Some diversity in WC-universe

[Shane]

I'm not sure about your assertation that WCIII would have done poorly with CGI.

I didn’t say that though. I said that a remade WC3 wouldn’t sell as well as the original

I misunderstood you. I concur if the remade WCIII today and swapped CGI for FMV it wouldn't so very well. At the time it came out, I don't think sales would have been hurt much (you might have lost some of the new cool gimmick buyers) but you would have had more long time fans who couldn't or wouldn't buy it because they couldn't run it.

[/QUOTE]The WC4 and P2 FMV looked great. Of course CGI will be more colorful, but IMO that looks unrealistic.

P2 always seemed to be either dimly lit or in soft focus. I know part of it was the mood of the game, it's supposed to have that noir edge, but it didn't do much for me. Not to mention that British Punk approach to the future. WCIV did look good, but I think they had a bigger budget. Prophecy looked good as well, though the number of sets was reduced.

And yes a post Prophecy Privateer (say that three times fast) would be good, perhaps even better than a post WCIV, since you do have the possibility of trade in Bug relics (and the potential for disease) thrown in to the mix.

Ah yes, that would be great. Colecting and selling the bug relics, exploring the bug space, or being a merchant and gothering resources for a small Confed fleet about to go through the wormhole. There’s to much possibilities to list them all though.[/B][/QUOTE]

Sadly EA seems to have lost interest. I think it would do well as a stand alone or a MMP. Course you'd almost have to lose FMV in that type of game.

 

[Quarto]

Earthworm: You say that you don't give a damn about the games with good CGI because CGI usually is crap. Well... seems to me that you're automatically assuming that WC CGI would be crap. For which, I'm afraid we're going to have to lynch you.

Oh, and if CGI takes more space, it's because of the higher quality image & sound

.

Anyway, remember that WC CGI was always cutting-edge.

The only good thing (IMHO) the FMV had going for it (at the time of WC3) was the "great actor" appeal. You know, that shot of Hamill on the box

. But why not use his voice? He's a rather versatile voice-actor (the Goblin in Spiderman, the Joker in Batman). Hell, so's Malcolm McDowell, apparently (Rhesus 2 in Captain Simian & The Space Monkeys)

.

And a remake of the classics wouldn't be all that bad. Wouldn't it be neat to have WC1 & 2 with *proper* voice acting?

 

[Death's Head]

The "wingmen", at least. Who know's, maybe a certain grease monkey or two and a couple comm officers.

 

[Eugene Skripnick]

Earthworm, I DIDN'T mention WCIII when I was talking about remake - I actually was talking about WCI & II ! I agree with you that WCIII wouldn't sell as well if remade now, but WCI&II could because they have great story and are a legend or totem of whole series. I mean - anyway, corporations don't decide on the basis of what Earthworm or Eugene Skripnick think, so I'm just curious, did they run any polls or investigate these opportunities we've been talking about here somehow? What I really would appreciate that Origin will stand up one day and say - ok, people, we investigated some other opportunities in diversifying WC-games into other genres or remaking old ones by following methodology (polls, inteviews, focus groups, whatever elsse) and the results were bam, bam, bam, what clearly indicates that you don't want it to be RTS, FPS, RPG, so the next WC will be again flight-sim.

 

[Shane]

The "wingmen", at least. Who know's, maybe a certain grease monkey or two and a couple comm officers.

Yeah especially that hottie Major Edmonds, Edwards, (can't think of her name, she's the one from Special Ops.)

I always wondered if they were just having problems with her face and bulit the story around her or if it was the other way around. I'm guessing the latter since they didn't have trouble with other faces, though I always thought in the face Mynx looked like she had missed a few too many meals and never saw the light of day.

 

[Dralthi5]

Minx looks like a freaking ghoul! Did they model her face after the Bride of Frankenstien, or what?

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If I'm locked on, there's no such thing as evasive action!

 

[Metras]

OK... let me clear both formats up for you:

CGI: CGI is full, 100% computer graphics. Every little polygon and doohicky is CG. Because CG is still in its potential infancy, FMV is preferred over CG these days.

FMV: Full Motion Video. FMV constitutes some computer graphics as effects, while the rest of the graphics (being that characters, backgrounds, etc), are constituted in real-life filming. Ex: Mark Hamill standing inside a ship (that's FMV). A dogfight seen in WC (that's CGI).

Now... there is still contraversy at clarifying and classifying movies, etc, with those two classifications. Considering such, things can and will change on the subject...

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Assistant Game Master - Chief of Public Relations
BlackLance HQ
"Every truth has three sides."

[This message has been edited by Metras (edited June 08, 2000).]

 

[No Regret]

Talking about WC women: In the Wc movie at one point you can see a poster of a blonde(?) female on the wall of Blair and Maniac's quarters. Can this be Luna Jones? (Saranja Carr, or something like that)

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The time is near.
There are still quite a few days remaining.

