Talent? I think not

[Erasmus]

"Privateer II - The Darkening"
Does anyone remember this 1996 classic?
The modern games could learn sooo much from this
The Darkening was made in the times before CGI cut-scenes with pathetic voice talent. It had REAL cut-scenes with REAL actors.
Actors including but not limited to:

Clive Owen
Christopher Walken
Don Warrington
and
the legend himself: Brian Blessed :notworthy

They had proper sets, props, effects, everything you would have got from a movie of the time, now compare that to the cut-scenes from one of the latest installments in the same genre: X2 - The Threat.

Badly animated characters, and quite absurdly limited voice talent.
Sound like they're reading off a script they've just been given.

Do you agree?
Do you remember any games with great storylines/acting talent?
Do you think they should make games like this now?
Discuss.

[Beanie]

Yep, command and conquer tiberian sun, very good cutscenes and quite surprisingly for a 1999 game not that bad graphics, its weird how real acting in cut scenes just brings the game more to life

[Splush]

Didn't Wing Commander have cutscenes with Mark Hamill? I didn't actually play it, it looked rather dull, but a friend did.

I think if they're going to bring back live-action cutscenes with "proper" actors they have to do it really well or it'll just be embarrasing. I thin I'm happier with in-engine cutscenes to be honest.

[T3-X]

Mech Warrior 4 had real life cutscenes, can't forget that one.

[Erasmus]

Didn't Wing Commander have cutscenes with Mark Hamill? I didn't actually play it, it looked rather dull, but a friend did.

I think if they're going to bring back live-action cutscenes with "proper" actors they have to do it really well or it'll just be embarrasing. I thin I'm happier with in-engine cutscenes to be honest.

Yeah, Privateer II is a wing commander game.
Just better in every conceivable way.
Best game ever, bar none.

[flapjackboy]

I think if they're going to bring back live-action cutscenes with "proper" actors they have to do it really well or it'll just be embarrasing. I thin I'm happier with in-engine cutscenes to be honest.

I think that live action cutscenes worked well in the days when you couldn't realistically depict the scene using the game engine. Now that we have the technology to do that, live action cutscenes would look out of place and as technology progresses even further, we'll see the game engine graphics develop to such a level that it will be impossible to tell whether it's live action or CGI.

I still think they should use properly trained voice actors though, rather than get Jeff from accounting to do the voices.

[Erasmus]

I think that live action cutscenes worked well in the days when you couldn't realistically depict the scene using the game engine. Now that we have the technology to do that, live action cutscenes would look out of place and as technology progresses even further, we'll see the game engine graphics develop to such a level that it will be impossible to tell whether it's live action or CGI.

I still think they should use properly trained voice actors though, rather than get Jeff from accounting to do the voices.

Would it look out of place?
After all many games use a more complex engine to create the cut-scenes, so they look better than the rest of the game, and slightly out of place.

In this game in particular they didn't look out of place because EVERY time you saw a person it was an actor. The actual action parts of the game are space flight sim and all characters, even those who are just part of the background in the space-ports were real people.

[Nosferatu]

It's either realy good, or totaly crap.

C&C - Brilliant

Resi the First - Cringeworthy...
(And I'm a BIG Resi fan...)

[Splush]

I suddenly recall the cutscenes from the first Jedi Knight game. You'd think the gaming wing of a film company could pull off something decent, but apparently not :)

[CoX]

My fondest memories are of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (and its expansion pack, Yuri's Revenge). The acting and sets may noy have been top notch, but it put real faces to these characters - whenever I sent Tanya into battle, I always imagine her human form running across baron wastelands and strapping bombs to tanks.

[Erasmus]

I can't play the darkening anymore :(
This bloody "advanced" (pah) operating system doesn't suport DOS games.
I really miss it
They should create a movie about it, with the same actors and storyline.
'Twould be a brilliant movie

[Lewiji]

I can't play the darkening anymore :(
This bloody "advanced" (pah) operating system doesn't suport DOS games.
I really miss it
They should create a movie about it, with the same actors and storyline.
'Twould be a brilliant movie

Try DosBox (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net)

[Erasmus]

Try DosBox (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net)

Already got it, but thanks all the same.
It's not fast enough

And here's something completely different:

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/4867/pr007pic3bv8.jpg

[Beanie]

My fondest memories are of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (and its expansion pack, Yuri's Revenge). The acting and sets may noy have been top notch, but it put real faces to these characters - whenever I sent Tanya into battle, I always imagine her human form running across baron wastelands and strapping bombs to tanks.
I've got tiberian sun, retro as scrwed up my save game option now :(, but nonetheless is red alert 2 any good?

[CoX]

If you liked Tiberian Sun, you'll love Red Alert 2. Same gameplay but with new units, and the campaign is hard enough to keep you going but addictive enough to keep you coming back for more. Yuri's Revenge only adds new units, maps and 2 campaigns, but is still worth getting (especially as you could probably get the two for under £30 nowadays).

[ADoorMadeOfPoop]

I have tiberian sun and it is great. I have Yuri's Revenge and it is just as great. All the C&C games are great. Acting isn't top notch....but it's great.