As for what franchise I'd like to see made into a game? Ghost in The Shell. I know there was a PS2 game made back in the day but all I remember about it, is that it kinda sucked. It really needs to be completely open ended like a GTA game and heavily story driven like an MGS game.
If someone would make that, I'd throw my wallet at them.
Actually, I would be happy with a reskinned Deus Ex: Human Revolution with some minor tweaks to the hacking and augments. It would have to be a lot more prismatic then DE:HR's two tone asthetic, but up the governmental conspiracies and downplay the corporate espionage (and no Illuminati pls) and you got a near perfect GiTS game. Oh yeah, fill that soundtrack with Yoko Kano goodness.
Look, we know movie tie-in games have a failure rate about on par as video-game films have - but it doesn't have to be this way. Star Wars, for example, has launched a fantastic range of games in the past. So here's the relatively simple question;
Which film, book or television series would make a good video game?
Personally, my favourite is Supernatural - I'm not a big fan of the show, but the the structure of the episodes give itself to a set game mechanics which are really appealing to me.
Here's how it should go down; It's an open-world action-RPG based on the first couple of seasons of Supernatural. Most of the game goes exactly like an episode of the show does - you investigate some strange deaths, and then research what the method you need to kill the creature. There are just a few things you'll absolutely need to make this process fun;
* You need to be able to get it wrong.
So that wendigo the was ripping apart people in the woods? It was actually a werewolf! Now you've got to get out of there as fast as possible, or improvise to kill it.
* The monsters should all feel very different.
Each monster shouldn't be the same - some should be creepy, some should just be dangerous - and how you take them out should feel different. A demon? Try to trick it into a devils trap and exorcise it. A ghost? Remember that level in Vampire; the Masquerade - Bloodlines? That was perfectly creepy. Each time should be different, to where they haunt to who they kill. There is some awesome folk-lore to draw from here.
* It's not all about action.
I kind of touched upon this in the last point, but it should be said twice - while some action packed monster encounters is fine (necessary, even!) I don't want to be following the same process each time - it should not be find out which monster then pick the right McGuffin to shoot it with.
* Give me multiple ways to get the information.
Let me impersonate law-enforcement officials, or just let me asking around town. Let me break in to steal records. Or let me comb through old newspapers articles. And so on, the more the better!
And there you have it - a relatively unique set of game mechanics with the possibility for wildly varied experiences - and that's not even all this game has to offer. Supernatural had a pretty iconic mixture of muscle cars and mullet rock and it was somehow perfect.
Let me pick from a decent variety of muscle cars, give me some basic customisation for it. Some licensed music would be nice but as long as you make it relatively simple for me to play my own music I'll be plenty happy. Then all you need to give me is some nice environments to look at as I move from each small town and I'll be having a ball just driving.
As for the plot - keep it simple. There's nothing wrong with chasing after a big bad monster as the core of your plot. What should happen is to bring in writers who are talented at writing memorable characters and dialogue. Bonus points for making me laugh.
Should it be in the same time/universe/etc as the TV show? No. I don't really want to see an awful cameo by any of the recurring characters or to have my actions dwarfed by those of the brothers. I just want to exploit the atmosphere and the potential of the universe for an interesting game with some cool new mechanics.
Other things I'm too lazy to expand on:
* Co-op would be kind of fun, though I'm not sure how you'd handle dialogue.
* Get rid of the under-lying sexism present in the show, or I'll be upset. Seriously, I might even mist up a little.
Edit: I'm having trouble concentration and I've noticed in quite a few places I've said the exact opposite of what I intended, so if something sounds a little odd point it out for me. Thanks!
Also the poll derped hard.
Huh, how appropriate. It's like it new what I was going to write. 0_0
That is a fantastic idea. I also think you should have an option to separate the characters at different times, so you have options to play as each of them in turn at the same time as other shit is going on. Can imagine the classic "oh, he has our main car. Better steal this Fiat."
And if facing the creature goes wrong and one of them is captured, you have to use the other character to go and help him.
