The other week I attended a press event for EA's upcoming shooter, Battlefield: Bad Company 2. EA touted the event as the single-player reveal, kicking it off with a developer-led tour through a South American jungle.

As the developer snuck through the jungle with his squad, I marveled at the television screens -- the game looked spectacular. The dev rushed to cover, popped up and knocked out one, two, three headshots, then switched to the secondary fire and blew a chunk out of a wooden shack with a grenade. Dudes flew through the air like extras out of Predator. Later, he shot a propane tank to explode another shack, and this time a guy came running out of the wreckage engulfed in flames, screaming and collapsing at the developer's feet.

All in all, absolutely stunning stuff. But as I watched, I had a sneaking suspicion that most of these events were scripted, that the reason the game looked so well was because the developer knew exactly what would pop up when, like ducks in a shooting gallery.

Sure enough, when I took the controls myself, that same guy ran out in flames, and the rest of the bad guys popped up on cue -- but I didn't look nearly as graceful doing it. I died quite a few times. And each time I restarted, that same guy ran out in flames, and the rest of the bad guys popped up on cue...

Bad Company 2 isn't the only culprit of the Shooting Gallery Effect. Two of my favorite games from last year, Modern Warfare 2 and Uncharted 2, were both heavily scripted. And I can understand why developers use scripting -- it's an easy shortcut to capturing that elusive "wow" factor. When you ace a segment in a scripted game, the experience can be almost overwhelming. You're smack dab in the middle of an action movie, with the action amplifed tenfold -- the element of assumed control over what's happening on-screen means you see it, taste it, and smell it in a way impossible for movies to replicate.

But when you don't -- when you die again and again and again, because maybe you're off the path the game is trying to funnel you through, or perhaps you didn't notice that one enemy/duck that popped up behind a bush -- then you're in Möbius strip hell. The fun gets leached right out of the experience.

I remember a conversation I had with a friend about one scene near the end of Uncharted 2. Drake and his friends are running across a massive stone bridge as it collapses underneath their feet. The camera shifts perspective to face Drake so that you can see the disappearing debris behind you. With good timing and a bit of luck, I avoided debris and leapt over gaps to complete the sequence in one try. Coming as it did at the end of the game, I found it one of my most memorable moments with the game. The tension, the chaos, worrying about the fates of my friends -- all of it wrapped me up completely in the experience.

But when my friend played it, he died. And then he died again. And again. He told me he wanted to give up right then -- he'd completed most of the game, and he knew what was bound to happen with the resolution. Only pride kept him going at it until he finally completed the section. He eventually finished the game and loved his time with it overall -- but he hated that damn bridge segment.

So did my discovery of the Shooting Gallery Effect in Bad Company 2 temper my excitement for the game? A little. But the pull of scripted events done well is hard to resist. When I played through the jungle level a second time, I got through it without dying once. Sure, I knew exactly what was going to happen, but that didn't bother me. I had my own starring role in an action movie, and all I could think was, "Wow."