When I Grow Up, I Want to be a Movie!

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You ever get the feeling that the video game industry tries too hard to be like the movies? Sometimes it works but more often than not, it comes off as lame and painfully forced. Let's take a look at a couple trailers for some upcoming PS2 games.

First we have the good, a Resident Evil Online trailer that actually gives you some idea of what the gameplay will be like while injecting it with some movie-like scenes and voice-overs. Well played and it accomplishes everything it needs to do.

Should anyone be surprised that the bad is a Tomb Raider game trailer? Who are they trying to fool with this lame, artsy "making of" crap that tries to make the next Lara Croft game look all dark and edgy? Here are some painful quotes for you, imagine them delivered in voice overs by dark and edgy English men while a shaky camera does various close-ups and pans of their pasty faces;

"Our vision is to take a place of (incoherent, maybe "wet dark" or something), a place they may not necessarily wish to go but a place they will have to venture if they want to bring Lara back"

"It will be a new experience, one that will almost be shocking to the people who have played Tomb Raider in the past"

"This is a world of shadows, there is a shadow on Lara. He watches, waits, he bides his time. His name.. is Curtis"

"Tomb Raider has always set the benchmark for games, this game will be no different" 

Well, that last statement rings true, that's for sure. A big problem with videos like this is that they show no gameplay, just cut-scenes and homely developers trying to look mysterious before going back to their cubicles.

I would say "for shame Eidos!" but I think they're long past that.

- Certis

Comments

 I think that gamers are so hungry for scraps on their favourite upcoming games that they'll (*we'll*) lap up anything the publishers deem strategically appropriate to release.  The new Tomb Raider game is pretty late now, isn't it?  They managed almost one a year prior to this, albeit marked by the Law Of Diminishing Returns in its full, naked glory.  They're probably desperate for any material that doesn't show it's just a late remake of the previous game(s), so they resort to getting the devs to lie on camera.  And therein shall you find the source of the sucking.

Not exactly what you're referring to in your editorial, but along the lines of the headline...

I thought this about Metal Gear Solid 2 - Sons Of Liberty.  It was very cool, very silly and had about 5 hours of *actual* gaming.  I don't replay console games like this, because their notion of replayability is "Play through again, making no mistakes and you get to play as Snakes mother!". No thanks. Hideo Kojima should make films, no doubt about that, but he's not a game designer.

 

 

"This is a world of shadows, there is a shadow on Lara. He watches, waits, he bides his time. His name.. is... who? Certis?"

Sorry, I'll be good.

I agree wholeheartedly about MGS2. That game was crap simply because they tried to be too much like a movie. The sad thing is that people ate it up at E3. It was the next big thing, what showed that the PS2 would crush us all under the weight of its "Emotion Engine".

I think people will start realizing that a game that is just like a movie is a crappy movie and a crappy game, then well see some more creativity and identity among games. Trying to not be just like anybody else, but like a game. At least thats what will happen in my fairy fantasy world, that I am going to go to now. *la l-la l-la*

Argh! HTML formatting! I just now figured out why all my posts were squished into one paragraph.

Meh, I've played this before, *NEXT!*

Okay maybe if they really did make it something new and different I might give it a chance... doesn't seem all that likely now though does it?