The Citizen Kane of video games... - by Yakoob
Zygoptera on 7/10/2009 at 21:54
Quote Posted by dethtoll
Well, if not Deus Ex, what else is there? Fallout 1?
Planescape Torment, of course. Both one man's vision, both not huge commercial successes frequently referenced by those wanting to appear authoritative, both attract disdain from those who lack the intellect and critical faculties to appreciate something that isn't BOOM; those who cannot appreciate complicated artistic construction; those who need linear hand holding, and both are often cited by those who have never actually played/ watched them as being the apex of storytelling in their medium.
scarykitties on 7/10/2009 at 21:57
Quote Posted by Zygoptera
Planescape Torment
Hear, hear. I've never finished the game (due to always seeming to have something stop me from playing around the mid-point), but I love that game. It draws me in like few others have.
Reminds me of how I felt when I played Arcanum, except Planescape is far more polished.
Pidesco on 7/10/2009 at 22:11
I think it's fairly obvious that the Citizen Kane of games hasn't been released yet, if it ever will.
One thing I'd like to propose is that System Shock 2 is the Alien of games. What say you to this, oh gaming intelligentsia?
Vivian on 7/10/2009 at 22:24
I would say that's a very good point. Half Life 2 is the District 9/Dawn of the Dead of videogames? I guess the point is there are no mainstream videogame equivalent to 'A' movies. The very best games currently (popularly) available are intellectual and aesthetically skillful plays on 'B' movie themes. Which doesn't make them bad at all, but it does suggest a certain limitation on the whole thing which hasn't yet to be popularly surpassed (witness the shit radiator kicked up for even acknowledging the existence of gay people).
Phatose on 7/10/2009 at 22:33
The only way there is ever going to be a Citizen Kane of video games is if they remake Citizen Kane starring Vin Diesel and someone decides to make a quick buck with a movie tie in.
The mediums are so dissimilar in the details that it's a totally pointless comparison, equivalent to looking for the Mona Lisa of J-pop or the Shakespeare of butt sex. The qualities the two types are judge on are so different that it just amounts to 'very good'. Frankly, the whole concept is nothing but hot air put off by fuckers who want videogames to be taken as serious art, and who are too impatient to wait for the old generation of stuffy art types to die off.
Quote:
One thing I'd like to propose is that System Shock 2 is the Alien of games. What say you to this, oh gaming intelligentsia?
Do you mean the Aliens of video games? Even by very lenient standards of analogy, Alien and SS2 don't have much in common. Both have atmosphere, but the original Alien was about people on a ship slowly being eaten by an utterly invincible opponent. SS2...well, all you need is a wrench and you're good for the first half of the game.
Vivian on 7/10/2009 at 22:38
Both are about sexual and existential dread and survival in the most inhospitable and unknowable environment we might realistically move into in the near future.
SubJeff on 7/10/2009 at 22:39
I'd go with HL2 as the District 9, but then I love both of these.
Alien? Shouldn't that be System Shock 1? Not sure about SS2. Yeah, why not?
Back OT - I definitely think HL2 would be above Metroid Prime on the Kane scale.
Phatose on 7/10/2009 at 22:42
Quote Posted by Vivian
Both are about sexual and existential dread and survival in the most inhospitable and unknowable environment we might realistically move into in the near future.
How many games actually fall into that category though? By making it broad enough to encompass SS2 and Alien, you're making a net so wide it's going to catch an awful lot of fish.
Vivian on 7/10/2009 at 22:45
Both are also really good?
Pidesco on 7/10/2009 at 22:47
Having seen District 9 today and being really impressed by it, I have to say that HL2 doesn't really hold a candle to it. District 9 uses its medium (moving pictures! With sound!) intricately in order to convey its layered messages and narrative, escape its perceived genre, and provide entertainment.
HL2, on the other hand, does not employ the medium (moving pictures! With sound! And complex player input!) particularly well. It always stays within its genre's confines, tells a simplified, shallow narrative and, as such, never provides entertainment beyond its own self imposed constraints.
The comparison just shows how much games as a medium still have to evolve before reaching the maturity of film.
@Phatose: I wasn't thinking in terms of plot, but rather thematically. Alien is very much a study on how to use isolation, closed spaces and the unknown, in order to scare the shit out of the viewer. System Shock 2, in its turn uses all that plus gameplay and the player's place within the narrative to achieve the same thing.
Clearly, Alien is the more accomplished of the two in achieving that goal but, again, there's simply a long way to go before reaching that sort of ability to harness the medium.
