io9 
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San Francisco, 11:18 AM
Tue Dec 22
27 posts in the last 24 hours
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10:03 AM
04:54 AM
07:33 AM
Knights of the Old Republic, Mirror's Edge, Uncharted 1 & 2, God of War, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, Dead Space, Bioshock, Eternal Darkness, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Half Life, Sins of a Solar Empire, Assassin's Creed 2, Resident Evil 4, Home World and Myst.
Just a few of the games that I can think of off the top of my head that have better storytelling than most movies I've seen recently.
07:42 AM
07:43 AM
That way we can disregard the graphics issue.
08:11 AM
09:04 AM
A lot of the games you mentioned were heavily influenced by films (KotOR = Star Wars, Uncharted = Indiana Jones, Resident Evil = Dawn of the Dead, Metroid Prime = Alien). Comics are just generally far richer source material for adaptation. If you discuss a comic with someone you may say you love the art and the dialogue, but if it's a really good comic you talk about how brilliant the writing is, how well the characters are developed - that's a conversation nobody has about even the best games.
Remember, there's also more diversity in comics in terms of genre. Even though superheroes dominate, there are also autobiographies (Persepolis, American Splendor), comedy dramas (Ghost World, Scott Pilgrim) and histories (From Hell). These are areas of literature games cannot, or at least do not, exploit. Every game you listed would be an action movie if it were adapted. There can never be a game adaptation equivalent of Road to Perdition, A History of Violence, etc.
09:42 AM
I disagree with you on that the two should be differentiated. I get immersed in a good story wether it's being told to me (books and movies) or I'm interacting with it (video games). I would argue that a comic, book or movie isn't doing its job if you are not immersed in its world. And a video game isn't doing its job if it isn't telling a story.
"...whilst the other emphasises graphics and gameplay."
I agree that may have been true of video games in their early days. Games like Doom and Duke Nukem were very much centered around gameplay rather than story. But I think that was more due to the limitations in technology than anything else. As the latest generation of consoles has shown, games are much more sophisticated. Games like the Uncharted series and Bioshock show that their writers and artists have created worlds that are just as intricate as the best book, movie or comic.
"A lot of the games you mentioned were heavily influenced by films (KotOR = Star Wars, Uncharted = Indiana Jones, Resident Evil = Dawn of the Dead, Metroid Prime = Alien)."
All of that is true. But nothing in the creative industry develops in a vacuum. I'm an architect, I should know. Star Wars was in turn influenced by the old stories of Wild West cowboys and legends of Samurais. Indiana Jones was influenced by the action hero serials of the early 20th century. Alien by the B-Horror movies of the 50s. Even comic books are not immune. Superman was influenced by mythic heroes such as Samson and Hercules. And Superman's Metropolis was heavily influenced by Fritz Lang's movie of the same name.
"but if it's a really good comic you talk about how brilliant the writing is, how well the characters are developed - that's a conversation nobody has about even the best games."
I have to disagree with you there as well. Yes, video games are still reviewed or praised based on their graphics and gameplay. But characters and storyline are making their way into how a game is received. Isaac Clarke (Dead Space), Nathan Drake (Uncharted) and Commander Shepard (Mass Effect) are all thought out and developed characters by the end of their respective games. And then you have a game like Heavy Rain which comes out next year. That game is centered solely around character development and not heavy action scenes or dismembering enemies.
10:38 AM
I strongly disagree with that. There's no video game equivalent of Brave New World, The Godfather or Watchmen.
"characters and storyline are making their way into how a game is received"
That's exactly my point, they're making their way into how a game is received, but they are by no means the be all and end all - story is not paramount. Game developers at this point in time do not set about to make a game because they want to tell a good story, they do so because they want to create a memorable experience. A great game can have a weak story and still be a truly great game. Comics are completely different, without story they are nothing.
Jason Reitman made a good point when he said that video games as a medium are in their infancy, that where we are with games now is the equivalent of being in the 1920s with cinema, so there's a long way to go.
03:50 AM
12/21/09
I think we need Catwoman Begins. Without the kitty super powers. I will personally pull a script out of my ass that will be better than the first one.
