logo Sign In

Do Video Games Sometimes have better stories than films ?

Author
Time

Lots of bad movie storylines in recent years but some really compelling games like bioshock,

years ago kotor, recently mass effect.  God of war etc.  Shadow of the collossus, twilight princess.

A lot of the final fantasy games, metal gear solid series.

Can anyone think of other games.

 

Sometimes games can have as impressive production values af films.  The use of music, sound effects and cgi cutscenes.  I thought a good deal of force unleashed was better than the prequels.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

Author
Time

Damn for once I actually agree with you on this one,there a few games that just have kick ass stories,and long and very interesting ones at that.

but I must admit,I am impressed you put KOTOR in there,you know that is SW related,but Mass Effect is just totally awesome,and as far as other games with an impressive story,well I can think of some older PC games,like these:

Ultima VII The Balck Gate w\ Serpent Isle addon
Ultima VIII Pagan
Ultima IX Ascension
Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss
Ultima Underworld Labyrinth of Worlds
and last but not least Diablo & Diablo II and I am pretty sure Diablo III

all these games gave me hours and hours of PURE fun!

 

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Never really got into pc rpgs but there are a damn lot of them.

Where would one start?

I began with the first final fantasy recently and am working my way through the entire series i am currently stuck on VI.  The old games require lots of leveling and random encounters.  I think the original snes version took me over 50 hours.  I would just stick that in my old super nes deck and play it but the battery pack went bye bye.

I am also going to start the dragon warrior/dragon quest series from the beginning because i never played them.

I am a huge fan of j-rpg's and only a select few come stateside translated. 

The last such game i beat was blue dragon.  Kind of dissapointing coming from the dude who created final fantasy and gave us Chrono Trigger.

I had this game called oblivion on the xbox 360 that i think was voiced over by Patrick Stewart that game was damn long and hard to play through.

Have yet to play fable 2 beat the first one and special edition so many times i lost count and beat all the side quests.

Mass Effect to me was the ultimate game as a sci fi fanatic, and rpg player it was like awsome.  Played through it as both male and female shepard and good and evil paths.

Though the main character i created of Sheppard i saved and am waiting to boot up on the second game my current stats.

The  original idea that the decisions you made in the first kotor game would inlluence II and III was passed onto the mass effect trilogy.  I love that style of choose your own adventure.  Deciding which characters live and who dies under your command and so on.  Whether you are ruthless or a good guy, just a grey character.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I never got into Final Fantasy,and I am just now starting Mass Effect,I am lost trying to find that Bounty Hunter Wrex I think his name is,but this game looks AWESOME.

"The  original idea that the decisions you made in the first kotor game would inlluence II and III"

There is no part III is there?

 

Author
Time
 (Edited)

No real part III revans story is never finished or told completely.

The follow up the mmo old republic is set hundreds of years later.

Still looks amazing and the story is awesome.  But i don't play mmo's, and the monthly subcription thing i just don't really want to do or cannot afford really.

Plus the bioware part 2 never happened.  So a lot of fans see part 2 as non canon.

I think to get the game out they had obsidian do it.

I have no idea what different direction bioware would have done, or if it would have been essentially the same game.  I have no clue as to if the second game was written by Karpshynn like the first was.  And the second game as released ends on a cliffhanger and part 3 would have picked up on revans story in the unknown regions of sith space.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

massive mutliplayer online role playing game.

Like world of warcraft, final fantasy online, star wars online etc.

Yep that is the cinematic trailer.

Makes me wish this game was a movie.

Same writing staff as Mass Effect as far as i'm aware which includes Drew Karpshyn.  Who wrote the darth bane novels.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

Author
Time
skyjedi2005 said:

massive mutliplayer online role playing game.

Like world of warcraft, final fantasy online, star wars online etc.

 

You have to be kidding me,well that just ruins it,DAMN I hate those,I would rather sit by myself and play through these games.

Author
Time

Metal Gear Solid immediately comes to mind. I've only played the first one, but if the rest are anything like it, then they definitely have some good stories.

Lots of the adventure games from the 90s, especially from Lucasarts, have really good movie-quality stories:

Monkey Island 1-3 (4 was decent, but not as good as the rest)

Sam and Max Hit the Road

Full Throttle

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (wish they'd made this a movie instead of Crystal Skull)

THE DIG!

