By John Walker on January 7th, 2009 at 5:10 pm.
This is so very good. It’s also been around for a couple of years, but this is the first time we’ve encountered it. Someone working under the name VGMD, cut together all the cinematics and key scenes from Full Throttle to create an hour-long ‘movie’ version.
As we lament the standards of storytelling and voice acting in many games, this stands as an example to all. It should be required viewing when people start a new game. “Oh!” they’d say as it finished, “It can be that good?” You can download the video from Gamers Hell here.
VGMD did a really great job. He’s removed the user interface throughout, but used in-game sequences as well as the game’s wonderful cutscenes. There’s also some smart pacing, with very few moments of watching Ben traipse across the screen. The choice of what to include is also smart, with important conversation choices used. Of course this means the vast majority of the wonderful lines aren’t in here – you’ll have to play the game for that (if you can find a copy) – but all that’s crucial to tell the story is in place.
The game holds up so well. The dystopian future, the last of the motorcycle gangs, and most of all, the gruff performances. It’s splendid. If you just finished watching the fantastic Sons of Anarchy, this taps into many of the same themes, except with more flying cars and fewer corrupt cops. Oh, I love Full Throttle so very much. This is a fantastic way to remember its majesty.
Big thanks to Joe for the tip.
07/01/2009 at 17:22 sigma83 says:
Mirrors! Gamershell isn’t letting me
07/01/2009 at 17:24 Gap Gen says:
Nice. Reminds me, I never worked my way through the Anachronox Movie version (although I played the game, so I saw all the content anyway…)
07/01/2009 at 17:32 Shadrach says:
Great idea, great game. Except the quality is shit, yes its from an old game, but theres too much compression to be very enjoyable…
07/01/2009 at 17:36 Pags says:
Is it me or is it a little cold in here?
I kid. This is always something worth sharing, as it is a rather marvellous achievement of… uh… loveliness. Honestly, I would much rather play the game itself though. In fact, I think I might just do that.
07/01/2009 at 17:50 Fede says:
While waiting for my browser to load after pressing “more” I was thinking of Full Throttle’s position on the GOG wishlist and behold, a GOG adv appeared.
Scary.
07/01/2009 at 18:01 Panther says:
Ahh… all at once it makes me think of my youth, and the adventure games that made up much of my early gaming experience (thanks Lucasarts, Sierra et al!), and also my age as I think, why is this game not available to download for a small fee or perhaps no fee at all?
Or even better, perhaps the adventure game market can be brought back from the dead!!!
07/01/2009 at 18:01 The Poisoned Sponge says:
Yes, Sons of Anarchy was wonderfully wonderful.
07/01/2009 at 18:16 Psychopomp says:
I could get into neither Full Throttle, nor Sons of Anarchy…
*Puts on shun proof suit.
07/01/2009 at 18:25 Jerome says:
im sick of all these old games where are all the new ones gone
07/01/2009 at 18:39 Gap Gen says:
Jerome: A mischievous sprite hid every game made after 2003, and we’ve not been able to catch the blighter yet.
07/01/2009 at 18:50 Heliocentric says:
I found the game to be only moderately wonderful.
Still, less guesswork puzzles than most adventure games. If this game was the standard adventure games were made to in general adventure wouldn’t have died.
07/01/2009 at 19:27 jonfitt says:
GOG should really push hard to get the Lucasarts back catalogue.
Oooh and Sierra (who have shown a stunning lack of polish in their rereleases).
07/01/2009 at 19:59 cheeba says:
@Heliocentric: Less guesswork puzzles, yeah, but they still managed to slip in that totally evil one where you had to time a kick to a certain bit of a wall.
I had to resort to a walkthrough for that one as I thought I was doing it wrong, and even after knowing exactly what to do, it still took bloody ages. Ack.
The rest was wonderful though. If not the best adventure ever, certainly (for me at least) the most charming.
07/01/2009 at 21:18 VGMD says:
Hey,
A mate just sent a link of this article my way, and I have to say that I was heavily amused to see this article on this website.
Cheers for it, certainly made my day :)
VGMD
PS. My apologies about the compression. I am pretty much an amateur at video editing/compression back then(and still am now). Unfortunately, I lost all files last year due to a format, else I’d be happy to upload a new vid.
07/01/2009 at 22:12 Nick says:
Jerome: Try Gamespot or IGN.
07/01/2009 at 23:13 dartt says:
Ahh, just finished sons of anarchy tonight.
In case anyone wants to stream this, I just found the video on veoh.
07/01/2009 at 23:17 Valentin Galea says:
I’m playing it right now!
And already stuck at the first puzzles:)
08/01/2009 at 00:32 MeestaNob! says:
This and every other LucasArts adventure game desperately needs a hi-res update. Don’t change anything but make them widescreen and compatible with new machines.
Pleeeeease.
08/01/2009 at 00:36 Heliocentric says:
hi res, and wide-screen means new art.
As for “compatible with new machines” they are mostly scumm and thus just work.
Hell, they’d work on the eye-phone.
08/01/2009 at 00:46 malkav11 says:
I don’t know about this sort of thing. If a game can be properly distilled into a movie by sucking out all the cutscenes and major dialogue bits, then it probably should have been a movie to start with.
Which is me saying that this “movie” misses the point, not that Full Throttle wasn’t a good game, because I beat it and it was.
08/01/2009 at 01:08 Heliocentric says:
Hell… As i understand it Metal gear solid 4 was more movie than game, which is a shame as the mechanics were utterly beautiful at times(speaking from previous MGS’s haven’t played 4) But hell, the main man wanted to close Pandora’s box on the series.
What i mean to say is, games which should be movies isn’t an out of date thing. Heavy Rain looks like a lovely movie with its quick time event gameplay.
08/01/2009 at 02:33 Spd from Russia says:
great game with quite a good story
08/01/2009 at 03:28 jackflash says:
Oh man, Full Throttle was one of my favorites as a kid. Oh, to live in a time when games like X-Com and Magic Carpet came out and sold copies.
08/01/2009 at 05:34 KruddMan says:
bah they missed all the best lines.
better just to play it. the whole game doesn’t’ take much longer than this movie.
08/01/2009 at 06:32 Wedge says:
Very nice, I find this preferable to actually trying to play an adventure game most of the time… I wish there was something like this with other ones.
08/01/2009 at 16:26 C0nt1nu1ty says:
Full Throttle was always a big favorite of mine, shame the sequel never got going and that Roy Conrad (the voice of ben) died in 2002.
Seriously good game stories arent rocket science, just rope in some guys from TV (like from serenity or something) the games industry makes enough money to do that (specially as Halo 2 made more in reserved copies than most box office films do on there opening weekend)
08/01/2009 at 18:52 Simon says:
I wonder what would happen if, say, Robert Rodriguez got to see this.
01/06/2009 at 18:43 Jessica says:
this…is the best thing. evar. this totally made my day! mad props to Mister VGMD! now i gotta go find my copy of this game…wherever it’s buried in all my junk!