01:28 AM
01:37 AM
I'd screw Hale to, although not in THAT cat costume... a better cat costume.
12/21/09
12/21/09
Anyway, wandering back to topic: The current stable of the majority of guys-with-the-money think of video games in terms of Donkey Kong. They're likely going to stay that way until some new guy comes along and puts out a better-than-expected video game film and puts something on the map: But Peter Jackson at his high point couldn't get them to budge. Say what you will about Verhoven, but in movie-land, economically successful franchises like POTC (Which in my opinion are pure schlock, but money talks louder than quality, natch) should let him write his own checks: but they'll only do Bioshock on the cheap... because--big surprise, they're probably still thinking of Donkey Kong.
My average- joe prediction says probably about 10-15 years. Maybe as early as five, if somebody with some serious clouts suddenly gets interested or Jackson gets enough revenue to tell them to blow off entirely. Once the folks who grew up playing the games and actually enjoyed them start to gain some real ground, we'll start seeing it.
and for those nay-sayers who say "Video Games have no story!" I leave you only this: Out of the ENTIRE Spider man collection, excluding nothing, not a single issue, pick 10. The odds are, most of them will be absolute tripe. We all remember the good Spiderman stuff, nobody remembers the guy has been around for decades and stuff like Maximum Cloneage are the status quo, NOT the exception.
12/21/09
12/21/09
12/21/09
original sci-fi movies...
12/21/09
12/21/09
I'll say this: it better be about a guy in a top hat with a huge mustache riding around in a giant thimble and buying entire streets, whereupon he mugs people who happen to loiter and forces them to stay in his hotel.
I'd watch that.
12/21/09
12/21/09
Here's the biggest problem, and the one that hurt comic book movies for far too long:
The medium is still considered immature by Hollywood, it's for kids, and they can't be bothered.
When you have people like Ebert slandering the medium with his "videogames are not art" standpoint, it's hard for director/studio "X" to look at the material any other way. They aren't going to take the time to sit with the Uncharted's and Metal Gear's to find the nuances and artistry on display.
It also doesn't help that the scope of most games is far too big for any indie studio to tackle without one of the majors doing (at least) some financing.
Another point of contempt is the fact that too many videogame adaptations are the exact opposite of what the fans want to see. The "Resident Evil" is a perfect example of this, and as much as we want to blame Paul W.S. Anderson, the blame needs to fall on Capcom. They built a world with a very deep mythology and interesting characters then hired a brilliant writer/director to turn that world into a film franchise. George A. Romero's spec script for "Resident Evil" is still the most faithful videogame adaptation you're likely to read, and Capcom threw it out because it was "too much like the game".
Stare......blink.......WHAT!?
Studios do not seem to get that when we pay our $10 bucks to sit in a theater to watch these films, the last thing we want to see is some hackneyed douchebags "interpretation" of our beloved series'. We essentially want the game, on-screen, brought to life by people who were passionate about telling the same story we fell in love with.
It's a shame too, as this seems to be the only industry where a property is bought, an everything that made us love it is completely thrown out and rebuilt by people who (most likely) have had little to no contact with the original source material at all.
This year the videogame industry outgrossed the film industry, which is a huge step toward people finally taking it seriously. Verbinsky's "Bioshock" could have been a game changer, Peter Jackson's "Halo" could have set a new standard, but now it looks like all hope may rest on Sam Raimi's "World of Warcraft" for this medium to gain any credibility.
(Also, to the writer of this article, Peter Berg is directing Battleship, not Roland Emmerich)
12/21/09
12/21/09
12/21/09
01:31 AM
12/21/09
12/21/09
IOW, good game + good movie = new genre?
12/21/09
12/21/09
12/21/09
12/21/09
The data does not support your assertion. "Catwoman" got a 27 on metacritic and 10 on Rotten Tomatoes. Of all of Uwe Boll's movies, only one (Blackwoods) outscored it on either - and only narrowly. The rest got substantially worse scores. I think it's clear that Mr. Boll is the single most important reason why video game movies suck.