I don't care for fame, power or money...
I just want to FIGHT!
-Sanosuke Sagara

 

[Earthworm]

Earthworm: You say that you don't give a damn about the games with good CGI because CGI usually is crap. Well... seems to me that you're automatically assuming that WC CGI would be crap. For which, I'm afraid we're going to have to lynch you.

I'm saying that I don't care if the CGI in some games is good, even great, because in a lot of games it's bad. I'd have to see that WC game first before I could judge if of course.

Oh, and if CGI takes more space, it's because of the higher quality image & sound

.

That's your opinion. For me the interlaced video from WC4 looks much better than most of the CGI I've seen. Besides, with DVD drives becoming more popular the size of the game won't matter much in the near future.

Anyway, remember that WC CGI was always cutting-edge.

Yes it was, and I still like it. Because unlike the new CGI it doesn't attempt to look so pretty while being totally unrealistic.

The only good thing (IMHO) the FMV had going for it (at the time of WC3) was the "great actor" appeal. You know, that shot of Hamill on the box

. But why not use his voice? He's a rather versatile voice-actor (the Goblin in Spiderman, the Joker in Batman). Hell, so's Malcolm McDowell, apparently (Rhesus 2 in Captain Simian & The Space Monkeys)

.

The only advantage CGI might have is to bring back actors that are dead. Like Adm. Eisen (though I'd hate to see him made into CGI).

And a remake of the classics wouldn't be all that bad. Wouldn't it be neat to have WC1 & 2 with *proper* voice acting?

No, not really. The gameplay elements would be lost, the story would be changed, even if just a little. And if you want WC1 with voices go get SWC.

 

[Metras]

CGI and FMV are both rivals, but they pretty much do the same thing.
Like Coke and Pepsi (or to some, Pepsi and Coke).

 

[Quarto]

Earthworm: Nah, CGI can't bring actors back from the dead. For one thing, it would be sacrilege to do that

. As you said, that idea isn't particularly appealing. But at any rate, a dead actor can't provide his voice, and while you can use some guy's imitation, it just won't be the same.
But one thing CGI can do is keep using the same actors for a lot longer than FMV.

No, not really. The gameplay elements would be lost, the story would be changed, even if just a little. And if you want WC1 with voices go get SWC.

I'm a little confused here. How would acting voices change the gameplay or the story? And SWC voice acting is lame

.

 

[TC]

People don't seem to understand that CGI IS FMV

FMV=Full Motion Video

This does not need to be live action video. FMV can be computer generated and therefore both FMV and CGI. Since CGI is FMV it isn't possible for CGI to be better than FMV. Yet CGI can't really be better than FMV either. So either talk about Live Action and CGI or suffer my eternal harrassment.

TC

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CAG of the Blacklance HQ
"Canadian and proud of it"-TC

 

[Quarto]

Aw, leave me alone TC

. I know that, but there's just no point in correcting people about it all the time. It's like the whole PC thing - most intelligent people know that a Mac is also a PC, but people still say that the PC is better than the Mac, or vice versa. The wrong terms are far too ingrained to bother with.

 

[TC]

No they aren't.

TC

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CAG of the Blacklance HQ
"Canadian and proud of it"-TC

 

[Shane]

No they aren't.

TC

What do you use then to describe PCs and Macs? I know people I worked with used to use "IBM computers" (which wasn't accurate)and later "IBM-clones" or DOS based machines (though that came to mean MS-DOS.) People do this for convience, I know I do. This happens a lot, particulalry in the IT world. I was in a meeting the other day where a couple Sr. Management folks were trying to determine if we had enough bandwidth to take on a particular client. They weren't referring to our connection to the Internet here, they were using bandwidth as a description of the number of people and company resources we could put towards the project. I just rolled my eyes. I've seen it with other acronyms. ASP means Active Server Pages to many of us, but the new ASP is Application Service Providers. I've found it is easier to go with the flow. Excpet when it comes to the when the millenium starts.

I know that some of the live action shots have CGI in them, but for short hand I just refer to it as FMV. For anything without "real" actors, scenery, etc. it is CGI. Is it 100% accurate? No, but I think most everyone here knew what was going on. I understand the frustration and appreciate the clarification, but I think your tilting at windmills.

 

[Earthworm]

TC, of course that it's the same thing. But unless we want to have are posts two times the size of the current ones we'll just stick with this stuff.

 

[TC]

Acronyms with similar meanings are completely different that using the incorrect word. (And just to make the point, I refer to my computer as an IBM Compatible PC or a Windows/DOS/Linux box (depending on which computer and what it's running at the time)because that is what it is.)

TC

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CAG of the Blacklance HQ
"Canadian and proud of it"-TC

 

[Quarto]

Excpet when it comes to the when the millenium starts.

<Highly amused> Whatever. But if you really want to be so picky about that, remember that the guy who invented our calendar was actually three or four years off.

 

[Meson]

Whatever. But if you really want to be so picky about that, remember that the guy who invented our calendar was actually three or four years off.

He was 4 to 6 years off, but that's a story for another time.

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Meson

Wing Commander is more than just a game. It is a lifestyle.

 

[Metras]

lol
Perhaps we should stick with the Chinese Calendar...