They didn't pull a George Lucas...if that were the case then the Bhaalspawn would have attacked Sarevok first.
I understand why the introductory movie had to change - the CGI has aged terribly and the video quality isn't great, either. The problem is that the new intro is simply too brief and lacks any real impact.
I'd love to know, though not sure if I'll find out in these days of forum hysteria..
Did you really dislike the original Baldur's Gate cinematics when you first saw them?
I did, I had completely forgotten as now I consider them some kind of holy relic. But some post on here reminded me that a few years ago I thought they were pretty pants.
That being the case, I'm sure the new videos will grow on me, at least.
Can someone actually explain why they dislike the new intro? Of course. What I like about it: -That it starts with a book illustration we're sucked into. -The style - I actually like the 'animated graphic novel' feel, it reminds me of Gabriel Knight 1 and Thief 1 & 2, which I deeply love. -The art - it is very pretty
What I don't like:
- they cut the quote, which sets the tone for the game and is one of the most memorable characteristics of BG1 - they cut the line, which was one of the main points of the intro, as it worked as very subtle plot exposition - "there are others, I can show you, please!" Now we are left with only "you will go first", which is only half of the message, (it could easily mean that Sarevok was going to go on a killing spree through the city, killing at random. The 'there are others' clearly indicated that there are some specific targets out there). - they butchered pacing and immersion. Everything happens too fast, there is no drama, it's just "The tower, the man, the other man, the murder, the blood, ON TO THE GAME!". To this day I feel for that poor guy from the original intro: beaten, hunted, swaying with exhaustion, running and then begging for his life, slowly choking, falling, bleeding. In the new one? Meh. Some guy gets thrown around, looks kinda sad, gets killed. There's nothing for me there to connect with him, and even he doesn't seem to care about his situation, so why should I? - they cut Sarevok's 'badass' moments - first one when he bursts through the door, the second one where he breaks a freaking iron railing with the poor guy's body, just so he can dangle him over the street and drop him. It showed how insane and insanely strong he is. In the new one that message doesn't come across half as well.
The 'Meh' moments: - the perfect round puddle of blood. Eh, ok. I get that they wanted it to become the Bhaal symbol. Looked somewhat strange, but I can live with it. (Even though I'd prefer if it formed the symbol by filling it, like it used to in one version)
All in all, it felt like it was aimed at the kind of audience who skips the cut-scene if it is longer than 60 seconds. I'm don' t like that.
You just took the words out of my mouth... I originally wanted to create a topic titled "There are NO others! I CAN NOT show you!" where I planned to bitch on about how they stated that they are contractually obliged to keep all of the original content unchanged but went and done away with an epic Nitsche quote and some of the more memorable lines.
I actually like this new style very much... it is pretty similar to BG2 style cutscenes and looks good... BUT... My gripe is not with art style and animation... It's with direction they took... the whole scene goes by so fast you feel like you have watched only a trailer of an intro... Pacing is bad...
So far I've seen only intro, Friendly arms inn and resting outside cutscenes... Friendly arm is a very boring one... I don't have much to say about it... Resting outside however is absolutely awesome... I just hope they haven't cut anything from the ending movie... that would make me sad...
They didn't pull a George Lucas...if that were the case then the Bhaalspawn would have attacked Sarevok first.
Not only would Bhaalspawn attack Sarevok first, but Noober would be tagging along for THE WHOLE ADVENTURE and constantly go "Is it safe for Noober to come out now? How about now? How about now? Can Noober come out now? How about now?"
They didn't pull a George Lucas...if that were the case then the Bhaalspawn would have attacked Sarevok first.
Not only would Bhaalspawn attack Sarevok first, but Noober would be tagging along for THE WHOLE ADVENTURE and constantly go "Is it safe for Noober to come out now? How about now? How about now? Can Noober come out now? How about now?"
because i can't remerber the "old" intro i must say that the new one isn't bad at all. i guess its a kind of taste wether you like it or not. i liked it.
I don't care about video quality or graphics much, it is the storytelling/gameplay that hooks me into games - that is why original BG/Starcraft/WoW are still huge now even though they are ancient. They could have kept the quote/flow/dialogue of the original and just added the new static scenes - they have not enhanced this experience but taken away from it by removing things. Plus the broken railing is viewed later when playing the game and a great reminder of the intro, tieing it all together. The foreshadowing quote/dialogue set up the original game beautifully...
Well, I am really disappointed by the intro. I don't like it at all. Personally, I still prefer the old one, which to me looks good. I am no quality expert, I just like the old one, it has better atmosphere, and fits the style of the game. What I especially don't like about the new one are two things: the animation, which looks like zooming in pictures. I started laughing a bit during the choking moment - the guy's head is about to explode like a baloon, and the characters themselves, which are cut from a sheet of paper. Maybe I'm getting old, but this style doesn't fit for me, it looks silly.
I prefer the old one. In the first few seconds I actually really liked the new one, but the cut dialog is a no go and towards the end it just does not fit BG as it gets too cartoony. It reminded me of Mark of the Ninja, which is a game that clearly gets points for style, but that style does not suit BG. Still... the cut dialogue is the worse problem.
I like the art, colors and style of the new cinematics.
I HATE the fact that the sound is sped up (no break in dialogue, the pacing of sarevok speaking sucks) and the omission of content: kobold sneaking, reference to other bhaalspawn, no shaking carpet at beregost, and no line from Nietzsche!
