Back in the 90's there was quite a lot of FMV games. Some people saw it as a "gimmick," and eventually it went out of style.

It left behind games like the classic Night Trap, Phantsmagoria, Gabriel Knight 2, Tex Murphy, Wing Commander 3, Lands of Lore 2, and many more.

Some FMV games, were terrible, but some, like the ones I mentioned, had a certain charm to them.

It's long been a guilty pleasure mine to play random older FMV games. They just have this style about them that you just don't get in any other games.

Some of them could have good acting actually, while others had less then stellar acting, but that added to the charm of the game as well (IE Night Trap).

In this day and age where it's all about the cutting-edge 3d games and how "seamless" everything is, it seems like there's just no one out there, at least that makes games, that had a soft spot for them, or thinks there's any room anymore for such games.

I'd LOVE to see a new Tex Murphy game, and it simply wouldn't be the same without the FMV actors. Even if they could take those classic games I mentioned, and make them with the best 3d graphics,t hat make Metro 2033/BF3 look old, I wouldn't want it, because I like the FMV and it'd lose the charm it has.

I just wonder, I can't be the only one that actually enjoyed FMV games of the past, and wouldn't mind having new ones?

Oh, absolutely. There's something about having live actors in game, even if they aren't the greatest, that makes a game immersive for me. I've always thought it was a shame that the FMV genre fizzled out.

Yes, I do miss it, a lot. 7th Guest and 11th Hour almost ate my whole mid-late 90s

Has it really "fizzled out" though? You've got Yoomurjak's Ring, the Capri series, the Carol Reed series (well, not full video but almost). Okay, it's hardly an avalanche but I'm sure there are more.

You are not the only one. I always found cheesy FMV games to have a certain charm to them, even if the vast majority were relatively bad. The only mainstream games that I can think of that has used FMVs in recent years are the command & conquer games, and the (intentionally?) cheesy FMV sequences really lifted those games. 

Another FMV fan here.  Although I did enjoy some stills like the Elk Moon Mystery, I prefer movies, like Tex Murphy and GK2.  Somehow the Capri series never "took" on me...

I'm also a big fan, i would love to see more games like Blade Runner with multiple storylines.

I liked Frankenstein ["It's Alive"] Through the Eyes of the Monster, Mummy and Byzantine. Never got far in GK2 but plan to one day. I tend to shy away from AG's that emphisize cut scenes, figures [FMV or 3D] or games with lots of NPC that talk to you - so I have less experience with many FMV type games - many AG's period. That's not the fault of FMV, just a preference for less people-interactive gaming.

I'm also a big fan of FMV games. Fortunately, there are at least 3 new FMV games released recently. And they are good! "Conspiracies" and "Conspiracies II" are from ANIMA, a Greek independent producer. I definitly recomend those 2. And the support is terrific, with the CEO himself answering your questions. Just amazing. And "Conspiracies II" is made in HDV (full HD 1080). Another one is "DarkStar - An Interactive Movie". It's very good also but the lack of subtitles make it a bit hard since the volume of the voice acting is very low in game and you miss a lot or have to replay some parts. But I recommend the 3 of them. You won't be disappointed.

Thanks for the heads up UB!

Has anyone played stonekeep? It seem to have gotten very mixed reviews, but it looks interesting. 

The story is farily decent but i just found the graphics and the pot bellied ugly actors a bit too much. Never got very far....looked at it bevcause Interplay made it but i am for one glad that the days of these games are now replaced by much more pleacing in game video.

The intro led me to believe that this was something I should take a look at but I was shortly reminded that this was from the 1995 era. From what I can tell from GOG it seems to be a classic and I'm sure at its time it was entertaining and challenging but all I see for the game environment are various mazes with little differentiation other than color themes with very little in the way of FMV. :/

I feel - especially given the sub-forum in which this was posted - that I should point out that, if we are referring to the same Stonekeep and I recall correctly, Stonekeep is an old-fashioned, node-based pseudo-3D dungeon-centric RPG, not an adventure game.  Oh, there are characters to interact with, puzzles to solve and items to collect, but I do seem to recall combat being a significant portion of the core gameplay.

That said, I also seem to recall rather enjoying it. ^_^

(At the least I think that it had a rather neat - if simple - magic system involving attaching runes to casting rods.)

It's been awhile since I thought about Stonekeep.  I played it years ago when it first came out.  I don't think it would have aged very well.  I do remember enjoying it, but the game was pretty novel at the time.  Graphics were good for the time.  However, the node based movement is archaic at this point, and the later levels became fairly complex mazes if I recall.  Some tough puzzles at the end.

I don't have a huge issue with node based movement, and actually preferr it to the somewhat awkward controlls of early first person games without it (like wolfenstein 3d & doom). I just checked out a "let's play" and I can see what you mean bout the game not having aged incredibly well. It looks like one of those games that can be fun for a few hours, but will get tedious after a while. 

On a side-note, I believe that there's a new indie RPG coming out that uses that same system of grid-based node-movement and 90-degree, albeit with modern graphics and some unusual gameplay mechanisms.

I've been following that for a while. It looks really promising!

Stonekeep mazes and puzzles were totally boring, the same thing with a few variations over and over and then a few FMV characters to lighten the load, it was a flop imho and i am glad those day sare dead and gone forever.

I haven't seen that Grimrock game before, thanks for that. Though it looks more like Eye of the Beholder to me than Stonekeep, which I played but never really got into.

Originally Posted By CrisGer

Stonekeep mazes and puzzles were totally boring, the same thing with a few variations over and over and then a few FMV characters to lighten the load, it was a flop imho and i am glad those day sare dead and gone forever.

I honestly don't remember much about the puzzles, which may not speak well of them (well, either of them or of my memory

That said, it has been some time since I played it, so I may be mis-remembering.

Byzantine was a terrific game!  Rgiht now, I'm playing Mission Critical, which features Michael Dorn from ST:TNG.  Pretty good (and hard) so far.  I also highly recommend Rama, The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time, Chaos: A Fantasy Adventure and Dark Side of the Moon.  For casting and acting (other than a truly horrid performance from Terri Garr), it's hard to top Black Dahlia, though the game is so buggy and the final puzzle so impossible that the overall game doesn't quite live up to its potential.