Greatest intro movies ever?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2006-09-02 08:07am

Shit, when I said Fallout 1 & 2, I meant the opening credit sequences, with "Maybe" and "A Kiss to Build a Dream on" playing...

Lord Woodlouse · Post by **Lord Woodlouse** » 2006-09-02 08:38am

Syndicate Wars. Looks a bit dated now, but I remember loving the thing at the time.

Rise of Nations is also quite good, gives a very strong "indomitable humans" vibe.

Freelancer also has a very good vibe to it, especially when the narrator is listing the names of the sleeper ships. Really makes you proud of them, somehow.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2006-09-02 09:16am

Freespace. Awesome intro. The poor pilot in his crippled ship, the only survivor of Earths first battle with the Shivens trying desperatly to make the people on the station understand the threat....and ending with the Lucifer exiting subspace directly behind him...

Freespace II. Got me right back in the FS groove, then showed 'then and now' wonderfuly well.

Descent 2. Awesome musical score, great pickup of the first game only hours later, it really felt like a continuation then a sequal and rightly so.

Dawn Of War. Damn cool intro, really got the nitty gritty feel of 40K down and set the stage for the rest of the story.

C&C 1, C&C Red Alert, C&C Red Alert II. Westwood know how to do intro sequences is all I need to say. But C&C 1 was perfect because it was the start of the whole thing and it REALLY worked to set the idea of 'our world...but not our world'.

Homeworld I. Both the original cutscene and the ingame launch of the Mothership to the haunting music of adagio for strings...it just DEFINED Homeworld.

Mechwarriors 2(31st, GBL, Mercs), 3, & 4. Nuf said.

TIE Fighter. The Empire WILL strike back!

Freelancer. Sucks ass that the Alliance lost in the end after you did so much for then in Starlancer. But the most kickass music as the 5 slepper ships with their fighter escort rise up from the surface of (I think it was Ganymede?), bull their way past the coalition warships and jump away....awesome. Too bad the bad guys were the nomads and not the coalition finally comming back to try and finish the job...

Half Life. So much stuff going on, so atmospheric, so setting of the whole experience. No in game cutscene using the game engine has ever reached that level for me. Nuf said.

Total Anihilation.

"What began as a conflict over the transfer of consciousness from flesh to machines escalated into a war which has decimated a million worlds. The Core and the Arm have all but exhausted the resources of a galaxy in their struggle for domination. Both sides now crippled beyond repair, the remnants of their armies continue to battle on ravaged planets, their hatred fueled by over four thousand years of total war.

This is a fight to the death. For each side, the only acceptable outcome is the complete elimination of the other..."

Nuf said. But it would have been SO much cooler (albeit cheasy) for them to say 'The only acceptable outcome is the Total Anihilation of the other...'

Halo 1.

Great music, great atmosphere. And Sergeant Johnson always rocks

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-09-02 09:33am

Freelancer. Sucks ass that the Alliance lost in the end after you did so much for then in Starlancer. But the most kickass music as the 5 slepper ships with their fighter escort rise up from the surface of (I think it was Ganymede?), bull their way past the coalition warships and jump away....awesome. Too bad the bad guys were the nomads and not the coalition finally comming back to try and finish the job...

How can it suck ass? Every mission in Starlancer I was wishing that the Coalition would win, even as I constantly blew those magnificent Comrades off the face of the system. That's the best thing about Starlancer.

Oh well, unless they make a sequel to Freelancer, I doubt the Coalition will return.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-02 09:59am

Halflife wins the award for Intro Involving Irrelevant or Cool Stuff You Can't Actually Do Shown Using the Ingame Engine. It's actually kinda funny they never even TRIED to tie in all those areas you see into the game: that might have required some actual thought about the layout of the facility, which was clearly beyond Valve.

And Chris baby, Lucy enters AHEAD of him. The last you see ol' Gamma 39, he's flying directly toward her.

It's ironic to me that people group the FS1 intro (which is well shot, well scored and full of tension) with 'lolz teh swordfight was kool' intros like DoW. Remember folks, he really needed to raise that banner. In the Far Future, There Will Be Only Morons.

And dinosaurs.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-09-02 10:11am

Hmn, I've taken a small liking to the Ground control intro, it fits starks critieria 'only shows real gameplay', has plenty of action and gets you into the story.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2006-09-02 10:12am

Vympel wrote:
Freelancer. Sucks ass that the Alliance lost in the end after you did so much for then in Starlancer. But the most kickass music as the 5 slepper ships with their fighter escort rise up from the surface of (I think it was Ganymede?), bull their way past the coalition warships and jump away....awesome. Too bad the bad guys were the nomads and not the coalition finally comming back to try and finish the job...
How can it suck ass? Every mission in Starlancer I was wishing that the Coalition would win, even as I constantly blew those magnificent Comrades off the face of the system. That's the best thing about Starlancer.

