200°

A Coen Brothers Classic Reminds Me Why Video Game Storytelling Has Yet to Surpass Film

Joel Taveras writes, "I’ve never been one to argue the idea of video games surpassing cinema in many respects. In its short history, the medium has transformed from 8-bit blobs of color backed by MIDI music to glorious high definition masterpieces filled with orchestral scores. Its never been a better time to be a gamer. However, before we celebrate these victories against the naysayers and story-telling pundits like Roger Ebert, we need to realize that there’s one overlooked piece of the puzzle that’s missing — it’s something that came to me after re-watching a Coen Brothers classic."

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dualshockers.com
NYC_Gamer4364d ago

I doubt video games will surpass flim/books on story telling

FlashXIII4364d ago (Edited 4364d ago )

The thing is they could.. Video gaming allows you to get inside the main character like no other form of entertainment. The problem mainly lays with the perception of games as being something to play as opposed to something to experience.

Sidewinder-4364d ago

Yeah well, you know, that's just like uhh...your opinion man.

Bathyj4364d ago

Shut the F*#K up Donny, you're out of your element.

Dr Face Doctor4364d ago

What makes you say that? The mere elasticity of interactive storytelling shows how much potential games have in that front.

MysticStrummer4364d ago (Edited 4364d ago )

I think games are already there, because they can involve the player in the story enough to feel sad when a favorite character dies, or feel nervous when a dangerous situation presents itself, or provoke thoughts on deep topics. On top of that, they can allow the player to impact the story through their actions and decisions. Just like with movies and books, not all games reach that high level of interesting/involving/deep storytelling. A higher percentage of books and movies do it because those mediums have been around much longer. As for The Big Lebowski, it's a good movie but not one of their best.

joab7774364d ago

i agree. And many today would say or have said that movies can never be as good as books because of their definite nature . Games do suffer from the same structure movies do but also have an element that movies miss. While it may be more productive to create a movie that u can rewatch and analyze again in 2 hours, games have the ability to completely draw u in. If u spend 40 hrs with a character and then realize that he may not exist, that everything he accomplished might not have happened, it would have real impact. Bioshock comes to mind. The setting and backdrop was astonishing. Then u find out the twist. It only fails, imo, to fully deliver at the very end as its video game nature took over, but it was amazing. Games hav the ability. Yes the majority simply cater to our more base nature & many are tryingto simply make money. But this is no different than most movies as most of the great ones are lost on the majority of the population and become cult classics etc. They will only get better and they arent very different from movies. Games must entertain with play and movies must entertain too in different ways. Id love to see a great comedic game. That would be awesome.

NeoBasch4364d ago (Edited 4364d ago )

Film has yet to surpass TV. If you want a good story on "film," you'd watch a TV show. My point is film nor books is the ideal medium for storytelling. It's just another medium.

I find stories in games like Persona 3/4, Digital Devil Saga, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Uncharted, and Shadow of the Colossus to be far better than most movies I've seen. And most books are rarely that good either. I hate this elitist mentality. Grow up.

EDIT: And yes, I read a lot of books/watch a lot of films. If you must know, I'm reading three books right now: The Black Prism, The Killing Moon, and Princess of Mars. I've seen over 150 movies over the past year. I know what I'm talking about.

Dr Face Doctor4364d ago

"And most books are rarely that good either."

That's only because there are so, so many.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 4364d ago
Crystallis4364d ago

Dat A**....

On topic. its very hard to create a game that has a great story, beautiful visuals, and awesome game play in one package. Usually one of those doesn't get much attn and its usually the story which is why get very generic boring stories.

nepdyse4364d ago

Three words. "Metal Gear Solid."

RedDead4364d ago (Edited 4364d ago )

Are you joking? I mean sure if you take 1 and 3 and pretend the other two don't exist, but as a whole? The whole story is really...just...no.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/...

It just took the fantasy way to far...did not want or belong in MGS. Then Nanomachines and over dramatic ****...in MGS. No 4...no

MysticStrummer4364d ago (Edited 4364d ago )

lol Nanotech isn't far off in the present day. Way to keep up with reality. Metal Gear's story is pretty convoluted, but that's not a bad thing if you have what I like to call an "attention span". The link you provided shows that you don't have one of those.

Saladfax4364d ago

It's not the convoluted nature of the story which hurts the MGS series (although it doesn't really help).

It's the script which is in dire need of trimming and quality control. Even just cutting redundancy would make it a hell of a lot stronger overall.

Bimkoblerutso4363d ago (Edited 4363d ago )

Not that I mind if other folks like MGS, but I agree with Reddead and Saladfax. I think the series gets WAY too much credit in the narrative department.

It's got what's called the "soap-opera effect." Are the characters well-written? No, but this guy loves this girl and they can never be together or this lady's daughter just died or this dude has no problem crying...so obviously they are good characters. It's all very manipulative and deceptively deep.

And then the story is a convoluted mess (as in "convoluted" with a negative connotation). The plot twist is one of the shallowest ways to add "depth" to a narrative (*cough* Shyamalan), and Kojima obviously has a massive boner for plot twists. What, you think this organization is in control? Nope. Oh, so you thought this new organization was actually pulling the strings? Nope. And oh, surprise, surprise. That organization wasn't actually controlling anything either. Derp, nanomachines.

HarryKawkReturns4364d ago (Edited 4364d ago )

@Reddead

LOL at your Agree-Disagree ratio
:B

Silly Mammo4364d ago

Movies/books are not interactive, thus its easier to create a story.

MySwordIsHeavenly4364d ago

Psh...

Apparently, somebody never read the "You Choose The Scare" Goosebumps...

maniacmayhem4364d ago

The Big Labowski, instant classic and one of the Coen's best.

