I'm reminded of the 1920s when people protested that "talkies" were ruining the artistry of silent cinema. Games can do narrative, and they can do it in a very different way than movies because of interactivity. Interactivity, despite what most people believe, does not mean gameplay. Gameplay is the sport - the skill based, competitive mechanics that reward success and punish failure. There are at least 2 other types of interaction in games. Narrative interaction is basically role playing (not like you do in jrpgs mind), and it can be incredibly engaging and exciting, ala Heavy Rain. Most games don't give you this though, so we're left with the one other thing that seperates games and movies. Setting exploration. No movie could ever hope to create a setting as alive and memorable as those of the best videogames. Liberty City is a stunning place to explore, not even lord of the rings or avatar come anywhere close to being as culturally interesting.
I'm sick of people overrating movies writing quality. Movies are boring and shit. 127 hours and The Social Network were 2 of the highest rated films last year, and I cannot imagine anyone being able to justify using them as an example of why movies are better than games. They're boring as fuck, and entirely style over substance. Movies are horribly written and the average movie is no better than the average game for writing. The pinnacle of movies is a bit ahead, and movies are more diverse (not just action), but the best games are well ahead of the average movie. The problem with games is they are almost always designed for you to kill a few hundred people, and subtle character development is hard to do in that case. LA Noire looks to be a good alternative.
What thriller movie is better than Heavy Rain? I love the genre, but most of the movies in it are horrendously bad. At least with heavy rain, there was a lot of scenes that made it interesting and the interactive element gave it something more memorable than any movie. A movie like Zodiac is really pitifully shallow. I suppose the 3 movies I have mentioned tend to be over-rated because they're all based on real life events and you can't criticise the writing much because of it. I'm struggling to think of any decent thriller movies. Se7en wasn't great. Cape Fear was terrible. There will be blood was brilliant, but not really similar. Taxi driver and chinatown are both extremely over-rated just because of acting performances. Is that the main difference? The acting in heavy rain wasn't good, but it's not the main strength of the game and doesn't need to be. Good acting ≠ good writing.
I'm sick of people overrating movies writing quality. Movies are boring and shit. 127 hours and The Social Network were 2 of the highest rated films last year, and I cannot imagine anyone being able to justify using them as an example of why movies are better than games. They're boring as fuck, and entirely style over substance. Movies are horribly written and the average movie is no better than the average game for writing. The pinnacle of movies is a bit ahead, and movies are more diverse (not just action), but the best games are well ahead of the average movie. The problem with games is they are almost always designed for you to kill a few hundred people, and subtle character development is hard to do in that case. LA Noire looks to be a good alternative.
What thriller movie is better than Heavy Rain? I love the genre, but most of the movies in it are horrendously bad. At least with heavy rain, there was a lot of scenes that made it interesting and the interactive element gave it something more memorable than any movie. A movie like Zodiac is really pitifully shallow. I suppose the 3 movies I have mentioned tend to be over-rated because they're all based on real life events and you can't criticise the writing much because of it. I'm struggling to think of any decent thriller movies. Se7en wasn't great. Cape Fear was terrible. There will be blood was brilliant, but not really similar. Taxi driver and chinatown are both extremely over-rated just because of acting performances. Is that the main difference? The acting in heavy rain wasn't good, but it's not the main strength of the game and doesn't need to be. Good acting ≠ good writing.
