cutscene
Latest
A Halo 2 cutscene transforms for The Master Chief Collection
How much work does Blur Studio put into revamping and remaking Halo 2's cutscenes for Halo 2 Anniversary? Quite a bit more than the minute-and-a-half's worth you see in the video above, but we're okay with a highlight reel. If you want to see just how far visual fidelity has progressed since 2004 and the original Xbox, take a look at the trailer Microsoft, 343 Industries and Blur showed during their panel at San Diego Comic-Con this year and watch as Miranda Keyes transforms from polygonal puppet to a soldier straight out of the uncanny valley. If Blur's work makes you hungry for more, you won't have to wait much longer: Halo 2 Anniversary will be included as part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which hits Xbox One on November 11 this year. [Image: Blur Studio]
The Soapbox: My lore problem
"In the distant forests of El'quen, a dark evil stirs. Marrowgore the Unhunter, imprisoned for a thousand years in Cauldron Lake by the Eye of Son'drak, has broken free. Now, he and his evil BoneSlurpers stage an all-out war on the United Provinces. You, a freshly christened hero known for valorous acts both on and off the battlefield, must take charge of the Sacred Axeblade of Loqtai, harness the power it contains, and send the Unhunter back to his watery prison. "But first, can you get me nine wolf pelts?"
The Daily Grind: What's the best way to deliver MMO lore?
The MMO genre is increasingly dominated by AAA titles like The Secret World, Guild Wars 2, and Star Wars: The Old Republic, all of which tuck story and lore into special cutscenes bookending regular combat, but that's not the only way to drop backstory into a game. In fact, Diablo III's lore-delivery system might just top them all. Did I just use Diablo III and lore in the same sentence? I did! Diablo III reveals its backstory to the player through a series of voiceovers that play as you play rather than take you out of the fight. Little audio pop-ups narrate the significance of characters and places so you understand what's going on. It's not that the game never employs cutscenes; it just restricts cutscenes to Very Important Events. Granted, this type of system might not work so well in a full-fledged massively multiplayer game, so today we're asking what you think: How do you want lore delivered in your MMOs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Breakfast Topic: What is your favorite Blizzard cinematic or cutscene?
In a recent installment of The Queue, reader Victor commented about a thread in the Brazilian forums that debated best WoW cinematic. I think it is difficult to decide the absolute best, so I started to consider which one was my favorite. But the first Warcraft cinematic that came to mind -- the one that moved me more than any I've seen -- is not actually from World of Warcraft. Arthas killing his father in Warcraft III blew me away. The betrayal. The graphics. The story that instantly fascinated me. I can still remember the feeling I had when I first watched it over the shoulder of someone who had the collector's edition. I wanted to run out and buy the game, but I am terrible at real-time strategy titles. My second favorite is from Diablo III, but I won't spoil it. The cinematic that occurs between Acts I and II is wonderful. And the scene I love most from WoW is actually a cutscene: Wrathgate. So. Awesome. What is your favorite cutscene or cinematic from Blizzard?
SWTOR Senior Community Manager responds to high-res texture concerns
Many keen-eyed Star Wars: The Old Republic players noticed that, while there were "low," "medium," and "high" options for the game's texture quality settings, there seemed to be only two different sets of textures, and neither of them includes the high-resolution textures seen in the game's cutscenes and conversations. As it tends to go with the MMO community, the forums were soon filled with cries of "WTFM8?" And thus did BioWare's own Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid appear on the scene to clarify what exactly was happening. The low-medium-high texture quality scale is, he says, a bug, and the medium choice was never supposed to exist. So yes, the game has only two sets of textures, low- and high-resolution, but even the high-resolution textures don't look as shiny as the ones featured in SWTOR's cutscenes. And so the chorus repeated, "WTFM8?" Reid drops a ton of technical information to explain why players can't run around with conversation-quality textures 24/7, but the fact of the matter is that an MMO could potentially have anywhere from one to who-knows-how-many people on-screen at any given time, and BioWare "discovered that using [...] 'maximum resolution' textures on in-game characters during normal gameplay could cause severe performance issues, even on powerful PCs." That's the short of it, but if you'd like the full, unadulterated technical breakdown, just head on over to the official forum post for more info and screaming.
