What ever happened to the good old FMV?

B

binaural218

Spaceman
Thank god for Wing Commander. I would be so disappointed if the next WC just has crappy 3d videos. Anyone remember Jedi Knight? Those were some great FMVs, but I have come to understand that Jedi Knight 2:Jedi Outcast (release date: March 29) will not have FMVs in it.
 
I just think that FMVs added an enhanced "feel" in the gameplay. I just think that they were great, and was just voicing my opinion.
 
Wel... FMVs can be quite enhancing... but uses more space than in-game scenes.
If in in-game the programmer would just have to make a short 'script' of predefined movements for the gaming objects, FMV's must be rendered at first.

But sometimes when using animated models, for instance like C&C Renegade, the FMV might look not anymore different than the in-game scenes.
 
Originally posted by TheFraix
But sometimes when using animated models, for instance like C&C Renegade, the FMV might look not anymore different than the in-game scenes.
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I think the worst example of this was the first Syphon Filter. UGH!!
 
FMV is nice, but I don't believe it's necessary. And it almost doesn't seem worth it unless it's of the standard of acting we saw WC3/4 - so you might as well see a movie instead, IMHO.
 
WC3/4 was hardly a paragon of good acting, anywhere outside of the game market. Realistically, "B-movie" would probably be the least inaccurate description, overall. It's just in comparison to other FMV-including games that the acting looks good.
 
Um, that's what I meant. It's not worth having cinema standard acting in FMV, but I don't think it's worth it at all if it's of a (very!) poor standard.

Gameplay should be a priority, IMHO.
 
There seems to be a lot of grudge against FMV among industry types because it was such an evolutionary dead-end. Remember that back in '94/'95 everyone was sure FMV was going to merge the cinema and the arcade -- the Big New Thing (tm) would be interactive movies, and they'd appeal to the masses.

Never happened, though -- FMV based games just got more and more expensive without attracting new buyers.
 
Originally posted by Bandit LOAF
There seems to be a lot of grudge against FMV among industry types because it was such an evolutionary dead-end. Remember that back in '94/'95 everyone was sure FMV was going to merge the cinema and the arcade -- the Big New Thing (tm) would be interactive movies, and they'd appeal to the masses.
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And thus we had the birth of the rail-shooter.

:D

Those didn't last too long.

Westwood is the only company I can think of off the top of my head that uses live action FMV in games these days, and even though they've used it in all of their C&C RTS games to date, it was absent from C&C Renegade (the new FPS). Of course, its generally acknowledged that both the scripts and acting are poor, so Red Alert 2 made a point of going over the top instead of being "realistic".
 
Originally posted by Bandit LOAF
Never happened, though -- FMV based games just got more and more expensive without attracting new buyers.
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Guess we were fortunate enough that WC3/4/P had it before they decided it was too expensive.
 
No... Prophecy was after they realized it was too expensive... They just made it with less money. It's not quite as big a risk if you spend some money on one of your more famous series.

TC
 
Well, I was unsure about the WCP bit. Still, I don't think that particular project was so bad, but I still don't feel like watching some (unnecessary) scenes like the one where Zero and Casey discuss their fathers. I dunno, just didn't feel 'right'.
 
There's been some good acting by NORMAL standards!

Originally posted by Death
WC3/4 was hardly a paragon of good acting, anywhere outside of the game market. Realistically, "B-movie" would probably be the least inaccurate description, overall. It's just in comparison to other FMV-including games that the acting looks good.
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There HAS been good acting in video games,though. Whoever played Ghen in Riven was fantastic, as was Rand Miller as Atrus and what's-her-name as Catherine(some of the best voice over work ever, IMHO... her lips were never out of sinc with her dialougue! Spelling? Er...No. And I'm supposed to graduate in a month...) Spycraft and X-Files(both FMV games) were particularly well acted. And there's been some superb voice acting in Video Games, from Gabriel Knight:Sins of the Fathers to The DIG. Of course, let us not speak of Brad Douriff in Myst 3:Exile, the awful ensemble cast(besides Mr. Tim Curry) in Frankenstein:Through the Eyes of the monster, and of course, Shivers[shiver...]
 
Originally posted by Lelapinmechant
...her lips were never out of sync with her dialogue!
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Um, I don't think lip/voice synchronisation has anything to do with an actor's ability to act. ;) [In fact, I'd say anyone who can naturally speak out of sync with their lips is an incredible actor! :)]
 
What's impressive is that the voice emoted the same as the actor

Right. I mean even though she was voiced-over, it still looked natural and believable. I think that's certainly to the credit of the ability of both whoever did the voice-over and the original actor.
 
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