I was just curious of what your all time favorite videogame opener was? For me it will always be the opening to FFVIII with the sword fight and the chanting, whats yours?
I have to say TESIV: Oblivon. It’s just so dramatic, creepy, awesome… I could keep going.
Mortal Kombat!!!
Do I really need to say anything else?
Metal Gear solid series, i love them!
hmm, just about any FF opening scene for me. my current fav is the FFXII opening scene (it’s so freakin’ huge!!), but classically speaking, i’d have to go for FFVII. low poly or not, you just gotta love it. can’t remember VIII’s all too much, i just remember the images, and i don’t feel like restarting my game. oh, X is awesome, gotta love metal. not exactly the opening movie, but it’s close enough (what, like 5 min in?). oh, and FFII (in FF Origins) has a pretty cool opening (i still want them to remake II using the character designs from the opening movie). and if i really feel like going old-school, there’s FFVI, for the SNES. now that’s pretty cool, and without polygons too!
well, that’s it for me. sorry they’re all FF games, it’s all i know. i suck too much for FPS’s and gory action games.
Myst IV: Revelation. I love the music in the opening title.
Myst IV: Revelation. All the way. Frickin awesome, man.
Deus Ex. Most immersive intro ever.
I’m w/ MattH. FFX had some greaaat music in the beginning.
Yeah, that’s great music there. Unfortunately you can’t get it out with the extractor as far as I can tell. It’s a good opening, but when Yeesha says “how cool” it kind of spoils it for me. Well, just a little. It irks me. Sorry, I’m a die-hard.
Other great Myst openings:
Riven, after you arrive, you get your book stolen, and the thief is immediately darted and dragged away. You get such a deep view of the storyline in those few minutes, a strong picture of the unstable, confused society you’ve just landed in.
Myst III, who remembers that one? It’s not exactly the opening, because it happens a little ways into the game, but it’s truly memorable. The villain links in, sets fire to the study, and links out again, having stolen something very important. Hard to describe, but a very memorable beginning.
Whew, I’m glad I’m not the first person to mention Myst for once.
I like the Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos intro. I love the way it throws you into the world, then continues it with the infernal.
I also like the Warhammer: Mark of Chaos intro. Love that one.
The Mechwarrior 4: Mercinaries intro is cool, even though its done with the game graphics… Theres just something awesome about big robots shooting the crap out of eachother.
Quite a few FMVs are impressive, which is why I’m disappointed when games prefer to use in-game sequences. Tomb Raider wetsuit scene. The intor to Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The Star Wars games - I think Bounty Hunter had some amazing FMVs - photoreal I’d say. Gran Tourismo FMVs are nice. The Syphon Filter ones aren’t bad. I think it was Silent Hill or maybe Resident Evil that had the scene with the helicopter flying in the snow. And let’s not forget the Quake 3 FMV with Sarge dropping the cigar. I liked the Final Fantasy ones a lot but the games just suck IMO so I only saw maybe the intro.
I know all of Myst. 
Riven and Myst III were great. Riven was fantastic. And yeah, it’s unfortunate how sucky Yeesha’s actor was.
It wasn’t the actress, it was the lines. They all have truly terrible lines in that game.
More examples:
Atrus: “What…a…mess.” Who on earth says “what a mess” after an explosion?
Sirrus… can’t think of any specific lines, but he gets pretty melodramatic
Achenar: “he’s a nutcase” Nutcase? Where’d that come from?
Serenian: “This is SO not good.” No comment necessary.
Yeah. Eh. Her acting was reasonably bad, still, though.
Now that you mention it, it was kind crummy. Like a Phantom Menace of Myst. Great-looking, but on the other hand…
I think it’s pretty inevitable that a kid, given bad lines, will act badly. I thought she was pretty good (especially in some of the more emotional cutscenes) but she was under the influence of a really bad script.
My personal take on Myst IV:
Renders-> pretty good overall, maybe 90%
Effects-> totally awesome, 99% (except the DOF thing. I turned that off)
Music->Mostly very good, except for a few Serenia themes… 80%
Storyline-> Return of Sirrus and Achenar, a potentially good plot, but really badly handled. Serenia is a unique low point, and a blight on the entire series. 10%
Script-> All that I can say is that if I could meet the person who wrote it, I’d make him/her use a trapbook like the one in Riven.
Acting-> Mostly very bad. 2%. Someone on a Myst forum said that the actresses in Serenia came from “The Society for Actors Who are Usually Out of Work and You Can Tell Why.”
All in all, Myst IV was a game that could have been terrific, but it has some nasty blights that greatly detract from it. If it had a new script (one without the bad-episode-of-Star-Trek body-snatching plot), better actors, and no Serenia, it would be way improved.
(Serenia, IMHO, had no place in a Myst game. It is a magic/religion-based Age, whereas previous games were always based on reason, science, and mechanics. It would be fine in some games, but not Myst. However, it is home to the Submarine Puzzle, which is a very good puzzle, actually. But note that the submarine puzzle is indeed a mechanical puzzle, despite its location in Serenia. Other Serenia puzzles, such as Spirit Guides and the LSD color cloud puzzle, are horrible diversions from the Myst concept, and whoever thought they were a good idea deserves to be locked in a dark cell with nothing but a TV that plays “Star Trek V” constantly. Yes, I’m mad about this, I really liked Myst IV until I ended up in Serenia… gah… Serenia… ugh… it makes us angry, preshuss)
The topic?! Oh, there was a topic, wasn’t there? Carry on!
Pssst, don’t let Plantperson know I told you this but I believe he kind of fancies (fancied?) Yeesha. 
ya baby!
Heh… I have a weakness for cute little girls (the Yeesha in Revelation is about 9). The older Yeesha in Uru and Myst V is just sort of bizarre…