12 Things Games Must Stop Doing Right Now

3. Quick Time Events

Sometimes it's fun to engage the player by having them interact with an intense cut scene. Flash a button or two on screen and if timed correctly the scene continues and the gamer doesn't feel like it's a passive moment in the game. Wait a minute... You're telling me that I now have to actually play the cut scene that I so very much detest - and play it using a Simon Says methodology so old it existed before video games? At least with a standard cut scene I can leave the room to grab a pint. What are you thinking erstwhile game developers? QTEs are a terrible blight on gaming and an insult to the gamer. I don't think I've ever read that QTEs were fun - not in a review and not from fellow gamers. So who is enjoying them so much that they're becoming commonplace even in games where we know they're not wanted? Halo 4 had them - it started with a series of QTEs as Master chief is climbing a ladder. Halo franchise head honcho and old colleague of mine Frank O Connor justified this by saying it was to teach you how to play the game and to introduce you to new game mechanics. Well after the first few QTE moments they hardly appear again and they teach you nothing. Why were they there? I'll tell you why, because some game developers secretly yearn to make motion pictures not video games and so add unnecessary "movie" elements to great games as long as it means they get to pretend to be a film director for a little bit. I was no more convinced of the original explanation given by O Connor than I was of his new American accent. You're Scottish, Frank - be proud of it. Just don't be proud of those QTEs in Halo.