[iamvampire]

Why 'gamers' would love loosing any control over their game is beyond me.

You want a good story, read a book.

You want something exciting to watch, see a film.


Gameplay > Story

Not

Ga- STORY-mep- STORY- l - STORY-ay STORY STORY STORY.


Sure you can throw a story on top of whatever I'm playing, I'm cool with that. However when half the games development costs goes into animators and CGI ... fuck that.

[AndrewDean84xX]

In-Engine or GTFO!

[XANDER CAGE]

In-engine is my favorite, especially if well animated. I love getting a good look at the game's assets (hurr hurr hurr) and it helps maintain the atmosphere.

Why 'gamers' would love loosing any control over their game is beyond me. You want a good story, read a book. You want something exciting to watch, see a film. Gameplay > Story Not Ga- STORY-mep- STORY- l - STORY-ay STORY STORY STORY. Sure you can throw a story on top of whatever I'm playing, I'm cool with that. However when half the games development costs goes into animators and CGI ... fuck that.

Good thing that's not what this thread is about!

[Felix Lighter]

I've decided after playing Binary Domain, the absolute worst way of handling this sort of thing is the Gears style player controlled slow walk method. Let me control my character normally during the dialog or take away my control completely and show me some kind of cut scene.

I'm not a huge fan of constantly interrupting gameplay with cut scenes but I typically prefer in-engine at this point.

[Yoshichan]

I fucking hate it when Blizzard uses in-engine for their most dramatic cutscenes... I'm looking at you DIII.

[GlamFM]

In engine whenever possible.

[XiaNaphryz]

Does CGI also cover cutscenes which used the game engine as the renderer? ;P

Because some people confuse those as realtime in-engine.

[Jay Sosa]

depends on the genre:

FPS: No cutscenes, at least very very short ones.

Action games: In game and in some CGI

JRPGs: Beautiful CGI all over my face

btw is CGI basically the same as FMV?

[Relaxed Muscle]

In-engine, I'm still baffled why there isn't a single in-engine cutscene on revelations and all of them is awfully quality FMV.

[Error]

I like 'cutscenes' where control is never taken away from the player. much more immersive.

and that's only possibly with in-engine cutscenes, so yeah.

[stuart]

In-engine all the time. Pre-rendered cutscenes age horribly, just look at most HD collections.

Depends on the game. Final Fantasy X cutscenes are still very impressive today.

[Starsunder]

In-engine if there absolutely has to be a cutscene (such as in an RPG).

But I vastly prefer no cutscenes in most games.

[Vulcano's assistant]

I fucking hate it when Blizzard uses in-engine for their most dramatic cutscenes... I'm looking at you DIII.

It's like they threw a dice and randomly selected was was going to be CGI and what not, and they ended deciding that post-action moments were the ones to go. I mean that Cain funeral could have been something else.

[Blutonium]

As few cutscenes as possible, in-engine. Perfect. :)

And we're done here. Cutscenes often suck, especially when they're not in-engine.

[likedamaster]

Don't mind cgi for the right game, but the less cutscenes you have in a game the better. I'd rather play a game than watch it.

[Yoshichan]

It's like they threw a dice and randomly selected was was going to be CGI and what not, and they ended deciding that post-action moments were the ones to go. I mean that Cain funeral could have been something else.

This is exactly how I felt as-well! I even mentioned this when I was discussing my overall opinions about the game to my fellow D3 buddies.

By the way, might wanna spoiler that!

[KageMaru]

Is the "no cut-scene" option something along the lines of Half Life, where they don't take you out of the character's view during the scripted events?

I have no preference since both styles have their own qualities, but no matter what I prefer real time over CGI. CGI can produce prettier results but is far less impressive on a technical level and offers a far less consistent experience.

[Vulcano's assistant]

JRPGs: Beautiful CGI all over my face btw is CGI basically the same as FMV?

Another important point now that you remind me of FMV, for Tales of games and other things of such cartoony style, hand draw animated cutscenes > all , since these don't age.

so good, yet so scarce.

[ledman]

No Cut scenes for FPS, In-engine are okay for other genres.
Some fighting games have cool CGIs.

[Jay Sosa]

Another important point, for Tales of games and other things of such cartoony style, hand draw animated cutscenes > all , since these doesn't age.

aww hell yeah!

[phosphor112]

Why 'gamers' would love loosing any control over their game is beyond me. You want a good story, read a book. You want something exciting to watch, see a film. Gameplay > Story Not Ga- STORY-mep- STORY- l - STORY-ay STORY STORY STORY. Sure you can throw a story on top of whatever I'm playing, I'm cool with that. However when half the games development costs goes into animators and CGI ... fuck that.

Don't bring that crap in here man. Seriously?

[szaromir]

Doesn't matter as long as they're good and skippable.

Valve BS that's neither interesting nor skippable is by far the worst.

[JackHerer]

It's hard to say. I think a mix of both is sometimes ideal. For short cut-scenes that are meant to showcase dialogue I think in-engine makes the most sense. But I always love a giant epic cinematic CGI cut scene.

The original Ninja Gaiden for XBOX still has some of the cooler CGI cutscenes I have ever seen.

[LukasTaves]

In engine but realtime, or at least in a high bitrate video...

[Wanny]

realtime all teh way

[Nibel]

I fucking hate it when Blizzard uses in-engine for their most dramatic cutscenes... I'm looking at you DIII.

