When did cutscenes start looking worse than actual video games?

It’s fair to say the days of cutscenes wowing us are at an end. Games just look too good in real time these days for anything to seem so wildly implausible as CGI sequences from previous generations did at the time.

[Hardiman]

Transitioning from the Genesis/SNES era to the a PlayStation/N64 era was pretty incredible. While the N64 retained the cartridge format and didn't do prerenderd cutscenes, going from Super Mario World/MarioRPG to Mario 64 blew my mind! PlayStation going with CD's was a smart move IMO and at the time the cutscenes were pretty incredible but I did yearn for s time when in game graphics matched or surpassed them and that time is now.

Games like Uncharted 4, HZD, TLOU Remastered,GOW and Spider-Man really shine to me! GOW in particular looks incredible whether it's gameplay or cinemas. From the looks of it Ghosts of Tsushima, Death Stranding and TLOU2 will have killer ones as well.

[GOULDYBOBS]

Any reason you only mentioned Sony exclusives?

[UnSelf]

I’m sure a little bit of the reason has to do with the fact that PS just happens to have games that support the premise of this article

[Livingthedream]

Maybe he only owns a playstation. Seems reasonable.

[Prubar]

Jesus you’re sensitive lol. Never have I seen so many man babies in one website.

[mkis007]

Sony hasnt used out of engine cutscenes for a long time. The cutscenes they do now transition straight to gameplay.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

GOULDYBOBS - because they're the best at it, by a LOOOOOONG way.

[Hardiman]

Because they look the best! I haven't seen animations , whether facial or otherwise look as good as Uncharted 4, GOW, TLOU2. Ghosts looks phenomenal as well, a big step up from Second Son and GOW is probably the best looking game I've played. HZD looks incredible as well. Hell there are reflections of people and the game world in Aloy's eyes! I also have a Switch. Actually I have a Pro and Switch and my twins have my base PS4 and Switch.

[Profchaos]

Ok rdr2 had some amazing looking gameplay and cutscenes and it's a Multi plat

[ABizzel1]

Forza MS and Horizon, Quantum Break, Ryse Son of Rome, and Gears are the only ones I can think of, excluding artstyle which is a completely different category.

The problem is Driveclub / GTS, The Order / Detroit, God of War, and Uncharted all look as good or hands down better then their closest competitor.

And 3rd party offerings look as good or better than the XBO games as well.

Those above games can’t be knocked for their looks but Rza is the only one that IMO has a chance to crack the top 10 graphics this generation and that’s more so for being 4K @ 60fps on MotorSport, and being 4K @ 30fps ole world for Horizon which starts to become more technical achievement, than best graphics.

[aaronaton]

Their production values are greater than most other developers.

[william_cade]

You have to admit they are some of the best.

[Orionsangel]

The last impressive transition for me was going from PS2 to 360. Since then It's hard been hard to be impressed. How much better will PS5 look than PS4? Better I'm sure but not that different. We've reached the end of the line in terms of graphics improving, for now anyway. Until something groundbreaking comes along that makes our jaws drop.

[ClayRules2012]

I disagree that we’ve reached the end of the line in terms of graphics improving. I don’t know where or when we’ll hit that wall, but we certainly aren’t there yet. We’ve still got a good ways to go in my opinion”

[SkatterBrain]

when i was playing twisted metal 2 on the Ps1 and Saw a trailer for Twisted Metal Black on the ps2 i was Wowed.
Then when i had San Andreas on the PS2 and Saw a video of SaintsRow on the 360 i was Wowed.
Now Wofenstein 2 WOWS ME ALOT on the Switch, i still cant believe this thing can play that, albeit with long load times

[KwietStorm_BLM]

We literally just got Ray Tracing, which dynamically changes the entire look of a game, much like how proper lighting did after static light sources were no longer used. There are several other areas that improve what a game world game be, other than straight up polygon count and resolution. No chance we're at the end of the line.

[Orionsangel]

I'm pretty stunned by the downvotes I got. You can honestly say that going from PS3 to PS4 was impressive? I'm talking about when PS4 first launched btw. I thought it looked better sure but it wasn't like, WOW! Night and day! It wasn't like going from SNES to Playstation or Playstation to PS2. You could see PS2 games could never be done on PSone, but GTAV is on PS3 and PS4. Yeah PS4 looks a little better but both systems can run the same game and look very similar.

[EliteComments123]

LOL longggggg way to go until graphics are at limit

[KillZallthebeast]

Cartriages only really have a single downside which is cost per unit. However Cartriages can hold significantly more data while also having absurdly quick data transfer.

