What is the "Citizen Kane" of Video Games?

[Azaraxzealot]

Call of Duty Black Ops








HA! Gotcha! so far? i think it's Mass Effect 2.

 

[madgaurd1989]

KOTOR because of its great story telling and revolutionary controls and RPG interface.

 

[Mullahgrrl]

This discussion has already been settled. [http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8765863]

If Metroid is gamings 'Kane' then Other M is Citizen Kane 2:cool runnings!

 

[Clockwork Scarecrow.]

Thief: The Dark Project.

 

[nuba km]

silent hill 2 I haven't even played it but I have looked at it in lots of detail and I will say that's the closest you get to citizen kane.

 

[Austin Howe]

A) Citizen Kane. Over rated.

B) Gaming has had artistic value since at least the day Terranigma was released, though if we want to go with only an aesthetic value, Super Metroid is aesthetically perfect. (It's ROM hack, Redesign, by Drewseph, is even better.)

 

[Austin Howe]

Oh, and these games:

Legacy of Kain series.
Metal Gear series.
Final Fantasy VIII

If I have to give special awards for all three, the first two would win "Most Importatnt and Best Said Things To Say About The World Around Us", and the latter would win "Most and Best Developed Character"

 

[Austin Howe]

There's also the problem that when it does happen, we'll look back and realize we may have jumped the gun, but in a way that inspired us to continue to make good art. Many regard Kane as actually quite hollow under it's great direction, so we may have a game someday that makes us go "Wow, just. . .wow." but 20 years later when we have honest to god Dr. Strangeloves and such to work with, we'll look back and see it as a much more deeply flawed piece of work than we thought.

In games, this happens much faster than it has in other mediums. For example, everyone thought that Final Fantasy VII was an unparalled epic at first release, but upon further inspection, we find that it's really more the characters and the setting, not really the events that take place, which occasionally don't really seem to follow.

We may also go back and realize certain flaws help a game. The AI in MGS2 that said, for example, that soldiers could only see on certain planes, meaning he couldn't see you hanging off a ledge like a dolt, and that they patrolled like robots, helps to add to the layer of Kafka-ian lack of existence to the world around Raiden. Even the soldiers seem fake, computerized, in addition to his support team, and the overall feeling that this is all a little too familiar to be happening again.

 

[Judgmentalist]

On top of that, your example would seem to agree with what I've said so far. FFVII, wonderful in its time, hasn't aged amazingly well; the graphics look clunky and don't retain the beauty of 16-bit predecessors, and the gameplay, while revolutionary at its time, has been honed since. You could even argue that this gen's popularization of WRPGs has made JRPGs more obsolete too, if you wanted. I loved FFVII, but it's not a game I would want to play much any more. (In my opinion, a better game to play today would be FFV or FFVI, one of the capstone iterations of the 2D era.)

So you're agreeing with my reply; that FFVII was wonderful for its day, much like Kane, that it was a benchmark that no one really uses (at least in your view), much like Kane, that other things have surpassed it. So you're agreeing that FFVII is the Citizen Kane of videogames; a benchmark product of a bygone era whose loveliness is eclipsed by the unforgiving parade of exponentially expanding submissions into its genre. Cool!

 

[ranger19]

So you're agreeing with my reply; that FFVII was wonderful for its day, much like Kane, that it was a benchmark that no one really uses (at least in your view), much like Kane, that other things have surpassed it. So you're agreeing that FFVII is the Citizen Kane of videogames; a benchmark product of a bygone era whose loveliness is eclipsed by the unforgiving parade of exponentially expanding submissions into its genre. Cool!

I never contended with that. This reply comes off as a bit sarcastic, especially since your definition of the "Citizen Kane" is pretty much what I said before:

the Citizen Kane of videogames; a benchmark product of a bygone era whose loveliness is eclipsed by the unforgiving parade of exponentially expanding submissions into its genre.

Compare:

Citizen Kane is one of the most influential movies ever, but not one of the best; many films since have built on its foundation, and few people would list Kane as their top movie to watch these days.

I never actually addressed your FFVII point because it was irrelevant at the time: I was simply explaining my use of IMDB as a quick way to gauge a film's current position in society's collective mind. I will take your silence on this point as a concession to my argument.

 

[Scout Tactical]

In this thread: young people, videogamers no less, who think they understand art.

 

[Wintermoot]

I dont think we have one yet. but judging from what I heard from ME (havent plated it yet) it sounds like a close canidate. Close but no cigar I think we first need to get rid of the ignorance and let the medium mature before whe can think of creating a Citizen Cane

 

[BENZOOKA]

Somehow all I can think of is Half-Life. It was the first proper 3D game I played (not counting DN3D, Blood, Doom's nor Quake's and other titles) with some kind of a plot, and it gave a clue about what games can be like in the future.

This is a bit tricky when asking "Which game is x", when we all aren't clear and of one mind about what the x is. And even if we were, it's still a subjective topic. So both the adjective we are offered, and the subject we're looking for, are subjective.

So it's all very subjective. And Half-Life.

EDIT: edited for clarity.

 

[GiantRaven]

Somehow all I can think of is Half-Life. It was the first proper 3D game with some kind of a plot, and it gave a clue about what games can be like in the future.

This is a bit tricky when asking "Which game is x", when we all aren't clear and of one mind about what the x is. And even if we were, it's still a subjective topic, as is the adjective we're finding a subject for.

So it's all very subjective. And Half-Life.

I'm pretty sure there were 3d games with 'some kind of plot' before Half-Life came out. Like, for example, Banjo-Kazooie.

 

[dcrane]

ICO

 

[BENZOOKA]

Somehow all I can think of is Half-Life. It was the first proper 3D game I played (not counting DN3D, Blood, Doom's nor Quake's and other titles) with some kind of a plot, and it gave a clue about what games can be like in the future.

This is a bit tricky when asking "Which game is x", when we all aren't clear and of one mind about what the x is. And even if we were, it's still a subjective topic. So both the adjective we are offered, and the subject we're looking for, are subjective.

So it's all very subjective. And Half-Life.

EDIT: edited for clarity.

I'm pretty sure there were 3d games with 'some kind of plot' before Half-Life came out. Like, for example, Banjo-Kazooie.

I forgot to mention it was first such of a game, that I played. Forgot two words from there. So I fixed that and a few other things in the post.

You are correct. It seems like Banjo-Kazooie came out 5 months before Half-Life.

 

[ABLb0y]

Either Bioshock 2 or Mass Effect.

 

[Judgmentalist]

Posting my reply to the puzzling Ranger19 via mail. Not quite certain how answering the poll question "wasn't relevant".

 

[ChipSandwich]

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Escapist I am disappoint. A game with an NPC who turns himself into an armoir at the Brothel of Intellectual Lusts so that he can sniff panties kept in his drawers is the greatest masterpiece ever conceived in videogame history and you should be ashamed at not being able to transform yourself into furniture and absorb some delightful female smells.

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What can change the nature of a man?