>horror game
>pick up audio log
>*KSHHHHHH* hello if anyones out there this is subject 04110. today was especially frightening because OH OH GOD WHAT IS THAT? AHHHHHHH
Horror game
Elijah Jones
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Nathaniel Bailey
Which game brought forward the idea of audio logs? They fucking ruined game design. It's not immersive and no one records their voice. They write down their thoughts.
I hate having to fucking stand and wait for an audio log to end because I know if I keep moving whilst it plays i'll feel like i'm about to miss out on something or miss out on the atmosphere. Doom 3 kinda ok'd this with passcodes hidden within the audio logs but it was still shit. Bioshock is a big offender of this also.
Hunter Howard
>I hate having to fucking stand and wait for an audio log to end
Sure, not horror and it's borderlands, so that in itself is garbage, but god was that game awful at audio logs. You would miss out on side missions or story cause they thought it was smart to just cut one off and play the next. Hell, any game that has audio logs and makes it so you either can't replay then whenever or has it so they can get cut off needs to never make another game
Isaac Sullivan
Borderlands 2 audiologs were painful because of this. You couldn't just focus on the game at hand because there was always someone talking. If felt like it was made to appease people with severe anxiety or w/e and constantly need someone within close proximity to make them feel comfortable.
Levi Brown
audio logs are great, system shock probably invented them, but it's a great way to convey story while giving off the vibe that "maybe some of these people are alive and you will meet them later"
Nicholas Cooper
>Which game brought forward the idea of audio logs?
System shock 2?
Xavier Gonzalez
System Shock, methinks. Those were good, though.
I think a GOOD audio log would come from something that actually isn't an audio log, like a taped phone line
Andrew Davis
System Shock 1, perhaps?
SS2 had that weird thing were you would see "ghosts" once in a while, but they didn't use that as much.
But yeah, devs really need to rethink audio logs. At least make them something you can play, and replay, at your convenience.
But why not have the player look at a security monitor? That makes more sense than people talking about secrets into their audio-diary or talking while the monsters are breaking down their door. Have it fit more naturally in. Or let the player piece together the characters and their motivation from emails, letters, notes, and such.
But the audio log is by far the easiest way for the devs to do this. Just record a voice and set a trigger for it to play. Lazy fucks.
Camden Johnson
Yeah I fucking hate it in Bioshock, my brain can't multi task paying attention to the lore dump while also paying attention to my surrounding environment because creepers are creeping around, so it ends up just being confusing background noise. SS2 does it well I guess, and Dead Space feels like a soulless SS2 but it least paces them out well, but Bioshock is just too bloated with them.
Noah Smith
>make them something you can play, and replay, at your convenience
system shock 1 did that, probably also because some audio logs contained relevant information like passcodes
Sebastian Peterson
There are much better ways to convey story rather than audio logs. Looks at the Dark Souls series for that.
Jack Walker
>read note in diary
>so here i am in the library and OH NO ITS COMING TO KILL ME ITS KILLING ME NOW.....
Kayden Murphy
text superior arrow to audio
Kevin Stewart
Yup, got some stupid inside jokes out of how bad it was. The one mission where you get Taggart's mother day gift, he makes a diary log. We picked up both the first and second at the same time by mistake so he read out loud. "Chapter 1 chapter 2. Today I found the lair."
Something we quote all the time
Logan Martin
The problem isn't audio logs inherently, it's using them as a substitute for story, and worse, using them for explicit exposition. Using them as a rare bit of extra atmosphere is great, but you keep pushing it and it turns from neat to tedious.
Caleb Young
It would be neat to see a parody like this in a horror game.
Resident Evil REmake did this quite well with a person's diary where they're writing down their zombie transformation.
It could be done well in the way you're suggesting though, you just need to have the message end abruptly. Like CandleJa-
Henry Brown
That's not how it works
Justin Wright
How what works?
Chase Gomez
>enter room with big glass window in front
>its a person inside another room
>turn towards you
>OH THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE PLEASE GET ME OUT
>monster appears behind them
>OH GOD NO *gets killed*
Jeremiah Turner
Audio logs are good but they are often poorly implemented. For example, if you listen to them while moving some events or character dialogue can cut them off prematurely. Pretty sure Bioshock does this a lot.
The best option would be to place them in spots where they cant be cut off even if the player moves around (which isn't really possible).
