VOGONS


First post, by Silent Loon

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Well, it didn't last long:

Wing Commander III Heart of the Tiger

Wing Commander IV The Price of Freedom

Wing Commander V Prophecy

Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II

Privateer II

...which other old games do you remember, that had those expensive, totally out-of-budget, crazy ingame videos with real persons (humans) that finally ruined the developing studio? Or should I say "real games with real actors", "reality ingame videos", "hamilton crazy cutscenes"?

By the way - searching for the unofficial Dark Forces II patch, I just stumbled over this (nice editing, almost perfect) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQo4H8ULWx8

Oh, angry Kyle Katan....

Reply 1 of 17, by leileilol

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Island Peril

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long live PCem

Reply 2 of 17, by dh4rm4

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None of those games killed Origin. Just as none of Killing Moon series killed Access. It's a silly supposition and you need evidence to back it up (such as disclosed budgets and projections) which you'll never be able to produce.

Reply 3 of 17, by F2bnp

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Phantasmagoria 1 & 2 of course 😜
I had a really good laugh playing them recently although the trailer is really cool 😜
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NnjZoVokb80

Reply 4 of 17, by Silent Loon

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...oh, oh...

dh4rm4 wrote:

None of those games killed Origin.

Of course they did not. And Dark Forces II didn't kill Lucas Arts. Do you really need to correct me at this point? Are we in a courtroom?
When I played those games over ten years ago, I was simply impressed by the ingame movies, and thought: Luke Skywalker! Wow - this must be very, very expensive. So when I wrote something about "ruined the studio" please regard it as some kind of bloomy overstatement, also due to the fact that Wing Commander IV with a budget of 16 million $ (Caution! Unproved information! - got it from an old game mag) was for some time supposed to be the most expensive video game ever (I don't think it still is) but despite that and good reviews no commercial effort. But that might be another silly supposition for which I will never be able to produce any

evidence to back it up (such as disclosed budgets and projections)

And before you come up with this: Commander Blair was of course played by Mark Hamill (not Hamilton) and he didn't go bankrupt either. Instead he gave his voice to a lot of other video games and animated tv series and movies.
(I still wonder what happened to Kyle Katan)

The Wing Commander Series with all the spin offs and merchandising washed 110 million $ into Origins pockets ("Objection! This is pure supposition! He has no evidence for that!") but - to get back to where I started - it is my impression that the time of life action filming in games didn't last very long (and one reason for that might have been the costs). Maybe I'm wrong, because I mainly remember the Wing Commander and Star Wars games, and that's one reason why I asked about other games that used or are still using that "technique" for their cutscenes.

(Thanks for the link to Phantasmagoria, F2bnp, I didn't know it before.)

Last edited by Silent Loon on 2007-11-08, 13:01. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 5 of 17, by gulikoza

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Under a Killing Moon and it's sequel Pandora Directive come to my mind.
Also, Ripper (with Christopher Walken 😀).
And last but not least...let's not forget Megarace and Lance Boyle 🤣

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Reply 6 of 17, by general_vagueness

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If you're old enough to have played those old LucasArts games (which would make you older than me) and you didn't know about Phantasmagoria at all, you're not much of a gamer, IMHO (like I said, I'm much younger and I know about it, though I didn't know there was a sequel).
but anyway, the Command and Conquer series is still going strong and still using live action cutscenes
as far as money, I don't know, but I'd like some
I finally have a reason to use this 🤑

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Reply 7 of 17, by leileilol

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Silent Loon wrote:

(I still wonder what happened to Kyle Katan)

Jeff Bennett solves everything. He's the ultimate crazy glue for the desperate need of voice artists

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Reply 8 of 17, by general_vagueness

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and Lance Henriksen, and Michael Madsen a little

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If you look hard enough, you'll find something you don't like.

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Reply 9 of 17, by dh4rm4

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Mark Hamill too. He's starred in quite a few games, not the least of which were the aforementioned Wing Commander next gen series and Full Throttle.

Loon your supposition was silly not only due to lack of financial history but also in of itself. Video Acting hasn't plundered the riches of the gaming. It's like many other forms of production, sometimes it's relevant, sometimes it's the star, sometimes it's a cheap alternative and sometimes it blows out the budget. The same could be said of Sound Production and you could just as easily name drop off that too with Trent Reznor (through Chris Vrenna's influence) and Sting as two easy examples of expensive talent (especially easy with no budgets to discuss).

Reply 10 of 17, by Silent Loon

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dh4rm4 wrote:

Video Acting hasn't plundered the riches of the gaming.

