"press f to look" is okay for me. Its just an option if you want to follow a visual script: you are free to continue without take it into consideration or you can follow it like what devs suggested.

A good game achieves synergy between the story and the gameplay. See: Halo, Heavy Rain, Mass Effect, Half-Life 1 etc.

A **** game tries way too hard to be a shitty B-movie with a nonsense plot and sacrifices gameplay to tell it through terrible cutscenes.

The problem with "press F to look" is that IT CAUSES YOUR GUN TO LOCK UP WHETHER OR NOT YOU PRESS IT

Crysis had a number of terrible first person cutscenes, but they were rare enough, short enough and got out of your face enough that they were not disruptive. They didn't pop up in the middle of gameplay to disturb you.
Warhead was even better, getting rid of the nonsense and terrible first person perspective in favor of actual proper cutscenes that were non-disruptive and enjoyable to watch.

Joseph Staten says it best:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbgg8U1u1Yw#t=6m40s
(Ironically Halo Reach is now guilty of this handholding ingame cutscene BS)

Well well, Halo got no story at all, I'd rather consider it as a ''preparation mode'' for Multiplayer, just like singleplayer bots maps in Battlefield2/2142 and Mass Effect, well, wouldn't you consider the dialogues system as bad as Crysis2 cutscenes ?

I think Crysis2 didn't sacrifice gameplay for storyline.
The gameplay was much limited yet way more involving than Crysis1

Wait a second, you'd like to shoot during an important cutscene...?
I can understand that ''you want to do what you want'', but I think you would be considered crazy if you wanted to shoot during a cutscene and consider Crysis2 a bad game because you can't.
If you don't want to see cuscenes, play Multiplayer or create your own levels in the Mod SDK.
Also, I think you can deactivate that flowgraph in-game though, the best part about Crysis is modding and you aren't using it.

It has locked my gun with the press F to relieve ADHD button during a firefight when there was still enemies more than once.

To say that Halo hasn't got a story is pretty dumb. In fact I find it funny that Crysis 2's writer would say he doesn't like Halo when his treatment of some of the themes is downright childish in comparison. Maybe he doesn't like it because Joseph is a better writer than him.

In Crysis 2 you just can't go in any one level for 10 minutes without some dumb cutscene interrupting you. In Crysis 1 you could go for very long periods of time between cutscenes. It really destroys replay value if I just want to play the game and get locked into these terrible cutscenes.

Halo ultimately does linear storytelling right, by making clear seperation between gameplay sections and movie sections, and not letting the movie part interfere with the gameplay part. It gives you control as soon as there is gameplay, and only takes it away when it is completely done, and gives you enjoyable and concise cutscenes at the end. Additionally the synergy between gameplay and story is great, as a lot of the story can be inferred directly from level design, game mechanics etc without being disruptive.

Hal-Life on the other hand, completely does away with cutscenes and tells the story exclusively through gameplay. (Half-Life 2 terribly reintroduces "cutscenes" aka stare at animated characters talking for 10 minutes-levels)

The dialogue systems of Mass Effect, and the quicktime events of Heavy Rain are diametrically opposite. They engender a design wherein the actual story and the choices you make in that story is the gameplay and the dialogue wheel/quicktime event are simply interfaces for doing that. Heavy Rain is the ultimate achievement in story-gameplay synergy because there is no difference. The gameplay is the story, the story is the gameplay. It is the final artform.

In a hundred years when we're all playing games in holodecks in space, Heavy Rain shall be the model.

Crysis 2 however just disrupts the shooting part of the game with unnecessary and terrible cutscenes.

Mh, I see you're also talking about many different consoles' games, which means you're far to be a fanboy or a troll or anything like that, and you said many right things, though I *personally* don't agree with some and never played Half-Life1, so I can't give my opinion on that one.

I just don't get why all this hate for Crysis2 cutscenes, you should really give the game another try because it's not that bad at all.. aside from the first/second level, which consist in some kind of introduction and tutorial to the actual game, every level got just a loading cutscene and a beginning cutscene, for a total of 20+ levels.
It's true there are a lot of them but I don't think they actually brake the gameplay that much..

I disagree about Crysis 1 disruptive first person PoV cutscene. I think they are an enjoyable way of narration: its kinda immersive and its part and parcel of the body awareness work of the game.

I agree about non-skipable cutscenes in Crysis 2. Just don't press F and finish your fights or go cloack and follow devs scritps for a couple of seconds: there is nothing that makes it compulsory: best way to handle it IMO.

The best way to handle it is to make an interesting game, not force the player to stop and stare.

Well, "press F to look" thing is one of my last concerns in Crysis 2. We know Crytek decided to go for a "choregraphed sandbox", which means scripts here and there. Half of them are unskipable cutscene or QTE, the other half is optionnal "press F to look": which one do you guys prefer

What part of "When Press F to **** is on the screen, one cannot fire, regardless of whether or not it is pressed." Do you not understand? It doesn't matter if I press it, when it's on screen, gun locks up.