Because its you. If the Coalition ate babies for breakfast but did so with a cool Russian accent you'd still be cheering them on :p

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2006-09-02 10:18am

Hey, don't diss that intro, because in the game, you DO send soldiers to their swordy deaths for the sole purpose of erecting flags - so it isn't irrelevant cool stuff that you can't actually do ingame

Gee, what's your problem? The DoW intro was cool, lol!

Though, incidentally, why DID the Marines have to put that flag on that hill?

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2006-09-02 10:18am

Stark wrote:Halflife wins the award for Intro Involving Irrelevant or Cool Stuff You Can't Actually Do Shown Using the Ingame Engine. It's actually kinda funny they never even TRIED to tie in all those areas you see into the game: that might have required some actual thought about the layout of the facility, which was clearly beyond Valve.

Give them SOME credit, Black Mesa was f*#(ing huge in scope, trying to completly redesign it to fit in with the intro sequence and have all the sections join properly would have been one hell of a headache and added God knows how long in the development process.

Would have been cool though.

And Chris baby, Lucy enters AHEAD of him. The last you see ol' Gamma 39, he's flying directly toward her.

Uh from what I remember the sequence was:

1. He keeps heading for the station screaming for help.
2. He enters visual range.
3. The Lucifer exists subspace behind him with support craft as he screams that it's too late.
4. Smashy smashy.

It's ironic to me that people group the FS1 intro (which is well shot, well scored and full of tension) with 'lolz teh swordfight was kool' intros like DoW. Remember folks, he really needed to raise that banner. In the Far Future, There Will Be Only Morons.

Oh give it a rest already. The flag may have been somewhat stupid, but the intro DID what it needed to do. It emphises the war in the wrecked city against the Orks which is violent, bloody and brutal, ending with the Space Marines (identified as the Blood Ravens for the first time) arriving on Tartarus in a full scale planatery invasion.

Was it cheasy? Hell yes. 40K is ALL ABOUT CHEASY!
Was it good? Clearly in the opinions of a lot of people in this thread, also hell yes.

As always you are entitled to your opinion Stark...but you MIGHT want to consider that others have that right as well, once in a while

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2006-09-02 10:38am

Besides, a part of 40k is moronity - just look at the Orks! And that's what makes 40k awesome!

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2006-09-02 10:54am

Stark wrote:Halflife wins the award for Intro Involving Irrelevant or Cool Stuff You Can't Actually Do Shown Using the Ingame Engine. It's actually kinda funny they never even TRIED to tie in all those areas you see into the game: that might have required some actual thought about the layout of the facility, which was clearly beyond Valve..

Never played Blue Shift? Those areas were tied in, you end up traveling down that railway as a matter of fact trying to escape.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2006-09-02 11:01am

Chris OFarrell wrote:Was it cheasy? Hell yes. 40K is ALL ABOUT CHEASY!

Maybe if you're still stuck in Rogue Trader or Second Edition.

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2006-09-02 11:23am

The GTA2 intro kicks the asses of all. The only less good thing about it is that it looks more like an intro for GTAIII. It would have been even more awesome if they would have made it in the same pseudo-cyberpunk style the game has. And those 50's style cars. Oh yeah

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2006-09-02 02:42pm

I nominate the intro to Oblivion. It managed, in no small part thanks to Patrick Stewart's delivery, to evoke a true feeling of grandeur and fading glory, and above all else did the thing it's supposed to do: it made me want to see what happened next.

Otherwise, Thief and Fallout ftw.

Karza · Post by **Karza** » 2006-09-02 02:46pm

How could I forget Red Alert 1? It looks somewhat dated now, but back in the day it was absolutely awesome. Hell, the music still is.

Rekkon wrote:
Karza wrote:Also, X-Com: Ufo Defense. The intro had it all: Shit that didn't exist (the X-Com transport craft), people doing what they can't do in-game (soldiers in Personal Armour flying), and Mutons being defeated easily by said soldiers armed with just the usual rifles and an auto-cannon (if you pull that off in the game itself, I'll give you an Internet Dollar). And still I love it .
You could get flying suits for your soldiers. They were pretty far down the tech tree though.

I know that, but in the intro they're wearing Personal Armours, not Flying Suits.

