The acoustical guitar playing during that scene is especially effective, as is most of the Silent Hill soundtrack.
sniff 
<hijack>
For you Homeworlders, is there a commercially-available CD soundtrack for Homeworld? I’ve seen the game played and was blown away by the soundtrack, and would like to own it myself. Is there a CD soundtrack packaged with the game, or otherwise available for purchase?
</hijack>
With that user name? Nah. 
Of course, three of my favorite cutscenes are from the FF series, so I can’t say anything. In no particular order, they are:
Yuna’s first sending in FFX (which several others have already mentioned)–a powerful scene, both beautiful and grim. What hit me hardest was the children among the bodies.
The parade scene in FFVIII, with its high-energy dance and music mixed with dark, sneaky undertones, was great.
The “Quistis is a total badass” scene at the end of the training mission in FFVIII, where she blasts the living hell out of the X-ATM092 that’s pursuing you. The first time through the sequence, I destroyed the thing, but a friend told me about the cutscene, so I saved and went back through just to see it. It was worth it.
I also like the Phantasmagoria death-scene pervertatoid described, but only because I wanted the stupid protagonist to die a horrible, messy death by that point.
I can’t decide on a best score; I’m a game-music junkie. The Zelda music gets stuck in my head a lot, and at one point I could play all the songs from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask on one of my ocarinas.
The soundtrack to the old Mac standby Marathon always was a favorite of mine. As is most of the music that Maxis uses, in whatever game.
Tragically, yes. Or to be more precise: Tragically, Yes. The soundtrack was taken from the album The Ladder, by the crime-against-mankind prog rock group, Yes. Do not buy it, as it features the shrill, Jr. high school lyrics of… whoever the bozo who sings for Yes is. I’m not wasting the time to google him or dig out the copy of The Ladder I bought becuase the Homeworld soundtrack was so good. Must have been one of the musical fluke things, like suckmeisters Toto suddenly getting all excellent on the Dune soundtrack.
My noms:
Soundtrack:
Fantasy General: A spin off of Panzer General, set in a fantasy world. Neat idea, beautiful music, brutally dificult ending.
The Monkey Island theme.
There was a second rate Master of Orion wannabe a few years back called Ascendancy, which had some really wonderful music.
Of course, those Star Wars games usually have some pretty kick ass tunes…
Honorable Mention:
Tony Hawk 4, X-Box version: Let’s you rip tracks off your own CDs and play them in-game instead of its own (also excellent) soundtrack.
Cutscenes:
Almost anything Star Wars, but a few highlights:
Rebellion: A truly execrable Star Wars conquer the galaxy game. But the cutscenes were outstanding, and included some of the first glimpses of Coruscant. My favorite was of victorius Rebel A-Wings darting through Coruscant’s skyscrapers and blowing up the giant Imperial symbol on the reichstag-like Palace.
X-Wing: Alliance had a bunch of really good cutscenes. Most of the Star Wars space sims did.
Jedi Knight: It’s kind of disappointing that just when game makers started getting good at FMV, CGI came in and took over, and now we’re ubjected to endless bad CGI cutscenes while the industry learns to make the wheel all over again.
I second the noms for Fallout, FFX, and anything Blizzard’s ever done.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein had some cool scenes.
I’ve always been slightly bitter that the definitive Macintosh game was released almost exactly six months after I gave up on Macs and moved to PCs… because of the lack of good Mac games.
45 replies, and I guess no one here has played Dreamworks Interactive’s The Neverhood. Now here is a game with some originality. No techno soundtracks or horribly violent cutscenes, but “Wallace & Gromit”-type claymation and a folksy soundtrack. I wish I had a sample to post somewhere…
Best soundtrack: Outlaws, FPS by LucasArts. In fact, all LucasArts games I remember playing have great music. Cheers to Clint Bajakian.
Oh, the music in Redneck Rampage was great too.
Best cutscenes: I second Jedi Knight and bits of Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within.
As for single cutscene, the only fantastic one that springs to mind is also from Outlaws; deep in a mine, you shoot the gun out of the hand of one guy you’re hunting (Dr. Death), so he runs on down the mine, trips, gets tangled up in a rope, and falls straight down a mineshaft while dangling from the rope. First thing he says: “My hat! Dammit!” The whole ensuing conversation is fantastic… (“It’s all true, I swear on my mother’s grave! [sub]if she had one[/sub] Now let me out!”)
Mechwarrior: Mercenaries had a very good intro which involved two mercenaries making a desperate run for their Dropship while the entire DCMS is after them. Asshole Dropship pilot doesn’t stick around for one of the Mercenaries and she gets left behind. Coolest quote-
“There’s still a place in hell for your sorry carcass”
as she is watching the Dropship fly off. Then her mech gets blown to smithereens by like 50 missiles.
In fact, all the Mecwarrior games seemed to have really grim opening intros involving the main characters/factions getting ambushed, or making some heroic last stand…suffice to say the good guys in the cutscenes always seem to die :eek:
I really liked the ending cutscene for the Soviet Scenario in Command and Conquer: Red Alert. It really gave the game a sense of cohesion with Tiberium Dawn and the concept of using time travel to ensure a faction’s existence/victory.
Thanks, Miller. Damn the luck.
The copy of homeworld I got had a seperate CD soundtrack. HW1 should be in bargain binms by now so buy em up!
I also would like to mention that HW had the best, richest and deepest backstory of any computer game Ive ever played it comes with whats pretty much a novella.
Very wonderfull.
Thanks, Bio. I’ll have to start looking for an el cheapo copy of Homeworld. Muchly obliged!
Lately, I’ve been playing Civilization: Call to Power. The game has it’s flaws, especially in the interface department, but the opening animation kicks. motherfucking. ass.
Anyone seen the opening animation to Empire Earth?
WOW!
I like a lot of the “ghost” scenes in System Shock 2. The two that stick out most in my mind are the soldier as you’re approaching the bridge and the scene in the bar with the piano playing.
Honorable mention goes to Lisa’s big scene in Silent Hill.
Best Soundtrack goes to Homeworld. Honorable mention goes to System Shock 2 and Uplink.
The opening cinematic for StarCraft - Brood War remains the best game cinematic I’ve ever seen. But then, pretty much all the cinematics from that game were awesome, especially the Protoss victory movie.
Red Alert 2 had some hokey, but still entertaining, cutscenes.
I agree that Homeworld had one of the best soundtracks, short of GTA3 and GTA - Vice City.
Thank you! The music from the Panzer Dragoon series is, IMHO, unparalleled. It’s not that impossible to find, either; SoundtrackCentral.com has some useful links. And of course, there’s always eBay.
Homeworld’s great, too, though.
The cut scenes in Ocarina of Time are amazing, even moreso when you consider that they’re done without any cgi at all. Something about the music and dialog make all of them incredibly atmospheric.
The scene after you’ve gotten out of the great Deku tree stands out in my mind, and Link saying goodbye to Saria just about brings me to tears.
For best music, I’ll go with Space Channel 5, and the scenes at the end are great, too, particularly with everyone dancing behind you as you walk through space. Great stuff!
i think Warcraft 2’s music was pretty good for it’s time. the orc music made me wanna do battle
You people have obviously never played Conker’s Bad Fur Day for the N64. I know, I know, but I play games only on the console, never on the computer. Conker’s cut scenes are second to none, and hilarious. There’s a Saving Private Ryan takeoff, a Matrix takeoff, an Aliens takeoff, it’s great. There’s also singing, swearing, and an all-around good time. Try it - you’ll like it!
Snicks