Another example, the docks level when you're heading to goulde's apartment. You have the sandbox in the docks, this is pretty good but short. Then there's the scripted bossfight, not terrible but not terribly exciting either. Then you get to the apartment, this is a 10 minute long cutscene where all you do is stare at goulde talking about something I don't care about. Then you have 30 seconds of gameplay before you're thrust into another cutscene, then the loading cutscene. Most levels are like this 50/50 "cutscene" to gameplay ratio. It's terrible to play through.

And even if you were to take away all the tedious cutscenes and strip it down to the bare gameplay, that's a pretty big downgrade from Crysis 1 as well. When you really get into the mechanics you'll quickly find most of it is dysfunctional if not downright broken. It's like they spent 5 minutes on implementing a prototype gameplay and then the entire rest of the development time making these cutscenes and trailers.

Okay BmB, I agree on the cutscene / gameplay ratio in some levels in Crysis 2.

Havn't noticed the unability to shoot while "press F to look" was on screen, my bad

Your missing the point, the notion of press x to look is very anti-immersive. It's basically a billboard sign saying "A SCRIPTED SEQUENCE IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW, AND WE WANT YOU TO SEE IT WHEN YOU PRESS ME SO YOU DON'T MISS IT. YOU DON'T HAVE TO PRESS ME DON'T WORRY, I'M JUST LETTING YOU KNOW"

It's like a guy in the movie theater next to you who saw the movie saying to you "OH LOOK THIS COOL PARTS ABOUT TO HAPPEN"

FPS Games with good story telling, regardless of if the story is good, will be able to direct the player's attention without immersion breaking things like taking away from the view of the player. It's one of the reasons the Half-Life series is so well regarded - everything it does you see without ever needing something to take control of the camera, and that makes it 10x more immersive. Cutscenes are okay of course, I'm not saying they should do away with them - but a game that plays from a first person perspective is about immersion of the player - games like Deus Ex, MGS, GoW, all want you to know that you are controlling a character, where an FPS game is more like "you are a character" - hence why a lot of them avoid showing your face and put you behind a helmet.

This is also what's good about some older games, they don't need to force feed you everything that happens - you find out things for yourself and in turn, it makes you much more immersed in the game world - because the world is telling a story and you are finding it, you aren't triggering the story by walking or pressing a button - much more like a real situation. It's good to have a balance of environmental storytelling and character interaction in a modern game - which too many games seem to miss that point nowadays and just shove all the plot info down your throat which in turn makes them feel more like movies than worlds.

What I'd like is for cutscenes to stay out of gameplay. There's nothing wrong with ambient storytelling though, just look at L4D and how great a sense of story and atmosphere you get without a single damn cutscene in the whole thing.

But staring at an NPC talking for 10 minutes or being forced to watch some "cool" animation that takes control away from you is not fun in any way.

There's a certain situation in a level (something like ''earthquake'' or something like that) in Crysis2 when New York gets hit by a quake and the highway dramatically falls at the ground.
It's a BEAUTIFUL scene, one of the best I've ever seen in a game and the atmosphere perfectly fits the situation, with a foggy ToD and a lot of enemies around.
During that part, you can't shoot, you can't rise your weapon and there's the ''press F to look'' button.
Also, it blocks the gameplay because you can't go back anymore.

Now I ask you, Cleric: would have you liked this scene not to be in the final game ?

@BmB: I agree on that one.
And i finally got your point: you think some of those scenes are unnecessary, you like cutscenes, you like drama, you just feel some of them could be handled some other way, more gameplay-oriented.. that's right too.

It could have been done without the system override. It's a great scene, but it's just there for show really. I would've preferred a situation where you are playing and attempting to run from the crumbling bridge - there's a real sense of urgency there because if you don't run, you die. It's the same as the Eiffel tower falling in MW3 or the Caspian Border tower falling in BF3 single player, it's just something to look at - except in both of those at least they don't stop you from moving and override to tell you what's happening, and it's much easier to do then having an actual situation where you get to experience the event and have to escape with your life which has a much more lasting impact.

Ever play Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2? You can see what I mean on level 15 - you get pushed into a ship with the docking supports broken - and the entire thing is tumbling to the ground, and you have to escape while running through the ship that is sideways, with all the storm troopers running around in panic and falling to their deaths. It's one of the most amazingly done levels ever in a game, and it's not just something you watch - it has a real sense of urgency since you never loose control of the player until you actually escape yourself.

In crysis 2, those scenes may be beautiful, but that's what they are - scenes, for you to watch and maybe press a button here or there - like watching a movie. Could you imagine if when the bridge collapsed you were in control and had to escape yourself? Even if it had markers telling you where to go to avoid things it would be a lot more of a feat - and that would make me like Crysis 2 a lot more.

I understand what you're saying but we aren't here to talk about ''how better Crysis2 could/should have been'' but questioning if ''Crysis 2 is good or bad ... when compared to Far Cry and Crysis 1'', surely a scene like the one you're describing would have been great to add but the one in the game is awesome anyway and I wouldn't call it bad or anything like that, the critique you made is okay, but you still haven't answered my question.
I think you like it anyway, though you'd have preferred some kind of more gameplay-oriented scene, which however were not present in Far Cry or Crysis 1 as well.

It's good to have some gameplay in the game, but it's good to have some cutscenes when you can actually enjoy the greatness of the game too and Crysis2 serves this purpose perfectly.