cutscenes
Latest
A Tale of Two Tales
Responding to the widespread criticism that there just aren't enough Tales games, Namco Bandai has taken the unprecedented step of releasing two versions of Tales of Hearts that differ in only one way, which has no effect on gameplay: the cutscenes.Tales of Hearts will sell as an "Animation Edition," with anime-style cutscenes, and a "CG Movie Edition," whose cinematics use the off-putting 3D models seen in the scan above. Realistic people with anime hair and clothes just look weird! And this December, some poor otaku is going to feel compelled to purchase both the regular and ugly editions of the game.[Scan via Wii Everyday]
MGS4 features 90-minute cutscenes, 4.6GB installation
Surprise, surprise. The biggest PS3 game yet may require a 4.6GB installation. So says the back of the placeholder box snapped by Flickr user David-Heffernan. Frankly, this is one game we don't mind making room for on our HDD. Are we over it, now? Good, let's move on. Writers of the UK magazine PSW have played the full game (their review can be found in the latest issue, which hit newstands today) and soon told their mates CVG that Metal Gear Solid 4 includes cut-scenes that approach the 90-minute mark. That's not a total, that's the length of at least one of the cutscenes, individually. We hope you've got a kitchen stocked full of eats, because there's going to be a lot of watching to be done. Of course, all the cutscenes are skippable and pausable.With individual story sequences the length of most full-length movies, MSG4's narrative promises to be truly epic. PSW states that it's "the videogame equivalent of all three Godfather movies on one disc." As if we weren't hyped for this game enough already ...
Writers and blocks in the industry
With the lack of respect given to writers in the industry it's only a matter of time before collective frustration causes The Shining. Richard Dansky, writer of numerous games, most recently Splinter Cell: Double Agent and Rainbow Six: Black Arrow, held a roundtable on tips, techniques and concerns for writers in the industry.After convincing a developer to actually hire a writer, which is apparently an issue all on its own, much of the conversation revolved around cutscenes. Some saw it as a reward and others thought it took players out of the game. Currently most story progression in games is handled by cutscenes so debate over the proper way to handle a cutscene is key. Dansky points out that one thing he thinks is important in a cutscene is to not show anything that the player can't actually do with the avatar in the game. One of the most interesting concepts brought up in the discussion wasn't necessarily even a "writer issue." After some conversation about unskipable repeating cutscenes when a player consistently dies, Brett Tosti of Factor 5 said, "What if we saw a brief game cutscene that told us how they failed their mission, that might be helpful." Hmmmmmm, that might be helpful in a game like Gears or War or tactical games where you can't really get a sense of the big picture with all the fighting going on.
CG cutscenes and gaming culture
In an interview with Lost Planet Community's Brian Dunn, Cutscene Director Yoshiyuki Tonoe and Director Kenji Oguro discussed the differences between how cutscenes are used in Western and Eastern gaming worlds. Their decision to use real-time cutscenes in Lost Planet stems from their research into how Western developers tended to tell the story within the game engine, whereas Japanese developers typically rely on CG graphics for the cinematic storytelling.Tonoe dates the Eastern obsession with CG cutscenes to the original Biohazard (released March 1996), though arguably Square Enix had already begun to look into CG before the horror title's release with Final Fantasy VII, whose long development process began in 1995. "The latest CG movies found in games are stunning and really help sell the game," said Tonoe, "but when I think about how they are used to tie the story to the gameplay, I wonder if they are effective at making the games any better."Pictured are some of the games used as reference material during Lost Planet's development. Tonoe cites The Lord of the Rings games, whose cutscenes were amalgamations of movie footage and in-game footage, as "above what Japanese developers were doing at the time."Specific to their game, Tonoe remarks that there are 33 cutscenes in Lost Planet, totaling 73 minutes, averaging just under three minutes with the longest cutscene at around six minutes in length. What's your preference -- explosive CG eye candy or more immersive real-time storytelling?[Via 1UP]
Jeanne d'Arc trailer shows incredible production values
The Japanese official website for Jeanne d'Arc recently went live, and not only does it feature tons of screenshots, it has an absolutely beautiful trailer. It gives you a great look at the game: the incredible cel-shaded graphics, to the epic, sweeping music, and the beautifully animated anime cutscenes. I've been trying to hype this game a lot. Hopefully, this trailer will generate a ton of response. Also available: Download for PC [Thanks, steve!] [Via IGN]
