[PATV] Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - Extra Credits Season 3, Ep. 7: Pacing

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[PATV] Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - Extra Credits Season 3, Ep. 7: Pacing

This week, we discuss proper pacing and it's influence on game design. <br /> Also, this show criminally misrepresents Allison's artistic skill. Check out her REAL work: <a href="http://www.oblivionunleashed.com/unleashed/index.php">http://www.oblivionunleashed.com/</a&gt; <a href="http://beastofoblivion.deviantart.com/">http://beastofoblivion.deviantart.com/</a&gt;

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Lowkr

I'm reminded of one great game where the pacing was all there. Highs and lows, but always building up to the grand finale...

- Master Chief, do you mind telling me what you're doing on that ship?
- Sir. Finishing this fight.

... and roll credits. Wait, what?

Halo 2.
That pain was on par with George messing with the Trilogy.
Fortunately Halo 3 rocked, and so did the new trilo... well, you can't win 'em all.

Mark Belain

This is the reason Ocarina of Time included that epic battle with Ganon after having already just beaten Ganondorf.

Mark Belain

This is the reason Ocarina of Time included that epic battle with Ganon after having already just beaten Ganondorf.

Israel Iram

Resident Evil 6 has a big pacing problem. In an attempt to choke the game full of action, the developers transformed what was an extraordinary tension-release-tension experience into a bullets-blazing-all-over bore. Sadly the result is a shooter game that lacks any resemblance to the extraordinary survival horror experience the Resident Evil franchise is known for. Resident Evil 6: no scares, no tension, no zombies (J'avos aren't zombies, they're nothing more than guerrilla fighters that turn into ashes when they die).

Piggie

Well see, Israel Iram, at first, I thought the same thing. "This isn't Resident Evil! It sucks!" But then I thought to myself..."It isn't Resident Evil." The developers have even admitted it; they call it "action horror" and not "survival horror." Once I stopped expecting the game to be what it wasn't - and looked at it for what it was - it wasn't actually that bad. Once I realized, "this is a super-cool-action game that has zombies in it" it wasn't that bad (outside of Chris's campaign, that is).

digitaru

Well that's actually the problem Piggie. Your general audience as a designer, has expectations of certain franchises. Resident Evil, was expected to be a survival horror, not an action horror. I don't even think horror is being used correctly within that context, but let's try to draw a parallel here.

Final Fantasy XIII came out with a lot of hype from the square enix, claiming to be something new, and innovative, but also living up to it's predecessors. Then it actually came out.

There were no wide open maps, no airship travel, no towns, no shops, hell there weren't even any NPCs to REALLY interact with. (You could listen in on their conversations by walking past them like in Mass Effect, but it didn't add anything to the experience in my opinion.) Even the victory fanfare was ostensibly missing, instead replacing it with a three note jingle after every battle. All of these things that seemed like something staple in a Final Fantasy were just not there, making it wholly unlike it's namesake made it out to be, and disappointing a LOT of Final Fantasy fans.

You play a survival horror for a different reason than you do an action shooter, and when you get down to it, that's what recent Resident Evils turned into. Action games. And that's what fans of the series couldn't stomach. Yes, if you took away the Resident Evil title, it would definitely be a completely different story all together, but I can't help but feel, at least in the case of FF, that they just took the name, without any knowledge or consideration of what made the franchise in the first place successful, and slapped it onto a something pretty for a cash grab.

I'm sorry to fans of FF13 or the recent Resident Evils, or games of the like, but that's how I see it.

TitanAnteus

This goes counter to your 3 ACT structure video. Also, there are tons of great games, I believe that don't follow that line of pacing structure.