Slashdot Mirror
Halo 3 Cinematics To Be Great Improvements on Halo 2's
1up is reporting that Bungie has admitted to not having the time to do cinematics right for the best-selling Halo 2. Along with statements they made earlier this year about flaws in Halo 2's multiplayer, the folks at Bungie seem quite willing to own up to previous mistakes. Their call to arms this time: everything will be better. "With Halo 3, they have artists and designers who've worked on epic Hollywood projects like The Lord of the Rings and King Kong, not to mention a former Industrial Lights & Magic guy (read: Star Wars) working out the details on an 'amazing space battle ... there's a bigger team, a team that has had the final cinematic script for much longer, and now has access to vastly more tools, resources and technology than ever before. These range from new tools for rigging facial animation, to better lighting and camera controls. Most of the improvements are a solid blend of technology and manpower this time around, and we hope the fruits of that labor end up as succulent as they look now.'"
And here I thought they gave Master Chief the helmet so they wouldn't have to bother with pesky things like facial animation...
considering you could watch the halo 2 cinematics be drawn while it was playing this shouldn't be hard to do. Or they might be smart enough to stick with pre rendered instead of doing them on the fly.
Is there anyone here that would actually claim "improved cinematics" can make a game more fun? None of my favorite games (Fallout, STALKER, Civ) have anything approaching fantastic cinematics, yet they're still brilliant. This is an example of everything that's wrong with games nowadays.
That's my same knee jerk reaction as well.
But then I remember the intro to Quake 2 and the Boss introductions for Ninja Gaiden and I realize that it can be done right and can add to the immersion of the game. However, that "done right" part seems exceedingly easy to "do wrong" as proven by so many other games.
Garaunteed Failure. That's all I have to say.
Just to clarify, you're saying Halo 3 is going to be a guaranteed failure? Out loud, to other people, you're saying that? Alrighty then...
Agreed, but I figure single player isn't a strong point for the series anyway. I didn't like the previous two campaigns, I'm just in it for the multiplay :)
Finally, a press statement where they don't use the word next-gen as a lame excuse for not doing something "astonishing" before. Hurray for Bungie!
Cinematics =/= Prerendered.
They aren't talking about extended CGI sequences we all know and hate, they're discussing the in-game cutscenes Halo and Halo 2 were riddled with. Supposedly Halo 3's will be better.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
Next generation of technology said to be more advanced than last! (Who knew?)
Shouldn't this article be met with a resounding "DUH!" ?
-GiH
They should have talked to the guys behind the Command & Conquer cut-scenes. They were (and still are in C&C3) absolutely amazing.
Although, I don't think the whole live action thing would work too well with Halo.
I, for one, enjoyed the Halo 2 cutscenes, I didn't feel they were too obtrusive and the extra detail they were able to pump in was certainly a nice touch. Given the additional power of the 360, I look forward to seeing what they can pull off.
On an unrelated note, am I the only one who had a problem with apparently the texture detail jumping during the cutscenes in Halo 2? As soon as someone or something appeared on-screen it'd have a relatively low-res texture applied to it for as long as a second or so, then bump up to the full quality. I've never figured out if it's a problem with my xbox or just a fact of life in the game.
Fallout and Civ (I haven't played STALKER) had some great cinematics, but they were used very sparingly. For example, seeing the faux-news intro to Fallout was amazing, setting the feel for the entire game. With Civ, you saw your Wonders built and in the end the rocket launch, which was a tasty reward for your efforts.
What should be avoided is lots of cutscenes that take control away from the player. And yes, I learned that the hard way after being a bit too cutscene-happy with my own game development.
Maybe not the entire game, but I'm pretty sure that the money spent on making the cinematics will be a complete waste.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Of course there's going to be a huge imrprovement for Halo 3 (Xbox 360) over Halo (Xbox).
!
For the most part pre rendered cinematics are subcontracted to other studios so none of the animators working on in-game content need to worry about cinematics. They also budget these things. I imagine Bungee has enough money to get some decent cutscenes put together.
I have nothing compelling to say
-GiH
Garaunteed Failure.
Yeah! I mean, look at how cut scenes brought down that nickel and dime Final Fantasy franchise.
