Why Can't We Rewind Cutscenes

Uncharted, DmC, FarCry 3, and Dishonored, these are games I've been playing over the last couple of months, all with great, well paced cutscenes that probably took months to get just right, but the second I sneeze, cough, or get a text message and I miss out on something that was said I always wonder out loud why haven't rewindable cutscenes become an industry standard. So in most cases, instead of rewinding a few seconds back, I have to skip the cutscene entirely and replay the level to start it up again.

Not worth the implementation or too technically challenging? What do you think?

I imagine technical limitations would be a factor, plus it would interrupt your perception of the narrative.

I agree, this should be a feature, cutscenes are a big part of games

There may be a technical reason, but I hope it's just devs being lazy and that it's something that becomes standard in the future. There have been many times when I missed something and had no way to go back to it. Even if they don't let us rewind, there should be some menu option that we can get to to rewatch any story bits at will.

You'd need to implement some sort of control system for the videos, but I don't see it being too hard. I actually agree that it would be a good idea. Dunno why developers wouldn't do that.

It's not technical considering Alpha Protocol had a rewind/fast forward feature for cutscenes. Those weren't pre-rendered, either. All in-engine so there's really no excuse other than nobody has thought of it yet.

I know some games have a cutscene re-watching function, so even if more just implement stuff like that, I'd be content.

They should just do what's done on many games which is from the main menu in a extras menu (for example) you can just replay the cutscenes whenever you want to see what you missed or a refresher on the story so far. Know it's done on many games but should be in more games.

Your sneezes and coughs must last a really long time to miss enough of a cutscene to wonder aloud why you can't rewind. Also, your phone is an element you can control, so turn it down/off if you're playing a game?

This is one of those non-issues, I think.

I bet rewinding cutscenes would be a real great way to fuck up the pacing. It's also not too necessarily too difficult for devs to implement, but bothering implementing it seems like it wouldn't really be worth it.

Yeah, this should be the big achievment of the next gen: Pausable/rewindable cutscenes.

I'm serious, I hate it when I watch a big cutscene in a game I like and suddenly somebody knocks on the door or the phone rings. Argh, go away I'm playing video games over here!

I like the idea. I never thought of it.

Not enough games even offer a pause feature, and if they do I dont know since im afraid ill skip it. Sometimes Real life comes up and I end up missing cutscenes.

Hell, I just need the assurance that pressing start won't skip a cutscene. It doesn't even need to actually pause it. Just don't skip that shit when I'm trying to piss so I can watch the rest of Kojima's god damn feature length film that he stuck in the middle of his game.

@Gamer_152: That's just an example. Sometimes my wife comes in while I'm playing and asks me a question, or sometimes the door bell will ring, or sometimes... You really need more examples of why someone might be interrupted while watching a cutscene?

And as for some of those games that have the cutscenes in the main menu, I like when games do that but it's still less convenient than just rewinding a few seconds back.

I blame EA.

I would imagine that rewind isn't implemented because it would probably take some man hours to implement and not too many people are asking for it.

Hell, I just need the assurance that pressing start won't skip a cutscene. It doesn't even need to actually pause it. Just don't skip that shit when I'm trying to piss so I can watch the rest of Kojima's god damn feature length film that he stuck in the middle of his game.

@crusader8463 said:

Even if they don't let us rewind, there should be some menu option that we can get to to rewatch any story bits at will.

This may be the most realistic option, especially since I could probably name a few games that implement this to some degree.

@StriderNo9 said:

@Gamer_152: That's just an example. Sometimes my wife comes in while I'm playing and asks me a question, or sometimes the door bell will ring, or sometimes... You really need more examples of why someone might be interrupted while watching a cutscene?

And as for some of those games that have the cutscenes in the main menu, I like when games do that but it's still less convenient than just rewinding a few seconds back.

I don't have this as an issue anymore now that it is standard for games to be able to pause cutscenes.

It's a neat idea, but something that probably throws up a lot more problems than you would think of. The thing with a lot of features when making games, you put it in the game thinking "this is easy so it won't be an issue" then you discover that it causes all sorts of unexpected problems down the line, technical or otherwise.

Some games might have it and I agree that it's a neat idea, but for various developers there would be a whole range of reasons not to include it. For some it might be technical reasons, some developers have made engines that might not agree with it from a streaming of assets point of view, others it is just that they won't have the time to make sure it's implemented, some developers will probably rather not have it for pacing issues, etc etc

There is most likely a whole range of issues, I highly doubt it's just: "oh, they must be lazy".

Pausing cutscenes, and skipping them is luckily easier and pretty much standard now. Also a lot of games let you re-watch them from some sort of menu anyway.

I can see something like this becoming more standard once engines from the get go support functions like this.

@StriderNo9 said:

@Gamer_152: That's just an example. Sometimes my wife comes in while I'm playing and asks me a question, or sometimes the door bell will ring, or sometimes... You really need more examples of why someone might be interrupted while watching a cutscene?

And as for some of those games that have the cutscenes in the main menu, I like when games do that but it's still less convenient than just rewinding a few seconds back.

oh god i hate when people walk in during cutscenes of a really dramatic important moment, completely ruins it

A "Replay?" prompt at the end of a cutscene might be nice.