Rendering characters and cutscenes is a hell of a lot less expensive
That's what I was thinking, to be honest.
I don't know why, but there's a huge dearth of genuine acting talent out there. For every Willam Dafoe or Morgan Freeman, we have dozens of Tom Cruises. Worse yet, for every Tom Cruise, we have hundreds of no-talent hacks like Denise Richards and Freddie Prinze Jr.
Yet, even getting some questionably-talented c-lister like Rob Schneider would likely wind up costing more than just rendering a person and getting a really good voice actor, like Steven Blum (Spike from Cowboy Bebop) or Jennifer Hale (Bastilla from KOTOR) or Raphael Sbarge (Carth from KOTOR) or Mike Sinterniklaas (Leonardo from the newest TMNT movie, Dean Venture from Venture Bros.) would be cheaper. There are even some notable celebrities that do outstanding voice acting for a whole lot less than it'd cost to make them actually act, if you wanted to go that way: David Hyde Pierce, Ed Asner, etc.
I just don't really like the whole idea of celebrity culture infiltrating gaming, either. It's one thing to recognize that hey, that guy's voiced by Kelsey Grammar! It's another thing entirely for him to then look the part. I don't want to see the Julia Roberts and Tom Cruises of the world getting into gaming, doing the same fucking character time and time and time again.
Although given how utterly generic and cut-and-paste JRPGs are anymore, maybe filming a whole bunch of stock I'm-so-angry teenager melodrama with some major celebrity could help them crank out that drek even faster.
s3rial one on
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited August 2007
I liked the original Resident Evil's intro more than the REmake's.
But I'm a little biased, because I adored a lot of the FMV games from the Sega CD era.
(I still love Night Trap.)
Cutscenes tend to take me away from the game. I enjoy it as seamless as possible. Going to a widescreen cutscene with better graphics (at times) than the game itself really throw me out. Especially since a lot of awesome shit goes down in cutscenes and you are not really a part of it. That sucks.
Let's not ever bring up real people in video games ever again.
You shut your DAMN DIRTY MOUTH! Wing Commander III and IV are the FINEST examples of what actors used in-game could've been. Other games of the era dream about pulling it off that well.
If only Chris Roberts hadn't cocked-up the theatrical movie so badD:
Raziel_pm on
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Let's not ever bring up real people in video games ever again.
You shut your DAMN DIRTY MOUTH! Wing Commander III and IV are the FINEST examples of what actors used in-game could've been. Other games of the era dream about pulling it off that well.
If only Chris Roberts hadn't cocked-up the theatrical movie so bad
"Jan! Meet me at the top! I've got to get that disc!"
"Where would you be without me?"
"A content old man"
"Somehow I don't see content or an old man"
Good times.
Yeah I will fucking fight anybody to the death who dare says Jedi Knight had shitty FMV cutscenes. My first PC game and man was I blown away by the awesomeness.
FMV was good more often than not. If you're just going to judge FMV based on Night Trap and Time Traveler, sure, FMV is bad.
But try to judge it by all the games that included it, inluding but not limited to:
Tex Murphy: Under A Killing Moon (acting was kind of weak, but Chris was good as was the guy who played the character from Martian Memorandum - Lowell Percival - that spinning cube monologue at the end was fantastic)
Tex Murphy: The Pandora Directive (let's see: Kevin McCarthy, Barry Corbin, Tanya Roberts, and Chris Jones all doing an awesome job)
Tex Murphy: Overseer (Michael York - 'nuff said. Clint Howard was in it too)
Wing Commander III/IV - Biff as Maniac, Luke Skywalker as Blair, Malcom MacDowell as Tolwyn, John Rhys-Davies...etc. etc. etc. etc. etc...
Phantasmagora 1 had some weak acting, though I personally think the husband did a good job of descending into insanity. Phantasmagoria 2 was pretty well-acted in my opinion. Even Monique Parent, who is hot but a pretty weak porn actress as far as the "actress" part goes did a decent job.
The Beast Within was fantastic. von Glower was excellent. And Dean Erickson played a pretty good, sheepish, getting-to-know-myself version of Gabriel Knight, which I personally think the second story needed. GK is like Buffy. In GK1 he's a smarmy bastard that discovers he has this legacy. GK2 is him acquiescing to it and trying to help. GK3 is him coming fully into his own, starting to organize. I think Dean Erickson's portrayal was spot-on for that bridge, personally, despite what anyone else says.
There are more. But these are some fine examples.
Drez on
Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited August 2007
Night Trap was deliberately cheesy.
They describe a Sega Genesis controller in the opening.
(Altered in later versions, but that remains the best.)
Yeah I will fucking fight anybody to the death who dare says Jedi Knight had shitty FMV cutscenes. My first PC game and man was I blown away by the awesomeness.
Well, there hasn't been an intentionally funny FMV game that I'm aware of.
Zork Grand Inquisitor was pretty damn funny. At least I thought so.
Thats is easily one of my favorite games of all time and one of the few games in existence that had good acting with the FMVs.
And the Myst series had decent acting too.
however these few gems are the exception rather than the rule.
Given the state of technology at the time, FMV acting was probably necessary for Myst. It wasn't one of those lolFMV games, which ironicly seems to mean that they put more effort into it.
jothki on
0
PunkBoyThank you! And thank you again!Registered Userregular
edited August 2007
I'm watching these Jedi Knight cutscenes...and I'm not seeing horrible acting. It's not the greatest, but I think it's on par with the Star Wars movies. Plus, Jan is cute.
PunkBoy on
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Well, there hasn't been an intentionally funny FMV game that I'm aware of.