Maybe it's just me
Wait, are you suggesting your opinion is not a universal absolute? The deuce you say!
...have you so easily forgotten the cinematics to Diablo II? Easily the best collection of cutscenes in any game EVER.
Living With a Nerd
Why is everyone dissing cutscenes? I'm not a huge gamer but I remember with the old Blizzard RTS games like Warcraft and Starcraft, I thought the pre-rendered CGI cut scenes were rippin' good fun, made for a nice break between the action and a cool "reward" for finishing a level. Didn't detract from the game play at all, at least not for me.
I read Usenet for the articles.
If you were paying to the article at all (why would you? this is /. after all) you'd know that they said they were sticking with doing all the cinematics with in the game engine.
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Drink deeply or not at all."
Of course, the insight here is not lost on anyone who had the misfortune of seeing the abysmal abortion that was "Superman IV" (by all accounts, it made III look like "The Godfather").
The new game is *ALWAYS* "Much better," "Amazing," "The best work we've ever done," "A game that will BLOW YOU AWAY," etc. Well, at least it is until years later when they're apologizing for it and are offering up a NEW game as their ACTUAL masterpiece.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
The question is - Why are they bothering?
Unless I've been reading all the wrong message boards it appears that most Halo players are by far more interested in the multiplayer deathmatches than the story. The backlash over the "story" in Halo 2 was all over Halo 2 boards for months following the game's release.
I wouldn't put too much stock in the story neither since I doubt they'll be lifting ideas from an Iain M Banks novel this time...
THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
Don't worry, they don't have enough disk space to put it all on one disk anyway, so the Cinematics will be on the "auxilary" disc. Just insert it every time it asks you to, that isn't too big a price to pay for an increased cinematic experience, now is it?
Instead of cinematics, how about they spend some time on the actual gameplay, graphics, and sound, all of which seem like they come out of 1996? I don't understand the obsession with Halo. I got Halo 2 for the XBox, played it for a few hours, and returned it to the store. Halo has got to be one of the worst FPS's I've ever played. I don't think that improved cinematics is going to help at all.
I don't respond to AC's.
Parent needs to be modded up.
/. after all) you'd know that they said they were sticking with doing all the cinematics with in the game engine.
To reiterate:
If you were paying to the article at all (why would you? this is
It's using the IN-GAME ENGINE. No pre-rendered scenes.
This isn't the PS3 - no need to fill the useless space of a Blu-Ray disc to make Sony execs and fanboys feel good.
Xenosaga has amazing cut scenes... but I would have to watch for almost 40 minutes till I could play again.. that is not a game, that is an Anime episode where you get to move a charcter once and a while.
What is this talk of prerendered scenes? They've said numerous times they will not use prerendered scenes.
Well, the cut scenes were one reason I never finished FF VIII and stopped playing the series after that. Generally, the best thing about cut scenes is that you can usually skip them.
Because every game should be mindlessly shooting anything that moves and nothing more, right?
Of all the games I have played, Homeworld's cinematics have had the most emotional impact on me. The black and white sketches, combined with some scenes scripted using the game engine, were very powerful.
Final Fantasy is terrible. I remember FF 7 and 8, where you had to sit through a 2 minute cutscene every time you attacked your opponent. Fun to watch the first 2 or 3 times, but after that it got pretty frustrating.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Does a story whose only existence is to hype Halo 3 really need to be posted?
I mean just look at the title of the linked webpage. "Halo 3's Cinematics > Halo 2".
Wow, who would have thought. Please, tell us more about how great Halo 3 is.
If they produce some awe-inspiring cinematics that raise the bar for games everywhere, then post about their accomplishments, but leave the commercial pandering out.
"Requires" DX10 => requires Vista
As I will not ever purchase Vista (DRM-ridden bloatware)
I will unfortunately not get a chance to play Halo3.
On the Xbox 360? Nein, meinherr. I have one,
but FPS with thumbstix suxxors.
Wait a minute. Didn't I say that on the other side of the record? I'd better check
I want the sound to work better. I am tired of the soundtrack swelling at *just* the right time to make the actual dialogue impossible to hear. Difficult as it may be to believe, some of us do play the games for the plot, as much as the "come in peace, shoot to kill" game play.