Grim Fandango

Also, Beneath a Steel Sky and Flight of the Amazon Queen were amazing as well.

http://i.imgur.com/7N84TM8.jpg

Author
Time

 

The Wing Commander games!

“First feel fear, then get angry. Then go with your life into the fight.” - Bill Mollison

Author
Time
 (Edited)

double post

"Fuck you. All the star wars movies were excellent. none of them sucked. Also, revenge of the sith is the best."

- DarthZorgon (YouTube)

Author
Time

The stories in the "Superman Returns" video game for PS2 were far superior to the movie it was based on.

"Fuck you. All the star wars movies were excellent. none of them sucked. Also, revenge of the sith is the best."

- DarthZorgon (YouTube)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Now the Dig i do remember via the novelization by Alan Dean Foster,lol.

Never played through the game just had a demo of the first level that came with the book.

Fate of Atlantis i like a lot but the voice person they chose for indiana jones was lame. why no harrison ford?

Still it was okay.  The guy they got for the newest game is infinetely worse and just annoying.

One of the old lucas games i used to love was Maniac Mansion not much of a story there though.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

Author
Time
Nanner Split said:

Metal Gear Solid immediately comes to mind. I've only played the first one, but if the rest are anything like it, then they definitely have some good stories.

Definitely.  The stories get a little bizarre, and they're definitely too epic to be contained in a 2.5-hour film (especially MGS4), but they're still very, very rich.

I'd also like to add Mass Effect to this list, though I still haven't finished the game :-(

Author
Time
skyjedi2005 said:

Now the Dig i do remember via the novelization by Alan Dean Foster,lol.

...

Fate of Atlantis i like a lot but the voice person they chose for indiana jones was lame. why no harrison ford?

 

The Dig was originally suppose to be a film directed by Steven Spielberg. Forget the details, but they ended up making it into a game instead. That is why the game feels so cinematic. I have the book by Alan Dean Foster, but have never gotten around to playing it.

As for Indy's voice in Fate of Atlantis, kind of funny, I have never actually heard it. I never had the talkie versions of any of the old LucasGames/Arts classics. Didn't have CD-ROM drive on the ol' PC back in those days, so I had to stick with the floppy disc versions, which didn't include full voice. Games like Sam & Max Hit the Road and Day of the Tentacle would have full voice in the introductions, then they would switch over to just text. Back then I didn't even realize full talkie versions of those games existed, in fact, even up until now, I had absolutely no idea a talkie version of Fate of Atlantis existed.

 

Back to the main topic, most definitely some games have better stories than a lot of films. Bioshock is a very good example of this, stick to the same visuals and plot, flesh the thing out quite a bit, and you'd likely have quite a sucessful film on your hands. Unfortunately, any video game film is likely to be completely destroyed (yet to see one that hasn't been). Even some of the mini stories told throughout Fallout 3 are very creative and amusing. Grim Fandango is a fantastic story, beats the absolute crap out of anything the much praised Pixar could ever release.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

Author
Time

Did anyone ever play "Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego" ?

"Fuck you. All the star wars movies were excellent. none of them sucked. Also, revenge of the sith is the best."

- DarthZorgon (YouTube)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Eternal Darkness : Sanity's Requiem is much closer to the feel of Lovecraft than any of the films directly inspired by them.

I haven't played the game but what I've seen of the new Arkham Asylum game it looks like it would make one hell of a Batman movie.

The Silent Hill games (though the film is better than most) still trump a lot of films for wierd atmosphere, the fourth one (though not really a Silent Hill game) would make a great Lynchian wierd out film. Sort of like a cross between Rear Window, Repulsion and Hellraiser.

 

Author
Time

The Secret of Monkey Island; Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge; THE DIG (Holy fuck I love this game!); Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis; Grim Fandango (Never got around to completing it even though it's on my game spindle); GHOSTBUSTERS: The Video Game; BioShock; BRADE RUNNAH (1997 Westwood, It rivals the film but I love both equally. I'm still attempting to get all the endings ever since I bought it in 2000.); HALF-LIFE2 and the Episodes; STAR WARS: Knights of the Old Republic (HK-47 = Damn awesome);

Will be edited later.

Author
Time
DarkFather said:

Did anyone ever play "Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego" ?

 

Yeah, that game came with my first CD-ROM drive (which was a whopping 1x!) First game I ever played with full voice.

 

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape