Elemental intro? [nop! :)]

That voice sounds very familiar.

That's because it's the woman who did the Gal Civ introduction. I believe they released that trailer a while ago. I remember seeing it before, that's for sure.

PLEASE don't use that for the intro.... wow that's terrible.... Where's Leonard Nemoy when you need him....

I can't remember where that came out.

It's not the intro. But what's so terrible about it in particular? 

The voiceover for one. Also the style as an intro isn't very good. Here are some trailers and intros with (some with decent voiceovers) for comparison:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zTSyg4JdUVc - Fable - No voiceover needed. Very epic, and reveals a lot through imagry. Not recommended as its very difficult to pull off right.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DDZ47fvEG9c - Warhamer: Mark of Chaos - Minimal voice-over. Something like this might actually work very well. Show the final battle before the Cataclysm. Have a short intro that sets the scene, than a brief voiceover at the end, saying "100 years have passed" etc. etc. etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGyw_0IG5s0 - Oblivion - Very personal, and epic. Very little lore actually revealed saving it for the game proper. Builds up excitement.

The Elemental trailer felt kinda dead to me. Between the horrendous voice-over, the lack of real emotion, and static imagery it just fails for me. You need to excite people - they are about to lead armies crusading across the land conquering their foes. Setting up trading empires, and conducting deep comprehensive diplomacy. Sending Heroes out in search of lost treasures, and gathering groups of adventurers out to raid lost tombs. You are the very symbol of your nation. If you should fall, your empire will crumble. These are very epic themes. The game needs to have an intro that really portrays that.

What's bad about the voice over?  This is what's called a teaser, and I think it was just fine.  Actually I liked it.  Saying something is "horrendous" isn't evidence that it is so. The idea was like these were paintings or illuminations gives it a sense of history as it is a retelling of history a bit.

speaking of voiceovers in game intros I'm pretty sure the guy that did the one in demigod was the easter island head on Legends of the hidden temple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_9RNuI7Owg

Isn't that the video that has been in the media section for a while now?

And ffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuu to those all dammed pidgeons making the forum to explode. Repeatedly. ¬.¬

For a trailer, yes, you're right.

But not for an intro. It doesn't have to show everything you have in the game.

And I love that teaser (but the voice), I love the way lines blend into the pictures (even if it isn't perfect, some pictures start moving before the lines are finished being drawn)

The only thing I didn't like is the voice : I can't say what is lacking, but I wasn't thrilled by what she said. The text is just too "generic" and the player don't feel involved. The best intro let the player imagine he was one of the characters on screen, or some things that would let him think he was part of what he is watching.

PS: But if you ask me, I would kill to get an intro like "once upon a time", with the hiergamenon closed, an old hand opens it, you hear some cracks and an old voice, that seems coming from another plane of existence, starts speaking about what were, what is, and what will be. Some sparkles around his hand or around the hiergamenon. And why not a "living" book ? I don't now about that lore-wise, but it would add some "magic" to something that just seems "learn fireball, throw it at your enemies, win".

Really? Wow, I haven't seen it so far, and it's the only one on youtube as well. Weird stuff.

*edit*

Ahhhhh, if it's that video, that explains it, because I was unable to open that video in IE, and somehow I've forgotten about it completely.

 Damn, double post..the forum is slow again.

The voice was not that good but i love the static imagery that starts as drawings (well, i love the art of elemental in fact) : it remembers me of the total annihilation kingdoms intro (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDAXVTovJNQ).

And i think my tastes are clearly different from stager ones : i found the fable intro terribly boring. For Warhammer : mark of chaos, i think it was better but very generic (too much action, no enough lore). Just to say that people don't always like the same things when it comes to games intro (see the answers to Great intros of all times : the links posted there featured very different videos)

Well...it tells you the relavent exposition but I can't says I was overly keen on it when I saw it a while back. The VO sounds a little am dram and the whole thing especially the 'OR THEIR DOOM' thing which was unintentionally (I think) hilarious. Also the way she says 'magic' sounded like a teacher telling schoolkids a story. A little derivative, maybe? It's old but I rather wish for something of a differant lilt.