Command & Conquer series hammed up the acting on purpose therefore it worked. (except when they tried going all serious with big name actors like James Earl Jones)
C&C 3 remembered its roots and purposefully made it hammy therefore enjoyable to watch. (and funny)
GrimReaper on
PSN | Steam
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
0
cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Posts
I don't know why, but there's a huge dearth of genuine acting talent out there. For every Willam Dafoe or Morgan Freeman, we have dozens of Tom Cruises. Worse yet, for every Tom Cruise, we have hundreds of no-talent hacks like Denise Richards and Freddie Prinze Jr.
Yet, even getting some questionably-talented c-lister like Rob Schneider would likely wind up costing more than just rendering a person and getting a really good voice actor, like Steven Blum (Spike from Cowboy Bebop) or Jennifer Hale (Bastilla from KOTOR) or Raphael Sbarge (Carth from KOTOR) or Mike Sinterniklaas (Leonardo from the newest TMNT movie, Dean Venture from Venture Bros.) would be cheaper. There are even some notable celebrities that do outstanding voice acting for a whole lot less than it'd cost to make them actually act, if you wanted to go that way: David Hyde Pierce, Ed Asner, etc.
I just don't really like the whole idea of celebrity culture infiltrating gaming, either. It's one thing to recognize that hey, that guy's voiced by Kelsey Grammar! It's another thing entirely for him to then look the part. I don't want to see the Julia Roberts and Tom Cruises of the world getting into gaming, doing the same fucking character time and time and time again.
Although given how utterly generic and cut-and-paste JRPGs are anymore, maybe filming a whole bunch of stock I'm-so-angry teenager melodrama with some major celebrity could help them crank out that drek even faster.
But I'm a little biased, because I adored a lot of the FMV games from the Sega CD era.
(I still love Night Trap.)
Having real actors involved is a terrible idea.
Down with cutscenes!
Especially in P3 recently; but back in the day, Lunar defined awesome cutscenes.
Notably in Eternal Blue when Pentagulia
You can't do epicness like that with sprites.
"Can't."
The one word I dislike to hear when game design is the context. The liberty a designer has is only limited by himself.
You shut your DAMN DIRTY MOUTH! Wing Commander III and IV are the FINEST examples of what actors used in-game could've been. Other games of the era dream about pulling it off that well.
If only Chris Roberts hadn't cocked-up the theatrical movie so badD:
Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight.
"More money than you'll ever make."
"Jan! Meet me at the top! I've got to get that disc!"
"Where would you be without me?"
"A content old man"
"Somehow I don't see content or an old man"
Good times.
Yeah I will fucking fight anybody to the death who dare says Jedi Knight had shitty FMV cutscenes. My first PC game and man was I blown away by the awesomeness.
Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight in play order glory!
http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A8D0B860E85D4712
Also NFS: Most Wanted had very fun FMVs. Well the acting was kinda funny you could tell they were aiming for that type awesome.
But try to judge it by all the games that included it, inluding but not limited to:
Tex Murphy: Under A Killing Moon (acting was kind of weak, but Chris was good as was the guy who played the character from Martian Memorandum - Lowell Percival - that spinning cube monologue at the end was fantastic)
Tex Murphy: The Pandora Directive (let's see: Kevin McCarthy, Barry Corbin, Tanya Roberts, and Chris Jones all doing an awesome job)
Tex Murphy: Overseer (Michael York - 'nuff said. Clint Howard was in it too)
Wing Commander III/IV - Biff as Maniac, Luke Skywalker as Blair, Malcom MacDowell as Tolwyn, John Rhys-Davies...etc. etc. etc. etc. etc...
Phantasmagora 1 had some weak acting, though I personally think the husband did a good job of descending into insanity. Phantasmagoria 2 was pretty well-acted in my opinion. Even Monique Parent, who is hot but a pretty weak porn actress as far as the "actress" part goes did a decent job.
The Beast Within was fantastic. von Glower was excellent. And Dean Erickson played a pretty good, sheepish, getting-to-know-myself version of Gabriel Knight, which I personally think the second story needed. GK is like Buffy. In GK1 he's a smarmy bastard that discovers he has this legacy. GK2 is him acquiescing to it and trying to help. GK3 is him coming fully into his own, starting to organize. I think Dean Erickson's portrayal was spot-on for that bridge, personally, despite what anyone else says.
There are more. But these are some fine examples.
They describe a Sega Genesis controller in the opening.
(Altered in later versions, but that remains the best.)
Jedi Knight had shitty FMV cutscenes.
Embarrassingly bad acting.
Then again, the game was great.
Thats is easily one of my favorite games of all time and one of the few games in existence that had good acting with the FMVs.
And the Myst series had decent acting too.
however these few gems are the exception rather than the rule.
Given the state of technology at the time, FMV acting was probably necessary for Myst. It wasn't one of those lolFMV games, which ironicly seems to mean that they put more effort into it.
Phantasmagoria...
I thought I was the only one on the Earth who played those games.
Boobies!
Command & Conquer series hammed up the acting on purpose therefore it worked. (except when they tried going all serious with big name actors like James Earl Jones)
C&C 3 remembered its roots and purposefully made it hammy therefore enjoyable to watch. (and funny)
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
A common misconception; one of many. :P
That game would barely be rated T nowadays. Shadow Hearts Covenant has more violence and suggestive content than Night Trap.
And wow, that's an effectively creepy font.
There, now it's perfect.
Because that had good FMVs and the people who said it didn't were filthy liars--they will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
O.K., Computer.