Immersion-Breakers

[Laivasse]

I was watching the most recent videos at the Official Dragon Age site and sadly - since this was one of my most anticipated games - they view like a how-to of immersion breaking techniques.

Stiff, plastic-looking faces, unnatural animation, terrible voice acting in parts, cut scenes, not-as-cool-as-they-think-they-look finishing moves with excessive slo-mo... Even one of the design choices I thought was a good idea at first, the decision to leave the player character's dialogue unvoiced, is a huge immersion breaker in practice. You can see your character nodding and bowing along mutely to the convo, while the person you're talking to (who is voiced) telepathically reads all your lines. It's a big shame since I wanted this game to feel polished and sophisticated, yet it looks like it's going to be another RPG that hopes to overcome the clumsiness of its execution with the depth of its story.

 

[Dalamari]

All that 4th wall bullshit Kojima does in the MGS games, like finding Meryl's codec key on the back of the MGS case and shit.

 

[kupocake]

Fission Mailed

Also, back in the early days when I got the Alyx clone bug in Half-Life 2's Nova Prospekt. Was my second playthrough, but more was definitely less.

 

[G(ordon)-man]

In hl2 rebels have tendency to trip over dead bodies and die.it once happened to barney too.

 

[Eejit]

"You must gather your party before venturing forth"

 

[Tyguy]

any time i shoot someone in the head and they continue shooting at me.

why is it so hard to make a headshot....hurt

 

[Warbie]

Any combat vs Combine in HL2/episodes. The most beautifully realised, crafted and polished gameworld, animation, dialgoue and cutscenes seen in video gaming crashes against throwback game mechanics from 10 years back.

 

[el Chi]

I liked fighting the Combine... D:

Achievements dont bother me as much as "YOURFRIENDHAS SIGNED IN HES ONLINE HES OFFLINE HES ONLINE HES OFFLINE NOW HES BACK ONLINE AGAIN"

Both this and what Vegeta said. I switch to offline mode when I played HL2Ep2 and Portal, for that very reason.

 

[Kyorisu]

I liked fighting the Combine... D:


Both this and what Vegeta said. I switch to offline mode when I played HL2Ep2 and Portal, for that very reason.

Settings - Friends - When a friend comes online - off.

Not hard.

 

[Blackthorn]

Friends: Make none. Not hard.

 

[Kyorisu]

Friends: Make none. Not hard.

Even easier.

 

[FoxDie]

All that 4th wall bullshit Kojima does in the MGS games, like finding Meryl's codec key on the back of the MGS case and shit.

I hated that shit. Especially having to change your controller from port 1 to port 2 during the Psycho Mantis boss battle...

I was about to tear my hair out when I finally figured it out.

 

[Bad^Hat]

You know what I hated? Getting that "look on the back of the case" shit when I had hired it out.

They gave it to me in a clear plastic case. :|

 

[Kula Meenur]

any time i shoot someone in the head and they continue shooting at me.

why is it so hard to make a headshot....hurt

This is where stalker kicks ass

 

[Paulaner]

why is it so hard to make a headshot....hurt

Because in that case the system should be fair and the enemies should be able to hit *you* in the head. Instant deaths of the player would not be very funny

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Not really a spoiler beyond name of a city: Finally got to Limansk in Clear Sky and after I left the battle one of the dudes was twitching back and forth like taking his gun out and putting it away like he's going to battle but changed his mind continuously.

 

[Rapstah]

Not being able to see your body in FPSes™

 

[Qhartb]

Not being able to see your body in FPSes?

For me, at least, being able to see your body is worse. Reflections and everything make sense, but looking down and seeing your feet definitely makes me think, "the developers made it so I can see my feet" (an out-of-game thought), whereas not having feet isn't notable.

 

[Laivasse]

For me, at least, being able to see your body is worse. Reflections and everything make sense, but looking down and seeing your feet definitely makes me think, "the developers made it so I can see my feet" (an out-of-game thought), whereas not having feet isn't notable.

I agree.

Unfortunately I feel the same about NPC companions like Alyx. If I have no companion I don't think about it; I'm just immersed in the game world. With Alyx around, I'm frequently having thoughts like 'ooh, the devs did a good job with the facial expressions.' And that's best case - at worst I'm thinking stuff like 'she's said that line already' or 'how come she can withstand 100 antlion attacks while armoured Overwatch go down in one?'

That's another thing: NPCs that are either way too weak or way too tough. Too weak and all you're ever thinking about is where the quick load key is, or how to exploit the game to allow them to survive. Too strong and you're like 'how did these walking tanks ever become a downtrodden scruffy resistance?'

 

[kupocake]

When full-body representation and constant companions are old hat in FPS terms, they won't be immersion breakers. By the same logic, you two must look at every new effect and go 'oh gee, this GAME is so like real life!'

A new one for me is the immersion breaking sensation I get in Company of Heroes when ever I consider that the Allied forces have put me in charge of even a few good men. But since my general incompetence reminds me of Captain Sobel as represented in Band of Brothers, I'm grateful that no computer game has ever tried to immerse you so far that you might genuinely mistake yourself for David Schwimmer. Yet.

 

[Laivasse]

When full-body representation and constant companions are old hat in FPS terms, they won't be immersion breakers. By the same logic, you two must look at every new effect and go 'oh gee, this GAME is so like real life!'

