Most Cinematic Games

- Tales of Eternia, nice plot. Even the whole fire/ice/wind dungeons didn't felt tedious at all.
- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time series, particularly the first game.
- The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time: The final battle against Ganon was amazing.

I'm not a big gamer, but my daughter is. I enjoy a relaxing evening, watching her kill people.

I found Assassin's Creed for the PS3 totally cinematic. There were some viewpoint where my vertigo kicked in and I just could NOT keep watching for fear of losing dinner. The interactions with the NPCs were somewhat predictable, but reasonable. Just an overall really mesmerizing game--and I wasn't even playing!

Can't wait for AC2.

DeleyanLee said:

I'm not a big gamer, but my daughter is. I enjoy a relaxing evening, watching her kill people.

I found Assassin's Creed for the PS3 totally cinematic. There were some viewpoint where my vertigo kicked in and I just could NOT keep watching for fear of losing dinner. The interactions with the NPCs were somewhat predictable, but reasonable. Just an overall really mesmerizing game--and I wasn't even playing!

Can't wait for AC2.

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If you don't mind blowing up Boatloads of people, this Jutland Simulator has some cinematic aspects. Like Eisenstein with his Battleship Potemkin thing but no Odessa Steps.

My favorite cinematic moments are inherent in setting up a battle just before sunrise (so that visibility jumps from say 8000 meters to 28000 in about half an hour)
and taking a destroyer's eye view (always take an RN destroyer since bigger, faster destroyers with bigger faster torpedoes make for a slightly longer survival period when going to within boarding range of the High Seas Fleet).

http://www.stormeaglestudios.com/public/html/se_jutland_v2.html

Higgins said:

If you don't mind blowing up Boatloads of people, this Jutland Simulator has some cinematic aspects. Like Eisenstein with his Battleship Potemkin thing but no Odessa Steps.

My favorite cinematic moments are inherent in setting up a battle just before sunrise (so that visibility jumps from say 8000 meters to 28000 in about half an hour)
and taking a destroyer's eye view (always take an RN destroyer since bigger, faster destroyers with bigger faster torpedoes make for a slightly longer survival period when going to within boarding range of the High Seas Fleet).

http://www.stormeaglestudios.com/public/html/se_jutland_v2.html

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Poster for Potemkin from Wiki about the film

I liked D2. I haven't played any others in that series.

The new Street Fighter, SF4, feels cinematic to me, since they've changed the art (it's hard to explain, the textures are painted to feel like 2D anime, but it's 3D).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFkFo5SBx-g

/lock thread

Zoombie said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFkFo5SBx-g

/lock thread

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/sneak into locked thread/

Well, its hyperactive. I'm not sure that's all that cinematic and its an intro. I think you'd get lost in the
game if you popped your camera views around like that.

The game has a 50 foot tall winged, horned and hooved deamon summoned from the pits of hell smashing a tank the size of a city block with a two headed ax while the tank fires all 15 of its insanely powerful WTF guns directly at it.



While the planet explodes.

And they're playing heavy metal music in the background.

Why has no one said Mass Effect here either?

They have a cinema mode even. jeesh.

I remember being bowled over by Final Fantasy VII at the time, although the graphics are clunky now. I'm a huge fan of the Square graphics in any of the Final Fantasy games and the plots do feel like a movie unravelling. FF10 really hit the peak for me in storytelling, graphics, and music. I was so sorry when Uematsu quit Square.

We switched to an XBox 360 recently and while the games are darned pretty, I haven't found anything to match the older stuff (or perhaps I'm just getting old!).

whistlelock said:

Why has no one said Mass Effect here either?

They have a cinema mode even. jeesh.

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Mass effect definitely should be included. I'm not sure Dawn of War belongs in the category under the idea of the original post, but its intro is certainly one of the better ones around.

Others are Half-Life, and going old school, anything by Infocom, though since those lacked graphics I'm not sure they would fit "cinematic" either.

Dead Space is another recent title that is certainly cinematic.

Valkyria Chronicles. It *feels* like a movie when you were playing it. Absolutely incredible graphics in a very distinctive style.

No one has said Shadow of the Colossus? Beautiful game! Check it out!

Zoombie said:

The game has a 50 foot tall winged, horned and hooved deamon summoned from the pits of hell smashing a tank the size of a city block with a two headed ax while the tank fires all 15 of its insanely powerful WTF guns directly at it.



While the planet explodes.

And they're playing heavy metal music in the background.

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Exactly. Every game cliche known to man in 2 seconds flat.

I'm surprised that I am going to be the first person to mention Metal Gear Solid.

A mention goes to Ico, prequel to Shadow of the Colossus.

How about the DVD-version of Wing Commander, which is almost entirely actual film? All of the cut-scenes and story line, when not in space combat, comes at you like a pretty well-shot episode of BSG or some such.

The most cinematic game I've played so far has to be Half-Life 2 and it's episodes.

The graphics, the storyline, the interactions and the environment were done so incredibly well, it felt like I was actually playing in a movie - especially when I played it on my HDTV.

Awesomeness. Pure awesomeness.

Yes, that's the point Higgans.

The Warhammer 40,000 universe is made up entirely of cliche's taken to their hilarious extreme, then covered in the blackest of black ink. Its so dark, its funny. Its so cliche, its inventive. Its really something quite amazing, once you look into it.

I think the Hitman series is very atmospheric. It's moody and noir, the levels are really quite dark and sinister and it's all about patience and stealth which doesn't help when your heart is racing. The game falls down a little when the shit hits the fan but that just serves as more of an incentive to get it right.

Other games... I'd say Silent Hill is about as cinematic as it gets. Very weird but a tonne of hard work has gone into those levels. Ditto Max Payne which is almost directly linked to cinema with its bullet time stuff. And there was something about the first few Resident Evils with their pre-rendered, locked-off backgrounds. Lots of people hated them, I liked it. The 3D looked goofy in Code Veronica but I admit it's pretty damn impressive in 4 and 5.

Oh right, Fahrenheit was nothing but one long cinematic.

And it had a really cool plot...till it went absolutely insane.

Zoombie said:

Yes, that's the point Higgans.

The Warhammer 40,000 universe is made up entirely of cliche's taken to their hilarious extreme, then covered in the blackest of black ink. Its so dark, its funny. Its so cliche, its inventive. Its really something quite amazing, once you look into it.

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I'm sure it is inventive, its just that with simulations getting better and better due to better and better machines and code, I find I'm more interested in looking into strange aspects of reality (such as the Gloster Gladiator in IL-2 or Targetware) than I am at massive amounts of unreality.

Splinter Cell I felt had a great cinematic quality built by the same people that brought you Assassin's Creed. Rainbow Six vegas had a nice feeling, too. Yes, Halo, too. However, the sequels, I think, were probably setting us up for the movie

Older: Wing Commander, of course. But it was a pioneer of that sort of game.

And my all time favorite:

Crimson Skies.

Super Mario Galaxy.

That's right.