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[Gaiff]

It's probably not one person but a group of idiots who feel that people actually enjoy those sections. You remember them, absolutely sleep-inducing parts such as the diving section in Uncharted 4 or the one where you're in the house and have to fetch dinner for Elena after Drake exposes his midlife crisis.

I decided to give Spider-Man 2 another shot. I figured maybe it gets better later on. In comes the part where I have to meet up with MJ at Peter's house. I'm forced into doing house chores like picking up trash I need to throw away while they reminisce about stuff I don't care about. It goes on and on and on. Next, I have to go upstairs and find some hidey-hole behind a frame on Peter's wall. This excruciating section finally ends after a bit more vapid dialogue. Fine, I'm ready to play as Spider-Man again. Nope. Enter Harry and he has me bike with him to their old school to find a USB thumb drive. I'm forced into a terrible "stealth" section where all I do is avoid some stupid security guard. It once again drags on and I have to repeat the exercise several times. Is it done? Nope. I gotta shoot hoops with Harry in the gymnasium.

Got fed up, turned that shit off. I probably spent 30 minutes between cutscenes, picking up trash, and listening to characters rambling.

Why do they keep doing this? It's not just Spider-Man either. In God of War Ragnarok, you're often forced into long walking sections and the first two hours of the game move at a glacial pace. The Atreus sections in Asgard, the dreaded Ironwood, and more. Why am I in Asgard and listening to Odin going on about his daily routine? Am I not playing God of War? In TLOU Part I, same shit at the start of the game. You walk with Tess and almost nothing happens for the first hour. You just go from place to place listening to boring shit. Just put this in a cutscene I can skip. It's like someone realized gamers hate long cutscenes, so what's their solution? Make them interactive! Except it's the same thing but worse because you cannot just skip them. You have to relive them every time. You push the stick to walk at a snail's pace. Instead of Drake just opening the fridge himself to get the food, you have to do it and actually look at what's inside and pick this up yourself. Why interrupt me shooting and fighting to do that?

They really need to stop this.

On the plus side, I finished Astro Bot which has none of that nonsense and is a million times better.

 

[LectureMaster]

 

[EverydayBeast]

Those sections aren’t often and it allows a different perspective but you can preach, I personally think those sections aren’t fun but people get riled up about like Atreus in Ragnarok with the Odin events, little Loki doing missions with big drunk Thor. Yikes.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

It's miscalculated dynamism. They want their action scenes to pop and wow, but if it's all action all the time, it gets boring. So they make sections that are intended to reset the energy and go overboard making jt mind-numbingly boring.

 

[nial]

Those games (including the ND-developed ones into one, ofc) all have zero to none Sony production staff overlap. Astro Bot is developed in Tokyo, and that's yet another layer as well.
I think you want to blame the developers instead, which makes sense, these all are creative choices not made by any executive at top.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

I don't think Sony is telling all their studios to include walking sections on their games.

Also...TLOU1? Really? Those parts with Tess are actually nice and they work as a sort of tutorial for the game.

That's a weird game to complain tbh.

 

[LectureMaster]

Those games (including the ND-developed ones into one, ofc) all have zero to none Sony production staff overlap. Astro Bot is developed in Tokyo, and that's yet another layer as well.
I think you want to blame the developers instead, which makes sense, these all are creative choices not made by any executive at top.

 

[Loomy]

Come on man, don't make me go get a list of similar games from other developers.

 

[saintjules]

Not enough paragraphs to comprehend the conversation.

 

[rabbity-thing]

 

[BennyBlanco]

Slow walk and chats are the absolute worst modern gaming trope.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Aloy standing around listening to her companion's whine about things back at the base.

 

[Badlucktroll]

i hate when you have to go through cracks and push triangle all slow and also the slow walking and talking in cyberpunk pissed me off

 

[nial]

Well, looking at the games listed, Shuhei Yoshida should be on this pic instead. Hermen instead has given us stuff like Astro Bot and Saros, which are probably more to Gaiff 's liking.
For real though, the lead Sony producer on Spider-Man 2 has produced only one Naughty Dog game, Uncharted 3. The rest of his work goes to the Ratchet & Clank and Spider-Man series, and even stuff like Sly Cooper: Thieves on Time.

