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[StueyDuck]

I know this is a hot take, but i feel i'm surely not alone in feeling this way. I have aired grievances similar to this before on here, But recently i decided to startup Midnight suns on ps5 since it's now on premium, excited to jump into the great turn based action that firaxis is known for.

right off the bat i am hit with just an awful story beat, poor writing, terrible dialog. so my reaction is to just skip and i did and it was great, i was in the tutorial interacting with the combat system all was great. However as soon as the combat encounter is over i am stuck with another awful cutscene, for some reason Iron man is a bumbling fool who is basically simple jack, I think we know why self inserts would have done that but what ever i can skip. now im some dude in a graveyard, cool, walk forward, oh look! back into more long stretched out dialog. skip skip skip, choose some dumb dialog choice, skip skip, and now im in some town hall thing, loads of characters around me and guess what you can do, that's right, talk to more npcs and have more and more and more dialog thrown at you over and over and over....

so i close the game, delete it off my harddrive and launch up Helldivers 2 and BAM!!! im playing a video game within seconds, jumping around, having fun.

so basically im asking if anyone else feels this way about modern gaming? it just seems to be writers and artists trying their hardest to push their self inserts or beliefs or whatever onto you over and over and over and you barely get to play the actual game. Games are just so boring now, i'd rather watch a tv show or a movie.

If developers insist on being dialog heavy and story heavy it has to be some of the best writing out there and barely any developers working right now have that sort of talented writing staff behind them.

anyway that's my rant for the day. enjoy yours

 

[Hollowpoint5557]

I hate listening to stories so much I almost want a tl:dr about the original post above mine.

But, this was me with Metro Exodus. I just wanted to shoot cool shit and it was non-stop talking and standing around. Unbelievably boring. I tapped out in 10 minutes.

 

[Agent_Nobody]

ADD the thread…

 

[StueyDuck]

This was me with Metro Exodus. I just wanted to shoot cool shit and it was non-stop talking and standing around. Unbelievably boring. I tapped out in 10 minutes.

come to think of it, i never did finish metro exodus either, i got to the dessert place and never went any further, this is probably the reason why too.

 

[Majima Everywhere System]

You are correct. Imagine even understanding what the hell is happening in an Assassins Creed game.

It should never be a department, problem solved. One lore person and one writer. But people's whole existence is to write and write and write, and I think most audiences would rather they stop.

This should have been the real lesson of Dark Souls.

 

[Wildebeest]

Not a hot take. They value voice acting and writing by word count, not by quality.

 

[ssringo]

Tldr.

Seriously though, I dropped FF7Rebirth because of Chadley and Mai. Peak obnoxiousness.

 

[MayauMiao]

Not a hot take, I feel that way too. I just want to start playing the damn game and can't be bothered about NPC spouting expositions that I likely forget seconds after the game starts.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Hot take indeed, midnight suns doesn't have self inserts or beliefs, and the story is pretty cool.
But I guess in general you'd want to minimise taking control from the player, though not every genre lends itself well to that.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Yeah I seriously don't have time for all the fucking chit chat. Let me play the game, skip walking sections and cutscenes.

 

[StueyDuck]

Not a hot take, I feel that way too. I just want to start playing the damn game and can't be bothered about NPC spouting expositions that I likely forget seconds after the game starts.

that's exactly it... Thing is I know the rebuttal, oh old man (im 32, not really that old haha) games aren't for you etc.

but to me it's like, but isn't the game part why we play games. Even something dialog heavy like mass effect still was a game first (depending on your feeling on ME1 controls).

the writing is just so bad today and so monotonous and robotic and poor that it's difficult to engage with. I'd rather it was cheesy or goofy like Jill sandwich or most of MGS, that has it's own entertainment factor.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Bad writers lean to exposition dialogues and text walls. Most AAA games are employing Z quality writers or AI-assisted activists.

To me it's pretty obvious at this point that they are purposefully lowering the standards to trick everyone into accepting AI, since the humans they hire are far worse than the dumbest machine.

 

[StueyDuck]

Tldr.

Seriously though, I dropped FF7Rebirth because of Chadley and Mai. Peak obnoxiousness.

i've had quite an expensive few months so i've held off from new purchases like FF7 rebirth but hearing this is a bit of a turnoff. he was annoying in the first one too haha but barely in it luckily

 

[Werewolf Jones]

CAN I PLAY THE GAME?

 

[StueyDuck]

Yeah I seriously don't have time for all the fucking chit chat. Let me play the game, skip walking sections and cutscenes.

honestly i think this is the biggest reason why Open world games are such a hit with most people, a large part of it is when the game finally shuts the fuck up you at least (usually) have player control to go and explore and just play the game and decide when to interact with the terrible exposition again.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I sometimes think writing might be a cheap way to get lots of content into a game with very little work from programmers or developers.

