Full Motion Video

The concept of full motion video is not to be confused with pre-rendered animated cutscenes, which use assets more powerful than those of the game engine to create a smoother video image than would be available by having the engine itself rendering the events depicted in real-time. 
 
Instead, FMV consists of literal video footage of actors on real sets, acting out a script to move the story of the game along. Although at the time the concept was introduced, FMV was far superior to the visual quality achieveable with any in-game engine or even most studios' pre-rendered cutscenes, FMV's strangely jerky editing cuts and near-universally poor acting and film quality (due to an understandably low budget) lead the fad to fade out almost as fast as it began. 
 
Even today, however, there are still dedicated groups of gamers who enjoy FMV ironically, and the technique is still used on occasion, mostly in franchises who were once famous for doing so, such as the Command & Conquer titles.