… are not very helpful when your SSD finishes the load before you can read the text. Useful stuff flashing off half-read is actually kind of annoying. Maybe devs could restrict themseleves to LOLs and smileys at this point.
I don’t have an SSD, so I don’t encounter this particular problem. I do find it infuriating when games have vital, otherwise undocumented mechanical information buried in loading screen tips, though.
Super Star Destroyer?
You should make sure the Turbo button is turned off.
I hate when my computer is fast, too.
I’ve run into this a lot recently and I don’t have a SSD. It seems strange to ask for longer loading screens but… I was reading that, jerks.
This why I like when games require you to push a button to actually start playing.
Reticulating splines?
It’s a valid point. Dragon Age gave me this problem. Lots of text, and I never got a chance to read it. If the load screens are providing useful information, devs should really be adding a key to continue prompt.
If it’s that useful, it should be in the game, not on a stupid loading screen.
Well you see the thing is…
Has there been a game that put important information in the loading tips? I know lots of throwaway comments and suggestions get put in there but I don’t remember there ever being critical information that wasn’t also available in the game itself.
I didn’t realize your loading screens weren’t in your games. Do they appear on your DVD menus?
Players tend to ignore most text prompts “in the game.” When you have a load screen, players have little else to do but make an effort to ignore the text.
Whenever I see a loading screen with tips on it, it looks to me like a serious failure of game design.
It’s something that seemed okay in 2000-2003 maybe, because we didn’t know any better, but nowadays it is just all bad.
Agreed. Actual gameplay tips in the loading screen are dumb.
Again, are there examples of this happening or are we complaining about an outrage that we’ve only imagined happening?
Loading screen tips are a temporary anomaly created to paper over the transitional gap between cartridge-based media and proper streaming from slower media.
So good riddance to them.
There will no loading screen tips when we finally hit the Singularity.
Until then:
WAH.
wah?
If I have to stare a piece of artwork for 30 seconds I WANT there to be something of an interest on it. Something that makes the game easuier to play and more fun.
That isn’t a failure of game design. It’s common sense. Some games are flipping complex. Useful hints for players who have clearly skipped the manual and tutorial (over 90% according to my data) cannot possibly be a bad thing.
I remember some FPS that was hideously slow to load, maybe Sin, to the point where they patched in a “hit key to continue” onto the loading screen, so you could start up the loading of a level, and go do something else for the 10 or so minutes it would take to load.
Some games let you read through all the tips in game.
I think even in the presence of good documentation loading tips are useful. Most people don’t want to pour over documentation, so things can be missed. Loading screen tips dribble out important information in bit-sized pieces so people don’t get overwhelmed and tune it all out.
Your loading tips could even be data-driven depending on what features the player isn’t using. Bob never uses quicksave, so you could put up “Hit F12 to quicksave!” sometimes.