was going to put this as my opener for NMH2 review

but like my last review i started going off on a tangent before i scrapped it and started over. here are my unrefined thoughts.

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These days video games tend to forget their identity as games. "Interactive Cinema" is the term they call it. Uncharted 2, and Heavy Rain are paving the way forward with more engaging storytelling, life-like characters and real emotion. Yet I find these type of games to be banal, but also sometimes boring. If this is the direction the medium is heading towards, then the future is indeed frightening. While I am not against progression, developers don't need to prove to cultural snobs that games are sophisticated enough to be called art. Video games are much of an art form as the first caveman who painted on cave walls.

Perhaps this is why I've come to love Suda 51 and No More Heroes. The game embodies everything that its rebelling against -- the bloated nature of the gaming industry. No More Heroes deconstructs the action genre to its essential elements.

Comments 2

zippdementia Feb 13, 2010

Your sentiment is a valid one, except that there is such a thing as a balanced experience, where the cinematic value doesn't prohibit the gameplay experience. I didn't feel that UC2 suffered any from being cinematic, for instance.

As for Heavy Rain, it's an adventure game and what have those ever been except glorified choose your own adventures?

jiggs Blogger Feb 13, 2010

actually you're right about Uncharted 2, since i've played the first one. Naughty Dog are technical wizards.

i played some more of the Heavy Rain demo. i climbed up the muddy cliff in the crime scene scenario. if the game let me run across the stretch of busy highway that would have been so awesome! but i kind of chuckled when jayden gave the driver the forearm for splashing him.