It is just an intro, though. It sets the mood which can be important but there's always the ESC key. Unless it's an uber intro I'll only watch it once.

Not enough high quality animations!!!! /Hoortz

Sorry, that never gets old. Seriously, I liked it.

This is a good intro.

As for the Fable intro. Couldn't be more generic. No defining style. Could be any other console game.

The warhammer intro is an expensive gci intro and ofc it looks good, but it's nothing you'll see for Elemental.

Oblivion one? Eh, Patrick Stewart has a nice voice ofc, else it's pretty bland.

Anyway, I like the graphic stile of the Elemental teaser quite a lot, but I have to agree with one thing. The voice over is... pretty generic and trashy. I wonder though why I see this the first time? Usually I've read and watched everything about Elemental.

She doesn't have a terrible voice. You people are being picky.

I must say that although the intro feels "short" somehow, I really like the style. And there's nothing wrong with her voice.

As for the Total Annihilation intro, it's OK-ish, but the voice is so.. melodramatic. Reminds me of the terrible, terrible, TERRIBAD narrator in DoW:SS.

Edit: Man, I need to repeat how absolutely psyched I am over the artistic style of that intro. I do hope Stardock opts to keep it (the style).

Frog Boy already said its not the intro- the art style was great. I fell it needs to really tell the story of the cataclsym - it doesn't need to reveal everything, but the general story. A good way to capture that would be an in-engine fight or possibly a cutscene showing the final battle. In-Engine would be awesome. (It would also give you an excuse to make pre-war armor etc. to give to modders).

Its not so much that she has a bad voice, its just not the right voice for the part. It also sounds like shes reading a cue card - very emotionless. Remember you want the intro to be something EPIC. A first impression is a good impression etc. and your intro defines your very game world.

Her voice is totally fine.

If I were to blame her of something would be of not memorizing all the lines, gather all the people of her office around her and tell them the story the same way (well, similar) to how she would tell them about something more normal (than cataclysms in fantasy worlds).

To make the intro using only the game engine (no cloth map!!!!) would be the best of the best.

I'd prefer the lines be read in a much more natural way myself, the style of voicing in this video has this "i'm trying to sound epic," ring to it. Not everyone will know what I mean but it's there. That's no disrespect to the voice actress.

To me, Good narration has feeling that the person voicing it is genuine, and part of the world they are describing. Good narration should be suggestive, have a viewpoint, and sound much more natural.

Morgan Freeman in "The Shawkshank Redemption" does a good job of this. Forest Gump has good narration.

By contrast a lot of games have this bombastic style, and it goes like this:

"And THEN the MIGHTY forces OF DARKNESS rose from the deeeeep AND we FOUGHT them so VALIantly and WE would have been oveRCOME but for THE HOPE of a NEW age and RAISED our swoRDS to FIGHT ON."

And it drives me batty.

Like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU-n8UZM5Cc

Sounds like Patrick Stewart's less talented brother. Forgivable if not impressive for 1995, but it shows it's age now.

I think the best word for it is campy - It doesn't have any LIFE to it. The girl has a lovely voice its just totally wrong for the role.

Worst. Narrator. Ever.
It's so terribad that it becomes a parody of hilarity.

I just chose a random part of the game narration. Feel free to browse others. They go from terrible to terribad.

Those are class examples of TERRIBLE narration. They sound like wrestling announcers that have swallowed cats.

Sorry, but this intro looks very bland to me... It doesn't tell anything about the game to come, half the time I'm not really sure what I'm looking at (Ok, maybe that's just my eyes...) I really like the Elemental teaser movie... Nothing to fancy, it tells the history off the world, and what's to come... Nothing else is needed.

Who cares about the intro? You'll watch it 3-4 times, and then skip it every time you load up the game.

I'd much rather have something like the shown that actually uses the artwork of the game, than some cgi movie that looks good the first time you watch it