Rubbish games
Me and Lyris were talking about computer games, and we came to the conclusion that games right now are a hell of a lot worse than they were a few years ago. Part of it, I think, is the over-reliance on movie references. The film business, or to be precise, Hollywood, has developed a whole shorthand for specific emotions and concepts - this is an epic scene, this is a sad scene, etc. - and game developers seem content to just copy these stereotypes. If games are to be taken seriously, they seriously need to stop copying everything the film industry does. I mean, seriously, would the movie business suddenly decide, from now on, that it was going to copy everything from comic books? Of course not. I'm all for cross-format ideas, but games need to have their own voice rather than just trying to work out what was successful in The Lord of the Rings or Terminator.
Remember Mario? He used to be neat, and he didn't rip off famous movies. The early games didn't owe anything to other media, because they were actually centred around original ideas and because the developers had limited resources and technology to work with. Somewhere along the line, something went wrong. Personally, I think Duke Nukem was the first example of this. In Duke Nukem 3D, one of the most boring, depressing and overrated games of all time, the developers thought it would be funny to rip off a bunch of lines from Bruce Campbell's movies and make them come out of the Duke's mouth. How inspired! Suddenly Duke Nukem isn't just a character you play, he's a fucking mile-a-minute wise-crackin' asshole who says things like "I am going to cut off your head and poo in your neck" because they sound cool. Yawn.Look, don't get me wrong. I think that attempts to use the stylistic techniques of other formats can, at times, be successful. Planescape: Torment, one of my favourite games of all time, owes more to the storytelling format of a novel than any game. Likewise, Michel Ancel came up with some very interesting ways of making his most recent game, Beyond Good and Evil, feel like an interactive movie. There's a time and a place for it. But I am sick to death of, in every single new game I play, being able to pinpoint every single character, line of dialogue, plot twist, shot or piece of music and state which film they came from. Look, it's great that Id Software can rip off Ridley Scott's Alien for Doom III. Fabulous work, guys. Now go create something of your own.
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