Fable 2 does away with HUD and cut scenes

by Dustin Burg { Jul 11th 2008 at 11:30AM }

Going HUD'less and doing away with pre-rendered cut scenes are oh so fashionable in the industry these days, so it should come as no surprise that Fable 2 will both both HUD'less and pre-rendered cut scene'less. OXM confirmed these deats after getting a chance to play a content-complete version of Fable 2 where they confirm that "non-interactive cinematics take up less than five minutes of game time" as well mention that no HUD will be used to "streamline the experience as much as possible." Really, who needs HUDs or cut scenes anyway? Eh?

[Via NeoGAF]

Tags: fable-2, fable-ii, lionhead, lionhead-studios

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

LZBravo @ Jul 11th 2008 11:39AM

Fine by me!
All pre-rendered cut scenes do are show off the inadequacies of your game engine anyway.

SugarDaddy @ Jul 11th 2008 1:55PM

Have you ever seen what Blizzard can do with their pre-rendered scenes? Pretty amazing if you ask me.

Dadidito @ Jul 11th 2008 11:41AM

Im all for it. Love clean interfaces.

joey @ Jul 11th 2008 11:43AM

To answer the question.

Kojima!

Lucy @ Jul 11th 2008 12:05PM

i guess this for the a.d.d. generation of gamers.

BKB @ Jul 11th 2008 12:15PM

Are "pre-rendered cutscenes" the same thing as "cutscenes"?

I always thought cutscenes were pretty sweet (a la mass effect, GTAIV etc e).

Michael Paul @ Jul 11th 2008 12:40PM

They are NOT the same thing. If there are cut scenes but just not pre-rendered ones, I wonder if it's all some kind of "We don't need no stinking Blu-Ray" propaganda. Lame-looking ones will defeat that idea, though...

SugarDaddy @ Jul 11th 2008 1:58PM

Pre-rendered cutscenes have higher quality and more detail. They use different techniques to render the image (like ray tracing) that could not be done in real time. Cutscenes in GTA use the game's graphics engine and script the action.

For an example of a great pre-rendered scene, check out the Diablo 3 trailer.

El Capitaine @ Jul 11th 2008 3:18PM

For me...whenever this question comes up, it makes me think of Final Fantasy X, as well as a whole slew of other games. But that one the most.

Because...FFX has many cinematics, some of which are pre-rendered, and some of which are not. The real-time ones make the characters look like the do while playing, but the pre-rendered ones....more shadowing and texture detail on the character.

If you can, play the game. Its pretty entertaining when the game switches camera angles during a cutscene and suddenly the characters look completely different as it went into a pre-rendered cutscene.

brakebairee @ Jul 12th 2008 5:12AM

("Really, who needs HUDs or cut scenes anyway?")

So is the editor inferring that cutscenes are pointless, or did he just mean the prerendered ones? Big difference.

Greg B. @ Jul 11th 2008 12:17PM

So they'll still have interactive cut scenes? I hope so because I don't see how else they'd tell the story.

Neuromancer @ Jul 11th 2008 12:22PM

Hud, that was a good movie. I'm all for less HUD cluttering up the works. I do like prerendered cutscenes though, or at least prerendered game openings and endings. In-game graphics just don't look as good generally.

r-deezy @ Jul 11th 2008 12:24PM

"Less than 5 minutes of non-interactive cinematics" = 49 second intro cut scene + 3:22 second end game cut scene

007craft @ Jul 11th 2008 12:43PM

not sure about the hud. Perhaps they coulkd of removed most of it, but a simple map cpmpas and power bar could of been left in.

As for the cut-scenes, good. I hate retarded games that your playing and all of a sudden switch to amazing pre-renedered impossible graphics. This goes all the way back to RE2. I remember playing Resident evil 2 with those playstation graphics and then all of a sudden there would be some computer animated scene with the story being played out using graphics that wont be possible in gaming until 2020. Makes no sense at all. Final fantasy games are the worst culprit.

todd @ Jul 11th 2008 12:45PM

Agreed i never watch cut scenes, unless there are achievements of course ha

petersjov @ Jul 11th 2008 1:06PM

Hi,
I hang around the lionhead forums, there is cut scenes, but like somebody said 5 min of non interactive in the whole game, there are more, but in those you will have the ability to fart, laugh and do emotions

Ian Murray @ Jul 11th 2008 1:18PM

...I guess I'm the minority, but I actually like my games t have HUDs.

I actually care to see my stats at-a-glance without having to pause or go to some other screen.

Wasn't that why we had HUDs in the first place?

Seems like a step backwards to me.

Ian Murray @ Jul 11th 2008 1:18PM

ThePerfectCompanion @ Jul 11th 2008 1:23PM

What no cutscenes!?

Umm sorry but I'm sorta disappointed by that....like seriously considering not buying the game. I love cutscenes cuz they explain the storyline. As long as they're not overused or anything I want them.

MrMuggs @ Jul 11th 2008 1:24PM

I can't believe how so many companies spend years worth of personnel time to create stupid CGI intros and cut scenes. I wish they would take that time and effort and put it into the gameplay itself. I skip cut scenes 99% of the time.

Mike-453 @ Jul 11th 2008 2:41PM

Cutscenes are there because people appreciate it as an entertainment form, the same reason movies exist. My favorite form of entertainment is a game with cutscenes aplenty, a perfect combination of film and play.

There are still many that just want a game for play though, such as yourself.

SugarDaddy @ Jul 11th 2008 2:01PM

Peter Molyneaux (sp?) talked about this in one of the dev diaries. All of the scripted cutscenes in the game are skippable and blend seamlessly. I think he mentioned something about being able to interact some way. I'd have to go back and look...

I'm definitely partial to this type of gaming rather than the 5 hours of cinematics in MGS4.

Vcize @ Jul 11th 2008 2:14PM

Meh, I like cutscenes. Hell, most of the time I play an RPG I feel like I'm playing the core of the game to get to my eventual reward: the next cool ass cutscene.