I liked it. I did think to myself it didn't exactly fit BG's style but it was nice. I must have seen the old one a thousand times but what dialog did they cut out exactly? Didn't notice.
I wonder if we can replace the new cinematic with the old one? I have the original disk versions of the movies back from 1998 which are higher resolution than the ones that were bundled with any of the latter releases (post BG2 or gog releases)
I wasn't thrilled about missing dialogue, but at least it kept my favorite line from the old intro. I still prefer the original despite its extremely dated graphics. BGEE's rendition reminds me of SoA and ToB; albeit with less flair and worse editing. It could have been a lot better with a few adjustments.
I also found it quite disappointing. To make matters worse, it plays every time I start the game and I haven't figured out how to skip it or get it not too play. Any suggestions?
This. And I thought it looked like crappy CGI back in 1999.
Overall I like the new intro, and all the new cinematics. They were very faithful to the original, which is nice. I don't see why anyone wouldn't like them.
@noperson: you can skip any cinematic simply by clicking the left mouse button. ^_^
Some of them I really like. Like the sleeping one. However the intro is just bad. The intro is also not faithful at all in my opinion as the intro has missing dialogue from Sarevok. Also no quote from Nietzshe
I didn't like new intro... I was so disappointed and I immediately had a strange feeling that the game will not be what I was expected - the ultimate BG1 experience.... and sadly it isn't....
But here is discussion about intro. I know there is no "right" or "wrong" here as it comes to ones preferences.
Mine is that I liked the old one much more. It was kinda more mysterious and more serious.
The new one is really of bad taste. It looks like a cheap intro to an horror movie or something, which BG is definitively not. It doesn't feel like your going to play an awesome classic high fantasy RPG. The pacing is bad, everything is just to fast to give you a proper feeling, idea of what all this thing is about. You don't feel any empathy either for the guard, no drama, nothing. it really looks like they ''modernized'' it in the wrong way (the Mass Effect way) and hope that you go ZOMG INTENSE MUSIC REALLY FAST ACTION COOL GAME FTW
While it is not really bad, it looked also a bit cheap. Some more animation would have been better. But i have nothing against that bit of comic style look.
Style is interesting and not bad, but the creation value lacks for sure.
And they didn't go with that style for creativity or artistic preference. There isn't any kind of inspiration at work here, they went with that style because motion comic is cheap and super fast to produce.
That's how they handle our classic. Cheap changes for maximum monetization.
Like I said on an other topic like this, BG1 intro is most impressive. We can really feel how that big bad guy in his big black armor is evil. With that storm and moon, that was really a nice intro
And they didn't go with that style for creativity or artistic preference. There isn't any kind of inspiration at work here, they went with that style because motion comic is cheap and super fast to produce.
That's how they handle our classic. Cheap changes for maximum monetization.
Partly true. They only would have needed to make the new intro more animated with more advanced animation - Even a comic style can look good if the movements are not cheap
Comments
I understand why the introductory movie had to change - the CGI has aged terribly and the video quality isn't great, either. The problem is that the new intro is simply too brief and lacks any real impact.
Did you really dislike the original Baldur's Gate cinematics when you first saw them?
I did, I had completely forgotten as now I consider them some kind of holy relic. But some post on here reminded me that a few years ago I thought they were pretty pants.
That being the case, I'm sure the new videos will grow on me, at least.
I actually like this new style very much... it is pretty similar to BG2 style cutscenes and looks good... BUT... My gripe is not with art style and animation... It's with direction they took... the whole scene goes by so fast you feel like you have watched only a trailer of an intro... Pacing is bad...
So far I've seen only intro, Friendly arms inn and resting outside cutscenes... Friendly arm is a very boring one... I don't have much to say about it... Resting outside however is absolutely awesome... I just hope they haven't cut anything from the ending movie... that would make me sad...
"Is it safe for Noober to come out now?
How about now?
How about now?
Can Noober come out now?
How about now?"
In the first few seconds I actually really liked the new one, but the cut dialog is a no go and towards the end it just does not fit BG as it gets too cartoony. It reminded me of Mark of the Ninja, which is a game that clearly gets points for style, but that style does not suit BG. Still... the cut dialogue is the worse problem.
I HATE the fact that the sound is sped up (no break in dialogue, the pacing of sarevok speaking sucks) and the omission of content: kobold sneaking, reference to other bhaalspawn, no shaking carpet at beregost, and no line from Nietzsche!
Overall I like the new intro, and all the new cinematics. They were very faithful to the original, which is nice. I don't see why anyone wouldn't like them.
@noperson: you can skip any cinematic simply by clicking the left mouse button. ^_^
But here is discussion about intro. I know there is no "right" or "wrong" here as it comes to ones preferences.
Mine is that I liked the old one much more. It was kinda more mysterious and more serious.
The pacing is bad, everything is just to fast to give you a proper feeling, idea of what all this thing is about. You don't feel any empathy either for the guard, no drama, nothing.
it really looks like they ''modernized'' it in the wrong way (the Mass Effect way) and hope that you go ZOMG INTENSE MUSIC REALLY FAST ACTION COOL GAME FTW
Style is interesting and not bad, but the creation value lacks for sure.
That's how they handle our classic. Cheap changes for maximum monetization.