I've played Jericho on PC and XBOX 360 and don't remember the QTEs being super tough, but yeah, they're probably not a good example of well implemented QTE elements. ( Still a nice game, which should be available DRM-free! Especially since we already have Clive Barker's Undying. )

I remember Jericho was an odd case, where Codemasters ( I think ) wanted you to pay for cheat codes. It doesn't seem so far fetched that they intentionally made the QTE sequences frustrating, so more people would buy the code to disable them. I guess it's a form of Pay-to-Win, except in a full price game. Quite a worrisome trend!

Always a PC gamer? No games, and me are much older than PC's
1970's Arcades Pong to Defender
82-85 C=64 and Amiga nol mouse back then, mostly used Atari Good Controller
Loved those Sticks, fit nicely in one hand, hated the standard square ones.

Lost interest when only 8-bit games, were available for my 16-bit Amiga, played DnD
85-2000 No computer gaming at all, and guess what I think of indie must = crap (8-bit revival) graphics, mentality. 20 years later.

2000-2005 Saw Tomb Raider 4, and realised the 3D games I'd wanted since playing wire frame Elite on C=64, had finally arrived.
Bought PS2 same day, and TR 1-4.

2005 Got Pentium 4 PC and then internet, just as new games switched to Dual Core.
So retro PC gasming. Myst series alone krpt me entertained, discovered old dead Uru mods, learned PC.

2012 Finally saved enough money for Dream PC setup (£3.000 PC, three 1440p monitors (£1,500), and could play new games.
Modded Skyrim instead, now over 500 installed PC games, most from GOG, and mod all of them.

Never touched a console after 2005, took me ages to convert to M&K, but now I don't use controllers at all.
You asked.

Onto QTE's and why I hate them, as with many things that have a limited roll, if they become fashionable, they get used in all genres.
My bad example of QTE's, the worst offender ever.

Dying Light's ending Boss Fight, which is the worst ending to a game ever.
So bad the devs actually apologised for it, after receiving a huge number of complaints.
It ruined the end of the game, did a guess where the prompt appears this time thing, abd changed the buttonit every time.
Failure resulted in an instant death then took you back to the beginning, and was different each time.
This was a long sequence of interspersed cutscene, and button prompts.

Rage quitting was common, and many quit the game for good, I only completed it a year or so later.
Tomb Raider (2013) is another one, where you learn the standard controls, and all that is thrown our for a sudden death QTE.
Rise of the Tomb Raider, I was trying to kill the bear using the bow, keeping my distance, hunting as the game was teaching me to do.
No I had to get close and use the climbing axe, with a QTE instead.

I'd much rather use the mechanics used throughout the game, and watch a cutscene, than get sick of seeing it through repetition, whilst looking for stupid button prompts, and dying a lot.

There might well be some good examples of QTE use, but when it becomes an inappropriatrly, overused fad, it gets rightly hated.

I don't care for QTE's either.

That's why I, every once in awhile, go back into Witcher 2 (dont have W3 yet) and play awhile.

After not very long, the QTE's bug me enough that I quit playing and park it again. Loop and try again every so often. Yep, still annoyed by them, every time. Keep hearing how great the game is - but I can't get past the annoying QTE's. Just how it is...

For that reason, I find I don't care that much about missing out on the new AAA titles - sometimes I watch a friend play 'current' games on his xbone - they're usually chuck-full of QTE's, and thus, for me, I don't really have any interest in spending money on them at all.

[edit - oops forgot to comment on this title:( ] :

This game looks really cool. Ignoring the QTE aspect (that I only have read about here and otherwise don't really know how 'bad' they are in the title) - this game looks both cool, and gimmicky, at the same time.

The gimmicky part is the core of the game - playing against 'programmable' AI bots. It kind of reminds me of playing against the bots back when Unreal Tournament was current - IIRC you could (pre-session) specify certain bot AI 'strategies'..

This game looks similar (you play against 'bot AI'), but you get to 'program' them on-the-fly while playing (so that they use that AI on the next 'round'). It also has the 'in-between free time' segment.

Those things seems cool; but might be merely a way to 'program' the AI. Not sure if that holds up or not.

But it certainly looks beautiful and marvelous - so I'll wishlist it in order to not forget it and keep in eye on it.

I haven't played Dying Light, but I think I get the idea. Worst case, when used like that, QTE sequences make it seem like the Devs are just wasting the player's time, or like the game is unfair. No one wants to fight a boss monster for ten minutes or watch a long cut-scene, only to repeat it all over again because they missed a random button prompt at the end.

But I think any game feature or business tactic can be abused or badly implemented. Like that infamous "Horse Armor DLC", from ES: Oblivion, which likely still influences the way many people feel about DLC in video games.

