Comments on: There and Back Again http://tleaves.com/2004/03/01/there-and-back-again/ Creativity x Technology Sat, 17 Mar 2012 05:09:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Steve http://tleaves.com/2004/03/01/there-and-back-again/comment-page-1/#comment-140 Steve Sun, 14 Mar 2004 08:36:42 +0000 http://tleaves.com/?p=39#comment-140 From a narrative point of view the Half-Life intro was poor, too. It told the player stuff that the player character should already know and you're immediately at odds with your immersion into that character. From a narrative point of view the Half-Life intro was poor, too. It told the player stuff that the player character should already know and you’re immediately at odds with your immersion into that character.

]]> By: homes http://tleaves.com/2004/03/01/there-and-back-again/comment-page-1/#comment-139 homes Fri, 05 Mar 2004 04:59:05 +0000 http://tleaves.com/?p=39#comment-139 I just wanted to point out that although I also loved Half Life and I agree with your point that it's satisfiying to return to areas later in the game you saw on your tram ride in....that that tram was pretty damn silly. It made no logical sense. There would not be a tram in such a facility and even if there was it would not go through such dangerous areas having to wait for doors, not run into other machines, etc, etc. Opposing Forces had a much more belivable intro that accomplished many of the same things. I just wanted to point out that although I also loved Half Life and I agree with your point that it’s satisfiying to return to areas later in the game you saw on your tram ride in….that that tram was pretty damn silly. It made no logical sense. There would not be a tram in such a facility and even if there was it would not go through such dangerous areas having to wait for doors, not run into other machines, etc, etc.

Opposing Forces had a much more belivable intro that accomplished many of the same things.

]]> By: Eric Tilton http://tleaves.com/2004/03/01/there-and-back-again/comment-page-1/#comment-138 Eric Tilton Mon, 01 Mar 2004 23:13:54 +0000 http://tleaves.com/?p=39#comment-138 Carelessly placed level loading breaks also factor into this. If you have to go to a loading screen to get back to the safe house, you're going to tend to avoid it. For example, even though Knights of the Old Republic made it relatively easy to jump right back to your safe house, you had go through FOUR loading screens to do it: one to jump to outside the safe house, one to go into it, one to get back out, and one to jump to where you were before. So I tended never to go back there. Half Life, on the other hand, compulsively kept me ever going forward because the load times of the microlevels were essentially insubstantial. (As was the cost of saving, and to a lesser extent, loading.) On another note, I was struck by a certain structural similarity between Ico and Prince of Persia, both of which mostly take place in a large, gorgeous, mostly spookily abandoned castle. Carelessly placed level loading breaks also factor into this. If you have to go to a loading screen to get back to the safe house, you’re going to tend to avoid it. For example, even though Knights of the Old Republic made it relatively easy to jump right back to your safe house, you had go through FOUR loading screens to do it: one to jump to outside the safe house, one to go into it, one to get back out, and one to jump to where you were before. So I tended never to go back there.

Half Life, on the other hand, compulsively kept me ever going forward because the load times of the microlevels were essentially insubstantial. (As was the cost of saving, and to a lesser extent, loading.)

On another note, I was struck by a certain structural similarity between Ico and Prince of Persia, both of which mostly take place in a large, gorgeous, mostly spookily abandoned castle.

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