june gloom on 21/3/2013 at 01:43
The main thrust of (
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-16-saturday-soapbox-christopher-nolan-has-ruined-video-games) this Eurogamer article is that while Nolan's films are deathly serious, there's also a clever humanity to it, which games trying to ape Nolan's seriousness tend to forget.
I'm not entirely sure I agree. Sure, there's lots of games that do this -- Gears of War likes to play up its serious tone but the actual plot and dialogue is mostly vapid retread. But I don't think Nolan is to blame for this -- this is something that's been plaguing games for years. It goes back to the 1990s when geek culture was almost wholly male-dominated and there was a lot of overlap in tropes and tone between comic books, summer action blockbusters and video games, not to mention the rising popularity of grunge. I'm not making up connections here, either -- all of it stemmed from the same cynical Gen X worldview. It's no surprise that Rob Liefeld, John Romero, and Kurt Cobain shared the same birth year.
It's not really Nolan's fault. It's Frank Miller's and Dennis O'Niel's fault.
Here -- compare comics Batman in 1991 to Nolan's Batman:
Inline Image:
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8wf8bXRNc1qb3y5eo1_500.gifInline Image:
http://jaysanalysis.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/batman_begins_poster.jpgThe dumber games tend to follow the first example way more, because the industry has been slow to recognize that the playerbase isn't all white sausage anymore.
Sulphur on 21/3/2013 at 07:01
When I read the article, I was going '...wut?' all the way. There's precious little indication of any games following a Nolan template. The strongest link in the article would be the tendency to reboot - though Nolan's not the only successful example of this - but the rest is 'Are you writing this article for the hell of it?' territory.
The only game I could say that really attempted a clever script influenced by Nolan's earlier work was Sands of Time, and SoT did humanity, warmth, and character better than any Nolan movie ever did. Serious and gritty's been a trend in gaming for as long as there's been gaming, but it was this generation where a lot more po-faced ridiculousness came to pass than usual - and if you look a bit closer, you'll see it's been a trend post 9/11, which is the event that's gone on to define more than just the last decade. We're still in the age of post-modern grittiness, and that shows in our media, but it's not because of Nolan.
Muzman on 21/3/2013 at 09:58
I didn't really understand that one either. Seemed like an Nolan Batfan trying to insert him further into pop culture that he actually has gotten so far.
Maybe I'm just not paying attention.
DDL on 21/3/2013 at 12:28
I kinda lost it when the example given of "Nolan's type of gritty realism and human character" was....ridge racer.
Yakoob on 23/3/2013 at 19:50
I got to agree with the above, I frankly have no idea WTF this article was about. I think this is the first time I hear anyone connect Nolan and video games, and I didn't really understand how the two are supposed to be connected. The sparse examples weren't very... exemplary.
Dresden on 24/3/2013 at 02:06
I always thought it was Ridley Scott who ruined video games.
CCCToad on 24/3/2013 at 02:55
Quote Posted by dethtoll
The dumber games tend to follow the first example way more, because the industry has been slow to recognize that the playerbase isn't all white sausage anymore.
And to recognize that even those of us who are "white sausage" now expect something with a little more food for thought than tripe like CoD and the rest of its super serious FPS brethren offer. Which is why Spec Ops: The Line was a sleeper hit.
june gloom on 24/3/2013 at 03:40
I agree.
(I do still enjoy Call of Duty, but Black Ops 1 was definitely the odd man out)
