Top Five Psychonauts Cutscenes July 27, 2011

It sure has been a while since the last Top Cutscenes video was posted, so consider that officially rectified.  Maniac takes a look at the funniest five scenes of 2005’s Psychonauts.

This time, I decided to bring something new to the series.  This time, instead of just listing off a top list and why, I included a little history on the game’s development and release is included, as well as some updated information about the status of the game.

Top Five Privateer 2 Cutscenes November 13, 2010

It’s time for another gamexcess.net Top Five video series.  I’ve given this one a lot of thought, and you probably would’ve known it was coming if you check out our twitter feed, but this week’s top five is for the little known game Privateer 2: The Darkening.  A classic DOS and Windows open universe deep space dogfight simulator.  It was a serious precursor to games like Starlancer and Freelancer.

The game was a gift from a man who worked for my father as he was unable to run the game on his PC.  This was back in the time when a Pentium 133 could run pretty much anything, and my system chewed through it without incident.  I do remember Spoony saying during his review the game was VERY glitchy on his system, but my DOS version was tremendously stable.  I do believe my version came from a second release of the DOS edition (a later release was for Windows) which included a patch that fixed the problem.  The patch was released on the official Origin website, but that’s been offline for years and who knows if you’d be able to install it properly with DOS Box.  I think Spoony was likely using a version of the game from the initial (unpatched) release and was unaware the stability problems were fixed.

It was also my first exposure to Clive Owen, as this was one of his first high profile American roles.  He would later get a tremendous following during the BMW Films series (if you can find those anymore, enjoy) and later when he played the lead antagonist in The Bourne Identity.  But more than just Owen, the game had Brian Blessed, John Hurt, David Warner and Christopher fucking Walken, the later two responsible for delivering what is probably the greatest acted piece in the history of the world.

So join me as I take a look at the top five scenes in Privateer 2: The Darkening!  Enjoy.

Top Five Halo Reach Cutscenes October 1, 2010

I know it’s been a while since we’ve done a top five on the site, but there was a really good reason why there wasn’t one, and that was because I was waiting for the cutscenes for this game to be released.

Halo Reach again shows Bungie is one of the best at making in-game cutscenes and this is a celebration of what I believe is their top five.  Spoiler warning for those of you that haven’t played the game yet,  enjoy!

Top Five Jedi Knight Cutscenes September 9, 2010

Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II probably has some of the best cutscenes seen to date in a video game, and it is probably where all my love for cutscenes has come from.

Here’s a list of the top five cutscenes in the game.

Man I miss live-action FMVs.

Top Five Alan Wake Cutscenes August 29, 2010

I had so much fun making the Top Ten Halo Cutscenes I decided to do another one, a top five with the game that I’ve been playing almost all summer, Alan Wake.

The game’s sense of story, pacing, tension, drama and humor are perfect, and it was difficult to even pick five of the best, let alone ranking them. But here’s my list of the best cutscenes in Alan Wake.

Scenes were graded based on story, quotable dialog, music, and setting, and given a score based upon each.  I have to say, it was very difficult but totally worth it.

If you haven’t played this game yet, shame on you!

Top Ten Halo Cutscenes Supplement August 15, 2010

After reading all the comments from my recent Top Ten Halo Cutscenes video, it surprised me everyone wanted me to include Halo Wars and Halo 3 ODST.

The truth was, because the games were so new (both were released in 2009), they just couldn’t score high enough in the nostalgia sector to beat the contenders for the top ten.  But there was enough of a demand from fans that I decided at least five more should be posted.

The rules were still the same.  They were graded on story, music, quotable dialog, setting and nostalgia, but with a few twists.  Halo 3 ODST and Halo Wars cutscenes could make the list now, however, no cutscene that had previously been on the list could.

So for the people who watched and enjoyed my previous top ten, enjoy, this is for all of you!

Top Ten Halo Cutscenes August 12, 2010

After seeing the recent Halo Reach trailer I was reminded that Bungie made some of the best cutscenes to date in video games. While short, they got a lot of story across and featured some great dialog and music.

So then I started jotting down some ideas as to what were my favorite cutscenes in the Halo games.  Then I decided the best thing to do would be to pick out my favorite ten.  Because there were going to be ten, I had to set some ground rules with how to rate them.  I decided that they should stick to in-engine rendered videos, which meant Halo Wars was excluded, and I also thought that they should stick to the Master Chief’s story, so Halo 3 ODST was removed.  With those restrictions in place, then the list started to take shape.

I seriously have a whole legal pad marked up with names, names crossed off, plus and minuses given to certain videos.  They have been organized based upon story presentation, music, setting, quotable dialog, and finally nostalgic factor.  I say nostalgic factor was the most important thing because my feelings towards these cutscenes are the reason why I’m even doing the top ten in the first place.

They were all initially watched in sequence (Halos 1-3) with no spoilers when I first watched them.  Seriously though, these videos are full to the brim with spoilers, don’t watch them if you don’t want to know what happens.

Like the t-shirt?