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Best Cinematics
Winner: Curse of Monkey Island
"Throughout the game, you'll marvel at the spectacular film-quality animation. This game is as much fun to watch as it is to play." - Michael E. Ryan, GameSpot Review
How many adventure games have you tried to play, only to spend the first 20 minutes staring at some mediocre actors as they try to fill you in on decades of plot as quickly as possible and establish the main characters in the story? A good adventure game blends cinematic cutscenes seamlessly into the actual gameplay, and LucasArts' The Curse of Monkey Island does a wonderful job at it. Sure, the cutscenes sever their purpose of quickly bringing you up to speed on story details before throwing you into the action. But they do so with a certain grace, the best technology can offer. Nowhere have we seen such an uninterrupted transition from game screen, to cutscene, and back again without a hitch.
LucasArts has consistently produced games with a very high level of cinematography, and Curse is no exception. The hand-drawn animated style of the game, instead of the old-style sprite-based characters, means cutscenes are part of the game, not an abrupt interruption. Curse's cinematics are as much an enjoyable part of the game as they are a technological marvel.
Runner-up: Final Liberation: Warhammer Epic 40,000
"...the campaign is highlighted by surprisingly well-acted FMV sequences that feature truly impressive costume designs for the Imperials and Orks alike - almost as if the scenes were taken from a Warhammer 40,000 film in the making." - Greg Kasavin, GameSpot Review
SSI's conversion of the popular science fiction tabletop war game packs a special surprise: full-motion-video cinematics to rival those of the biggest-budgeted game release you could think of. Most game players are more than a little aloof about FMV. Traditionally, FMV equates to hopelessly embarrassing acting and laughable blue-screened backgrounds. But against all odds, Final Liberation manages to convey the year 40,000 in an alarmingly realistic light. Veteran soldiers trudge around in massive suits of battle armor; Imperial Commissars, all decked out in tall collars and medals, bark orders and threaten capital punishment; and the boisterous Orks, slimy, ugly, and repugnant as can be, look just a little too lifelike. All this packed into a mere ten minutes of tantalizing film.
Final Liberation's cinematics were originally filmed for SSI's first-person shooter Dark Crusader, which was never released. Sadly, Bright Lights Studios, who created the cinematics for the game, went out of business shortly thereafter.
Next: Best Graphics
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