Book to Game adaptation? (Altered Carbon)

[DustyDrB]

I can't think of any direct adaptations. Enslaved was based off of Journey to the West. And there is Alice, like you said. Maybe Tom Clancy games? I've only played Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and have not read any of his books, so I'm not sure.

Books that I like that would make a good game? Errr...I can't think of any that wouldn't fail to do the books justice. Books allow things like dialogue or just...walking around interesting. They can't describe a character's thoughts or can fill in the history of the setting as the protagonist treks through a place. And since a lot of my favorite books are somewhat devoid of action: Vonnegut, Michael Chabon...hell, even Patrick Rothfuss' The Kingkiller Chronicle doesn't have that much action. It makes itself interesting by making its world, characters, and history interesting.

 

[Cahir]

Suggestions:

The Ranger's Apprentice: RA is a series of young adult fantasy novels set in what is pretty much an altered version of Europe. I think that the setting would make a great open world RPG that young and old alike could enjoy, especially if they managed to inject the series' humour into the game.

The Tomorrow Series: While I don't think that you could do a faithful adaptation of the books, I think that you could use the themes of the books, the effect of war on the human psyche, and a different group of teenage protagonists to make a very good open world, survival FPS/RPG hybrid. Just imagine having to live off the land, desperately trying to avoid enemy patrols until you can defend yourselves and interacting with other, similar groups in occupied Australia. Of course, you'd probably need to make the enemy pasty white and speak Spanish to avoid the inevitable "teh game is teh most racist thing eva!!11!!!" cries from the media, but that could be done.

 

[TonyVonTonyus]

I can think of the Witcher 1 and 2

As for suggestions...Icewind Dale? An ACTUAL Icewind Dale game, not like the other one which just ook place in te setting.

The Witcher 1 and 2 are sequels of a sort to a series of novels and short stories by Andrzej Sapkowski.

Ever see the Tv Series? It's not half bad...

 

[Samurai Goomba]

Altered Carbon was indeed great. Shame Broken Angels was a betrayal of everything good about it. Also a shame that the author isn't very good outside of that one fantastic novel.

Disagree? COME AT ME BRO

Anyway, I'd like to see a game adaptation of Bruce Sterling's books, like the Ware novels or Schismatrix.

 

[dexxyoto]

I have to disagree with that. In the universe he's created Broken Angels had a perfectly valid plotline, there were references to the Martians and such all through Altered Carbon. And the final book in the trilogy, Woken Furies, took a step away from how both previous books flowed, I felt a welcome change to so many writers who seem to fall into ruts with continuing storylines.

 

[ChupathingyX]

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms series is based on...Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

The Dynasty Warriors series is also based on the RotTK book.

As for suggestions, I don't really have any...maybe one of Matthew Reilly's "Scarecrow" novels?

 

[Cahir]

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms series is based on...Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

The Dynasty Warriors series is also based on the RotTK book.

As for suggestions, I don't really have any...maybe one of Matthew Reilly's "Scarecrow" novels?

"The Mark" was apparently [http://forum.jowood.com/showthread.php?t=134745] a rip off of "Scarecrow", which wouldn't be so bad if the gameplay was good (I've only played the demos, but they sucked).

That said, I agree. With the exception of Ice Station, a game based on one of Matthew Reilly's books would be awesome.

 

[shadow_Fox81]

I'd like to see the artists journey into insanity and suicide(?) in the album pink moon used for a horror game, something like a cross between alan wake and amnesia. the art would easily be adapted form the album cover and the soudntrack and writing would be imaculate as they would already be done.

also the wheel of time had an old game and has one on the way i think red eagle studios?
arn't there heaps of point and click adventure games based on books (Nancy drew)

Red dead redemption felt like a loose adaptation of Once upon a time in the west.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

I have to disagree with that. In the universe he's created Broken Angels had a perfectly valid plotline, there were references to the Martians and such all through Altered Carbon. And the final book in the trilogy, Woken Furies, took a step away from how both previous books flowed, I felt a welcome change to so many writers who seem to fall into ruts with continuing storylines.

