That's what she said?

Yes. I do get the idea. It's frustrating and puts you in a state of disbelief. It makes you question the storys and the characters authenticity. And this is just a single perspective of a much larger phenomenon.

AI is usually a huge problem for storytelling. Jedis that get stuck in geometry and that cannot fight, trained soldiers standing and waiting to be shot, characters that do not even raise an eyebrow at you destroying their entire surrounding or that doesn't twitch when you point a gun at them. All these things ruins the illusion the game is building.

Cutscenes is a way for the director to raise the illusion again. It's a way to once again immerse the player in the story. But when the scene has ended you have two contending perspectives. First there is the illusion of the cutscene, and then there is the reality of the gameplay. When these two collide, things can get even worse.

Or it could be that you were simply insulted by the characters.

This is a position I can appreciate. Cutscenes are a great way of slowing the tempo down and giving you a reward. Like a timeout and a pat on the back for doing a good job. Especially if they are funny or goodlooking.

That is another good point.  It's always funny when it the cutscenes the character you control can do way more awesome things then you ever actually get a chance to do in the game.

...errr, nevermind.

I say FFXII.

either or as long as they are done correctly.

Imagine if Yuri could only actually do the movements in real life that you can while controlling him in battle. He would have to be borderline retarded and physically handicapped, and he probably wouldn't survive more than 3 guard battles.

Imagine if characters in turn based RPG games really had to take turns like that and could only do very specific attacks.

Be thankful that the cutscenes are cooler and more realistic than the actual gameplay itself. :P

Taken as is -- the video, hands down. A gamer not having played Half-Life would walk up to that and say "hey, that symbol means I can get some stuff!"  Whereas a gamer having no background on FFXII would be introduced to that world.  (Of course, a gamer might prefer to get the stuff ;-P)

Now, I see what you're saying in later posts, but the thing is, I don't think that that image tells a story so much as it allows you to tell a story.  Unless you have all the context of that symbol, which is cheating considering your challenge.

Now, if you'd picked THIS image...

final fantasy of couse =).

even in those pre rendered cut scenes there is each pixel of detail put to it.
japanase know how to put a soul into games =D

even if square enix its  money greedy bastard, their artist are hell of perfectionish (LOVE).