It's when fancy effects fall well short of real life that's the problem... A hi res texture or a reflection doesn't have to try hard to succeed, but if I'm seeing my own arm waving around or someone who's supposed to be my in-game 'girlfriend', then I take a lot more convincing. More than current technology can provide probably.

 

[ríomhaire]

Achievement notifications do break my immersion. I definitely want a way to turn them off in Episode 3.

I don't WANT to know that I've found 1 out of 5 weapons caches the instant I locate the first one.

Offline mode.

As for the actualy topic:

• Cutscenes
• Having to do completely arbitrary tasks in order to progress (Collect 7 cyrstals!)
• Hideo Kojima
• Loading times
• Getting knocked out/Getting knocked out and having all your weapons taken off you
• Mouse2 fire grenade launcher
• Quick time events
• Grinding
• Having several dialogue options, none of which I would ever say
• Missing sounds/skipping sound
• C&C3 FMVs: Too many filters/effects, shaky cam, fade-in/-outs, location stamps. Thankfully the Scrin cutscenes have none of that crap and are for the most part excellent.

 

[Laivasse]

Offline mode.

Just because I don't want to know about the achievements in-game, doesn't mean I don't want to be awarded those achievements that I happen to get There really is only one solution and that is for Valve to include an option to turn achievement notifications off. It wouldn't kill them.

 

[ríomhaire]

Or you could play through the game twice.

 

[Laivasse]

Or you could play through the game twice.

Why should I have to lose all the achievements I get in my first playthrough just because I don't want to have the onscreen notification break my immersion?

Or Valve could include a little checkbox! There's a superior idea that no one has mentioned three times already.

 

[Qhartb]

I haven't tried it, but you might get that effect if your turn the game overlay off. You're still online, so I don't see a reason why you wouldn't get the achievements. The achievement notification appears to use the overlay in the same way that friends signing on/off/joining a game does, so turning off the overlay might disable the notifications.

 

[Saturos]

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED

**** off!

^This

It's pretty obnoxious.


Buggy graphical errors (texture glitches, clipping errors, etc.) in games that otherwise have beautiful graphics has to be my biggest immersion breaker for me though. I can't stand it.

 

[Pivovar]

I once was playing Episode 1, and let me just say, Half-Life games are one of the most immersive games I've ever played.
So anyway, I was in the beginning of Urban Flight, you know when you enter the first building after emerging from the subway, when you open a door there's a 2 Combine soldiers setting up laser trip mines. After killing them, I though "hmm, it would be cool if I could jump over the lasers and skip the worst seesaw puzzle ever, that would be cool and realistic". So I tried. And I did. As I'm continuing walking forward marveling at my awesomeness, I come outside....which, since I just skipped the puzzle, didn't load yet, so it's a road, 2 buildings, and an infinite space of orange skybox that you can walk on.
Awesome -.-

 

[Cpt Tenacious]

Mouse2 fire grenade launcher

What?

 

[kineaesth]

He's referring to on screen tips.
Personally, they are necessary. But instead of 'Mouse2' it should say 'Alternate fire - Launch grenade' or something.

 

[Cpt Tenacious]

He's referring to on screen tips.
Personally, they are necessary. But instead of 'Mouse2' it should say 'Alternate fire - Launch grenade' or something.

Ahhhhhh.

 

[elkaebee]

Screensavers coming on while I'm loading a game.

It makes me want to toe murder people.

And I do.

 

[ríomhaire]

He's referring to on screen tips.
Personally, they are necessary.

Yes but when I load the game on the last battle in EP2 (meaning that I've probably already played through almost the entire game already) why do I still get screentips for all my guns?

 

[Blackthorn]

Screensavers coming on while I'm loading a game.

It makes me want to toe murder people.

And I do.

Exactly how long do you have to load?

 

[kineaesth]

Yes but when I load the game on the last battle in EP2 (meaning that I've probably already played through almost the entire game already) why do I still get screentips for all my guns?

Oh! Good point. I guess if you're loading the last level rather than playing up to it, it shows tips the first time you pull out your weaponry?

 

[elkaebee]

Exactly how long do you have to load?

Half an hour. I play Dwarf Fortress. And I will not adjust the amount of time it takes for my screensaver to come on. Never.

Ever.

 

[DESSTROYER]

In oblivion,when you are really living into the game, and then a goblin flying past you and guards running to kill it.

Oh Jesus, worst one for me was when i walk into a tavern. Some peasant walks up onto a table and begins doing the eat animation, everyone in the tavern started screaming "THIEF!" and a guard runs in, the peasnant stands up and starts punching the guard and then gets slashed about 2 times by the guard and dies, the guard then exits and everything is back to normal.

 

[Jintor]

Half an hour. I play Dwarf Fortress. And I will not adjust the amount of time it takes for my screensaver to come on. Never.

Ever.

Ololololol.

Generating world map...

Running Rivers...

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

This is not a popular opinion, so I don't expect it to be well received, but I think Alyx is a huge immersion breaker.

I hate waiting for her, I hate relying on her, I hate her dialog, I hate her role in the Half-Life series. She feels so goddamn "obligatory tomboy tag along." I went into the HL2 games expecting the same mysterious unspoken puzzle solving I had in Half-Life. But most of all, I just like to set the pace. I loved the feeling of abandonment and desolation that Half-Life perfected.

 

[kineaesth]

Well I hate you.

Not really though.

I can see where you're coming from.