My problems with Broken Angels are as follows:

-Kovacs betrays people constantly. For no reason, in many cases. Often, when going along with what somebody is doing would greatly benefit him, he betrays them for no benefit. Even when it's not a matter of ideology, he betrays people for reasons like "I don't like them" when he knows that doing so will put him up against tons of baddies, and NOT doing so will give him exactly what he wants. Altered Carbon Kovacs wasn't this stupid. He didn't just start shooting people because he didn't like them.

-There is no story. This is a book about stuff happening. This is not a novel about an idea, or a character (because kovacs doesn't get character development, and *spoiler* almost everyone dies anyway,) this is a movie about "things that happen" and the characters reacting to them. The spaceship exploration plot is in turns extremely boring (when they're waiting around) and poorly-explained.

-The level of brutality, profanity and sexuality is so over-the-top it enters God of War 2 or Planet Terror levels of loony, comedic farce. Every character is always on the brink of nervous, physical or mental collapse. That's not drama, it's stupid. Kovacs' whole ideology in this movie is stupid, he seems to believe whatever he needs to believe to get to the next scene, regardless of whether this matches with anything in Altered Carbon or even earlier parts of Broken Angels.

-Finally, Morgan's writing style enters "Song of Kali" Simmons-levels of pomp and arrogance. Count how many words he writes compared to how much he's actually saying. If we judge quality in writing as the ability to communicate a great deal effectively, Morgan fails in this respect. Altered Carbon didn't have this problem, imo, but Altered Carbon had a constantly-shifting plot focus, interesting characters and didn't have a bunch of people hanging out on a beach/desert (forget which) for what seems like forever while they try to figure out what to do to move to the Rendezvous with Rama "situation."

If you liked Broken Angels, cool. I didn't, and it made me not want to read the third Kovacs book. Well, that and Market Forces, which is even more ridiculously stupid. Yes, powerful, wealthy men in the future settle disputes in armored cars (but not in, say, tanks that have cannons on them). Yes, this is plausible. >_>

 

[Outright Villainy]

Man, they could totally leave that chapter in. Just remember the torture scene from metal gear solid, then expand than to around 15 hours.

GAMEPLAY AT ITS FINEST.

Shame Broken Angels was a betrayal of everything good about it.

Yeah, Broken angels was pretty crap. A book where there's no character development, yet simultaneously, nothing fucking happens. The alien lore and stuff was somewhat interesting, but nothing Peter Hamilton doesn't do ten times better anyway. Morgan was better with a tight, focused storyline like in Altered Carbon. Woken Furies was a little better, but I started getting bored and never finished it, so it's still nowhere near as good as the first book.

Edit: Another point about Broken Angels is that Kovac as a character didn't suit the story at all, and really should have had someone else, especially given that its connection to Altered Carbon was tenuous at best. Kovacs works as a hardened bastard when he drives the plot forward, when it's just him dicking around for an entire book he just becomes immensely annoying.

 

[kyogen]

Ever see the Tv Series? It's not half bad...

Just clips on Youtube. Production values are held back due to limited funding, but it looked like they cast it really well.

 

[SoranMBane]

You know, I have to agree with the OP. Maybe not a game specifically based on the book, but a game set in the Altered Carbon world would be amazing. It would be sort of like Deus Ex meets L.A. Noire and Mass Effect. At the very least, the stacks would make for a very interesting death mechanic if it could be properly integrated into the story and mission structure. Richard Morgan's other book, The Steel Remains, might also make for a decent game, but then, that would basically just be a darker version of The Witcher with a gay protagonist.

Also, I'm guessing by "certain chapter," you're referring to the sex scene? And that other sex scene? Yeah, those might have to be toned down a little. XD

 

[plugav]

I din't think a direct adaptation would work very well, but borrowing a book's setting or premise might make for a great game.

I think I might like a game set in the Neverwhere universe.

Or, to be more original, I'd like something that captures the nightmarish mood of Anna Kavan's Ice. Perhaps a TPP adventure game borrowing from Silent Hill 2?

And if comic books count, it would be totally crazy to play a BioWare style RPG based on The Invisibles.

 

[Lucem712]

The Great Gatsby inspired a game, well, maybe not so much inspired. It's on the NES, so storytelling sort of a mute point :\

http://greatgatsbygame.com/

 

[faspxina]

There's this game based on this graphic novel. But I'm not sure how they relate in terms of content, I never played the game. But the book is great.

Game:
Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals

Book:
Nikopol Trilogy: Carnival of Immortals