3... 2... 1... Fight!
Episode #079 is available, get it while it's hot. You've never heard squealing, whimpering and gnashing of teeth like you'll hear in this episode, where John and Phil argue about cinematics in videogames.Do you think that cinematics need to be pre-rendered (as in Final Fantasy VII) in order to make you feel more drawn into the game, or can cinematics be rendered on-the-fly by using the game's engine and still manage to draw you in just as much? Comment on this post with your thoughts on the matter, we want to hear 'em!
Next week, we will be doing another System Focus episode, focusing on the short-lived Sega Dreamcast.
I'm out, game on!
-Phil
3 Comments On This Post:
I don't have any personal experience with a Dreamcast as I did not nor did I know anyone who had one. I do remember it being hyped a lot when it launched with big test kiosks and stuff at the Gamestop in the mall, after that, I heard nary a word about it. I have heard that it had some good games for it, especially Soulcalibur.
Monday, July 30, 2007 at 8:26:00 PM CDTI never really got to play the dreamcast. But I'm still pissed off though because my sisters boyfriend said he was going to give me his old one with NFL 2kwhatever and Soul Calibur!!! But he pissed off my parents and my sister broke up with him before the transaction was made. Needless to say, the Dreamcast was the under-appreciated overachieving middle child of the game consoles.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 3:18:00 PM CDTArguing cinematics like this is like arguing whether oil paints are better than watercolor. Does it matter? No--it's just a medium to tell a story (or, in the case of paints, illustrate a scene or elicit an emotion).
Monday, August 6, 2007 at 9:06:00 PM CDTThe only thing that Final Fantasi VII did with cinematics is pack a bunch of them on to a disc. Games most certainly had cinematics before it, as you two correctly pointed out. The ending to Final Fantasi III on Super Nintendo is a half hour long, all in "cinematic" form (as for cinematic vs. cutscene...*yawn*...sorry, I almost fell asleep during that segment of the podcast, so I just fast-forwarded to the next week's topic and 8-Bit on Bone...). And FFVII's cinematics were also interactive, as I can remember one particular sequence in which you could control Cloud during a FMV cinematic of a helicopter pad raising up.
But as for Dreamcast, I am continually amazed at the sheer level of innovation the console offered:
• A built-in modem
• A high-capacity proprietary disc medium
• A Windows-based operating system (Windows CE, if I remember correctly)
• VMUs for saving game data *and* playing minigames on the actual save cartridges
• An excellent controller with analog triggers similar to the GameCube, which came several years later
The console really was an outstanding piece of hardware, but it's too bad it never got the attention it deserved. Ditto on your ending comment, Jimmy...
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