I don’t care if it is CGI or not. I am curious what your favorite cutscene, intro scene, whatever. I am asking more along the lines of cinematic flair than story.
I would say that my favorite cutscene is actually the intro scene to Warcraft 3. When that huge Orc tank thing comes barreling over the hill top its pretty cool. Awsome sound, awsome CGI, and it really gets you pumped for the upcoming story, which was not a disappointment. A close second was the CGI between the diablo and baal lvls in Diablo 2 LOD. Yes, Blizzard is the bomb.
Best score, and I know there is alot of competition here, IMHO is MGS2. Especially the intro to that one. Really gives you a feel that you are playing a movie. All around hig quality game with high qual production values.
I’ve always really liked the style of the cutscenes in the original Homeworld. They’re not CGI, rather they’re animated line drawings mostly in black and white. Very cinematic and moody… the scene at the end (after you win) is possibly the best one.
Also, the fully-animated cutscene at the beginning of the Gardens of Kadesh level in Homeworld has some great animation, as well as a pretty serious “oh shit” factor when you see the attacking force streaking towards your fleet. A nice touch was that, even though it was technically a cutscene, it was animated like a game scene and shows an accurate representation of your fleet. The first time I saw that, I got seriously spooked. Good stuff.
Unfortunately, they screwed the pooch pretty seriously in this department for Homeworld: Cataclysm. The cutscenes in that are both invasive and poorly-done, and don’t even show your fleet accurately. Hopefully, Homeworld 2 will return to the spirit of the original.
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (The Working Designs version): The first animated cut scene where you see the girl singing her signature song. There’s another scene later in the game called “Lunar Boat Song” which is great as well. The opening sequence is quite good as well.
All the CGI cut scenes in Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe’s Exodus
I know I’m probably gonna sound like a fanboy here…but actually I still prefer the NES and SNES games so I don’t play very many games with actual cutscenes. For my favourite, I guess I’m gonna go with the intro scene from Final Fantasy 8. The battle between Squall and Seifer with the background music of operatic Latin chant. I’m sure there were some other great cutscenes from that game, but it’s been 3 years since I played it (I actually imported the japanese version and played through it with my bilingual friend before it came out in the States).
My favourite score would definately have to go to Final Fantasy Tactics. It’s incredible.
Oh yah! Homeworld ROCKS! I can’t wait for HW2. And Avalonian, they weren’t “animated like a game scene” they were actually mad by the game engine.
When I first played that game and cranked the graphics way up, it blew my mind away! It almost looks like the rendered game scenes were drawn by hand in the anime style.
For Cut Scenes, I would have to say either the begining/intro of Fallout1 or the last scene for FinalFantasy either 8 or 9, the retro one (with the guy with a monkey tail). Both are very wonderful, very cinematic.
As for Score I would have to say the music of HW1. Very amazing!
I’ll second the into for Fallout. Great game, and a great intro. Set the tone for the game very well.
The cutscenes in Warcraft 3, all of them.
I also really liked Homeworld’s illustrated images. The thing I appreciated about the in-engine scripted events was that there was no break between them and the mission; you went from watching the Kadeshi stream toward you to suddenly having control. It gave the action a much more fluid, immersive feel.
Diablo 2 had great ones. The only exception, to me, was the cut scenes in the expansion. There were only two of them, and I thought they were disappointing. They just looked, not bad, but nowhere near as good as the other cut scenes.
I’m gonna reach back a little, here. Parasite Eve had cool cut scenes, I thought. I’ve never played the sequel, so I won’t comment on it. Especially the opening (kind of a montage of bits from the cut-scenes elsewhere in the game), I don’t know why but I liked it.
Homeworld’s cutscenes were fantastic, although I never really got into the game itself. The inability to queue orders and the complete lack of map details (yes, I know it’s open space, but open space is boring!) made the game far too simplistic for my tastes.
Best ingame cutscenes: Halo. The detail that went into some of these are amazing- check out the Master Chief’s movements during the last cinematic as Cortana reports the results of the mission. It’s amazing how Bungie’s cinematics team managed to convey the feelings of a character whose face you never see, entirely through a combination of subtle animation and excellent voice acting. Halo 2 looks to have even better cinematics, if the trailer (rendered entirely in-game) is any indication.
Best pre-rendered cutscenes- I’d have to go with Blizzard’s work in Diablo II and Starcraft. Warcraft III’s cutscenes had more impressive graphics than either of the older game, but lost big points in my book for the inane dialogue (to say nothing of the load of fantasy cliche that was WC3’s plot). Honorable mention goes to Lucasarts’ The Curse of Monkey Island, which features beautiful hand-drawn animation on top of the classic Monkey Island sense of humor.
Best score: Halo, again. Bungie’s in-house music guru, Marty O’Donnell, may be a crotchety old man, but he’s still among the best composers around, and knows how to use percussion better than just about any game composer I’ve ever heard of. His score for Halo has an incredible range, from haunting Gregorian chants, to soft electronic soundscapes, to fast-paced military marches.
Special mention must also go to Jeremy Soule, who burst into gaming consciousness with his bombastic orchestral score for Total Annihilation, and has since become one of the most sought-after and prolific game composers around. If there was an “A-list” for video game composition, Mr. Soule would probably be at the top of the list- nobody has written as many award-winning scores as he has. Short list of games that he scored: Total Annihilation, Icewind Dale, Morrowind, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, Unreal II, Dungeon Siege, Neverwinter Knights.
The soundtrack to Panzer Dragoon:Saga is absolutely kickass, but unless you live in Japan, it’s almost impossible to find. The Myst series also had some good soundtrackage.
As for cutscenes, I’d say the opening to Soul Reaver 2.
Well, since they tend to be more artistic, I’d expect PC games to be the real winners here, but I don’t really use my PC for anything but music and the internet, so my picks come from console games.
For cut scenes, I like Yuna doing the first Sending of FFX (that being the one where she walks out onto the water and the souls of the recently deceased swirl around her).
I also like dozens of MGS2 scenes, but if I have to choose one, it’d be the part right before boarding Arsenal. Otacon, Snake and Raiden leave the computer room and the music swells. Does an excellent job setting the stage for the heroics ahead and has an excellent “The Right Stuff” feel.
For music, I like the Zelda games, especially A Link to the Past, but I must note the single best piece of video game music that I’ve ever heard is the Gerudo Valley theme from Ocarina of Time. It’s the only video game music I have in my mp3 collection.
Oh man, I can’t believe I forgot to link to this great website
There’s a lot of pop-up there, but the remixes are all extremely cool, provided you are familiar with the source materials.
It’s a toss-up. Either the cutscene in Phantasmagoria where the magician kills one of his wives by slamming her head down onto a wine bottle…when he picks it up, you see all these pieces of glass sticking outta her head…
…Or, also from Phantasmagoria, where you’re running from the Magician in “big blue monster” form (or was it not the magician, but the magic itself? Whatever the case may be, I haven’t played it in like, six years) and you screw up and get caught. He sticks his thumbs into your mouth, and index fingers into your eye sockets, and rips your face in half. The litlte squirt of blood from between the brain hemispheres is classic.
If it couldn’t be either of those two, then it’d be the “Transcendence of Bobbin Threadbere” in Loom. Sure, it’s not good-looking compared to today’s games, but it’s filled with wonder and magic, and the music for that game, no matter how old and 8-bit, was beautiful.