I liked the effect in Halo 1 where you would wake up talking to a guy and start following him. Perhaps a mission where you need to keep a guy alive is in order while he talks to you. This effect is much of what made me enjoy playing games like halo, Half life, etc.
How does it go? "If it moves, kill it. If it doesn't move, shoot it until it does, then kill it."
Your brain is not a computer.
No, they don't get my respect for owning up to this mistake/failure.
They'd get my respect if they'd owned up to it when/as it happened. Not more than a year after the fact when they aren't concerned in the slightest about selling copies of the game. It's just hype for the next one at this point.
I for one welcome our new cutscene overlords.
Freedom to fear. Freedom from thought. Freedom to kill.
I guess the War on Terror really is about freedom!
... will it have an ending?
Never gets old... ok I'm sure it gets old, but I live in the past.
The Half-Life games had a storyline that goes just as deep as Halo's but they did it with much less "cinematics". They did it by putting the storyline all around you.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
Story? There was a story? If I wanted stories I'd learn ro read. I just wanted to beat the s**t out of ogres, wizards, dragons, Zergs and Protoss.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
"East...always east"
Some times I watch my collectors edition cutscene dvd just for fun. And its still looks pretty good even by todays standards. I just wish it had the Lord of Destruction cut scenes too.
Diablo II had cutscenes? Really? I don't remember any, I must have skipped them to get to the GAMEPLAY.
Really, who the FUCK cares about a noninteractive story in a videogame? Videogames are supposed to be about having the player create actions and events by himself; anything that gets in the way of that is absolutely useless. Maybe give a small explanation about what's going on at the beginning via text, but get it out of the way quickly and let me PLAY THE GODDAMN GAME.
Most of modern "gaming", if you can even call it that, sickens me. We didn't get 30 hours of non-interactive "storyline" back in the old days, and the games were better because of it. (No, not ALL old games, but the best old games beat the best new games any day of the week, and that's not just rose-tinted nostalgia talking, despite what you think.)
This is a sig. Deal with it.
It's a game, not a movie. I find it strange that people would be interested in improvements to the cinematics, which have no impact on gameplay. To me, the headline of this article just sounds weird. Next thing you know, we'll be having articles about how the menus look better in halo 3 than halo 2, or something.
I just hope they give my party members enough phoenix downs so I can get woken up for the next cutscene.
IOU one (1) signature
Final Fantasy is terrible.
Not the point. They were successful.
And summons were for pussies anyway. :)
Actually #12 was fun. The Gambit system was a hoot. All RPGs should let you program your other characters like robots. Eventually you could refine and optimize your gambit scripts until you barely had to take an active part anymore. As contradictory as this may sound, that was sort of cool.
You should to back and watch the cut scenes. When I first played Diablo2 my computer couldn't handle the cut scenes so I skipped them. However, when I played the game again this past year on a newer machine I decided to see what I missed. They're excellent pieces of computer animation.
Think of Starcraft's cutscene animation and then go one better.
We didn't get 30 hours of non-interactive storyline time back in the day because the technology didn't exist to tell the story how the creators wanted to tell it...or do you forget that your main char in a game used to be 6 pixels?
Games were simple. Games were fun.
Games now are complicated. Games now are still fun.
See the connection? Games = fun. The era shouldn't matter, the capacity in the storytelling shouldn't matter; what should matter to you is that you are holding a controller and are living through an EXPERIENCE, one pixel at a time.
Living With a Nerd
from TFA "they simply weren't as polished or pretty as we wanted them to be"
from my experience that means: "most of them they never got far beyond pre-vis"
honestly around 90% of the models/textures/animations in the cutscenes looked terrible.
You either sink time/money into network/multiplayer or into single-player. You can't be the best at both & get it finished on time.
I've experiments to run, there is research to be done on the people who are still alive.
Cut-scenes are my favorite part of game play...the part where you don't play! bah.... who really cares about cut scenes?
I would advise going to your local multiplex for all-cutscene gaming, on a huge projection screen totally free from interaction. But the stories they tell are often lousy and formulaic, sort of like the difference between Madden 06 and Madden 05.
You may have missed the dry humour in this post.