Tendo City

I am referring to the God of War II demo. The local gamestore had a pile of copies of God of War II and SOCOM Confrontation demo discs, so I took both... SOCOM was as boring as I was expecting it to be, but God of War II was a amazing (as I was hoping). Only problem: The idiotic QTE elements in the colossus battle. "Press the buttons as the icons appear on screen!" ... Must have taken me like fifteen tries to get it right once, much less repeatedly...

Riviera had QTE elements and I could tolerate it there, mostly, because they were almost entirely optional (for stuff like getting into chests, going onto "better" paths, etc) so if I couldn't do one I could just go on anyway, but that's not how it worked here... and also, there it was "repeat this", pretty much, or "press with proper timing based on this indicator". Here the icon just flashes on the screen and you have to press that button... and of course there are two different QTE sets, based on whether you're on the left or right side of the area, and each has different button presses. Ick.

So yeah, I think I quite dislike QTEs.

Really? I never had a problem with "Quick Time Events". I find it's a fun addition. Besides it's something they worked in for quick finishers on enemies that adds an extra way to kill them if you have quick reflexes. I was never perfect at them but I always managed to get the hang of them quickly enough.

The alternative to these is some manner of procedural gameplay system that actually creates means of taking on certain scenarios during the game.

Well, I find them difficult and frustrating. It's the timing thing, I think... the same reason why I so hate music games. "Precisely time the button presses" is just something I'm really bad at.

At least in the demo the QTE only had four presses (per one, you had to do them several times)... but I'd imagine that farther in they would get longer and more challenging. :(

As for alternatives... I don't know, something that actually involves gameplay, maybe?