[SkatterBrain]

why dont companys just buy micro sd cards encrpt them and throw there games on there slap a sticker on it than taking the cost of producing there own cartridges? bigger bulkier cartridges?

[Orionsangel]

You're telling me. Back in the day at Toys R Us I paid $79.99 for WWF Royal Rumble on SNES. Still get sick to my stomach thinking about it.

[Orionsangel]

I think you mean Cartridges. Not trying to be mean. Just wanna help ya out.

[KillZallthebeast]

Yup I do, and mass production still leaves them being quiet a bit more expensive in comparison to discs.

[Father__Merrin]

Literally anything PlayStation related will be excellent I seriously need to jump back on ps4 ASAP had the pc upgrade bug so took a break

[VariantAEC]

I thought PC would be the way to go for gaming too and then I went back to consoles. PC gaming actually isn't as great as everyone says it is. You're locked into upgrading everything to work. Even when the upgrades are free their a huge pain in the •••.

When I update a console's firmware that is a few simple steps and it happens just once. If I connect to the internet I need to update GeForce Experience to use Shadowplay... I can skip the GPU driver update and depending on how long it's been between updates I can skip Windows 10 updates. I will update my antivirus software and all of this can be automated but then it's staggered and sometimes forces multiple restarts and can take over an hour in some cases! Then there are the individual game updates and depending on what storefront you use background downloads aren't available when playing and this can also be a setting adjustment (at least in Steam it is iIrc). Either way just like on console games can't be played online unless updated depending on storefront.
Many more PC games cannot be played offline regardless of anything.
Migrating some games from drive to drive especially when that drive is removable forces online authorization to play again (even on Steam)...
Most of my issues are that it's all disjointed on PC and I have a laptop which makes things worse due to more limited storage capacities. Increasing storage still won't fix some problems like online check-ins especially on Origin (•••• EA!).
BASICALLY PC IS JUST A ●●●●●●G MESS!!!

[jivah]

They looked great pre ps3/360 era. Then the vocal minority of people complained that they didn't want cgi cutscenes and wanted in engine cutscenes because it represented the game accurately and cause it broke immersion after it went back into gameplay. Yea they cried and got it and it sucked cause i missed the days of great looking cutscenes. I remember seeing it slowly change and i cried inside.

[Poopmist]

Kingdom Hearts 3, FF15, and Halo 5(Really everything from Blur does that tbh) have cutscenes that still wow me.

[Donnie81]

Absolutely anything blur does is amazing. The halo 2 cutscenes from mcc are still top notch.

[Rangerman1208]

You mentioned Anthem but not Jump Force?

[Knightofelemia]

I remember watching FMV's on the PS1 with certain games and saying shit this looks good for the time. FF8 changed FMV and it was great and is still great for the time. I wish Square would bring FF8 out to PS4. I like in game cinematics they explain parts of the story and draw a person in but there are some games that have too many cinematics and make the game feel more like a movie and all I want to do is play the game.

[rainslacker]

The opening cinematic, the dance scene, and the "resurrection" scene in the field were probably some of the most amazingly done cutscenes in gaming. They redefined cinematics for the time, and was the first real showing that games could have the same presentation qualities of movies. I'll still watch that dance scene and love every second of it in not just how well it was done, but how it expressed so much without a single word, while developing and revealing the characters more in a few minutes, than you see in many games through an entire story.

I do agree that sometimes cut scenes are overused. Some games can have long ones that are still interesting enough to keep you engaged and not feel anxious about getting back to the game. Xenosaga series except for a few scenes, the first Valkyria Chronicles which were plentiful, many Square games from the PS2 days really, seemed to have a good balance.

But now, sometimes they draw them out way too much.

-RDR2 did it too much sometimes.
-Kingdom Hearts 3 is god awful, particularly since a lot of it is back story, which if you remember the story is excessively boring, if you don't remember that part of the story, it doesn't really clear anything up. But either way, it's really too long. Lots of dialogue between characters I only half remember, concepts and relationships that were never that interesting, often repeating antagonistic dialogue, overly silly discussion and actions when dealing with anything Sora, sub plots which seem thrown in and unnecessary, a retelling with slight variations of various disney and pixar films, etc.
-Valkyria Revolutions was terrible in this dept. Great story, and generall good dialogue and acting, but there was just so much of it. In the first 2 hours, I literally played two short tutorial missions. Then everything after that was just way to much.

I could go on with more on each side of the fence, but most modern games seem to have them be too long. If they're interesting and engaging, then they're OK, but a lot of times they aren't.

