Two new Tomb Raider games have been announced.

[SatrianiRules]

Influences are how games evolve. I don't think we would be anywhere if games wouldn't have taken bits and pieces from things that influenced them. There was also that point in time where even the Indiana Jones 3rd person games were influenced by Tomb Raider. So, I wouldn't be surprised if the remake of the first game ends up having a bit of Uncharted-style climbing mixed in with more old-school elements. I think one of the best thing the Survivor era introduced to the series was the climbing system with the climbing equipment.

Yes you always have to keep things 'fresh' to keep people engaged, and that means changing things up, at least from a mechanical perspective....example:

TR 2: introduced side jumps and therefore opened up new puzzle/environmental possibilities
TR 3: introduced Sprinting, same thing

perhaps no one has done this better than SquareSoft..with each iteration of Final Fantasy, they manage to add in enough tweaks and twists that are different from the previous game(s), but remain genuinely Final Fantasy, although FF 15 seemed to get away from this with its futuristic tone...same thing happened in between FF8 and FF9.

I think they realized they got too far in outer space with FF8 and so FF9 was more grounded with traditional FF elements.

I think the problem is the term: "Re-imagining"...that (in many ways) has given developers/producers/directors free license to use the IP name for projects that resemble the original IP in name only...

to me a genuine "Re-Imagining" would be God Of War...Kratos is a different person with different motivations but he remains Kratos...and the games were "re-imagined" but maintain the core GOW elements. well done by Cory Barlog

 

[Owain Taggart]

to me a genuine "Re-Imagining" would be God Of War...Kratos is a different person with different motivations but he remains Kratos...and the games were "re-imagined" but maintain the core GOW elements. well done by Cory Barlog

Good point about those! Yeah, I like the way God of War got rebooted. I was never really interested in the earlier games due to their style. Nothing against them, they just never appealed to me. The reboot however did something by making me feel invested due to the way the characters played out.

 

[SatrianiRules]

The Uncharted Series gets my award for the best damn cutscenes in the business.

I typically don't like cut scenes because they bog down the action (MGS: I'm Looking at YOU!!!)...but I found myself actually anticipating the cut scenes in Uncharted because they were so damn enjoyable, it was like watching a mini-movie in between gameplay... The acting was top notch, and they moved the story along

GOW similar vibe though some of the cut scenes did move a little slow...though some almost did have me tearing up...that's quality right there!

 

[Owain Taggart]

The thing I liked about the GOW cutscenes is that they were completely seemless from the gameplay. It's the way they were designed. Most cutscenes you can usually tell when they begin and end, but in GOW they felt designed to flow from one event to another as though you were at the heart of a movie. They were well designed.

 

[Candleicious Ghost]

An honest unboxing video. Why would you pay so much for this? Yikes!

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[flyerdog]

The thing I liked about the GOW cutscenes is that they were completely seemless from the gameplay. It's the way they were designed. Most cutscenes you can usually tell when they begin and end, but in GOW they felt designed to flow from one event to another as though you were at the heart of a movie. They were well designed.

I would agree, and credit where credit is due,
i think we first saw this in FF7 way back on the PS1. The scene where they are leaving Shinra/Midgar on motorcycle, seamlessly transitions from combat to a cut scene. That had never been seen before, there was always a load screen....and then later in FF8 they managed to incorporate character control during a 'background' video sequence...

ie the part where there is a moving train and as Squall you have to crawl from car to car on the top of the train...

 

[Owain Taggart]

I would agree, and credit where credit is due,
i think we first saw this in FF7 way back on the PS1. The scene where they are leaving Shinra/Midgar on motorcycle, seamlessly transitions from combat to a cut scene. That had never been seen before, there was always a load screen....and then later in FF8 they managed to incorporate character control during a 'background' video sequence...

ie the part where there is a moving train and as Squall you have to crawl from car to car on the top of the train...

Ahh, see I've never been into the Final Fantasy games, but I just remember how the GOW developers were all proud about how seemless and cinematic their custcenes were. I think cutscene quality has dramatically improved over the last several generations. Some of them are even interactive, and some of them allow you to change the camera. Some of them use the JRPG dialogue system where you have to advance the dialogue manually, and I consider those kind of flat.

 

[SatrianiRules]

Ahh, see I've never been into the Final Fantasy games, but I just remember how the GOW developers were all proud about how seemless and cinematic their custcenes were.

they were definitely more cinematic, as they weaved the gameplay and cut scene seamlessly. in FF there was no load screen no pause, it was immediate however the video quality was different because it was a cut scene..GOW was definitely more cinematic, to be sure, whereas FF was just continuous in comparison.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, maybe the distinction then is the fact that the gameplay now is the same quality as the custcenes. In the past, cutscenes were all pre-rendered and sometimes low-res, and some of the early pre-rendered stuff can feel rather crude by today's standards, which then give you a certain feel of disconnect depending on the kind of game you're playing. Now that both the gameplay and the cutscenes are real-time rendered, it's easier to go to match the intents of the cutscenes with the gameplay. But there are some cases where that still doesn't happen.

 

[SatrianiRules]

Santa Monica Studios has always been cutting edge that way, they have done things with GOW that are so innovative, not just the reboot but the originals as well...
there is a section of the first game where you have to find the entrance of a dungeon by following a sound, and it would change every time you entered a new area.. also the sound would get louder or softer based on where you were on the screen...and the location of the sound would change dynamically so you couldn't just memorize a pattern
Cory Barlog said that it took months of programming until they could make it work...but it was a brilliant way to create a puzzle.