[internisus]

I'm thinking specifically of Assault Suits Valken. I know many text-scenes in the game pause the action, but I also seem to remember text without pause. Am I mistaken? If not, how does that work for you guys, in this or any other game? Are you able to read or at least adequately skim the text without being distracted from the action? Does it work?

[Felix]

at this point in my gaming career, it's gotten to the point where i instantly forward past all text prompts as soon as i am able to do so - i am a very fast reader, and in the maybe one third of the cases wherein i won't have read everything in the minimum allotted time, i have a decent enough photographic memory that i can play it over again in my head three seconds after the fact.

i'm.. getting more and more impatient, it seems. though i don't think that was the original topic.

[inmatarian]

I'm fine with it as long as it's minimalist.

JUMP NOW! works better than AVOID THE ONCOMING DEATH TRAP BY PUSHING THE JUMP BUTTON WHEN YOU SEE THE YELLOW TRIANGLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SCREEN!

Is that what we're talking about?
_________________

2993 badness blog email

[dessgeega]

you should play the demo for journey to rooted hold. it does what you're describing in a turn-based framework with no cutscenes, incorporating the player's actions (or rather, the actions the level design forces the player to perform) into the script. it works pretty well.
_________________

[Intentionally Wrong]

[SplashBeats]

The text in ASV works nicely because of how it usually comes in the heat of a battle. It's a great 16-bit metaphor for the often chaotic dialogue heard in combat. The fact that you probably won't get enough time to read all of it adds to the effect.

[dessgeega]

revenge of meta-knight?
_________________

[L]

"What?? Paint ability?!"

[Baines]

[internisus]

[inmatarian]

Oh, I get it now.

This is a subject that needs better design. Take for instance those scenes in Dark Cloud where there was a fight going on, but you didn't get to see it because you were too busy looking down at that marquee, trying to catch the key inputs just right.

I think FFXII has this problem also with the Quickenings... sort of. You can luck out and everyone has something availiable, or you can have no luck what so ever and get stuck looking at the bottom of the screen hitting R2 waiting for Mist Charge to roll up.

Hell, FF8 GF Summons where you had to look at that stupid Square the whole time. Gee, I'm sure Quetzalcoatl has a great attack, but I didn't get to see it.

I like it better where the button shows up on the action itself. I think some of the more recent Zeldas do this.
_________________

2993 badness blog email

[Slonie]

[Baines]

[internisus]

[WarpZone]

In an action game I generally think it's best to avoid text for dialogue simply because it forces you to switch modes: you have to divert your eyes from the action, for one, and then literally read a line of dialogue -- a process that has nothing to do with the mechanics/patterns/etc. of the game itself.

I prefer spoken voice because your concentration isn't broken and you absorb these words right along with the other sounds in the game -- as if these events are actually happening.

If I could, I'd disable the text in Star Fox 64 in favor of a little box in the corner that just showed a picture of who's talking.

[Sklabah]

I just played Pursuit Force for PSP, and there's a lot of speach, accompanied by Text balloons. I was playing it at first while my wife watched TV, so I couldn't here what was being said, and had to read...But the action doesn't stop, so I'd crash trying to see how to not crash. It's fine when you hear the dialogue prompts, but trying to read it without pause in the action is frantic.

But pausing the game to deliver dialogue is kinda counter-intuitive as well. Supposedly, there's a lot of that in Spriggan Mk. 2 for PCEngine CD, and reviews say it slows down the shooty action. It's definately cool when you have fully voiced stuff, but dialogue balloons and the like tend to either ditract or slow down the game.
_________________
Old man thread killer.

[dessgeega]

[inmatarian]

Didn't they do that in Halo 2 towards the end where the High Prophet gives that speech to the entire Covenant about its political reorganization, and the player can keep going, killing aliens all up in the hiz-zouse, without being interrupted by a cutscene.
_________________

2993 badness blog email

[Toto]

As a vocal example of what Joe is saying about Valken, play Call of Duty 2.
I am dead serious, that game has the best audio of any PC game I've ever played, and with my surround speakers it's amazing, although it works just as well with headphones.

[Baines]

River City Ransom deserves mention. Even if the non-boss text wasn't important, it did display stuff while fighting. And you could attack the bosses while they tried to give their speech.

[Shapermc]

I like text in the same place as subtitles in movies. I've gotten to the point with subtitles that I can almost read them at the same time I'm watching everything about the film.

On a side note for things that you have to pay attention to while combat is happening: Gears of War active reload. You have to watch a pretty small bar in the upper right of the screen and hit the button durring a small window of time to get the extra damage. If you screw it up you either get a faster reload (if you hit it early) or you jam the ammo (late) making it take longer. It's really genius, and not quite text, but an example of something you have to pay attention to while in the middle of other things.
_________________


The bad sleep well at The Gamer's Quarter

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

This topic just reminded me of Ultima VII and "It's too nice a day out for these windows to be closed."

I think it was in Ultima VIII, now that I think about it. Oh yeah, yeah - you'd see Lady Whatshername McTyrant yelling at Salkind about peasants and taxes.

That was really great. It makes me feel kind of nostalgic. Nowadays you just hear people say that as they're opening the windows you've just shut - assuming modern CRPGS have caught up to what Ultima did over a decade ago...
_________________

[inmatarian]

Oh, yeah, JRPGs. Why is it that Xenogears was more or less the last game where I could talk to someone, and then walk away from them if I wasn't interested in what they were saying?
_________________

2993 badness blog email