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I remember by playing Ratchet and Clank A Crack in Time just how great it's prequels were. They had tons of weapons to use, had a good sense of humor, had interesting bosses to defeat., great story, and most of all, had no damn quick time events. It took Fist of the North Stars Kens Rage for me to realize how crap this game system it is, where I had to press 7 buttons in a row 7 times if I wanted to defeat the boss and if I fail he pushes me off, damaging my health a bit and I have to restart the sequence again. In order to just finish him off

I know Resident Evil 4 was the first game to really popularize the game mechanic but as John Tron said, it gets annoying during cutscenes where your supposed to put down the controller, then a pop up comes up saying you have to press one button and if you don't, you have to see the cut scene again and do it again. It does add a certain tension to the game as it makes the cut scenes a threat to the player, and the point of a survival horror is to have everything work against you. The problem is that during a cutscene a player isn't playing, because that is what we expect, and if you have it so that the player dies, the game took a cheap shot cause the player die of a event he could not have prepared himself for. Players want to feel that they died because it was their own fault, but this mechanic not only does that but also actually break immersion for the player and make them feel like they haven't accomplished anything.

If I were to ask you how you defeated the final boss fight in Ratchet and Clank, you could say that you layed on him loads of rockets to the face, then you use the suck cannon to finish him off. I could say that I finish him off by using my bombs, or another person might say they finish him off with their wrench. However if I were to ask you how did you finish off a chimera in God Of War 3, you couldn't answer because the game decided to finish them off for you if you just pressed a few buttons. You can't really say that you initiated a certain attack on a enemie, or that you ripped his head off, because you weren't in control. It was basically a cut scene doing the finishing job for you. I don't really feel satisfied knowing that I didn't kill off the enemy.

Also it actually doesn't give incentive for the player to play the game again. Once you seen the quick time events, it will always be the same and nothing changes. It really is a movie that won't continue unless you press a button at the right time. It then begs the question why would you see a movie you already seen? Plus it breaks the flow of the game when you have to replay the same cut scene over and over again.

Then there are some games that are entirely quick time event, and I'm sorry I am not going to pay 60$ for a product that pretty much comes to a glorify movie that is stubborn in continuing it's scene because it wants my participation. Biggest example is Heavy Rain . Yes your input can change the way a sequence goes but then again I heard that no matter what happens, the killer is always the same, so what is the point of these different sequences that are based on how well you performed. Plus these different versions of scenes are pretty much deleted scene that occasionally come I'm if the viewer is feeling bored.

How about this, I invite you over to my place to watch a movie with me and every once in a while I tell you to press a series of buttons from time to time in a strict time period, and if you fail to accomplish my task, you will re-watch the chapter again. When you fail, I say you suck and slap your hand, and you would after a while get sick and tired having to watch the same cut scene over again.

Let us for a instance look at this game mechanic as merely fun, however deceptive it is. Not looking at it as a critic but as a casual, hardcore, or old school gamer who is just merely thinking about the gameplay and the fun. See the problem now, on top of how frustrating the game mechanic it is, is that this mechanic is not worth your money at all. Going to the game Asuras Wrath, you have a total of 4 hours of gameplay experience which you actually play and control the character., and have to pay 60$ for it. Also when I buy a game, i like to go back to it in 5 years if possible if it was that fun or well designed. But what would be the point of going back to a game like Asuras Wrath, or even Heavy rain with its long a** introduction that serves no other purpose then to be a lengthy tutorial, a unnecessary one at that. If what your paying for is no other then a lengthy stubborn movie that you need to pay 60$ for, then why play it again. You know what happens in each fight, you know the story line, and I would be concerned if you did play it again if you thought the story was actually any good.

Just looking at what you get for a video game, which is you bought it for the game play, so you have actually 4 hours of game play, which brings to about 15$/hour of entertainment, for a product you'll never pick up again. Sure you can say that the story, presentation, and sound is top notch, and people have payed 60$ for a box set of a show, so this is no surprise. I mean the story is entertaining.

The buy a movie, book, anime, show, or anything that is story driven. But i payed 60$ for a video game, which are a unique form of story telling, and are very different in how it approaches it. I wouldn't have it any other way. I hate it when people and developers think that a player advances the story by having them press buttons to continue during cut scenes, when really it breaks the flow of a game, it makes it a chore, so why have it then?