 

[TGO]

Sounds like a Nail thing if you ask me...

 

[Sooner]

Why aren't all action moves not just two hours of car explosions, over the top fist fights and crashing buildings?

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

I don’t remember pretty much any of that. Maybe you should drink more? Ha!

I do remember hating the stealth parts in Days Gone. Love that game though.

 

[Gaiff]

Why aren't all action moves not just two hours of car explosions, over the top fist fights and crashing buildings?

Put that shit in cutscenes so I can skip it and go back to being Spider-Man. I'll happily watch it the first time. I don't want it to slow me down to a walking pace.

I just started Ragnarok in NG+ on GMGOW difficulty after powering through the game because the combat is fun an addictive. I'll have to sit through Ironwood and Asgard again. At least, I can skip cutscenes in NG+. Why I can't in regular NG is beyond me.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Ever since their modern turn in game development starting with the PS3, Sony has been absolutely terrible at "quiet moments" in their games. They clearly think they're doing a good job with it. Now shut up and go play your Hailey missions.

 

[LectureMaster]

It really is just a genre problem. Not a Sony's creative problem.

The game you listed are the typical Sony's signature third person cinematic adventure games.
I had no problem with UC or TLoU, in fact I think those sessions helped with building up the immersions. No problem with Gow 2018 either, but Ragnarok indeed had bad pacing.

On the other hand, Astro Bot is a tight 3D platformer, it would be ludicrous to include excessive cinematic contents in such genre.

 

[MacReady13]

It's probably not one person but a group of idiots who feel that people actually enjoy those sections. You remember them, absolutely sleep-inducing parts such as the diving section in Uncharted 4 or the one where you're in the house and have to fetch dinner for Elena after Drake exposes his midlife crisis.

I decided to give Spider-Man 2 another shot. I figured maybe it gets better later on. In comes the part where I have to meet up with MJ at Peter's house. I'm forced into doing house chores like picking up trash I need to throw away while they reminisce about stuff I don't care about. It goes on and on and on. Next, I have to go upstairs and find some hidey-hole behind a frame on Peter's wall. This excruciating section finally ends after a bit more vapid dialogue. Fine, I'm ready to play as Spider-Man again. Nope. Enter Harry and he has me bike with him to their old school to find a USB thumb drive. I'm forced into a terrible "stealth" section where all I do is avoid some stupid security guard. It once again drags on and I have to repeat the exercise several times. Is it done? Nope. I gotta shoot hoops with Harry in the gymnasium.

Got fed up, turned that shit off. I probably spent 30 minutes between cutscenes, picking up trash, and listening to characters rambling.

Why do they keep doing this? It's not just Spider-Man either. In God of War Ragnarok, you're often forced into long walking sections and the first two hours of the game move at a glacial pace. The Atreus sections in Asgard, the dreaded Ironwood, and more. Why am I in Asgard and listening to Odin going on about his daily routine? Am I not playing God of War? In TLOU Part I, same shit at the start of the game. You walk with Tess and almost nothing happens for the first hour. You just go from place to place listening to boring shit. Just put this in a cutscene I can skip. It's like someone realized gamers hate long cutscenes, so what's their solution? Make them interactive! Except it's the same thing but worse because you cannot just skip them. You have to relive them every time. You push the stick to walk at a snail's pace. Instead of Drake just opening the fridge himself to get the food, you have to do it and actually look at what's inside and pick this up yourself. Why interrupt me shooting and fighting to do that?

They really need to stop this.

On the plus side, I finished Astro Bot which has none of that nonsense and is a million times better.

I feel like I wrote this exact same stuff on here a year or so ago! Wholeheartedly agree. Those sections in Uncharted 4 dragged the game down so much. The new God of War games are worse off for those sections. And Spider-Man 2 I have yet to get past the house chores at MJ’s. Boring as fuck. Give me gameplay, motherfuckers. Stop trying to slow down a game needlessly!

 

[Yoboman]

Undiagnosed ADHD?

Maybe stick to fortnite

 

[MacReady13]

It really is just a genre problem. Not a Sony's creative problem.
I had no problem with UC or TLoU, in fact I think those sessions helped with building up the immersions. No problem with Gow 2018 either, but Ragnarok indeed had bad pacing.