Did I say that?

dh4rm4 wrote:

Mark Hamill too. He's starred in quite a few games

As I've said.

dh4rm4 I'm a little bit confused about what my silly supposition really was in your eyes, I thought I explained it above, but maybe we still misunderstand each other. Anyway you did not produce evidence for the contrary. When you speak about my "lack of financial history" (of Origin? of the gaming industry? of the world?) it sounds a little bit self-important and also as if you know something. If so - share your knowledge! Prove me that I'm wrong! I'm allways willing to learn! Give us numbers, hard facts, examples!

Making general statements that everyone can agree with and moving the subject to another field your counterpart possibly has not much knowledge about is risk free and cheap. That's what politicians do when they see a tv camera. Speaking without saying anything.

Reply 11 of 17, by Dominus

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It's just that you wrote

that finally ruined the developing studio

even when you wrote that it was a bloomy overstatement it is still just not true. Origin never went bancrupt (it was disbanded by the owner EA), Lucas Arts didn't go bancrupt. These are facts which can be easily looked up in the net so when you state that they were ruined you show lack of their financial history. All the games you mentioned in the initial post were from these two companies. Not dh4rm4 has to prove that, you've got to prove your statement.

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Reply 12 of 17, by Silent Loon

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I'm sorry Dominus, but isn't this nitpicking? I admit I was mistakable, maybe even a little bit silly in the inital post, and if I would have foreseen this, I would have expressed it in another - more "earnest" way... (okay, let's nitpick a little:)

Dominus wrote:

Origin never went bancrupt (it was disbanded by the owner EA), Lucas Arts didn't go bancrupt.

I knew. That's just what I wrote. Please read the whole post.

Dominus wrote:

It's just that you wrote

that finally ruined the developing studio

even when you wrote that it was a bloomy overstatement it is still just not true.

Right! But the whole sentence was a question:

Which other old games do you remember, that had those expensive, totally out-of-budget, crazy ingame videos with real persons (humans) that finally ruined the developing studio?

This indeed suggests that the developing studios of the mentioned games are meant, but in a strict sense it does not say it.
Again: I think that life video acting in games reduced or almost died out also because of financial reasons. CG cutscenes became more capable and finally cheaper. This is a hypothesis, and I have no strong evidence for it, but that is why I asked (apart of some nostalgia) , and, as you can see, I also gave at least a few numbers and information... As far as I've understood dh4rm4 has another opinion. Fine. But as he was the first who demanded evidence in a threat whose subject was at the start not that serious, I think he now should substantiate his opinion a little. If possible not with examples from the music industry.

Reply 13 of 17, by Dominus

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but isn't this nitpicking?

of course it is, it's exactly what you've been doing all the time. Of course dh4rm4 is not much better in this regard.
Yes, you did suggest it and the sentence could be taken either way, depending on the emphasis that is not present in written word.

But as he was the first who demanded evidence in a threat whose subject was at the start not that serious, I think he now should substantiate his opinion a little.

Yeah, you can think that, he can think that you have to provide prove and saying that it wasn't meant serious is just a cop out. C'mon relax, you are just beating it to death, e.g. wasting time and nitpicking another's nitpicking. Get a life, the reason I butted in was because the forth and back nitpicking is just lame, especially on such a topic...

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Reply 14 of 17, by Silent Loon

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Dominus - you saved the day.

You're right, and so here is something to relax. It is off topic, but really funny, and as this is the milliways section I hope the moderator turns a blind eye on it. It is also an example that non-human actors are sometimes better 😉 :

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/810697/pixar_lifted/

p.s. Does anyone know what happened to Jason Court (who played Kyle Katarn in DF II)?

Reply 15 of 17, by Xian97

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Another couple Origin games with FMV comes to mind as well:
Crusader No Remorse and Crusader No Regret

They were very similar to the Wing Commander series in the way the videos were presented. You did the mission, then come back to the base or bar and talked to people to trigger the cut scenes.

Reply 16 of 17, by F2bnp

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Oh yeah another one!Resident evil 1!Haha still laughing with this@

Reply 17 of 17, by swaaye

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dh4rm4 wrote:

Mark Hamill too. He's starred in quite a few games, not the least of which were the aforementioned Wing Commander next gen series and Full Throttle.

And Soldier of Fortune 2. Which is particularly odd because he wasn't in Jedi Knight 2 or JA, where Luke was voiced by someone else instead. Raven made each of those games and JK2 and SOF2 were within months of each other.