Massively's tour of Final Fantasy XI's March update
Eight years doesn't sound like a very long time unless you're talking about MMOs. Then it's the equivalent of dog years, only larger. But Final Fantasy XI has been running for all that time, and the game is still running strong -- and more to the point, bringing out a number of updates, improvements, and other positives for the game. Even as a veteran player, I haven't seen all of the content that's out there -- really, I'd be surprised if I've done much more than scratch the surface. I was given the lucky opportunity to get a guided tour of all the improvements and new content that the game had added with the most recent update, and it's certainly one of the more impressive drops the game has seen. Two entirely new summons, a new quest type, the penultimate missions in Wings of the Goddess, new Notorious Monsters, new areas... it's dwarfing to even consider it. I only had a chance to hit the highlights, and even then it was a lot to cover. So jump on past the cut, and see what's there to be seen.
The Digital Continuum: Lost in worlds divided
In the many MMOs I've played, the ratio between games that got world design right and those that got it wrong is surprisingly skewed towards the latter. Nothing kills the thrill of discovering a new online world faster than feeling like you're being kicked around seemingly unconnected environments without possessing any real understanding or control. This week's The Digital Continuum is aimed at discussing practical ways to address this problem. Obviously this is -- as per usual -- my personal opinion taken mostly from my brain and the experience gathering within it.
New Starcraft 2 videos: cinematic trailer and some single player gameplay
Consider yourself spoiler-warned: there's a very familiar face at the end of the cutscene above. But, if you played through Starcraft and the Brood War expansion, you had to know this particular person was still around. But the statute of limitations on that expired eons ago, so don't blame us. Feast your eyes on all of the Protoss kicking Zerg butt in the Starcraft 2 cutscene above (or download the massive 490MB high-def version here), and then head beyond the jump to see more than four minutes from the single-player version of the game. Sadly, it doesn't feature the fully-rendered Jim Raynor that you'll control throughout (read about that in our hands-on), but it does pimp out the unit upgrading and the new video screens. And plus ... it's Starcraft 2. Do we really need to say more?
Top 5: Worst. Cutscenes. Ever.
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Top_5_Worst_Cutscenes_Ever'; According to Activision (and after all, they made Pitfall!), video games will "eclipse" all other forms of media. Head honcho Mike Griffith went on to say that "Movies, recorded music and TV - these are all stagnating or contracting entertainment sectors." I'm not sure how much I agree with that statement. Strictly in terms of cash flow, it's already happening. Gaming is a fairly pricey hobby, and it's been outpacing the other forms of media for several years (in terms of growth). Yet I have a difficult time imagining a time where video games are everyone's preferred form of escapism. Although their respective industries may see drastic changes with direct, indirect, or unrelated connections to gaming, music and film will always have a place. As much as I love gaming, it's not rare that I find myself preferring to zone out with TV or just listen to music and read instead of playing a video game. What I do see is a further merging of the three into ubiquitous, all-purpose media devices. Microsoft and Sony currently do this, and it's only a matter of time before Nintendo catches up. While most households currently don't rely on gaming consoles as their sole provider of film / TV and music, I imagine that this will change. Perhaps the mediums will start to bleed into one another. With Metal Gear Solid blurring the lines between game and film and Audiosurf doing the same for games and music, perhaps media will merge and propagate a completely new and unique form of entertainment. Interesting stuff. What was this Top 5 about, again? Oh, right: cut scenes. A lot of them stink. Here's the 5 worst ones. NEXT >> #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } The Top 5 is a weekly feature that provides us with a forum to share our opinions on various aspects of the video game culture, and provides you with a forum to tell us how wrong we are. To further voice your opinions, submit a vote in the Wii Fanboy Poll, and take part in the daily discussions of Wii Warm Up.
Age of Conan conquers The Big Bang Theory
This week's episode of the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory prominently featured Age of Conan, and its A-story dealt in a light-hearted way with online gaming addiction. If you're unfamiliar with the show, the premise is as follows: two extremely geeky twenty-something males -- both scientists at Caltech -- move in across the hall from a pretty but not-too-terribly sophisticated blonde woman. Commence unlikely friendship and all the humor that comes with it!In this week's episode, one of the two geeks is playing Age of Conan when the girl comes over. She starts playing the game and becomes addicted, rejecting responsibilities and basic hygiene for the remainder of the episode. The premise sounds typical, but the episode has a certain wink-like-quality to it. It's all in good humor, and there are a lot of inside jokes that only players of the game could get. Funcom's active participation becomes evident when cut-scenes rendered exclusively for the show make an appearance. It's likely that Funcom paid for this product placement, actually. We've embedded a brief clip after the break, but you should check out other (unembeddable) scenes at the show's website (watch any clip from season two, episode three), but be aware that CBS insists on living in some long-dead century by not making the complete episode available online.[Thanks, C.A.] Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!
