How do you want your loading? (Poll options)

[BossAttack]

Loading sucks, but for now we just have to keep dealing with it. However, that hasn't stopped developers from trying to reinvent the way we experience loading, for better and for worse. Accepting that loading is inevitable for now, what is your preferred method of experiencing loading? Here's a breakdown of some:

Crawl Space/Squeeze Through

• One of the more popular methods of masking loading these days. There's a tight space your character has to squeeze through, slowing them down a bit and pulling the camera real close on them. You as the player must continue to PRESS FORWARD to keep the character moving, as if to say it's all part of the game.

Elevator/Tram Ride

• You push a button for an elevator or hop on some tram or form of public transport and just sit or stand there as the transit system takes you to your destination. The player isn't required to do much besides initiate the transport system, otherwise they just mill about as the loading passes them by. However, it can lead to longer wait times if developer, for instance, decides to make the elevator work within the world. In other words, if the elevator is taking you from 1F to 3F, you will ride all the floors, watching yourself arrive, even if the loading may already be complete by the time you're past 2F.

Long Hallway/Street

• Similar to the squeeze through, except movement is not limited. As you're crossing from one zone to another there just happens to be a really long hallway to street you've got to pass through. Arkham Origins is a good example with its long bridge separating the two parts of Gotham. You can blaze through this long street as fast as you want, but its length insures loading completes.

Regular Ass Loading Screen

• Self explanatory. Just your basic loading screen, maybe it has some useful tips or some interactive element to keep you engaged. But, it's still just a regular loading screen. Benefit being you know exactly when loading ends without wasting time with any masks.

For me, I despite the crawl space and prefer the Elevator ride simply because the latter is a passive experience. I can take a short break, take a bite of my sandwich or a swig of some drink and then get back into it. On the other hand, the dreaded Crawl Space requires you to actively push forward meaning I have to keep playing the game even while it loads. BAH!

 

[Linus815]

Elevator or load screen .Elevator ride (and obv loading screen) can be shortened by faster loading times at least, whereas crawling will always be sluggish.

 

[EssBeeVee]

give me a load screen mini game

 

[adj_noun]

Mass Effect style elevator with easter egg convos!

If I gotta load, might as well be entertained by it.

 

[zombiejames]

Elevator because it's a real-world thing that takes time. Depends on the implementation, though. Worked great in Metal Gear Solid, not so much in Mass Effect.

 

[Delicious Waffles]

Elevator ride, for interesting conversations, or just a basic loading screen.

 

[Ahti]

I take the hallway. But I prefer loading during cutscenes.

 

[Voxy]

I just don't want loading screen, everything else is fine.

 

[Chivalry]

Hallways. At least I can move and have a sense of freedom. Standing around and doing nothing is especially painful in vr.

 

[Deleted member 18944]

give me a load screen mini game

Click to shrink...

 

[Semfry]

Loading screen so it can go away on better hardware.

 

[Gunpei]

Mini game

 

[McNum]

"The game is loading, you can take a short break for a few seconds."

If you're masking the load time by requiring some kind of input during, you're wasting a chance for the player to rest their fingers or concentration for a moment.

 

[Ravelle]

I prefer a loading screen, in most cases they're never that long and especially with an SSD they're nothing to worry about.

God of War's " no loading" Dimensional Elavator, Yggdrasil tree walking and crouching through crevices were not that better because you had to control it. Especially the Yggdrasil was just you walking forward until the level was done loading.

Fallen Order was almost comical with squeezing through cracks in walls.

 

[BossAttack]

Elevator because it's a real-world thing that takes time. Depends on the implementation, though. Worked great in Metal Gear Solid, not so much in Mass Effect.

Click to shrink...

I must be one of those few that was never bothered by the elevator rides in Mass Effect. They made lore sense, looked cool, and spawned nice dialouge between comrades as well as news updates. ME2 ditched them for just loading screens that basically showed you a hologram of what was happening (elevator ride, ship bay opening, etc.) and I never liked that.

