After rewatching the Episode 2 ending...

[mamastoast]

To me it was so perfect, never saw it coming and I'm not ashamed ot admit i did tear up a bit and just sad there, stunned.

This is also why I feel valve's approach to this has been absolutely terrible. One thing is to wait ages after a wrapped up story, or atleast a "safe point". But to leave us off with one of the biggest cliffhangers I can remember in gaming, and then give us no information whatsoever for over 4 years is just a disgrace

[Leushenko]

Originally Posted by KingNoob

The ending to Episode 2 did not give me any feelings of sadness, it felt a bit too forced.

I'll be honest, my prejudice against cutscenes was all I could - and still all I can - think about while watching that. The series was better without them.

[Zekiran]

You really consider that to be a 'cut scene'? It felt far, far more interactive than ANY other game's scripted events - all of the HL2 scripteds seem to run more smoothly integrated into the game-play and less like you're unable to make any differences.

"A slave chooses" in Bioshock is the perfect example of how NOT to use a 'cut scene' in a game, imo. Since the camera AND action were all overridden by the game, it sucked all the importance and drama out of it for me.

Alyx and Gordon and Eli being held up by the Advisor on the other hand, felt entirely natural - Gordon could do nothing the first time we encountered them, but could still focus on what he chose to see. Yes, we could never actually interrupt this scene no matter what, but it never gave me the feeling that I was 'watching a movie' instead of 'interacting with a game'.

[Leushenko]

Originally Posted by Zekiran

You really consider that to be a 'cut scene'?

By my personal definition, there are five cut scenes in Ep2, (of which the first - the Ep1 recap - doesn't count as part of the game proper, so call it four). If you can't move Gordon and you can't change the camera angle, then the scene is non-interactive and I consider that to meet the definition. Extremely sluggish movement (as happens when pinned by the Advisors) counts as "can't move" in my book since it serves the same purpose.

(The other ones are the other Advisor scene, Alyx getting stabbed, and obviously the G-Man scene, which may as well be pre-rendered as far as I can tell.)

A well-directed cut-scene is still a cut-scene (and hey, I did say it was a prejudice, not a fair criticism).