Ketchup

[lazyfatbum]

But you're trying to make it this extreme, i'm saying it's completely limited making it an illusion since the reality is that it's a computer.

In the above example, yes it's a text adventure. But use your imagination: Instead of talking to the cop you could be the cop in a police chase.

Your partner drives while you try to shoot out the tires, You're basically playing a shooter at this point. You can see a GPS on your dash as well. Now your partner will drive as best he can to keep up with the bad guys but he'll make mistakes or get caught in traffic, etc.

So now, while you're trying to shoot out the tires and bad guys who are trying to shoot you, you can yell to your partner to turn on a particular street for a shortcut, or stay in the right or left hand lanes depending on traffic flow. Tell him when to speed up or slow down, when to ram the bad guys from the back or from the sides. When to radio for backup and tell them what street to intercept on. Maybe even get radio from the helecopter in the chase, and communicate with them to find out what street you're on, what are th cross streets and what are the probable streets the bad guys might take (like going for the freeway, etc)

Obviously in this situation you would be saying things that are relevant. You wouldn't be saying "Let's get ice cream". So because you're in a very particular situation you would be very limited to what you would say. The game would even have question/answer setup or a 'talk' button to give you a particular amount of time to make your response. Short, quick answers or statements. Or, the game could be in a mode ofr 'always on' and keep looking for the key words.

Basically, you're adding a completely new deminsion to the gameplay allowing you to do things that no controller would give you the freedom to do unless you're playing a menu based RPG where everything is slowed down and you can tell the game specifics. But in this way, you could be playing a very fast paced game without any menus and essentially have a second player helping you out.

The illusion would be 'talk as you would talk to your family and friends!' because it would seem very natural because of the specific situations you would be in where you would only say a very limited amount of things. In RE4, you would only say things that have to do with telling Ashley what to do or what to say while talking to Hunnigan, the spanish dude or the baddies.

example:

Cut scene begins

Hunnigan: Are you all right?

You:

Yes.
No.
I (I'm) (I am) (I've) (I have)-
so
Dont
Guess.
think.
know.
feel
fine.
like
krap.
dog shit.
okay.
400 pounds of ass.
Maybe.
Yeah.
Sure.
But-
Lost.
Found
(character name)
the
bad guys
Good guys
got
away
Ran
Off
Got
Them
poisoned.
shot
hurt
stabbed
hiding
chasing

Possible example from player: "hey... I lost Ashley and I was poisoned... other than that i'm okay I guess."

Hunnigan:

Looks for immeadiate danger key words: poisoned = offer help

Looks for higher priority words: Ashley. "lost Ashley" Outcome = mission critical

Possible statement based on what player said -

"Lost Ashley?? Okay, first thing's first: Find some (color herb, first aid spray, item mentioned would depend on what is in the area) to get rid of that poison in your system ASAP. What direction did they take Ashley?

Player:

North
South
East
West
(any combination)
I dont know
I think
No idea.
How should I know?
uh...
hmm...
(the following would be dependent on the area you're in)
They wehnt in the direction of-
That
The
tower
main road
forest

Possible response from player:

"uh... I dont know... east I think. They went towards a.. hmm... tower looking thing..."

Hunnigan:

Looks for immeadiate danger key words: "uh..." "hmm..." "I dont know"

Looks for higher priority key words: "East I think" "tower"

Hunnigan: Great, you seem sure of yourself. Okay, if they went towards a tower then you should find a road marked "la torre" and follow it! If you keep going east you might run in to a river... call me if you get stuck.

Player:

Okay.
Thanks.
Great.
Talk to you later.
Whatever.
Lovely.
Fuck.

Let's say the player said "Whatever"

End cut scene

In hunnigan's memory:

player is Poisoned. Traveling East towards the tower. Will run into river sequence. Is unsure of himself/herself. Ended transmission on bad note "whatever".

Next cut scene, Hunnigan will touch these points.

You as the player will feel like you just had a conversation when you really were forced in to making very specific statements.