I always feel torn about this. On the one hand- yes, memes aside, 30fps really does look more cinematic. That's thanks to some combination of simple association (I'm used to low framerates from films and associate them with that medium) and the fact that motion blur/general poor motion clarity serves to hide flaws in animation and let our brains fill in the gaps.
On the other hand, 30fps means nasty input latency and an overall sub-par experience in fast combat. It's hard to say whether the filmic experience is worth it when the actual interactivity is so badly compromised when it matters the most.
For games that make a sharp distinction between "in combat" and "not in combat", I wonder whether it would make sense to run them at different framerates. 30 for cutscenes, exploration, maybe stealth; switch to 60 when the bullets start flying. You could even give it an in-game explanation (adrenaline rush is helping you to see the situation more clearly).
This would also allow the resolution or other quality settings to be ramped up for the slow 30fps sections where you'll most appreciate them, and dropped for combat where you're least likely to notice the difference.
I think it's important that at least SOME gameplay run at the same framerate as cutscenes, though. Otherwise you create a disconnect between cutscenes and gameplay, which you really want to avoid. Maybe you could even switch to 60 for particularly intense/violent cutscenes, so it matches the gameplay switches.
On the other hand, 30fps means nasty input latency and an overall sub-par experience in fast combat. It's hard to say whether the filmic experience is worth it when the actual interactivity is so badly compromised when it matters the most.
For games that make a sharp distinction between "in combat" and "not in combat", I wonder whether it would make sense to run them at different framerates. 30 for cutscenes, exploration, maybe stealth; switch to 60 when the bullets start flying. You could even give it an in-game explanation (adrenaline rush is helping you to see the situation more clearly).
This would also allow the resolution or other quality settings to be ramped up for the slow 30fps sections where you'll most appreciate them, and dropped for combat where you're least likely to notice the difference.
I think it's important that at least SOME gameplay run at the same framerate as cutscenes, though. Otherwise you create a disconnect between cutscenes and gameplay, which you really want to avoid. Maybe you could even switch to 60 for particularly intense/violent cutscenes, so it matches the gameplay switches.
have you ever played a game at 30 fps? 
