Best cinematic games

[All Hail The New Flesh]

I remember the oft-overlooked Full Throttle being an excellent example of this.

Totally, The Graphics and animation was so good that it looks like a animated movie

[Gamerforlife]

No fun. I tend to dislike cinematic games, in general -- and, as the originator of this thread mentioned, so many (I should make that read "too many") seem to want this angle. They want to provide an interactive movie, rather than a game. I think, personally, its more interesting to take this thread and jack-it up retro-style:

Alternate Reality -- No, its not just a Sci-fi subgenre. This is an 8-bit game that found its first and best incarnation on the Atari 8-bit line. It also boasts, I believe, the first modern 3D engine. Regardless of these things, the game begins with a UFO hovering over a city; beaming up the people who would be taken on an alien adventure through a strange medieval fantasy world. Once done, the ship traverses the void of space while a theme song, complete with karaoke styled lyrics is presented. Then, you land and create your character. I'd say its cinematic, especially for a game dating back when 48K was your memory limit.

Day of the Tentacle + others. The lucasarts games utilizing the SCUMM engine have always been cinematic, but at some point they crossed a threshold in graphics and sound that allowed them to richly animate the games. Sam & Max, Day of the Tentacle -- several others -- were completely awesome, in this regard. I remember the oft-overlooked Full Throttle being an excellent example of this.

The best cinematic games ARE games and not just interactive movies. I'm actually leaning more towards games that know how to walk that fine line. I would actually go against the Metal Gear Solid mentions in this thread because that game makes you sit and watch cutscenes and listen to dialogue so often that it eventually just starts to be more movie than game. Xenosaga is another great example of this. I honestly don't know why they didn't just scrap Xenosaga as a game from the get go and just go straight to anime. Even Xenogears had more actual game time than Xenosaga. Not to say that Xeonsaga or Metal Gear Solid suck, but at some point you have to resign yourself to the fact that the designers weren't trying to make actual games, but more like interactive movies. Hideo Kojima found a better balance I think with Zone of the Enders 2 than he did with the Metal Gear games.

Oh, and I'm kicking myself for not mentioning Shadow of the Colossus. A game which I love to mention to people as a REAL next gen game, unlike most of the stuff on the Xbox 360 right now.

Now didn't some of those Lucasarts games you mentioned involve Tim Schaefer? While I'm not going to bash on any of those cool games(I kind of enjoyed Grim Fandango), I much prefer Schaefer's Psychonauts since that felt like an actual game and not just a point and click adventure. I'm looking forward to whatever his next project is

[Faffel]

Full Throttle was one of the best looking animated games ever, not just for the generation.

[GagaMan]

Three letters.

I. C. O.

[Yackom]

Full Throttle was one of the best looking animated games ever, not just for the generation.

Along those lines Grim Fandango was a great cinematic game too.

[ImportBoy]

As been mentioned before:

Indigo Prophecy - interactive movie is the term I would use. You get to choose how it plays out.

Shenmue I / II - yeah.

I've recently started playing FFVII: Crisis Core for the PSP. Very cinematic from what I've seen so far. The quality of the CG cutscenes is simply amazing - on par with the Advent Child video. The in-game graphics are also outstanding for the PSP.