From the newly released Dante's Inferno, to classic games like The Hobbit and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, developers have been using books as inspiration for video games. Games, like movies, draw on thousands of years worth of literature to provide depth of story and character. But what of original gaming titles? Can they compete? Are they capable of achieving the same scope? Can a video game be considered a work of literature?
GB: "We take a look at 15 amazing games that had the perfect length."
Pretty good list. Botany Manor would be the newest addition that encapsulates that title.
Talal writes: "I'm talking about having that rush of excitement - that feeling you get when you know you've just made a memory for a lifetime."
There are different games. Some have gamplay at it highest priority, some have the story, some have the replay value and choices... There are a lot of different game experiences.
It is laughable that just now graphics does not have anything to do with that experiene. We have had many games of that type over time. This is just the one that have come closest to feel like playing an actual movie. Just look the the Digital foundry walkthrough it is a masterpiece in that perspective and hence wrth trying. But yes do not do it for the gameplay - but that was never the goal of this experience.
They don't make games like this anymore.
Too dated in my book. The AI is way too unpredictable to be acceptable today. It's definitely a game of its time.
I had a good time with the game. It is a product of its time. But when it came out it was a must have game for a lot of people. I wish Ubisoft would make another game in the series or at least a reboot.
Due to the lack of modern stealth games, and me constantly playing the MGS series, I've been looking for alternative stealth games to play, and went back and re-played the SC series recently. I wouldn't call SC1 or SC:PT masterpieces, there are AI issues, they're very much trial-and-error games, and that can lead to a lot of frustration. I also found the stories in this series to be boring, uninteresting, and just sloppily told. Cinematics are also of poor quality for both in-game scenes and CG cut-scenes, the soundtrack didn't leave any impression on me either.
Chaos Theory is better, but there was still a lot of room for improvement, and Double Agent (old gen ver.) was a sloppy mess that ended up a regression from CT. But still, at least they tried back then, these days Ubi-junk doesn't even try to make good games!
Games can be considered a narrative form but not as literature: literature relates to written works.
And yes, if novels and films can tell good and powerful stories with meaningful characters, then a game can as well.
The only difference is how you partake in each activity.
Books you read.
Films you watch.
Games you play.
It is just a different form of entertainment but neither is less more capable as being a meaningful narrative form then others. Novels just have the pedigree of being the eldest of the three whereas games are the youngest.
Games also suffer with being stuck between making content rich games and context rich games. My point here is that many developers feel that need to add things a game because it will help make them commercial (same with books and films) instead of focusing the features of the game on its context.
Take Dead Space.. it works because the player is a solo entity alone in the journey of survival. Add in co-op (for commercial reasons) and it makes less sense contextually as the story is meant to unfold for a single character. Of course if the context can be adapted then sure co-op can be made to make sense contextually.
Context is very important since it is on this entity of a narrative that everything else works: stories and characters can mean very little if the context is not established to support them.
It all comes down to how developers choose to see their games... games can be both context rich and content rich but many choose commercialism and profitability over trying to mature industry because many titles that strive for context (say like Team ICO titles) get quickly relegated to niche status.