As far as a licensed property that would do well as a game, the Law and Order-verse. I know there have been a handfull of point-and-click adventure games (although, that might be CSI I'm thinking of), but if the license were taken a bit further, it could turn into a solid game with a functional choice system (since the 'order' side of Law and Order states pretty clearly what the possible outcomes would be) wherein a missed clue, a murdered witness, or just not bothering to talk to the right people or not "looking behind the chair" when searching at a crime scene could legitimately change your outcome.
Does the child murderer spend the rest of his life under the jail as god intended, or is he just going to be put on probation for lying to the police during the investigation?
The cops could go through the entire case, under the player's control, and if they didn't get the slam-dunk evidence they needed, maybe a bad guy gets away. Maybe he turns up later to complicate another case? Maybe you get one of the star team killed and their rookie replacement is nothing more than a placeholder without their skills (and you'd lose that character actor's voice which, for fans, would suck). Maybe that rookie becomes the best cop on the force through gameplay and a decent leveling system.
It could do well in the sandbox-hungry market. Unlike sociopaths, cops have to follow rules and the added strategy and depth could add players to the already husky sandbox playerbase. This is hardly the first time the point has been made, but it usually isn't paired with a license that makes the argument for it's inclusion. This could be that license.
You know what I want? A good Squad-based shooter based on Stargate. Such a thing almost got made, but instead it was mired in development hell and died. So sad to think about. It would've been great, especially if they made it like Mass Effect with Stargate's characters, universe, and other stuff.
Couldn't agree more with the idea of Game of Thrones being done by CD Projekt RED, that would be heaven.
But I really doubt the people who has the IP of GoT will give it to a polish developer, although they already have a good record of video game adaptation from books (Witcher franchise).
That said, they are already busy with Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 so I can't think (hypothetically) if they would have people to work on it. Maybe in the future? One can hope.
Mostly I think games based on established franchises which are licenced and set to be released alongside something else in that franchise fail mostly because they are not in fact trying to be good games.
Most examples of that kind of game has a huge focus on delivering the chance to relive or revisit the events in the franchise. Thus the focus becomes to include all the primary characters for the players to play/meet, have the player visit all the epic locations and give the player the chance to experience all the signifigant sequences. This in itself isn't all that bad, but if it is the focus for the develompent team it would be easy to lose focus on what would actually make the game good. Instead of games which try to deliver solid game mechanics, well made challenge progression and/or a cohesive and enticing narrative, we get a ton of games which are nothing more than a string of gimmicks and a disjointed or oversimplified story with characters that are either stereotypical, non-entities or cameo appearances.
Generally speaking, making a game from an established franchise does not work uless the leading development team are unafraid of developing or expanding that franchise themselves, but ofcourse that same thing would be true of making new movies or writing new books in the franchise.
The games which are exceptions to this tend to be those exceptions that proves the rule. Batman Arkham Asylum, The Walking Dead, Battle for Middle Earth or Knights of the Old Republic, were all games that tried to do something new, and wasn't afraid to develop characters and story themselves.
But even if you do develop an interresting story, have solid game mechanics and whatever else, the franchise would not be an advantage (only very very minor) with regards to how good that game is. It still take solid development, as any other game would. The franchise might ensure financial success, but financial success, as we all know, has very little to do with the quality of the game. Just look at the recent news about Aliens: Colonial Marines.
Having said all this obviously I think all franchises could make excellent games.
But while I personally would be more inclined to play an original IP, I am lookig forward to sacrificing 5 years of my life on World of Darkness.
Then too i think there would be huge potential in a game based on the Ocean's franchise. I'm thinking a sandbox/stealth type game in the style of Deus Ex or Hitman, but obviously with a focus on comitting perfect crimes, perhaps even without the "shoot your way through" option.
Heh, the most simple argument for Supernatural being sexist is as follows - how many current, recurring female characters are there?
It's character, singular. She's had about three episodes so far, good luck to her!
