@FlyingRat: Woah! Great friggin' example with GTA 4. The gameplay and cutscenes complimented eachother perfectly. Like Roman getting kidnapped and Niko screaming at the henchmen. And because of the choice, I felt like the events at the end of the game were my fault. GTA4 definatley overcame those obstacles. I'd also throw out Batman: Arkham Asylum as another game that gameplay and cutscenes complimented beautifully.
You also make a solid argument with dialogue options. While generally the story is pretty focused (you visit the same areas no matter what your choices happen to be in most cases) you are directing the story of your character through dialogue options.
I'd throw out the example of Uncharted versus Uncharted 2. While the gameplay was decent and fun in a lot of cases, there were times when I was fighting a ton on bullet sponge pirates or fending off an onslaught of creepy naked guys where I became frusterated. The story is what kept me playing. I pushed through the frusterating bits to advance the story. Whereas in Uncharted 2, I never (even during the frusterating bits) felt like I was just fighting ai clones. A lot of the lack of disconnect was due to more varied in game dialogue and frequent scripted events.
I'm not denying that games can, and in many cases HAVE breached the problem of disconnect. I just feel that the disconncet is a wall developers are going to keep running in to. Finding new creative solutions to the problem and further merging gameplay and story are essential for developers. I sometimes find myself playing games on easy just to further advance the story and increase my enjoyment of the game. I simply pose that the problem exists. RTS in Brutal Legend, anyone? And how often do you find that developers throw extra story elements in simply to add more levels to the game. South America in Modern Warfare 2. Ok, not the best example, because the story in MW2 was just batshit crazy and the gameplay was great but how did South America advance the plot?
@FlyingRat: what exactly do you disagree with? And, no, not for school. Just had some thoughts on the subject and was feeling self-important enough to put them on the internet.
@Spoonman671: thanks for embedding it. @PATERSON: Totally see what you're saying. I'm not calling for the abolition of cutscenes, they aren't going anywhere. I just think it is up do developers to find creative ways to avoid the disconnect between the cutscenes and the gameplay.
I wrote an essay on cutscenes a while back. I recorded it and put in on youtube. In my attempts to get it out there, I've had a few views, but would like to have more. In depth discussion of video games is what they need to be seen as an art medium or even a legitimate form of expression.
And now I am being a pretentious jackass . In any case, if anyone else has any essays they've written, I'd be stoked to check them out so please direct me to them.
I don't think those qualify. I wouldn't call them a "return to form." rather just more entries in an old series. What about the new "Predators " film. The Alien Versus Predator movies were too different.... here is a Predator movie similar to Predator and Predator 2.
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