I prefer a loading screen, in most cases they're never that long and especially with an SSD they're nothing to worry about.

God of War's " no loading" Dimensional Elavator, Yggdrasil tree walking and crouching through crevices were not that better because you had to control it. Especially the Yggdrasil was just you walking forward until the level was done loading.

Click to shrink...

This was one of the worst til I realized you could just stand still.

 

[astro]

Weird poll as not every load screen or game design would facilitate elevator/trams.

I'd prefer something in-game.

 

[AndreGX]

Where's the Ridge Racer option?

 

[Snowfruit]

However, it can lead to longer wait times if developer, for instance, decides to make the elevator work within the world. In other words, if the elevator is taking you from 1F to 3F, you will ride all the floors, watching yourself arrive, even if the loading may already be complete by the time you're past 2F.

Click to shrink...

It can lead to shorter load times too. I was watching someone play FF7R and their elevator ride ended way quicker than mine. They had an SSD, my PS4 still has the stock harddrive so it makes sense. Would be weird to intentionally design it to take longer if it's already loaded.

 

[modiz]

Loading during a cutscene, or I guess the closest option in your poll would be the "Long Hallway/Street" option, something that lets characters have their natural moments to develop themselves or advance the narrative.
Personally loading screens irritate me these days, I was playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey during the free weekend and every time you wanted to start a conversation the game had to go to a loading screen, just annoying. Thankfully the SSD future is coming, so we wont need to see these again hopefully.

 

[BossAttack]

Loading during a cutscene.

Click to shrink...

Damn, I forgot to include that one. Adding it. I will always HATE this one because of Max Payne 3.

 

[Ravelle]

I must be one of those few that was never bothered by the elevator rides in Mass Effect. They made lore sense, looked cool, and spawned nice dialouge between comrades as well as news updates. ME2 ditched them for just loading screens that basically showed you a hologram of what was happening (elevator ride, ship bay opening, etc.) and I never liked that.



This was one of the worst til I realized you could just stand still.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I made that realization as well, the first couple of times you go with it because you're in the story and whatshisface is telling you stories but when you have to go back and forth a lot, you figure it out.

 

[Shudouken]

Elevator or load screen .Elevator ride (and obv loading screen) can be shortened by faster loading times at least, whereas crawling will always be sluggish.

Click to shrink...

This, plus both don't require a constant player input like crawl spaces.
And judging by what's going on with next gen, there won't be any need for either.

 

[Digital Savior]

No loading? I choose that. Bring on my SSD future.

Other than that, it really depends on the gameplay context. Long actions are fine, but depends on the context of the world [level design]. If the context warrants a load screen, that's fine too.

Load screen mini games would've been fun, but patents ruined that I guess.

Ideally, most of the game should load during the main menu and then that would be it. With SSDs finally becoming prevalent, it might happen. Or at least a one second load screen.

 

[wondermagenta]

Loading screens have the advantage that they'll get shorter as the game gets ported to more powerful hardware, but generally I like long hallways that let you use all your character's abilities.

 

[-Tetsuo-]

Some of yall wouldnt make it through Blood Omen

 

[Deleted member 27938]

Regular loading screen gives me a chance to check my phone or train my eyes on something else to prevent strain

 

[HalStep]

anything but crawl space,it adds nothing and just annoys me.

 

[Odeko]

I'll repost what I said in the thread that I'm sure inspired this one:

MatthewMatosis was the 1,000% right in his criticism that gimmicks to mask load times will always age worse than just normal loading screens.

In 10 years when you're playing God of War on the Playstation 9 Kratos will still climb up all those walls or squeeze through those gaps excruciating slowly. Meanwhile Bloodborne's loading screens will flash on screen for 3 milliseconds before the hyper-plasma crystal hard drive loads everything instantly.

Click to shrink...

 

[Rickenslacker]

I'll take a regular loading screen. There were plenty of brisk loading screens in Doom Eternal and I was more than fine with it. I don't need the time wasted putting in vain efforts of hiding it through a repetitive design element.

