It’s just getting stale.

There are QTEs for combat in the recent Prince of Persia (2008), but they are triggers for individual actions that are necessary in combat anyway: attack, block, escape from harm. It’s still horribly oversimplified, but rather than derail the conversation by complaining about UbiSoft’s insistence on holding a player’s hand through swordfighting, I will say only this: there is a better way to direct the action while still making players feel like they are actually contributing, and Prince of Persia (2008) did its best to put this into practice. Furthermore, because it has a pretty good story so far (not finished yet), it has something to fall back on if the combat and predictable layout to levels become uninteresting.

Though I think what irritates me the most is the trend towards QTE-styled boss battles. I recently saw this in Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. As I noted in the original post, what should be the culmination of difficulty in a level has been turned into a sequence that requires no skill. This is not what I grew up with, and I would hate for video games to make this approach the rule rather than the exception.

And thank you for describing Shadow of the Colussus in a way that doesn’t make me want to roll my eyes. I can appreciate the ideas and themes behind the game itself, but the people who have latched on to it as a figurehead for video games have completely obliterated any desire I once had to play it. Plus, the whole not having a PS2 thing.

This generation of games, and this genre especially, doesnt have an excuse for the quicktime event. Its not as if Ninja Blade is spending its development time on a compelling story, character interaction and voice acting, and current generation hardware is capable of some pretty impressive feats without resorting to prescripting anything that might look cool.

Its probably cliche at this point, but Id look to Shadow of the Colossus for comparison here. The fights in SotC are some of the most epic boss battle in any game (granted this is the games focus). Instead of God of War’s press x square x to decapitate the hydra, you actually have to maneuver your character up the boss to where you need to be while actively avoiding his attempts to thwart you. There is a level of satisfaction in downing something using your own ingenuity (some of those fights were crazy complicated) and dexterity (even when you knew what to do it could be hard) that just cant be replaced with a quick time event victory.

In short, I really hope this tool falls out of fashion soon. If you want me to watch a cut scene, just make a cut scene.

Good article:)