Tasoth · Post by **Tasoth** » 2006-09-02 04:40pm

The DoW intro. As for stark crying out against it, they rushed when the Dreadnaught showed up and before they knew the Orks were hiding behind the hill against a bunch of orks that they had already been shooting the hell out of. Plus, rank and file space marines are programmed to simply kill, at range, up close, it doesn't matter, they just kill. They'res also the point that we don't have a length of time for how long that squad there and what their ammo reserves was. What we have here is the ability for me to talk out my ass about a fictitious situation that looked good in the cinematic but is moronic, but cool trumps smart in art so they went with it.

JLTucker · Post by **JLTucker** » 2006-09-02 05:39pm

I completely forgot about the intro video to the Resident Evil remake on the Gamecube. Great CGI. Here is the video on Youtube.

Decue · Post by **Decue** » 2006-09-02 07:02pm

Conflict: Freespace, easy, one of my favorite game, if not THE favorite game. You just got to love that intro, great music in intro and in the game as well.
I also like the fact that your wingmen in can finish the missions for you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qRJDv5UcRc enjoy

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2006-09-02 07:42pm

And here is the Freespace 2 intro.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... reespace+2

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-02 08:43pm

Chris OFarrell wrote:Give them SOME credit, Black Mesa was f*#(ing huge in scope, trying to completly redesign it to fit in with the intro sequence and have all the sections join properly would have been one hell of a headache and added God knows how long in the development process.

Would have been cool though.

I guess I'm the only person who ever sits back and thinks 'this fictional facility is laid out in an absurd or poor fashion'.

Doom3 was the worst for that: the only way into lab four is throughs labs 1-3 first, often climbing over things. Wow, map designers are such artists!

Conceptually Black Mesa was an interesting setting, and Valve reduced it to 'office corridor' and 'platform jumps' and 'meat factory'... you think that's good?

Uh from what I remember the sequence was:

1. He keeps heading for the station screaming for help.
2. He enters visual range.
3. The Lucifer exists subspace behind him with support craft as he screams that it's too late.
4. Smashy smashy.

On the far shot, you can see G 39 trailling the debris from his damage. He's clearly flying toward it, being pursued by the Manticores. Not that it matters.

It's ironic to me that people group the FS1 intro (which is well shot, well scored and full of tension) with 'lolz teh swordfight was kool' intros like DoW. Remember folks, he really needed to raise that banner. In the Far Future, There Will Be Only Morons.

Oh give it a rest already. The flag may have been somewhat stupid, but the intro DID what it needed to do. It emphises the war in the wrecked city against the Orks which is violent, bloody and brutal, ending with the Space Marines (identified as the Blood Ravens for the first time) arriving on Tartarus in a full scale planatery invasion.

Was it cheasy? Hell yes. 40K is ALL ABOUT CHEASY!
Was it good? Clearly in the opinions of a lot of people in this thread, also hell yes.

As always you are entitled to your opinion Stark...but you MIGHT want to consider that others have that right as well, once in a while

Right. So people comparing intros with cool fights to intros with dramatic resonsance that lay out stories and produce mood and introduce settings is only stupid in my opinion? Pffft. One is 'cool' one is 'good, effective, appropriate'. I didn't even say one was better - only that the Lord of Darkness intro is 'good' in a totally different way to less 'fighty' intros, like Halflife. And yes, I strongly IMPLIED one was better.

If you think your opinion becomes stronger by having RTS fans agree with it, then bully for you. Unfortunately, I don't agree. I *do* agree that the best part of the DoW intro was the final shot, where the personal sacrifice is linked to the distant landing... but everything else was bland and totally in opposition to HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME. How people get these disconnects, where they go from an exciting intro to *not doing any of those things* in the game, is beyond me. Would the intro be cool with guys chipping down hp for 30s?

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2006-09-02 10:55pm

Mr Bean wrote:
Stark wrote:Halflife wins the award for Intro Involving Irrelevant or Cool Stuff You Can't Actually Do Shown Using the Ingame Engine. It's actually kinda funny they never even TRIED to tie in all those areas you see into the game: that might have required some actual thought about the layout of the facility, which was clearly beyond Valve..
Never played Blue Shift? Those areas were tied in, you end up traveling down that railway as a matter of fact trying to escape.

Are you sure that wasn't in Opposing Force?

Or perhaps the two overlapped in certain areas.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2006-09-03 12:00am

DPDarkPrimus wrote:
Mr Bean wrote:
Stark wrote:Halflife wins the award for Intro Involving Irrelevant or Cool Stuff You Can't Actually Do Shown Using the Ingame Engine. It's actually kinda funny they never even TRIED to tie in all those areas you see into the game: that might have required some actual thought about the layout of the facility, which was clearly beyond Valve..
Never played Blue Shift? Those areas were tied in, you end up traveling down that railway as a matter of fact trying to escape.
Are you sure that wasn't in Opposing Force?

