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Hollywood's Rising Fascination With Videogames
Thanks to the New York Times for its article (free. reg. req.) discussing the growing interaction of Hollywood directors with videogame products. The piece notes that Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson has "worked out a deal with the game maker Ubisoft and Universal Pictures, the studio that plans to release 'King Kong' next year, that will give Mr. Jackson substantial creative control over the future game", and also mentions John Woo (" now developing for Sega a video game, an idea he will own outright, about an elaborate heist", as well as his proposed Metroid movie), and Ridley Scott ("seeking a video game maker to form a partnership with him and his brother Tony") as other Hollywood creatives seeking input into games.
Well, what I really mean is that we'll take great games and turn them into great movies like Super Mario Brothers and Tomb Raider and... and... crap. All this means is that we're really screwed now.
Although I feel such director involvement will perhaps benefit the cinematic quality of games, the fact remains that too much creative control from these guys will be a bad thing. Games are games. Movies are movies. Unless Peter Jackson is some sort of closet game design guru, I can only hope for prettier games that play lousy.
Arguably better than the movie, of course, was the Nintendo 64 game Goldeneye.
What did it do right? Well, it was a great game in its own right -- I enjoyed it, even though shooters usually leave me cold.
But what I think Goldeneye did right more than anything else was be a generic James Bond game. Everything about the game just screamed "James Bond!" Other developers have since tried to do the same thing, with varying results.
Basing a game on a specific movie is bad -- since movies are usually less than two hours long, and a successful game has to hold the player's attention for much longer, it's very difficult to stay true to the movie without adding a bunch of extra material. Too much, and you're unfaithful. Too little, and people leave. Better to base your game off a franchise, as then you can draw in elements throughout the series.
Also, let's face it, most games are based on action movies, and action movies are particularly known for verisimilitude. (Not that most games are abounding in that quality.) I guess what I'm trying to say here is: most action movies suck. Most games suck. And remember, suckiness grows not linearly, but exponentially.