! It's A Movie! NO, IT'S BOTH!!

Again, Need for Speed: The Runs:



Why, I know that QTEs were popular in Shenmue, but now they're getting carried away.  You're driving down the road, okay.  Then something happens on queue that you can't avoid (getting sidewinded by the mob).  Then the cops chase you and your guy is able to leap down 15-20 feet three times in a row without letting up.  Then you steal the police car and you're like, "Holy crap, I get to drive again."  Then you flip over onto the train tracks on queue, break out with just a split/second (lol) to spare.

I mean, I'm pretty sure this game will be good--the production values are fine, yada yada yada.  But at some point, I feel that I don't want to play an interactive movie anymore.  I want to have some sort of "free will" over how the plot progresses (other than you failed to press the button so you "die" and start over).  As a matter of fact, I don't really want a plot AT ALL in a racing game since it should just be "You driving around trying to overtake opponents," simple as that.  So for that reason, this game leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth already.

I do think though that these cinematic are what sells the game because everyone's so obsessed with lousy movies nowadays.  I wouldn't know since I'm a jackass who hates anything mainstream.

Maybe NFS: The Run's plain old racing modes will be better.  But judging by the car physics, it looks like the same stiff handling as before so I'm not getting my hopes up.  BRB, talking about Daytona USA later.

2 comments:

  1. As much as it pains me to say this, this is something completely different for racing games. I always say that "different doesn't always mean better." I'm too much a racing purist to like this game to any serious degree. Having said this, if I want in-and-out of the car action, I'll play a Grand Theft Auto game. Then again, the Need for Speed series has gone in a much different direction since "NFS: Underground."

    johnbmarine.blogspot.com

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  2. Well, the game industry is always trying to come up with "new" ideas and there hasn't been an action/racing combo outside of GTA. If people see these little cutscenes and deduce that the short-lived hold-your-hand story mode looks hella cool, then they'll rent or buy the game for that reason alone.

    I actually didn't mind NFS: Underground, but if I wanted to decorate a car, I'd go with Forza which is a much more intriguing game IMO.

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