Robert Lopez
>blood splatters on window
it's such a predictable hack way to frame a scene holy shit
it's like how in movies you can always tell when a character is about to get hit by a car because they always frame in a weird wide frame to show the traffic behind which they otherwise never do
Liam Thompson
>Dark Souls as an example of good storytelling
lmao
Henry Morales
kek
Christian Flores
>Dark Souls series
you didn't even play fucking demon's souls, did you? Opinion disregarded.
Sebastian Hill
Yeah course I did. Dark Souls first then Demon's Souls second bruv
Isaac Howard
Unironically yes. It is a story about a hopeless individual being manipulated by people and beating all odds and even surprisikg them with the character's determination, eventually either falling for the deception, seeing through it and manipulating people in turn, or succesfully navigating his fellows and getting the most advantageous ending; additionally though, the character may give up and end as just another hollowed undead wandering the land aimlessly and hopeless, like all those that give up on the game, providing some intense allegory. You were filtered if you can't see that and just think its lore and worldbuilding through its items is all the story there is.
Landon Fisher
no, you didn't, or you wouldn't have called it the "Dark Souls series" since that's the 2nd fucking game.
Isaac Gray
>Which game brought forward the idea of audio logs?
The oldest game that comes to mind is System Shock 2.
James Powell
>
Tyler Johnson
>enter room with big glass window in front
>its a person inside another room
>turn towards you
>OH THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE PLEASE GET ME OUT
>you find a door to the room and enter
>they've vanished
Jackson Ramirez
>Dead Space
>Souless
Pick one.
Henry Rogers
I wish we had more games that just use Audio Logs for fun flavor text and occasional comic relief, sorta like those fake SS13 audio logs that some dude made a while back.
soundcloud.com
Benjamin White
>enter room with big glass window in front
>its a person inside another room
>turn towards you
>OH THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE PLEASE GET ME OUT
>monster appears behind YOU
>their facial expression is the only hint its there before it attacks
Hunter Davis
Go to bed kid
Aaron Morris
>ad-hominem
Carson James
Is that in any game? I wish it were if not.
Austin Nelson
NINTENDO, HIRE THIS MAN
Connor Lee
Audio logs are fantastic when used right. With System Shock 2 (and later Bioshock, where it became wildly popular) Irrational Games realized that stopping and reading a large amount of text broke up the flow of fast(er) pace first person shooter gameplay. An audiolog negates this by allowing the player to do two things at the same time. Pretty great innovation imho.
A good audiolog fleshes out the world the player is moving through and fills in the gaps that the main story might otherwise not have time to tell. Bioshock 1 is still the textbook example of how to write audiologs. Each one gives you more information about the history of the part of Rapture you move though and a little side story for you to follow along featuring characters you meet and characters you never will. They're strictly optional to the story, but make the story much more impactful if you listen.
Lazy audiologs are like what OP describes. Used by devs who don't know how to use the environment to tell a story or because they feel like they have to, these do little more than explain the obvious. The Division was really bad about this.
Shit audiologs have also evolved from devs who think their players are too stupid or lazy to read. They're probably right, but I should not be force to sit and stare at a message recorder while someone goes on a monologue in a menu somewhere to hear extra content. These audiologs don't even let you play the fucking game while they talk, completely defeating the initial purpose of the system. The Last of Us pulled this nonsense.
Anthony Watson
>praising anything about bioshock
i think you mean system shock, bioshock games are hypercasual shit for normalfags
Aaron Perry
>pick up audio log
>"if you're hearing this then I am dead. I leave to you all my loot and supplies at these coordinates"
>it's all boobytrapped
>second audio log is in the stash
>"HAHA NOBODY TAKES MY LOOT FUCK YOUUUU"
Christopher King
I never liked how they just happened to cut out at the perfect time, when the log is in perfect condition and it doesn't make sense for it to cut. Maybe if it was slightly fucked up, sure, but they're usually in perfect condition
Imagine if it didn't cut out after the big scream, and you heard nothing but the continued scream and death rattle of whoever was unfortunate enough to press the record button at that particular time. Maybe you hear the monster eating them, maybe it's scurrying around, maybe it loudly leaves the room until the audio log runs out of space and just ends.
Josiah Flores
This is literally a quest in Borderlands 2. The only thing I can say Borderlands does well is satirical or meta side quests. youtu.be