Players respond to the cinematic
Welp, the cinematic is out now for your viewing pleasure, and the response is... mixed. While pretty much everyone praises the technical quality (Blizzard's got that cinematic magic, which makes it all the more surprising that they went with live action for the movie), there is some back and forth on whether this cinematic stands up to the other two. While fans of Arthas definitely got their fill (and it was interesting to hear Terenas' voice echoing from the past, which hearkens back to perhaps the best cutscene Blizzard's ever done), other players were disappointed to see that this cinematic doesn't follow the standard "various classes and races battle it out" formula. And that only shows that this expansion will be very much more about the guy in the Lich King suit than anything else.We'd point out, too, that this trailer didn't really have a "You are Not Prepared"-style catchphrase (though the word "King" definitely echoes with significance right at the end there). Clearly, Blizzard chose to go a different direction this time around, and whether it worked or not, of course, is up to you.Unfortunately, Gnomes didn't get their day... or did they? When players cry foul on the forums, Vaneras (in official blue text) answered with the picture above. Can you see the Death Knight Gnome hidden in among the Undead army? I like Schwick's answer even better, though -- there's probably a Gnome Rogue stealthed right behind Arthas. Those little buggers are everywhere.Update: A few people are suggesting that there is more to the trailer that we haven't seen, but Nethaera has confirmed that that's everything. She commented on the forums that the trailer only showed half the battle, but later confirmed that she meant the story was incomplete (and that we needed to complete it by going to Northrend), and not that there was more of the trailer to show.
Breaking: Metal Gear Solid 4 to have really long cutscenes
If you haven't been getting along with Metal Gear Solid's blend of neck-snapping stealth and expository blabbering, the fourth (and sort of final) game in the series is unlikely to sway your opinion. CVG reports that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots features 90 minutes of cutscenes and... wait, hang on. It doesn't contain 90 minutes of cutscenes, but rather, alleged 90-minute cutscenes. If your interest or your attention span doesn't stretch that far, you'll probably have a better time watching a Slinky make its way down a short flight of stairs. Removing the element of sensationalism, however, it should be noted that the article fails to mention where said lengthy cutscenes (which can now be paused) fall within the game. For all we know, they're at the end -- you know, when you're done playing. Even so, this revelation is unlikely to turn away longtime series fans. If anything, we suspect it'll have them even more interested. We certainly are!In other "Why am I waiting so long?" news, alleged images of a Metal Gear Solid 4 store display box have surfaced online, showing a required 4.5GB installation. We've requested comment from Konami.[Thanks, Hashbrown Hunter]Read -- Loooong cutscenesRead -- Biiiig installation
Dungeon cinematics in Sunwell
Here's something very new in Patch 2.4: what appears to be a cinematic cut-scene for the 5-man dungeon in Sunwell Plateau. I couldn't quite tell what was going on in it, but it's certainly an interesting idea with some potential. Will we only see it the first time we visit the dungeon? Can we skip it? How is it synchronized? What do we see while someone is watching the cinematic -- does it look like they just take forever to zone in? Will we see cinematics in Wrath, or maybe even retrofitted ones for BC and old-world dungeons? As you can see, I have more questions than facts here. At the moment, as you can see, this is a rather crude cutscene; something more cinematic, with dialog and such, might be nice. But this is cool as a sort of level overview, as seen in many other games (Mario Galaxy, why do you haunt me so?).[via Blizzplanet]
Friday Video: No need to play
Interested in The Simpsons game, but lack the drive to actually play it? No problem. Thanks to YouTuber TheCockCrew, you can experience pretty much the entire thing, including all of the cutscenes. It's truly a wonderful world we live in. We've included the first of the batch above, but there are others -- several others -- and each are pretty long. It also goes without saying that they contain spoilers.[Via GameSetWatch]
New FF:CC video like a date without the goodnight kiss
Square-Enix has posted another cutscene from its action-RPG title, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates. The short clip doesn't have any of the voice acting that was featured in the introduction movie, but we do get to see some interaction between Cherinka, one of the game's two Clavat heroes, and Alhanarlem, a spellcasting Yuke.The 3D looks great, but we were hoping for more of the lively combat and cooperative gameplay that was in the original trailer and screenshots. Even if you can understand the Japanese dialogue, the only action you'll see in this clip is a platonic hug exchanged between the two characters. Check past the break for video of the awkward moment.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates opening video
We can't fault Square Enix for milking Final Fantasy 3 DS' graphics engine -- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, the latest DS title to use the engine, looks fantastic in motion.A new video of the multiplayer RPG's opening cutscene has been posted, parading the game's character and environment models. The movie clip is a little on the boring side if you can't follow the Japanese dialogue, but it shows off a feature we didn't see in the original GameCube game: full voice acting. Check past the post break to watch the video.
