In this episode of Elder-Speek Gavin, Patrick and Mats discuss the state of videogame movies and what could be done to improve them. In Our Week in Geek they go over Brutal Legend, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising. For news topics range from the Resistance 3 announcement and Captain Lou Albano’s death to ABC News’ comparison of Citizen Kane and Metroid.
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Man I wish I’d have been able to make this one–I had some strong words for IGN about that Citizen Kane business.
Yeah, I still think the Citizen Kane comparison is a bit of a stretch… and by a bit… I mean a lot of a stretch.
If there was one game that pushed the industry to new depths… I would say it was Half Life or SotC (or Ico). HL pushed the immersive experience by keeping the player in the shoes of Gordon Freemen at all times… something that is done a lot more nowadays.
SotC (and ICO) pushed the genre by using a minimalistic approach at story, but one that said a lot (and the gamer could feel the impacts). The problem is, no one is really catching on (besides GTA4 and the excecutions).
Metroid Prime didn’t do much in terms of storytelling that was really groundbreaking (the logbook had been done in previous games).
half life did the exact same thing as Ico in that regard, in 1998. Ico and SOTC are very unique, amazing games, but they didn’t really push or influence a whole lot. not like games such as fallout, baldur’s gate, ultima, half life, doom, the legend of zelda, ocarina of time, super mario brothers, system shock, final fantasy IV, dragon quest, quake, king’s quest and many others. far from it.
See, this is where we differ a bit. I know there are games that have pushed story telling to new heights (Half Life being one of the major contributors).
But SotC was a bit different… since it allowed the gamer to feel what was happening in the game (it’s hard to explain). I have never played a game where I felt guilt and sorrow before. Most games will tell you that you should feel these feelings… but SotC made you actually feel them. In this regaurd, it is really pushing storytelling into new places, just like Citizen Kane did.
But like I said before, Halflife is probably the Citizen Kane of the videogame industry.
I don’t know about Citizen Kane as I haven’t seen it, but Metroid Prime is not really a valid comparison.
I like what you said about Sir Ridley Scott. He would be a great choice for Assassin’s Creed based on Kingdom of Heaven.
Glad you saw the director’s cut, Mats. It is superior in every way. I wonder if the film would’ve been a success if that version was the one released in theatres.
Also, when mentioning Scott’s resume, you have to mention the Apple 1984 commercial! Best ad ever!