I'll repost what I said in the thread that I'm sure inspired this one:

Click to shrink...

This is mostly my thought on it. I have an SSD, I'd rather see the loading screen flash by in an instant than have to engage with monotony.

 

[Doggg]

The same damn gameplay tip/interesting fact you've seen a million times.

 

[NightmaresHunter]

Regular loading screen is the best. You can minimize the length the by having a SSD but it won't shorten a street and bridge, or let you crawl faster. Also no inputs required.

 

[matrix-cat]

Regular-ass loading screen with some tips and tricks I can button through, and with a "Press A to continue" message at the end. I can freely take a bathroom break without worrying that I'm going to miss anything, and on future hardware the load can be shortened to the point of being a non-issue.

 

[GattsuSama]

Is the hate for FF7R crawl loading so big that we'll see huge empty open worlds as a norm next gen?

I really hope not. I know FF7R goes a bit overboard but I don't want the new SSDs to be used to make open worlds just because they can.

edit: FF7R also has a ton or normal loading screens with tips. How can anyone say, take out every crawl space loading so that I can see a loading screen and tips.

 

[NeoPancho]

^_^u...

 

[CaptainDreads]

Namco's patent on minigames during loading screens has been up for a few years now.... just sayin'

 

[Hieroph]

Don't try to hide the loading, just make it as optimized as possible. Forcing you to "play" through crawlspaces and everything is just a waste of your time.

 

[RadzPrower]

I don't have a preference other than NOT a loading screen. The only time I want to see a basic loading screen is on first boot...with sleep mode making it so I may not see but one loading screen for an entire game. The other loading options can be intermingled as are appropriate for a given situation.

• Elevators are great loading hiding, but in most situations, there aren't really that many elevators in a realistic world. Trains/trams are a good alternative which is something that can be used without a need to change the height of the terrain.
• Cutscene loading is great assuming a cutscene is appropriate for a given moment. I don't want to see a cutscene of the protagonist gawking at a wall just so something else can be loaded.
• Long hallways/streets/corridors are a great option when you have terrain where that sort of structuring makes sense. Traveling through a cave, corridor, or canyon is a great way to hide loading if it makes sense for where you are.
• Tight spaces work well in certain situations. You'll see a lot of games now do them just seemingly down a corridor for no particular reason, but I can see where it would be a good option. Moving from a corridor setting to an open-air area, sneaking into areas, or climbing through tight spaces that make narrative sense. Much of the time, these could be avoided with some level design changes, but if you've already got a lot of long corridor loading, I could see wanting to throw something like this in just to break up the "walking sim" aspect of it.
• Slow doors are basically the last resort (outside a bland loading screen) and only really work in an industrial setting, preferably with large, heavy doors where it would make some semblance of realism for them to be so slow.

Dishonorable mention, loading isn't covered at all and instead, everything just pauses until the game can catch up with you. This was pretty bad with Jedi: Fallen Order if I remember correctly.

 

[chipperrip]

Infrequent classic loading screen, as few and short as possible. On my 4 year old NVMe drive, Doom Eternal goes from desktop to shooting demons in 12 seconds. Loading a new level takes about 4 seconds. Doom Eternal feels "next gen" on the loading front, it's fantastic.

For open world games, I want a single load on launch with instant fast travel and as little visible pop in as possible. I'd rather have loading screens than long "traversal" loading sections; at least then you can take a piss, stretch, get a drink or whatever.

 

[Y2Kev]

Regular loading screen is fine. They can be easy to remove later.

 

[Nephtes]

I don't mind any of the crawl space squeeze throughs, elevator rides, long walks UNLESS

UNLESS
the check point before a tough battle takes place BEFORE the loading slow walk/crawl space/elevator ride...

The number of times in the original Gears of War when I had to hear the "Lookit all that juice..." line from the Cole Train has been forever seared into my consciousness and I still have the PTSD from it... all because the damn checkpoint was before the slow walk loading screen and the subsequent battle was rough.

