Non-linear - October 27th, 2001 - Drew Cosner
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not neccessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. Non-linear! Don't say we didn't warn you.
Today I'm going to use this space to make something of a public service announcement, although I realize that may be a jarring change of pace. Typically I this waste space laboring under the egotistical assumption that people both read my inane intros and care what I think. Today's exactly the same in those respects, except rather than mocking something for my own amusement, I'm going to fawn all over something instead. Everyone who meets the following criteria absolutely must pick up Grand Theft Auto III: - You are over the age of, say, 18. Maybe that's a little young, but this game is morally questionable on so many levels I couldn't possibly begin to list them all. So I'm saying you should probably be old enough that the media won't immediately blame GTA3 when you slaughter your co-workers, you psychotic.
- You have a really lax conscience. Even I feel kind of bad about beating old women to death with a baseball bat and stealing the money they leave behind. Not bad enough not to do it, but still. And that's just one example of the moral bankruptcy present throughout the game.
- You don't mind driving. GTA3 is more a "crime simulator" than a driving game, but you do quite a bit of carting people/bombs/yourself around. The fact that it's in stolen vehicles that fall apart until they eventually blow up works for me, despite not being a racing fan to speak of.
- You aren't going to kill a bunch of people and blame Rock Star so that we never get a sequel again. I have to stress that last part. Don't ruin it for everyone else just because you're insane.
Grand Theft Auto III is essentially the best attempt at a truly "non-linear" game to date. You don't have to help anyone. You don't have to complete any missions. You don't even have to break the law. You are a man in a town who can do whatever he wants. Want to walk around abiding by the law? Go for it. It may not be much fun, but it's certainly an option. Conversely, want to help out every possible crime syndicate in existence in an attempt to be the most infamous criminal Liberty City has ever seen? You can do that just as well. In fact, for those who've played the first two games in the series, this third title is far and away the best. Missions actually have a sense of progress to them, and there's finally a decent storyline. Missions are good enough that you keep playing to see what insane task the game will have you do next; the storyline is good enough that you keep playing to see what the result of your misdeeds will be. But enough of this positive crap; let's get this show on the road. | Must brag! | | Drew, I just happen to love video games and anime very much, but I just don't feel like talking about that right now. So, here goes. In response to Mr. Tuvai's letter about vg music collections, I absolutely have to brag. 4200 That's how many video game songs are in my playlist right now. Name a game, and I've got it's music. Mwah! ~Beowulf_VII, expecting to hear someone's bigger number, but not caring |
I'm kind of curious as to why you'd be interested in impressing the types that stat would impress, but I'll let you have your moment in the sun. While conspicuously insulting you for no good reason, of course. | Good for the goose but not for the gander | | Hey, Drew. I really don't consider the FF movie an "adaptation," considering that it had virtually nothing to do with FF. It gets a bad name, but it really was a technical achievement and an okay film - I just wish they'd come up with a different name. But yeah, actual game-to-movie adaptations do tend to suck. It's a well-known fact that attempts to transfer something from one medium to another almost never stack up to the original, as I'm sure anyone who's ever read a book and then seen the movie version knows. Even if the movie is really good and successfully captures the spirit of the book (i.e. The Princess Bride), the book is still almost always better. Same with games to another medium. Or movie-to-game translations... ugh. I don't think all game-to-movie attempts are pre-doomed to failure; there have been like two movies that were better than their books, after all (Field Of Dreams/Shoeless Joe and The Godfather). The odds of it happening are just really low. So maybe some people somewhere should keep trying... but the folks at Square really should stick with the "game" thing. -Toma Levine |
Yeah, I'd say that pretty much sums up the conundrum; transferring ideas from one medium to another is difficult specifically because ideas developed tailored to the weaknesses and strengths of one form of entertainment may not, or perhaps cannot, work in another. In fact, I'd argue that the best kind of videogames may be the ones that would be impossible to write a book about. Imagine how boring a book that chronicle's Mario's adventures in Mario 64 would be: the game focused entirely on things that could only be done in the medium. It was, to sound cliché, all about the gameplay. However, I'm confident that certain materials from games could work in a movie, or perhaps a book. Let's contrast FF:TSW and the upcoming Crazy Taxi for a moment. TSW sounded appealing initially because it was to combine Square's excellent narrative with the fantastic CG the company was already well-known for. Unfortunately, too much "videogame logic" snuck into a script which may have worked had it been padded with standard RPG trappings: battles, prolonged character development, etc. Instead, the story was unable to stand on its own, leaving the world with a pretty but uninspired film. Crazy Taxi, on the other hand, has little narrative to speak of. Just get your car from point A to point B as fast as humanly possible, ignoring anything in your way. All a Crazy Taxi movie needs to have to fit the feel of the game perfectly is minimal plotline that involves insane cabbies getting from point A to point B in an insane fashion as much as possible for an hour and a half. So I guess what I'm trying to say, in my typically tortuous manner, is yeah, if they pick the right games to make movies out of, it could actually work. | Unlimited possibilities | | I'll agree about Final Fantasy Unlimited, but I'll be damned if I sit here while you insult the Kirby anime. That show has limitless possibilities! -- Shawn K., who recently saw 12 episodes of Captain N sell on eBay for $200. |
It's bad enough when people will pay a fortune for relics from the 1980's, but when people pay $200 for videogame relicts from the 1980's, you know something is wrong. | Squanime | | Squaresoft could always create an anime division, something like "Squanime" or some witty name like that. I'm sure they could do great, especially with the help of talented artists like Amano and Mitsuda who could help out once in a while. Square could really bring the kind of diversity/originality we rarely see in animes, because let's face it: most animes really suck, and way too many of them are extremely unoriginal. But if they decided to create this anime division, then I would make sure if I was them that I wouldn't make movies based on any games. I don't see why I would want to watch a FFIV or Secret of Mana anime. Sure they could actually be good movies, but what would be the use really? We've seen the games, we don't need to see them in non-interactive form. If Square worked on new original non-game related movies they would be attracting all of its fans plus non-Squaresoft fans. They could still make great games apart from making movies, while keeping a clear line between both, making sure they don't end up falling for the "let's make a bunch of animes based on games, and toys, and lunch boxes based on those animes which are based on games which then spawn their own videogame series". In the end it's just a question of being smart, not trying to take over the world overnight with out of proportion ambitions, taking things more slowly and more carefully, but always working on releasing quality. And it rhimes, so I must be right! -Phil |
What are you talking about? That movie thing worked out great. Okay, okay, I can't help it; my mother was sarcastic, so I must've gotten it from her. | Ironic, don't you think? | | Hi Drew, I find it incredibly funny that the only two good game-to-anime/movie conversions were Fatal Fury and Street Fighter. RPGs always seemed like they would make perfect series, or at least movie trilogies. Well, we can always hope for a Chrono Trigger movie directed by Akira Toriyama. -Rune, still hungover from a massive 7-hour late night anime binge |
Several people actually wrote in to nominate these as videogame to anime conversions that didn't suck. I've never seen either to comment, but as any fanboy will tell you, there's no such thing as bad anime or bad RPGs. So I'm sure both are fantastic. Closing comments: Okay, I suppose you walrus-boys (and girls) want a topic for tomorrow. Well here it is, in all its glory: what do you want out of a truly non-linear game? I submit the next Grand Theft Auto title, but that's just let me know what you would consider non-linear. -Drew Cosner | | | |