Or perhaps the two overlapped in certain areas.

Opposing Force had you vist a few familar areas and catch sight of Gordon, Blue shift had you IN the tunnel however watching Gordon go by on his little tram.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2006-09-03 03:25am

Stark wrote:
Chris OFarrell wrote:Give them SOME credit, Black Mesa was f*#(ing huge in scope, trying to completly redesign it to fit in with the intro sequence and have all the sections join properly would have been one hell of a headache and added God knows how long in the development process.

Would have been cool though.
I guess I'm the only person who ever sits back and thinks 'this fictional facility is laid out in an absurd or poor fashion'.

No, but you MIGHT be the only one who doesn't think "But thats understandable given the absurd scope of the entire facility they are trying to build here!"

Doom3 was the worst for that: the only way into lab four is throughs labs 1-3 first, often climbing over things. Wow, map designers are such artists! Conceptually Black Mesa was an interesting setting, and Valve reduced it to 'office corridor' and 'platform jumps' and 'meat factory'... you think that's good?

Eh? The level design has logic if you look at it, especaily given that Freemen was being forced to take constent detours because of battle damage, incident damage and so on.

Sure they could have taken twice as long to make the game and redesign the levels so the entire damn complex matches up and doens't cross over each other illegaly or anything....but does it really have any realistic effect on the gameplay?

Uh from what I remember the sequence was:

1. He keeps heading for the station screaming for help.
2. He enters visual range.
3. The Lucifer exists subspace behind him with support craft as he screams that it's too late.
4. Smashy smashy.

On the far shot, you can see G 39 trailling the debris from his damage. He's clearly flying toward it, being pursued by the Manticores. Not that it matters.

[/quote]

Just went and looked at it, I stand corrected...he got to see Satan in the face before dying

It's ironic to me that people group the FS1 intro (which is well shot, well scored and full of tension) with 'lolz teh swordfight was kool' intros like DoW. Remember folks, he really needed to raise that banner. In the Far Future, There Will Be Only Morons.

Oh give it a rest already. The flag may have been somewhat stupid, but the intro DID what it needed to do. It emphises the war in the wrecked city against the Orks which is violent, bloody and brutal, ending with the Space Marines (identified as the Blood Ravens for the first time) arriving on Tartarus in a full scale planatery invasion.

Was it cheasy? Hell yes. 40K is ALL ABOUT CHEASY!
Was it good? Clearly in the opinions of a lot of people in this thread, also hell yes.

As always you are entitled to your opinion Stark...but you MIGHT want to consider that others have that right as well, once in a while

Right. So people comparing intros with cool fights to intros with dramatic resonsance that lay out stories and produce mood and introduce settings is only stupid in my opinion?

[/quote]

No its in your opinion that the DOW intro doesn't have any ability to set mood, introduce settings or generaly lay out the whole situation.

The DOW intro did that just about perfectly for me. Showed the Marines fighting against hoards of Orks in the burned out and ruined wreckage of a massive city, showed how badass the Sergeants are in DOW, how badass the Dreadnuaghts are, the nature of the Orks as fanatic killing machines and showed the reinforcements arriving in force (identified as the Blood Ravens for the first time) from space...

WHich is why I say "In your opinion"

Pffft. One is 'cool' one is 'good, effective, appropriate'.

See above.

I think its safe to say we have a difference of opinion, lets just leave it at that.

Post by **Edi** » 2006-09-03 03:52am

This is somewhat off topic, but if you want a look at good level design that ties all fields of a game together, the original Unreal still beats everything else I've seen. There is no confusion there and everything comes in sequence, logically and supporting the storyline. From what I've seen, that kind of effort and attention to detail should be the gold standard for level design. They did it in 1997, so there sure as hell is no excuse not to follow the example almost ten years later.

Edi

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-03 05:10am

Yeah, and my example from Doom3 is ridiculous: there is absolutely no way into Delta Labs that doesn't involve clambering over huge machinery and going through other labs. Why? Level designers. That's it. Ideas like access, usability, livability etc just aren't factors - kewlness is. But I'm in the minority: it even irritates me that System Shock 2's levels don't actuall stack properly, and that the levels don't even ATTEMPT to match the external dimensions of the ship.

And Black Mesa had a MEAT PACKING FACTORY. Sorry, that's stupid.

And dammit, I just can't enjoy an intro that's so massively different to the actual game. I liked the DoW intro, but then yI played the game, and you just want to punch the people that made it: the intro makers knew what made a good game... but the actual devs just wanted a regular RTS with 40k on.