Thread: Where is the Impact gone?

Something has been bugging me with my gaming recently and i've only just figured out what it is. I love Alan Wake i think its a brilliant game spooky atmospheric and story led. The problem is i dont give a shit about whats going on with his wife.......

I watched Michael Bay's final attempt at ruining the last sacred thing from my child hood spent with my face buried in Comics and Cartoons. Yes i am talking about the Transformers movie and yes it was a putrid festering bucket of wank. For those who give a shit dont click the spoiler button but there is a certain section that should have had an emotional impact but fell flat.

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Now Iron Hide along with Jetfire are my favourite transformers. Jet fire Expired in the 2nd and Ironhide gets killed in the third.

This should have made me a little upset or Angry but it did neither. I shrugged Meh!

This sums up whats going on with gaming at the minute. Only Reach has made me sit back and take a minute,

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when Cat gets killed and watching the covenenat take the planet

. Apart from that its been a little to long. Sure games have WOW moments but once the explosion passes thats it moment done.

Games are becoming more like a pissing Michael Bay movie, lots of explosions, some swearing and stupid camera angles. You Mr Bay are a c$%t ruining Transformers and doing the same for games. Fear not i know where you live you prick.

I feel entitled to feel something when playing a big budget shooter but more and more often its all over with a wimper with no lasting impression.

I remember playing Half life and being in total awe at the world valve had created.
Laughing my arse of to Duke Nukem
The feeling of sheer amazement storming the beach on the Silent Cartographer and knowing it was coming to a close seeing Final Run appear.


To cut a long(ish) story short i hate Michael Bay. I hate Call of Duty and most of all i hate explosions. Unless someone is stood next to them. Gaming needs to grow the fuck up, sharpish. Now i am off to play some firefight baggsy the Hog

I have to agree that games and films stick to tried and tested formulae (sic) and only pay scant regard to emotional engagement. I think that part of the problem is that big game and film studios need to produce content that they know will get the punters in so taking risks soon disappears off the agenda. Even major film studios only have profit margins of between 4 and 5% (although those figures may be a little out of date) and so they bank on big box office returns in order to actually turn a profit. The same is probably true of the big game studios.

But there are signs of games producers trying to produce genuinely involving and fresh ideas which have proved commercially successful. The Mass Effect series is proof of this, although that does derive many of its ideas from SF stables such as Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica. Still, it is encouraging to see big companies such as EA and Bioware putting out quality material which does have artisitc value.

Games basically need a storyline, rather than putting explosions where people say wow and not know what is going on!!!

in movies action sequences are expensive and time consuming but they are far more forgiving, in that if a mistake is made it doesnt ruin the suspension of disbelief. the problem with emotional impact is that unless you nail the voice acting, direction, cinematics, screenplay etc absolutely perfectly, it falls flat on its arse and looks stupid. so take a director who frankly isnt very good, and some shit actors, you have to go with action. ultimately thats what the studios want as it makes better trailers and the movie industry is all about the sales on opening weekend

with gaming time is precious (especially with COD's 1 year gap), as you might need to hit the christmas rush to get good sales, or beat a similar franchise to retail etc, and in games it is far easier and therefore quicker to make a big action sequence than to find decent actors and make a believable emotional sequence without ending up farcical.

in movies action sequences are expensive and time consuming but they are far more forgiving, in that if a mistake is made it doesnt ruin the suspension of disbelief. the problem with emotional impact is that unless you nail the voice acting, direction, cinematics, screenplay etc absolutely perfectly, it falls flat on its arse and looks stupid. so take a director who frankly isnt very good, and some shit actors, you have to go with action. ultimately thats what the studios want as it makes better trailers and the movie industry is all about the sales on opening weekend

with gaming time is precious (especially with COD's 1 year gap), as you might need to hit the christmas rush to get good sales, or beat a similar franchise to retail etc, and in games it is far easier and therefore quicker to make a big action sequence than to find decent actors and make a believable emotional sequence without ending up farcical.

Games aren't becoming more and more like Michael Bay films, 10 years ago we weren't playing amazing thought provoking games we still played 9 'Michael Bays' to find our Shadow of Colossus.

Homefront is what you want, with a good mix of action and thinky moments, shame it was so short. hiding in the mass graves and helicopters are flying into San Fran. Blowing shit up with goliath and watching a young boys parents being executed infront of him. Homefront got it right, everyone bought CoD instead.
Blops was more style of substance i thought and 'games' like Heavy Rain are ridiculous. There has to be balance to the shooty killy and the cinematic parts.

Everytime i play a game i try to remember that out of my 10 games, 1 will be my next Shadow of the Colossus.
My favourite, stop and go WOW moment on the 360 .... Call of Duty 4, crawling out the downed helicopter to see the mushroom cloud and dieing on the streets. I've died a bazillion times in games, not like that.

Recently the ending to Alice made me feel a little queasy once you realise ...
before that was probably Enslaved which is full of good feelings.
between those 2 i have finished 10games to the end and played another 20 (games i've had a quick go on, or gone back to for a pop)

Play EDF: IA there isnt a micheal bay in sight, unless he is one of them Daddy Long Legs hanging over everyones head?

quick note on transformers - it is very poor indeed.

check out you tube - transformers/the island. there is a sequence in the island that they have ported straight into transformers and overlaid it with some CGI to try and disquise it

Originally Posted by BAZZA SNIKROT

quick note on transformers - it is very poor indeed.

check out you tube - transformers/the island. there is a sequence in the island that they have ported straight into transformers and overlaid it with some CGI to try and disquise it

The reason for that was during the original filming, a stunt driver had an accident during the sequence and died (or paralysed cant remember which).. It was probably the inability to get anyone to do the stunt they just 'nicked' the footage.. however, the difference between the two is testament to how much CGI effects can alter a 'simple' sequence (granted, the island probably had different CGI over the base footage so its not removing & then adding stuff)

and here is the sequences in question :


(remember kids, crappy cam recordings arent as good as true cinematic delights, support your local cinema)

still.. heres a bigger question... Did anyone actually see The Island? more to the point, how did they remember this tiny sequence of footage?


Edit,
Details of that crash :
http://jalopnik.com/5629380/extra-ha...sformers-3-set

Not death, partial paralysis.. Cant locate further details about her to see if shes transformed herself back to good health..

no, no-one saw the island, and that scene IIRC was very very expensive, even by michael "hitler" bay's standards, they built a big stretch of motorway (or highway i suppose) specifically for the filming.

at least with transformers they might get their moneys worth from it