For the totality of my reasoning, well, we'd be here all day. It's probably the most sexist show I've seen willingly. It's always off-putting when I watch the show. =/
Binnsyboy said:
That is a fantastic idea. I also think you should have an option to separate the characters at different times, so you have options to play as each of them in turn at the same time as other shit is going on. Can imagine the classic "oh, he has our main car. Better steal this Fiat."
And if facing the creature goes wrong and one of them is captured, you have to use the other character to go and help him.
I think I mentioned it in my initial post - though admittedly, the post was just an excuse for me to ramble and I wasn't paying too much attention - I really wouldn't want to play Sam and Dean, or even have more than a cameo appearance of an important character for the show. There are so many problems that even a brilliant developer would have to overcome, and they'd most likely stumble (for example, the actors are not professional voice actors, and their delivery of the dialogue would likely feel stilted and using other voice would just be wrong) and directly tying it into the main events of the show severely limits you if you don't want to break established canon. It's much easier for two random hunters having their adventures in a game than Sam and Dean.
TL;DR - Cameos are cool, and using the events of the show as background lore. Just no direct links.
an annoyed writer said:
You know what I want? A good Squad-based shooter based on Stargate. Such a thing almost got made, but instead it was mired in development hell and died. So sad to think about. It would've been great, especially if they made it like Mass Effect with Stargate's characters, universe, and other stuff.
I love that idea! Though I'll be honest - I'm all for more Stargate anything since it's gone off the air. ='(
Patshiv said:
But while I personally would be more inclined to play an original IP, I am lookig forward to sacrificing 5 years of my life on World of Darkness.
Then too i think there would be huge potential in a game based on the Ocean's franchise. I'm thinking a sandbox/stealth type game in the style of Deus Ex or Hitman, but obviously with a focus on comitting perfect crimes, perhaps even without the "shoot your way through" option.
Oh god, the World of Darkness MMO scares the hell out of me. I've been playing Eve on and off for eight or nine years now. If World of Darkness is a fraction of what I think it's going to be, CCP might own my wallet for the rest of my life. =/
The Oceans game might be cool - though I'm not quite seeing how it would come together in my head.
Yeah, I got what you meant, but I was capitalizing on the idea of there being multiple Hunters. One guy being left to steal a car or whatever and dash to help the other was an almost recurring concept, and I feel like it'd be a cool random mechanic in the game.
Honestly, I really want the coding for randomly generated missions in games to advance as far as it can. Then we could have randomly generated cases for you to figure out, without them being shit.
As for what franchise I'd like to see made into a game? Ghost in The Shell. I know there was a PS2 game made back in the day but all I remember about it, is that it kinda sucked. It really needs to be completely open ended like a GTA game and heavily story driven like an MGS game.
If someone would make that, I'd throw my wallet at them.
Actually, I would be happy with a reskinned Deus Ex: Human Revolution with some minor tweaks to the hacking and augments. It would have to be a lot more prismatic then DE:HR's two tone asthetic, but up the governmental conspiracies and downplay the corporate espionage (and no Illuminati pls) and you got a near perfect GiTS game. Oh yeah, fill that soundtrack with Yoko Kano goodness.
Other.
Its not so much that games are rushed when their movie tie ins that make them suck.
Its the fact that they try to be the movie. You cite Star Wars as releasing great games, how many of the greats followed the movie? How many tried to re-enact it scene by scene, but with you playing instead of actors acting?
My answer; The shit ones, except Lego Star Wars 'cause those games were amazing, and had a whole other spin on them.
When you play a game based off the movie, and it just regurgitates movie scenes, but in low-res 'cause they want it to run on handhelds too or something, with rather meh gameplay, and complete destruction of pacing thanks to the fact that you know how the movie paces itself, it tries to make itself kind of like that, but it throws enemies in your way constantly... Yeah, its crap. You're going through something you've already seen, and you've already seen it done better - with good actors, realistic [Hopefully] CGI [If its modern, if not than real sets and real people], and usually decent pacing.