Even though games haven't achieved the level of classic story telling as movies, video games are still in its infancy compared to movie making. But I have to say there are some games that comes close. I know Silent Hill 2 and Bioshock were amazing games that I could put against any good movie anytime.

Both those games had an amazing story, great gameplay, great voice acting plus pacing.

Video games will definitely get there one day.

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120°

15 PS3 Games That Would Absolutely Shine as PS5 Remakes

GB: "With this feature, we talk about 15 games on the PS3 that should be remade for the PlayStation 5."

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gamingbolt.com
kenpachi12d ago

You left out The Darkness games bring those back

fan_of_gaming11d ago

The head of Nightdive Studios has posted that The Darkness is on their list of games they want to do, so hopefully something comes from that

Yi-Long11d ago

Little Big Planet 1 and 2 deserve a mention, IMO.

Good call on Motorstorm, a game released 2 gens ago but still looks and feels so good. Motorstorm 2 and Motorstorm RC were gems as well. They followed up the Motorstorm games with the brilliant Driveclub, which still manages to put modern racing games to shame. Imagine closing down a studio as talented as that ... (!) Incredible.

A little 'arcade-gem' back then was The Last Guy, a top down 'follow the leader' snake-like game where you had to find and lead survivors to safety during an alien invasion, on terrible looking 'Google-earth' maps. Graphics were poor, even back then, but would love that same gameplay with modern maps and graphics.

Street Fighter 4, once it finally had a full roster, was quite good, but it was always an ugly game, sadly. Imagine bringing that back while using the current SF6 engine.

fan_of_gaming11d ago

Good suggestions, I'd be in for
LittleBigPlanet
LittleBigPlanet 2
Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
Motorstorm: RC

purple10111d ago

God damn I love motorstorm so much

At the time I had a low-mid range sony 40” tv, The latency to the controller was waaaay too high, would to play a modern version

In saying that later I got a 3d lg tv and playing the 3d motorstorm in my bedroom with the environment crumbling around the track, was something special, specially compared to what others were playing at the time, will always remember that

Skuletor11d ago

Some good choices here and Resistance: Fall of Man is my most wanted PS3 remaster/remake. Not sure about their claim it was Sony's answer to Gears of War though.

CrimsonWing6911d ago

I’d rather have sequels than remakes. Look at Dead Space 1 Remake. Would’ve been cooler if we got a new entry and it failed with sales sealing the fate of a sequel rather than just replay the same game and it fail in sales and we never get a new entry.

Remakes are great for things like PS2 and earlier games to really get a crazy new graphical coat, but I think we should ease up on all these remakes and actually do sequels.

fan_of_gaming11d ago

Yeah for sure, sequels would be ideal. But in the current market environment where many big publishers are risk-averse, I'd rather get a remaster or remake that a developer can do on a budget that will be approved, rather than nothing for an IP.

Inverno11d ago

I rather they remaster and port over to PC and current gen all the games permanently stuck on PS360. Those games don't need remakes, they need to be given a chance to live again outside of their confined consoles and then give a few proper sequels. Like Sleeping Dogs, Motor Storm, LA Noir, should get another entry.

fan_of_gaming11d ago

Yeah I'd be fine with remasters of PS3 games too, they don't have to be remakes.

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160°

For just $6 you can play the Red Dead Redemption port on Xbox and PS5

Rockstar Games’ shiny new Red Dead Redemption port is now on GTA+, and you can play it while claiming some tasty GTA Online benefits.

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theloadout.com
Profchaos25d ago

Rockstar still strying to make GTA plus work
Should be $6 for the rdr game on sale not 6 bucks for a months playtime

Exvalos25d ago (Edited 25d ago )

I hear ya, 49.99 or whatever the price on that game is, is a bit stiff seeing as it's just a port.

anast25d ago

Why would anyone rent this game?

jznrpg25d ago

One of my favorite games from PS3 generation. I have the remaster as there was a buy 2 get 1 free deal a while back but the price they are charging for the port is way too high although not surprising at all.

CobraKai25d ago

Still tryna milk a dried up cow

200°

Red Dead Redemption Title Update 1.04 Notes (PS4 / Switch)

Improvements have been made to the stability of the game

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support.rockstargames.com
OtterX41d ago

I still think this release was a big waste of time. I would have been a day 1 purchaser if they had redone the game w RDR2 graphics. I still own my PS3 copy, so don't see the point in picking this up if it's minimally improved.

CobraKai41d ago

I bought the game cheaper than the remaster on 360. There’s no reason in releasing the game at that price with so little improvements if any.

Profchaos41d ago

It's nice to have it as a handheld game I guess if you travel a lot but yes the ps5 release was a joke

kaos8941d ago

It plays at 60 fps on PS5 and a higher res if you value that.

OtterX41d ago (Edited 41d ago )

Yea, PS3 graphics at 60fps and 4k doesn't warrant the price. It was severely disappointing considering they already created so many of the assets north of the San Luis River (New Austin) in RDR2 and could have reused a lot of things, or reworked things bc they are the same area at different times in a fairly close history. It's friggin' Rockstar - you know they have the money and resources to have done it.

jznrpg25d ago

I like that I can play the game on current generation console but it would have been nice if they did more to make it look better.

Profchaos41d ago (Edited 41d ago )

They should have released the game in its current state not the state it launched in. Obvious we all wanted this to be a expansion to rdr 2 given that the original map was already remade in the game lots of people though this was just going to be added in later as paid DLC.

Now the game runs at 4k 60 fps on ps5 and can be brought on sale it's actually worth playing.

At launch the game was priced far to high and was a ps360 era game that couldn't run at 60 fps.

I'm in no way a frame rate snob I defended games like tears of the kingdom in the past for being 30 fps experiences but rdr was a joke at launch