 

[Benzychenz]

Loading screen or something that is basically a loading screen (Metroid Prime elevators).
Let's you relax for a second, and has the benefit that they improve on new hardware.

Anything else done in game (slow walking, tight spaces) is just an annoyance that doesn't need to exist.

 

[Nooblet]

No visible loading at all is the dream and it's what we are about.to get. Load screens, forced walking, squeezing through moments, or "surprise interruptions" where the floor breaks or something when you're just about to leave the area causing you to stay around in the old area for a good mins or two so to load the next area...etc etc

Are going to be a thing of the past, as none of this will really exist next gen.

Imagine things like this but on a larger scale

 

[Ctrl Alt Del]

Yeah, cutscene loading is the best by far. At least you're entertained by something while you wait, whilst all the other options are basically braindead.

 

[N.47H.4N]

During cutscenes,if your game will have cutscene,hide the load there.

 

[AgentLampshade]

give me a load screen mini game

Click to shrink...

I think Bandai or something had a trademark on this, but its since expired. Someone tell developers they can do this again.

 

[TradedHats]

I never really noticed the crawl space one all that much until Fallen Order, and after that I never want to climb through a space like that in a game ever again.

 

[Zephy]

Cutscenes are ideal but they're not always possible. Some options that I like :

- Specific loading screen videos can be a good solution. In the case of quick travel for example, a short loop showing your vehicle flying, sailing or whatever. During an area transition, a video showing your character traversing between the areas. Or a flyby of the new area... Any short loop that can keep you immersed in the game, basically. Mass Effect 2 and 3 handled those pretty well.

- The loading screens in the old Assassin's Creed games where you could control your character in a blank space were pretty cool. They kept you occupied and made sense in the context of the game. In a lot of action games, you could have dummies or basic enemies to practise your combos on while you wait. I seem to recall Bayonetta did this ?

- Mini games. What about a flipper, a little retro shooter, something that doesn't impact the loading time while giving the player something fun to do. Possibilities are endless, it shouldn't be too hard to find something fun that will fit the style and tone of the game. In some cases, it could even be an arcade game that exists within the game's world.

- Loading screens with text and images. I'm not thinking about tips, but more lengthy texts explaining the lore of the game, the character's bios, that kind of stuff. Importantly, this also has to be accessible from regular menus and not only during loadings, as this can be very frustrating when you don't have enough time to read the entire text. Ideally, just add a "press X to continue" when the loading is done, if you want to finish reading before proceeding. Final Fantasy XIII did a decent job with that, giving you a short summary of the story so far (also accessible from the menu) with a button prompt when the game was done loading.

The tight spaces are excruciating. Even when I know they're hiding the loadings, it's just so frustrating seeing my character crawl so slowly. I'd rather have a black screen with a loading bar, honestly.

There are lots of ways to hide the loadings or to make them useful, I wish more effort was put into them given how much of them we have to endure. We will see with the next generation of hardware, maybe this whole discussion will become moot if the loadings really become as fast as we're being led to believe.

 

[KomandaHeck]

Straight up loading screen is ideal for me. I can't stand masked loads as I feel almost obligated to keep paying attention even though nothing is happening. The ME1 elevators didn't bother me because at least there were some unique conversations, but even within that series I still prefer ME3's loads which were just small animated screens themed around the area you were in or going to.

 

[Lobster Roll]

I'll take loading screens for now. It's extremely easy to see behind the curtain they're placing in front of the player when they have the faux loading screens. They're generally not worthwhile implementations anyways, so I'll take a loading screen with cool artwork instead.

 

[Strings]

Weird poll as not every load screen or game design would facilitate elevator/trams.

I'd prefer something in-game.

Click to shrink...

It would be hilarious to see a AAA game that built trains into the lore in such a way to make that possible though lol.

Maybe GhostWire: Tokyo is this game.