I am not denying that ingame cutscenes *could* be done well, I'm merely saying they usually aren't simply because most level designers are not the same guys who'd be doing the prerendered cinematics and simply because most (if not all) engines on the market today are not capable of providing a decent graphical quality in realtime rendered close-up cut-scenes.
In other words: I have yet to see an in-game cutscene that is as satisfactory as a good pre-rendered cinematic.
A problem I haven't mentioned before is that 3d models like 2d sprites only have a limited set of animations and these are usually optimized for a certain viewing distance. That means you are stuck with the same animations characters have throughout the game for these sequences, unless you add another animation, which would mean additional work for a single occurance.
I cannot backup my "claims" because I am mostly stating my personal opinion. I can only point out obvious examples, if that is what you want. Show me a game with decent cutscenes that don't look out of shape and prove me wrong.
You could do better in-game cut-scenes if you put people who actually know their share about camera effects behind it, but then I'd prefer seeing (more, better) prerendered cinematics rather than a lot of well-done cutscenes. Cut-scenes, like cinematics, are mostly eye-candy or plot devices. They are a spice, not a key ingredient.
However that doesn't mean you can't screw up the effect of the whole by screwing THEM up and that is what bothers me because I've seen that too often in varying degrees.
Excuse me that I have overread your former reply simply because I was in a hurry and only saw IMissLark's reply because for some reason this forum thought I had read your post before which I hadn't and therefore didn't take notice of your request for specific examples.
I would like to make clear that I see a big difference between scripted events and in-game cutscenes: the latter disable your control over your character(s) and might alter the camera placement, the former do not. I am perfectly fine and appreciate the former (especially when they are a bit subtle and not all too predictable), but I generally dislike the latter except for a few occasions (such as mission intros/extros in RTS games -- C&C Generals again being my example of choice nevertheless the low poly count of the models and the inefficiency of the engine, which is not as bad because the cutscenes usually have a lot of rapid motion, which distracts from the low graphical quality).
The least satisfying cut-scenes I have seen were those in WarCraft III, which may partially relate to my negative feelings for the game in general, but my main concern is that it was overdone and not exactly done in the best way possible either; wouldn't it have been Blizzard who somehow seem to be perfectionists when it comes to prerendered cinematics and thus spend a lot of resources on them, I suppose that more (shorter) cinematics would have been a good replacement for the (to me) less satisfying in-game cutscenes, especially cutscenes which really are no more than mission intros or extros (remember, I only liked them in Generals when they were action laden because the action distracted from the poor graphics), although I have to admit some of those cutscenes had welldone camera effects.
I also have no beef with very short cutscenes (let's say, your character control being removed while you are shown something in order to bring that something to your attention -- oftenly done so in single player FPS games, especially those with stupid jump riddles). What you described as a possibility for random encounters would be such a cutscene -- although that somehow reminds me on Final Fantasy.
Of course ingame cutscenes are better than none at all, but I don't think Fallout would be quite Fallout if it was packed full of 3D cutscenes. Scripted events maybe, but I really have a hard time imagining a Fallout with ingame cutscenes everywhere. At least with scenes longer than a few seconds.
Sidenote: My right wrist is still killing me and my left wrist is slowly joining it. I hope the stabilising elastic band helps a little. If you ever intend to participate in a series of reenactment battles, don't play dart for two hours the night before. Take my word for it, that doesn't do you any good.
At least my mood is getting better.