You wanna play games that are perfectly paced, then play the original Resident Evil 4. It NEVER gets boring and bogged down in bullshit like MANY PlayStation games are doing. They need to stick with games like Returnal and Astro Bot. Gameplay over bullshit. Very very simple.

 

[K' Dash]

It depends on the characters and what’s being discussed.

I LOVE Elena and Nathan, love their interactions and how their conversations are fluid and organic.

Spidey 2? I couldn’t care less for MJ, I actually hated her character in this game, same for the flashbacks, I don’t mind having them but they’re too long.

The way I unwind in that game is to just swing around and see the views, I don’t need 20 minutes of exposition with forced (limited) interactions about something that could have been a 2 minute cutscene.

These are games, not movies.

 

[Humdinger]

Yeah, there are boring sections in a lot of games. It's not a Sony issue, it's just a game developer issue. Some developers are good at crafting interesting, taut stories that keep up a good pace. Most are not. It's no different than novels. Some writers are really good at keeping you interested and engaged throughout, but most are not. Most novels have boring sections.

I don't like boring sections any more than you, but most games have them. Of course, what one person finds boring, another might find interesting. Maybe there's someone out there who found those sections enjoyable.

 

[StereoVsn]

I don't think Sony is telling all their studios to include walking sections on their games.

Also...TLOU1? Really? Those parts with Tess are actually nice and they work as a sort of tutorial for the game.

That's a weird game to complain tbh.

Yeah, on this I agree, I didn't mind it in TLOU1. I noped out of Spider-Man 2 and Ragnorock though.

Edit: What’s interesting is that I can be doing some mundane shit in KCD2 and actually enjoy it. The feel, interactivity and emergent gameplay there helps a ton.

 

[Parazels]

It's inevitable if you demand more and more realistic games.

 

[bender]

What is pacing?

 

[StereoVsn]

What is pacing?

 

[Represent.]

They are much better than Puzzles. Puzzles should be skippable in every single game. Fuck them.

Give me the slow walking section 10/10 times.

If I have to 'find another way around that door or fence", I quit the game almost immediately unless it already has me hooked.

I have a SHOTGUN, let me SHOOT it open.

Lazy, uninspired and frankly outdated game design

 

[Loomy]

Slow walk and chats are the absolute worst modern gaming trope.

Nothing pisses me off more.

That scene of super schizo SOLDIER Cloud struggling to lift a burning log in Nibelheim in Rebirth pissed me right the fuck off.

I LOVE Elena and Nathan, love their interactions and how their conversations are fluid and organic.

Yeah, I really liked that scene in UC4 that OP is talking about hating. After the heart to heart Nate and Elena had, and after the whole
"Thank you for saving me. Again"
"I almost didn't this time"

That car ride is awkward as fuck for Nate. I think Naughty Dog did a very good job showing and making you feel that. Having that entire thing play out in a cutscene would have been a big mistake. Besides, it gave us this absolute gem of a theme

 

[T4keD0wN]

Weirdly i didn't mind it in Ragnarok, played the game just to see the little brat die and eventually ive started to like playing as him more than Kratos around the time Heimdall started bullying him, had a problem with puzzles there.

Actually enjoyed those sections in Uncharted, gave it the movie feel which was the intent.

Spider-Man 2 on the other hand was one of the most miserable gaming experiences of my life because of that (and other factors to be fair) i was thinking about refunding during the whole first 2 hours or so, stupid design move to start the game like that in the refund window. Felt like i was hate playing the game at that point, not even Veilguard has broken me that much.

I don't think these sections are the problem, they can be well executed or they can suck when done poorly (Ubisoft staple)

 

[Lunarorbit]

Just read through a thread on our sister site about SM2 and they had very similar complaints.

I've been a spiderman fan forever and the mj sections were horrible. Reading about all the other cut scenes in the game makes me confident I dint need to play this

 

[ReBurn]

You should probably just choose different games to play. There's no lull in Joust or Tempest.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Problem is many of these studios at Sony fancy themselves as a Sergio Leone or Stanley Kubrick, when they're actually Michael Bay.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

i was like "i have the motivation to play some videogames" i fire up Persona 5, then i was reading dialog for 2 Hours....
2 HOURS!!!!

