Thursday, September 09, 2010

Red Dead, Mafia 2 and Game Movies

To be clear, I'm separating this discussion off from whether the games are enjoyable, or how they happen to bring you pleasure in your gaming style.

Having taken a run at both RED DEAD and MAFIA 2, I think one can argue that they're not so much games as movies where you participate in the narrative and fill in the off-screen (sometimes quite boring) bits. Interestingly, I prefer games like, say BATTLEField bad company 2 or MODERN COMBAT, or particularly UNCHARTED 2, in that they obey the rules of good narrative structure -- that is, leave out the goddam boring bits. You lose a degree of freedom in theory, but do you really gain enough in entertainment or emotion investment to trade off for the pleasure of story clarity and momentum?

All games are hacking about in similar evolutionary space right now, but I'd say the Bioware model -- where one has at least the chance of winding up with different narrative outcomes -- is both what I prefer and what is more, for the lack of a better word "game-y". It's the most intriguing new model.

Sound off down in the usual place.

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