 

[sloppyjoe_gamer]

 

[TheInfamousKira]

I don't mind cutscenes. I generally like storyline, and it's a reptile brain holdover from the PS1 days where CGI/cutscenes were kind of one of the feature points of contemporary gaming.

Now, I *do* hate is having story scenes, cinematics AND the need to fill every second of silence during actual gameplay with Nate Drake banter. I've respected your time, game. I've viewed your cutscene. Give me fifteen minutes to myself. I don't need to hear from my partner character how much [current campaign] reminds him of that job we took twenty years ago. I don't need to be told that the old, forested Mansion is old. Etc, etc. Some of that is all well and good, but I challenge these devs to do ANYTHING and talk and quip half as much as MC's do in mortal danger.

Big supporter of the "bring back pressing X to read characters personal blurbs about whatever is in front of them," a la Silent Hill or Resident Evil.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

I have zero patience for this shit. Not because I hate story or dialog but because all of it in the AAA realm especially feels like small talk drivel to pad length and establish "backstory" that's easily infered by the environmental design.

I also cannot fucking stand Naughty Dog-isms like chatty NPCs, my character constantly speaking and so on.

 

[Hollowpoint5557]

The game that got it absolutely perfect was Doom Eternal. I played through it on Series X, played again on PS5 while getting all the trophies, and then again on PC. I know it had a story, but I haven't watched even 15 seconds of it over 3 full playthroughs. The story's there if I want it, if not that's cool too. They just let you play.

 

[StueyDuck]

I don't mind cutscenes. I generally like storyline, and it's a reptile brain holdover from the PS1 days where CGI/cutscenes were kind of one of the feature points of contemporary gaming.

Now, I *do* hate is having story scenes, cinematics AND the need to fill every second of silence during actual gameplay with Nate Drake banter. I've respected your time, game. I've viewed your cutscene. Give me fifteen minutes to myself. I don't need to hear from my partner character how much [current campaign] reminds him of that job we took twenty years ago. I don't need to be told that the old, forested Mansion is old. Etc, etc. Some of that is all well and good, but I challenge these devs to do ANYTHING and talk and quip half as much as MC's do in mortal danger.

Big supporter of the "bring back pressing X to read characters personal blurbs about whatever is in front of them," a la Silent Hill or Resident Evil.

written text is fine, i don't mind that. those snes/ps1 rpg days taught you to speed read which was a great (probably bad habbit cause you tend to miss some details).

as long as i can mash X to get to the next line as quick as possible or skip the entire conversation altogether then that's fine.

 

[Guilty_AI]

I mean, yeah, sure. If you're gonna force dialogue and cutscenes onto the player, it better be good indeed.

 

[kyussman]

Yea,being someone who has played games since Pong I have a tendency to zone out during talky bits in games.....I can watch a three hour movie and hold my concentration no problem,but there is something about wanting to play a game that makes the bits where I'm not playing it easier to loose concentration with.

 

[DaGwaphics]

I'm not overly concerned/worried about political narratives but there are definitely games where the dialog is just simply bad and the characters just won't shut up. LOL

 

[StueyDuck]

gotta be honest, i'll need context here?

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Halo Infinite has pretty short cutscenes. Even they we’re getting a bit too much on my second coop playthrough.

Same with Metro Exodus that I recently started. Some of the best, most atmospheric exploration marred by too much boring chit chat.

 

[sloppyjoe_gamer]

gotta be honest, i'll need context here?

Have you ever played the HZD games? Aloy never shuts the fuck up.

 

[StueyDuck]

I'm not overly concerned/worried about political narratives but there are definitely games where the dialog is just simply bad and the characters just won't shut up. LOL

I'm replaying South Park: the stick of truth and the difference is night and day, genuinely a hilarious game but just overall the way it does story, dialog and plot is just so on point.

 

[phaedrus]

Big reason I couldn't finish Rise of The Tomb Raider: nuLara just simply can't shut.the.fuck.up!

"The prophet.."
"The prophet.."
"the prophet..."
"the prophet..."
Every 5 seconds! Talking to herself!
And narrating her own actions, out loud, to herself!
She just sounds so re*****d.

 

[StueyDuck]

Have you ever played the HZD games? Aloy never shuts the fuck up.

i have, and she doesn't, but like, why is it a super imposed dude

 

[Hypereides]

Personally, I don't consider this a hot take. I share the same sentiment. I find it especially bothersome whenever some character blurts out obvious hints or solutions to an environment or in-game puzzle out loud.

 

[Fake]

Try playing Horizon Zero Dawn and than change to Bloodborne or Elden Ring.

Is like a night day difference.

 

[John Bilbo]

TLDR

 

[TheStam]

Midnight Suns is just awful in that regard. Some of the worst and most awkward dialogue I've encountered. Gameplay is great though.

I grew up with point and click adventure games and always enjoyed stories in games. When dialogue became voiced I was amazed. Lines of dialogue felt like a luxury and I treated it as such for quite a long time. A new dialogue option in a game like KOTOR was like a reward to me. These days though, there's so much padding that I struggle to resist the urge to skip dialogue in so many games. The amount of cut scenes and bland writing is frustrating in so many games especially RPGs as the quality doesn't always hold up. 5 dialogue options which are all lore dumps can feel like a punishment now. I guess part of it is having played many games you get a bit jaded and don't care as much about generic honorable knight #768 and his dragon issues or that predictable plot twist.

 

[Generic]

I know this is a hot take, but i feel i'm surely not alone in feeling this way. I have aired grievances similar to this before on here, But recently i decided to startup Midnight suns on ps5 since it's now on premium, excited to jump into the great turn based action that firaxis is known for.

right off the bat i am hit with just an awful story beat, poor writing, terrible dialog. so my reaction is to just skip and i did and it was great, i was in the tutorial interacting with the combat system all was great. However as soon as the combat encounter is over i am stuck with another awful cutscene, for some reason Iron man is a bumbling fool who is basically simple jack, I think we know why self inserts would have done that but what ever i can skip. now im some dude in a graveyard, cool, walk forward, oh look! back into more long stretched out dialog. skip skip skip, choose some dumb dialog choice, skip skip, and now im in some town hall thing, loads of characters around me and guess what you can do, that's right, talk to more npcs and have more and more and more dialog thrown at you over and over and over....

so i close the game, delete it off my harddrive and launch up Helldivers 2 and BAM!!! im playing a video game within seconds, jumping around, having fun.

so basically im asking if anyone else feels this way about modern gaming? it just seems to be writers and artists trying their hardest to push their self inserts or beliefs or whatever onto you over and over and over and you barely get to play the actual game. Games are just so boring now, i'd rather watch a tv show or a movie.

If developers insist on being dialog heavy and story heavy it has to be some of the best writing out there and barely any developers working right now have that sort of talented writing staff behind them.

anyway that's my rant for the day. enjoy yours

This is why multiplayer games are superior.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

Big reason I couldn't finish Rise of The Tomb Raider: nuLara just simply can't shut.the.fuck.up!

"The prophet.."
"The prophet.."
"the prophet..."
"the prophet..."
Every 5 seconds! Talking to herself!
And narrating her own actions, out loud, to herself!
She just sounds so re*****d.

I've been saying for years that with ALL the absurd accessibility options in games now, why can't we have an option to turn off this thinly-veiled hint system bullshit? In God Of War you literally walk into a room and within five seconds Atreus will go "hmmm, what's that mechanism" before I even get to explore. That's insulting and completely unnecessary for me. If others are too stupid to see the only lever in the room can be interacted with, cool, but I don't want that.

Give me options.

 

[Yerd]

 

[Kings Field]

This is why FROM games are the GOAT for me. Minimal bullshit, just straight banging in the pocket. You can go explore if you want to but there’s always something to do.

 

[StereoVsn]

I think this heavily depends on the game. Midnight Suns has bad characterization and writing in general which is a huge detriment when the game tries to be Persona line friendship simulator.

However a game like Persona (well, 3 onwards) heavily depends on its writing to carry the game since that’s the whole point.

So the issue is now days generally shitty quality output from writing teams because (IMO) there is so much consulting going on for every little bit so nobody can be offended.

Which is why when a game like BG3 comes out with truly good writing it’s such a shock, lol.

And then we have something like Starfield which came out at the same time but had simply terrible characters, storytelling and writing (some side quest storylines were alright).

Thing is even what would have been action games now have a lot more story since companies try to hit at least 15-20 hour mark on length as shorter games don’t do well in $70-100 (depending on your country) game prices.

 

[FoxMcChief]

I do miss the the days of text only. FF7 Rebirth towns are an audio mess with NPC’s and team mates talking all over each other.

Basically it’s a mess with most RPG’s or open world games.

 

[FoxMcChief]

i have, and she doesn't, but like, why is it a super imposed dude

What do you mean? That’s how Aloy looks.

 

[Dynasty8]

Yeah, it's become so annoying. I'd be okay with it if the story AND writing is good - and to a certain limit, but most games nowadays either have cringe infested, agenda pushing, childish humor or awkward moments that I just don't want to deal with them anymore.

