Quick question: how do you prefer your cutscenes in games?
I'm trying to think of the main categories that they're in:
a. FMV to the max. Spearheaded by Square-Enix, this group wants to give you cutscenes that are so jaw-dropping, you can see the hair on the balls of the main character, proving once and for all, it is in fact a he.
b. Animated cutscenes. This is more typical to your anime games that the narutards will import (I keed). It'll have fully-animated cutscenes that show off an interesting artistic style. Persona 3 is what I had in mind.
c. In-game graphics. In an attempt to keep the player in the mood of the game, all the cutscenes take place using the gameplay graphics.
c2. A subset that keeps you around for the cutscenes. BioShock and Half-Life are the most notorious for this, keeping you "in the game" the whole time.
So, how do you prefer them, or think that they should be? Like, with RPGs and such.
|
Brad Rice's blog
Follow
RSS
Contact
The Half-Life thing is cute, and is generally well setup, but the fact is, you CAN just fuck around and if you're not careful, you may miss whatever they are trying to show you. I know it's supposed to bring you more "into" the game, but if they are just trying to ultimately show you a linear series of events, is there REALLY any point to letting you mess with it?
Please tell me you guys remember Die Hard Arcade? It had awesome QTE's.
I also really like how God of War is mostly short in game scenes with a few really amazing money shots. All those boobs don't hurt either.
I'm not really big on a cut style that's too far from the regular game style. I'm thinking XenoGEARS here. The anime bits were really nice, but they were VASTLY different from the actual game, and always made the game look like crap afterward.
Just like I have to talk to Every. Single. NPC. before I can progress in a game. I'm afraid I'll miss something. Of course, I still end up missing some secret, so it doesn't do me any good.
I hate how RPGs bog you down in the intro to the game. Persona 3, for example, is sublime, but damn, it's almost 3 hours before the game gets going. Shit, that's WAY too long.
After something really beautiful, in-game looks ugly. but maybe with the 360 and the PS3, this won't be such an issue, as the graphics are so nice.
For Bioshock, the use of in person cut-scenes is very
important to the narrative and immersion within the game, it's a very personal experience and is served well by never jerking you out of the character.
Final Fantasy on the other hand is a lot more grandiose in story-telling, involving lots of characters, armies, and nations in a mix of different conflicts. For this the glorious FMV's that Square-Enix is known for serve a very important purpose and I couldn't imagine Final Fantasy game without them.
So different types of cut-scenes serve different kinds of roles and I don't really prefer one over the other as long as it's used correctly.
FMV is just corny.
And while we're on the subject, I hate cutscenes that show the character doing stuff he can't do in-game. The beginning of Devil May Cry 3 shows Dante as a total badass, but when you start playing you realize he takes hits like a little girl.
And not like the one in Bioshock. Those girls shrug off the Pew Pew Pew like a mosquito bite.
I hate pre-rendered cutscenes. I detest them. Not only are they totally locked up and permenant (you can't mess with the textures or the animations of the meshes or reuse any of the effects if you so desire or affect them HL2 style), but they make the rest of the game look like shite. Transformers is a perfect example. The graphics in game look like barnyard animal feces, but the fact that they have fmvs just makes them look even shoddier.
As for non-stop HL2 cutscenes, everything that Wedge said.
I haven't really respected a cut scene since Final Fantasy III on the SNES. For the most part I skip them after seeing them the first time.
That being said, I'd have to say that I like them all equally.
But no C&C love? Those are the best ;)
I hate FMV, but I'll settle for a pre-rendered video. Loved those in the days of Starcraft.
Just wondering if that's where this thought spurred from.
Now that we're done there, c2. Entirely in game with the character intact. Most of the people I've talked to didn't realize when the BioShock demo started being playable. That's how it should be - entirely seamless. However, I do agree with the previous posters about the need for some way to let you know there is something going on that you don't want to miss. How about the Gears of War-style "Look at what's going on" button?