 

[bitbydeath]

Uncharted 2 received a lot of praise for it and it only got more popular from there.

 

[Pimpbaa]

I struggled to get through Spider-Man 2 even tho I loved the first game. I gave up on Horizon Forbidden West again even though I loved the first game. I share your opinions on Ragnarok (and yet again, I loved the previous game). Lazy sequels that feel too much like the first except for shittier stories and doubling down on shit people don’t like (Like the MJ segments in either SM1 or 2).

 

[March Climber]

I consider this an issue that stemmed from too many people complaining about extremely long cutscenes during the PS360 generation. Kojipro and Square Enix were most guilty of this.

Both of your examples would simply be shown through nice camera work and cinematography. Now devs try to make you 'play' through cutscenes as much as possible to make a game feel more interactive and less like you're watching a movie, which in turn also helps the developer save on budget.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

i was like "i have the motivation to play some videogames." i fire up Persona 5, then i was reading dialog for 2 Hours....
2 HOURS!!!!

The Persona saga is a visual novel with social and RPG elements attached to it. It's genre conventions. There is too much text, but it comes with the genre.

A different thing is action-adventure games with exasperating walking sections. The good and meaningful ones are rare exceptions (the jiraffe scene in TLOU, the long birthday sequence in TLOU 2). Most of the time, they become a pace-killing slog, just for the game writers to masturbate at their self-perceived brilliance.

So, yes, these sections should be cut short and only implemented when there's no better way to deliver the message.

 

[adamsapple]

i was like "i have the motivation to play some videogames" i fire up Persona 5, then i was reading dialog for 2 Hours....
2 HOURS!!!!

*Plays visual novel w/ dungeon crawling*

*Complains about reading too much dialogue*

Go play Brotato or something, fam.

 

[Fbh]

People bitched non stop about cutscenes and wanting "in game storytelling", so instead of a well paced and properly directed 10-15 minutes cutscene we now have to sit through 40 minutes of unskippable, barley interactive story focused "gameplay" that's boring as fuck and destroys the pacing.

An yeah it's awful. One of the big reasons I'm increasingly less interested in most Sony first party games.

BTW, this shit is like one of the core design philosophies of Neil Druckmann, all of his games are full of this shit. That's the main reason I hate the massive influence he has had on Sony first party games.

 

[GigaBowser]

crud playing ace combat skip story all action gameplays

 

[TropicanaTwista]

Eh it depends. Don't think there are things wrong inherently with slowing a game down that has a narrative behind it. It's been about 9 months since I've played SM2 but I honestly don't really recall the pacing being bad in that game at all. I do agree with something like Ragnarok though. I thought the game was awesome, probably in my top 3 this generation, but fuck man. That first (I think, it could have been second) time you have to play as atreus is a fucking boring ass chore for a solid hour plus. Completely baffling that was in the game at all and could have been a 2 min cutscene.

 

[MrRibeye]

It's called downtime to reduce cognitive load.

 

[Juja]

You wanna play games that are perfectly paced, then play the original Resident Evil 4. It NEVER gets boring and bogged down in bullshit like MANY PlayStation games are doing. They need to stick with games like Returnal and Astro Bot. Gameplay over bullshit. Very very simple.

I'm glad you mentioned the original specifically, because I just finished the remake, and there is at least one small section at the end where it forces you to do a super slow walking section for 2-3 minutes. I know it's a very short section compared to the rest of the game, but it was still irritating.

I saw that a few other people mentioned FF7 Remake (and Rebirth, but I haven't played it yet). I liked it overall, but all the slow walking/squeezing through crevice sections really bogged things down.

 

[March Climber]

It's called downtime to reduce cognitive load.

The problem lies within the second playthrough.

 

[Raven117]

All depends on how it’s done.

For uncharted 4, it was important for their characters and development.

 

[DavidGzz]

The green rats are on their last whisker so "Let them fight." People thought the war was over. Sheeeit.

 

[AZRoboto]

I loved that bike scene in Spider-Man 2.

My Peter's tire got stuck in the geometry at the gate/fencing in an area during that oh-so-pivotal mission and glitched out for several seconds