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Given the potential and power of modern day consoles, why the hell is it that games designers seem intent on turning them into glorified reaction timers. I know some games require you to have a fast trigger finger, but that's not what I'm talking about. No, my beef is with games where, for no apparent reason, you're forced to randomly hit a certain button combination in order to accomplish something. And more often than not, failing to hit the buttons in time results in the demise of your character. At which point you have to backtrack and repeat the whole tedious button-mashing procedure again.
It seems to be cropping up in way too many games these days. Even the Tomb Raider games, a series which has remained largely unaltered to date, now features these reaction timer sequences. Resident Evil 4 is another prime offender, the non-Wii versions of the game forcing you to endure these sequences. Why? It's not like they're any fun at all. Shooting bad-guys in the face is fun - having to hit button after button in a precise inflexible pattern is not.
It's not clear where all this nonsense started - Shenmue 2 on the Dreamcast is a prime suspect, having heavily featured these 'Quick Time Events' as the designers called them. Yet it's still hard to imagine how any games designer looked at these sequences and thought it'd be a good idea to incorporate them into his or her game. What I do know is that it's high time designers realised that they aren't fun, and have no place in a game which is designed to be more enjoyable than hammering nails into your eyes.
It seems to be cropping up in way too many games these days. Even the Tomb Raider games, a series which has remained largely unaltered to date, now features these reaction timer sequences. Resident Evil 4 is another prime offender, the non-Wii versions of the game forcing you to endure these sequences. Why? It's not like they're any fun at all. Shooting bad-guys in the face is fun - having to hit button after button in a precise inflexible pattern is not.
It's not clear where all this nonsense started - Shenmue 2 on the Dreamcast is a prime suspect, having heavily featured these 'Quick Time Events' as the designers called them. Yet it's still hard to imagine how any games designer looked at these sequences and thought it'd be a good idea to incorporate them into his or her game. What I do know is that it's high time designers realised that they aren't fun, and have no place in a game which is designed to be more enjoyable than hammering nails into your eyes.
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Given the potential and power of modern day consoles, why the hell is it that games designers seem intent on turning them into glorified reaction timers. I know some games require you to have a fast trigger finger, but that's not what I'm talking about. No, my beef is with games where, for no apparent reason, you're forced to randomly hit a certain button combination in order to accomplish something. And more often than not, failing to hit the buttons in time results in the demise of your character. At which point you have to backtrack and repeat the whole tedious button-mashing procedure again.
It seems to be cropping up in way too many games these days. Even the Tomb Raider games, a series which has remained largely unaltered to date, now features these reaction timer sequences. Resident Evil 4 is another prime offender, the non-Wii versions of the game forcing you to endure these sequences. Why? It's not like they're any fun at all. Shooting bad-guys in the face is fun - having to hit button after button in a precise inflexible pattern is not.
It's not clear where all this nonsense started - Shenmue 2 on the Dreamcast is a prime suspect, having heavily featured these 'Quick Time Events' as the designers called them. Yet it's still hard to imagine how any games designer looked at these sequences and thought it'd be a good idea to incorporate them into his or her game. What I do know is that it's high time designers realised that they aren't fun, and have no place in a game which is designed to be more enjoyable than hammering nails into your eyes.
It seems to be cropping up in way too many games these days. Even the Tomb Raider games, a series which has remained largely unaltered to date, now features these reaction timer sequences. Resident Evil 4 is another prime offender, the non-Wii versions of the game forcing you to endure these sequences. Why? It's not like they're any fun at all. Shooting bad-guys in the face is fun - having to hit button after button in a precise inflexible pattern is not.
It's not clear where all this nonsense started - Shenmue 2 on the Dreamcast is a prime suspect, having heavily featured these 'Quick Time Events' as the designers called them. Yet it's still hard to imagine how any games designer looked at these sequences and thought it'd be a good idea to incorporate them into his or her game. What I do know is that it's high time designers realised that they aren't fun, and have no place in a game which is designed to be more enjoyable than hammering nails into your eyes.