In the games I mentioned, the QTE sequences don't feel out of place, nor do they feel unfair. All a matter of how well the controls work ( like the action sequences in D4 or The Walking Dead, which only use the mouse on PC, instead of a bunch of random keyboard keys ), and how the game handles player failure -- Do they have to start a long cutscene or game section all over again? Do they get another shot at it right away? Or better yet, does "failing" simply lead to an alternate ending/plot-line. In example, when I played Heavy Rain, I remember I screwed up on a major action sequence, which lead to the death of one of the central characters. However, this didn't result in a "Game Over" screen, it simply lead to an alternate ending. And I didn't feel the need to reload and try again, because it didn't really feel like a failure, it was just one of many possible outcomes. Would be nice if more games offered that experience, instead of the binary "do it right" or "try it again". But I realize it's a lot of work to provide so many alternate plot-lines and endings.
I didn't even remember Witcher 2 had QTE sequences. I think they were fairly rare? Actually, now that I think about it, I do seem to remember a few annoying ones, in particular in a boss fight or two...

I think Witcher 1 & 3 don't have any... ?

They don't.
W2 is fine and rare example of QTE implemented right - they are sparse, if you fail them it does not end the game and sometimes they are optional (dialogue with Iorveth in the beginning of the game).

Still, I am glad they decided t ditch them completely.

I get that with W2, but W3 is on another level entirely.
It's the best open world Action RPG, I've ever played, by a long, long, way
Every big update, half my mods were made obsolete, by the updates improvements

Though I'd never recommend a game, when I don't know what your tastes are.

I'll just say this.
This spring, I designed, a brand new £1,000 PC, for a 70 year old offline only gamer,.
Plus the £150 he paid me to setit up, and mod the Witcher 3.

He had a PS3, and was thinking of buying a PS4 to play the game
My description My modded game, persuaded him W3 with selected QOL mods, deserved to be experienced at it's very best.
He had a 1080p monitor, so I built the PC for Ultra settings at that resolution, GOTY edition was £17.49 in a sale.

He's very happy with the results, and at the speed he's playing at, The Wild Hunt on it's own, will give him 2 or 3 years of gaming.
Then there's the two Expansions, for another year or so,
Good job too, as he has no internet, despite my urging it's worth getting, He doesn't even have a landline phone.

A console gamer paid £1,150 just to play The Witcher 3 GOTY Edition, and 6 months later still thinks it was a great deal.
Says it all.

Wait, am I reading this right -- you helped set up a Gaming PC and Witcher 3 for a 70 year old guy? That's awesome. What other games did he play ( on consoles? ) before he got into Witcher 3? You mentioned he had a PS3?

I really should get back into my own copy of the game. I never finished my playthrough ( and that's just the main game, not the expansions ). At this point I wonder if I should wait until I upgrade my GPU, so I can enjoy the game at its best. Might also pick up the physical GotY edition, so I can replace my outdated copy without having to download all the patches and expansion data.

Funny, the first thing that came to mind when watching the trailer was the Borg. A pretty version of Borg.

Yeah, that too! I forgot about them since i've never been big on Star Trek anyway..

Does one single quick time event (which if you're careful you won't even get to see in the first place) really spoil it that much?
I'm not exactly fond of them either but if they are not mandatory and can be prevented from happening (as is the case for ECHO) it's honestly not that big of a deal. Don't let those clones/echoes grab or get hold of you and you're good.

Hmm, maybe what I call a QTE isn't right.

I'm talking about, say in W2, where you have to mash the key to crank the chainwheel to lift the gate.

Or, like in Firewatch (that I just bought in the current sale), when the PC jumps down or climbs up a small rock-face, you hit the "climb" key and the watch the mini-movie of the PC doing it. You cannot change your mind mid-way and head back down instead (or jump down), for example - you have to watch the entire short "me climb all the way up" movie first before you can then choose the "me climb all the way down" movie.

Are those examples of QTE's? That's what I mean, anyways; and I apologize if QTE is the wrong term.

Unless I'm reading this wrong, those who are interested in Echo should probably buy it sooner rather than later.

Quote from Twitter of what I believe is the game's developer's company account. (Sorry if I'm mistaken.)
= = = = = == = = = = =
Ultra Ultra
‏ @theUltraUltra

We’re terribly sad to report that Ultra Ultra has ceased to exist. We are grateful to have had the chance to crystallize something truly from the heart. ECHO will remain available on stores.
= = = = = == = = = = =

Link to original tweet HERE.

Interestingly I've read there is still a movie being created based on the game, so that will be something to watch out for in the future.

They do state at the end of the tweet that 'ECHO will remain available on stores', but then again, nothing is written in stone when it comes to games and stores and I certainly would have followed your advice if I had not already bought it.

A shame they're going under. We need more studios producing weird little games like this, not less.

Agreed.

Indeed. There have been a few games on GOG that I regret not snagging while I had the chance.

Like Cryostasis, that one looked pretty neat.