[PhoenixUp]

What dafuq? Cutscenes still look great to this day, and in many cases better than gameplay

[Orionsangel]

The last impressive transition for me was going from PS2 to 360. Since then It's hard been hard to be impressed. How much better will PS5 look than PS4? Better I'm sure but not that different. We've reached the end of the line in terms of graphics improving, for now anyway. Until something groundbreaking comes along that makes our jaws drop.

[Orionsangel]

I remember being impressed by the opening cut scene of Tekken 2 and thinking game play graphics will never reach that level. Well not only did they reach that level they way surpassed them.

[Pozzle]

I remember when FFVIII came out, Playstation Magazine said game characters won't ever look more realistic than this! And I agreed with them haha

It's amazing how far we've come since then.

[Orionsangel]

I remember when FFVII came out and that opening...wait I don't have to remember. I can watch that moment.

https://youtu.be/SjOqsWIcQo...

Come to think of it I recorded FFVIII as well lol - https://youtu.be/6-njJOUYth...

[DVAcme]

I'm personally more impressed by in-engine cutscenes than pre-rendered because even my phone can play a pre-rendered cutscene, it's literally just a video file, while an in-engine cutscene is my system actually doing the work. Also, I don't know if in-engine technology is more advanced lately than video codec technology, but I can often see those squares that form in pre-rendered video that betray it as video and it takes me right the hell out of the experience. Also, in-engine video feels more "solid", if that makes any sense, like the difference between practical effects and CGI in movies, and pre-rendered video always uses different models and textures.

[jmtstan]

MK9 cutscene transition to game play was equally same with all system, not just ps3, on pc it look much worse if you crank up the visual setting, you notice the real time visual more sharpness

[Godmars290]

"It’s fair to say the days of cutscenes wowing us are at an end."

Thought that was because things done in cut-scenes more an more aren't reflected in gameplay.

[rainslacker]

I'd say we probably see more in game play that used to be only seen in cut scenes. That time where a cut scene a character would go all super saiyan mode, but couldn't do it in game in the same way. Something I believe you aren't that keen on.

That said, I do think Kingdom hearts did add some of their previous cut scene type stuff into their game play, but they still have way too many of those deus ex moments where the hero is capable in one scene, and complete blathering idiot in the next. Although, that's just anime trope more than multiple suspensions of disbelief.

Otherwise, for more realistic styled games, we don't see so much of the super powered up stuff like we used to, which is more common in Japanese anime story telling than more western themed presentations.

[Shinox]

People who make shit articles like this to shit on what makes videogames "videogames" make me want to pull a guitar and pop their heads with it .. WTF is wrong with you do you want gaming to get worse and worse .

[Shinox]

wai- this title didn't make it clear to the whole subject , i thought he was purposely trying to shit on the glorious oldschool CGI cutscenes .. but he is not , this OP better make the title more clear than suspicious

[Psychonaut]

Last gen. It became a huge deal for cutscenes to use the in game graphics. I remember this being a hot thing last gen. MGS: Guns of the Patriots was a leader of this.

[FallenAngel1984]

What has been understated is how various games masterfully transition back and forth from cutscene to gameplay

[riibhu]

They never did. And even today cutscenes actually look better when compared to actual gameplay.
Now, if you're comparing previous generation CGI cutscenes with today's gameplay, which I think you're doing, then yeah today's games have surpassed them.

[Parasyte]

:Sees it is an article from The Verge. Remembers their terrible PC build video. Walks away:

[Dom_Estos]

You mean pre rendered FMV as it was known back then? And when are you talking about? Any specific period? If we're talking early PS1 FMV, then those got matched, if not even surpassed, in the PS2 era, if you're to take it on a single asset basis, that is. Yes, really.

Anything modern that has full blown CGI cut scenes in it are likely a gen or two behind the curve, because modern CGI is fully photon based ray traced, with complex features like fluid and fabric deformation systems being animated and rendered to a realistic degree. Things that would slaughter even the mightiest GPU on the market.

[pyroxxx]

I remember CGI cutscenes were a reward type of a deal,.. In a way they can still look miles better than the game,.. but that is probably exclusive to really big AAA titles. Even In engine sequences look spectacular nowadays.

[sampsonon]

when you bought an xbox one.

[PiNkFaIrYbOi]

They don't look worse, it is just that video games have finally caught up to the cutscenes.

[tonyjames404]

when gaming started to suck a lot more than what it did

https://cogpoweruppodcast.p...