The great Star Wars games had nothing to do with the movies. Some, like Battlefront, had a bit of a tie in with 2's campaign, but it wasn't scene by scene reconstruction, and it focused on areas the movies didn't as much - the clones and their exploits, rather than those of the Jedi.
And that's the problem with every bad game tie in I've played. They try to be the movie, rather than playing to gaming's strength and just sticking you in the movie's world and letting you have fun. The ones that break free from the source material, and do their own thing within that universe - they're generally fairly good.
Given that the author of the Witcher books HATES the videogame, you might want to reconsider.
I could never get into the Witcher games, even though I loved the premise of it. But the one thing that really bugged me about the game, is that for a monster hunter, Geralt is woefully ill-prepared. I know he apparently had amnesia, but given that in the THIRD GAME, you have to research the monster you are tracking to identify it and you can research it even more to be better at killing it is incredibly stupid.
While I may have a strong dislike for the Witcher, I am by no means calling it a bad game. I just had the same experience as Yahtzee did with the game. After getting past 'tutorial town', I was completely lost in the city and couldn't figure out where I had to go. I played a small amount of the sequel, but I couldn't even manage the tutorial for that game! I know that CD Projekt RED are heralded for making gritty, 'morale grey' storylines and quests, I agree to the gritty part, but am dubious about the 'morale grey' part. From what I can ascertain, the plot is picking between the bullies and victims while you play as the outsider. The sequel is about Geralt... I have no frigging idea, in all honesty.
But I think we should step back and see what happens over the next year or so s the ne consoles with greater processing capabilities might change things.
Besides, I want Bioware to be great again.
In regards to which franchise would make a great video game... Arrow is great fun to watch and I think would make a great game.
licensed games typically suck because they are usually rushed, and because most of them are literally just video game versions that follow the same story line as a film, or are centered around the same characters.
licensed games should simply take place in the same universe. they dont have to follow the same characters or be in the same setting.
the best examples would obviously be the many great star wars games. the only really good ones that were based entirely on the films were those old Atari/NES SW games.
all of the best ones are total standalone experiences, though, and the genres vary greatly.
that is how it should be. i dont want to buy a crappy Iron Man game that follows the same story as the film. id much rather play a Marvel game that lets us play as characters we probably wont be seeing in film.
It's a bit of a stragne phenomenon that so many licensed games are such terrible quality. Obviously having big names such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of The Rings, etc attatched to your games can be great for recognition, and there are certainly a lot of people who love those source materials enough that they would happily pay out for a game set in one of their favorite fictional settings. However, I think there are a few factors at play here that keep these from reachign their full potential. For starters, I think a lot of developers get that IP and use it as a crutch to help cover for deficiencies. Another possibility could be that gettign ahold of well-known settings for games can be an expensive and/or time consuming process that's just not worth it to many. Soemtiems it may just be easier to just make something that cops elementsfrom /pays homage to/is inspired by a well known or influential work of fiction. Case in point, the Dragon Age setting by Bioware (specifically the first one). It's advertised as a 'spiritual successor' to Baldur's Gate, despite not being set in the Forgotten Realms D&D setting, it draws heavily in visual aesthetics from the likes of the LoTR movies, was admitted as being inspired tonally by Game of Thrones by beign a dark fantasy setting, and draws shamelessly from the likes of the Wheel of Time books for worldbuilding-yet Bioware paid no Royalties for any of these. I suspect that a lot of costs can be saved by just being derivitive rather than directly using an IP, while still enabling them to draw sales from a lot of the people who would be interested in a game with elements from the material they were 'inspired' by. Many people wouldn't be familiar with the source material anyways, so it's just easier to be derivitive than to bother with the time, money, and hassle of getting the rights and having to deal with the oversight of whoever owns them. This is why we have the likes of Dragon Age isntead of a Wheel of Time RPG, and why there is Mass Effect instead of a Babylon 5 rpg. There are a lot of 'good' games made from well known or influential works, but they are derivitive of them, not licensed works.
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