I did the same thing as you OP. I booted up Helldivers 2 and I was actually playing a game and not listening to nonsense. I started having fun.

I used to be quite the opposite and enjoy game stories and dialogue as a kid, but the quality just isn't there for me ...mostly Perfect example is FFVII Rebirth's Chadley and Mai. There is no reason to have those 2 shits talk THAT much over and over and over and over again.

 

[nkarafo]

Not a hot take. There's too much talking and that shit also bloats the size of the games and their budget.

Voice acting has made many games worse, look at Sonic. Remember how much better the games were before he started talking and making half of the audience cringe? Voice acting is supposed to be more realistic and immersive but that only applies if the voice acting is good. Half of the time it's not. With text you can at least imagine how a character sounds in your own way and everyone can be happy.

It also made many RPGs worse. With text you can have as much dialog as you want, as much as someone could write because it doesn't take space. But with spoken dialog you can only record so much. You also need more voice actors for more characters if you don't want everyone to sound the same like in Oblivion. And more time and money to record the lines.

Also, something that many don't mention, reading text is faster than listening to someone voicing it. That means you can trim a lot of wasted time from a 100+ hour RPG by reading instead of waiting for someone to finish talking and at the same time you have more dialog options as well.

Voice acting can be great in smaller games that don't require too much dialog. Portal would never be the same without it's voice acting, for instance. Same with Starfox 64. But in big RPGs i rather have text like in the old days. Or at least for the most part and only have voice in important cutcenes.

 

[sigmaZ]

I know this is a hot take, but i feel i'm surely not alone in feeling this way. I have aired grievances similar to this before on here, But recently i decided to startup Midnight suns on ps5 since it's now on premium, excited to jump into the great turn based action that firaxis is known for.

right off the bat i am hit with just an awful story beat, poor writing, terrible dialog. so my reaction is to just skip and i did and it was great, i was in the tutorial interacting with the combat system all was great. However as soon as the combat encounter is over i am stuck with another awful cutscene, for some reason Iron man is a bumbling fool who is basically simple jack, I think we know why self inserts would have done that but what ever i can skip. now im some dude in a graveyard, cool, walk forward, oh look! back into more long stretched out dialog. skip skip skip, choose some dumb dialog choice, skip skip, and now im in some town hall thing, loads of characters around me and guess what you can do, that's right, talk to more npcs and have more and more and more dialog thrown at you over and over and over....

so i close the game, delete it off my harddrive and launch up Helldivers 2 and BAM!!! im playing a video game within seconds, jumping around, having fun.

so basically im asking if anyone else feels this way about modern gaming? it just seems to be writers and artists trying their hardest to push their self inserts or beliefs or whatever onto you over and over and over and you barely get to play the actual game. Games are just so boring now, i'd rather watch a tv show or a movie.

If developers insist on being dialog heavy and story heavy it has to be some of the best writing out there and barely any developers working right now have that sort of talented writing staff behind them.

anyway that's my rant for the day. enjoy yours

For the most part I agree. Every line of dialog needs to have a purpose. This is the foundation of good cinematics. It's simple but you have a lot of writers who are fanfic writers at heart who like to fluff up dialog and ignore good mechanics. Fortunately in games I can skip through that garbage.

 

[Holammer]

I don't hate talking and story in video games, but today's writers try to be too clever and subversive, employing complicated symbolism, keeping everything vague and open to interpretation. A perfect example of this sort of narrative faffing about would be Returnal. Are the events happening in the game actually real or the delusions of a mentally ill person. I don't know, I'm not going to watch a 1h video with Vatisvidya or whatever explaining.

The recent Side Order DLC to Splatoon 3 on the other hand was simple story wise, they focused on snappy dialogue (that does not overstay its welcome), cute and mostly interpersonal drama.
I had a x100 better experience with that than Returnal.

 

[ChoosableOne]

 

[Jaybe]

Agreed. God of War Ragnarok would have been more tolerable if it included skip cutscenes. I put voice volume down to 2 because the banter in game play section was so bad.

 

[Drew1440]

I can kind of respect silent protagonists now in regards to Half Life/GTA III, though they let the NPC's or the environment tell the story. Voice actors aren't cheap, and are a big bulk of gaming expenses.

 

[killatopak]

I like talking games. The issue here is the people who write the talking parts. The legitimately good ones gets bogged down by bad ones.

 

[tmlDan]

Tldr.

Seriously though, I dropped FF7Rebirth because of Chadley and Mai. Peak obnoxiousness.

they're not obnoxious, just intrusive and get involved a lot lol

The proper word would probably be annoying, but i don't mind them tbh