[Fozzik]

The ArenaNet team has released some detailed information on how they are improving the animations and lip-synching for the game's cinematics. Due to cut scenes playing a significant role in the personal story...this is great news and will add a lot to immersion. Check out the sample videos to see just how much the animations have improved!

Click here.

[AsheMan]

I don't know how they looked prior, but the examples in the link weren't all that great. It's just two people standing opposite with some mouth movement and body movement.

[Fozzik]

They are examples of "cinematic conversations"...which is the way the game advances the story in between dynamic events / quests... so they are sort of designed to take the place of quest text.

They were just easy examples, I think, to show off the animation and lip synching. I've very rarely (if ever) seen better facial animations or lip synching in MMOs...maybe it's just me, but I thought it looked pretty damn good in terms of the fluid way the animations went together, and how they matched up. Maybe if I played more single-player games, it would seem more common-place.

There are also full cinematic cut scenes, and dialogue that takes place in the open world...the cinematic conversations they used as examples aren't the only animations.