This a thousand fucking times!

D3 is so bad in this that it isn't even funny! Just a few CGI cutscenes and the rest just concept art bullshit. And then key scenes in in-game graphics.

Just a fucking joke. So glad that I don't play it anymore.

[scorpscarx]

Zero cutscenes whatsoever, simply make the things play out in front of me as the game happens, while still in control of my character.

[ASIS]

I still wish for CGI like FFX where they go in and out of cutscenes without breaking the flow at all. If that is an option I'd choose that.

Second would be in engine since graphics have evolved quite a bit. This isn't bad at all.

Last is no cutscenes, and I only take this as a good form if the only story being told is a backstory one. Dialogue in these sections while giving the player pseudo-controls are awkward as hell.

[Angry Fork]

FF13 quality CGI cutscenes.

That shit makes my mouth water. I wish more games did that, I get bored/tired of the in-game bullshit. We already see that when we're playing why would you show it in a cut scene too, just let us play the cut scene in that case and take away 'cut scenes' all together like Valve does with Half Life.

I wouldn't ever want Half Life to adopt those CGI scenes, but I'm talking about games where it fits like Mass Effect I'd love to see CGI scenes instead of in-game stuff with their jarring terrible animations.

[Arla]

CGI.

Length and them interrupting the game is a whole other issue but I prefer CGI. Of course if the game is 2D or based/inspired by an anime I'd prefer it to be animation.

[U n i o n 0015]

I, for one, loved all those awesome CGI scenes back in the 32-bit era. In-engine has mostly taken over, so it's no biggie, but I remember firing up FF8 and being blow away watching the real-time gameplay merge with the CGI.

[bumpkin]

I like in-engine if/when the engine itself is capable of a consistent high-quality appearance. In the case of older games, I didn't mind CGI tossed in here and there -- i.e. every PSOne Final Fantasy -- because the graphics were pretty primitive and the cut-scenes would have lacked umph.

[Dark_AnNiaLatOr]

In engine like gears is perfect. For some reason I like the CGI in tekken though.

[Clydefrog]

In-engine, except for just 3 or 4 CGI Blizzard style. Absolutely no to what Deus EX: HR did.

100% agree with you

[TUROK]

Real-time in-engine.

I don't like when they used pre-rendered in-engine cutscenes, the compression artifacts are too noticeable.

Baffles my mind that Max Payne 3 is a 28 GB game, yet it still has compression artifacts in its cutscenes.

[Eight Diagram Bat Fighter]

In engine. I don't want to feel like I left the game.

[Erasus]

CGI or Realtime In-engine

It depends.

[Hindle]

No cutscenes at all, the gameplay should tell the story.

[Nimajneb]

textboxes/dialog trees > in-engine > hand animated > FMV > CGI

I really don't mind it when games have a lot of dialog. But the moment a game had an actiony cutscene, I wish they just made that part playable. Prerendered cutscenes are usually poorly compressed, and end up looking worse than the actual game, especially on PC.

[Jack_AG]

I don't mind cut-scenes, but PC gaming made me hate stupid prerendered ones that are in a crappy and/or compressed resolution. Fuck that shit.

I agree with this. Nothing causes my eyes to bleed more than playing a game in 1080p @ 60 then BAM - my eyes begin to see things it cannot unsee at horrid compression, 720p @ 30 fps video.

But I still sit and watch - its almost like I love agony.

[Electivirus]

For Square Enix games (Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts in particular), CGI. That shit is DELISH. For everything else, it depends on the game.

[Johnny Cage In The Shower]

In-engine, keeps things consistent.

This, although I wouldn't mind the odd filter to make it a little more "shiny".

I guess the Uncharted series (2 and 3) have it right, lotta games do in-engine pretty good actually.

[enzo_gt]

Interesting thread.

In-engine by far. Maximum Quality and potential immersiveness without something that's clearly disconnected from the experience your having right now when looking at CG. I still prefer cutscenes over no cutscenes because they're still the most effective method of storytelling IMO, as hard as devs try this gen to integrate things into what you see/play.

[Max Knight]

I don't always tolerate cut scenes, but, when I do, I prefer them in-engine.

[GMN]

i don't care what it is as long as it's skippable

[Sylver]

I miss CGI.
CGI intros, storytellings or endings for fighting games or some games like Resident Evil were awesome.

[Seance]

In engine. Perhaps one or two CG at pivotal moments in the story, but in game is king.

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

In Game, Halo is a great example of why, fuck up a level leave a killing field then get some nice shots of it at the end of the level.

[chaosblade]

In-engine/real-time. Don't really see a point in pre-rendered cinematics since they always look completely inconsistent with the actual game. It was one thing back on the PS1 and I guess the PS2, but today, and especially going forward, I think it's totally unnecessary.

[Brother Sport]

In-engine everything, thank you.

When it comes to cutscenes I prefer them Uncharted style: ergo gameplay segments with cut scene like camera movement. Limited in control over the characters but still with player input at some level. I have found that this kind of thing can be very effective, if you can call it cut scene at all.

The Valve way of no cutscenes at all is great too, but I can't think of any other genre that would really benefit fromt this very strict style. FPS games allow you get in very close to the world and the characters.

And cutscenes should in general blend in more seamless instead of the very obvious formula of gameplay segment -> cutscene -> gameplay segment, and so on. Although structured like this Max Payne 3 managed to conceal it very well.