I was going to start a thread to wax lyrical about Mass Effect 2, having recently finished it, I’d say not only was it one of the finest videogames ever made, but one of the best pieces of science fiction ever made in general. Then another thought struck me however, and that was how many science fiction games there are coming out and how they are often showing more imagination, better plots and better characters than many of the movies that have come out recently. While last year did see District 9, an inventive and original film, two other big scifi film releases were Star Trek and Avatar. Opinion can be divisive on those (I for instance loved Star Trek and have a burning passionate hatred of Avatar 
) but I think that one thing we can agree, no matter how great a film one thinks they were, was that neither were exactly the most original. And for every decent film there are the huge numbers of cinematic turkeys, Surrogates for example, a film that appeared to have been made with a checklist of other films to rip off (Yes I know it’s based off a graphic novel but still...). Videogames meanwhile have come a long way, their stories are often incredible and can provide a hugely emotional and engaging experience. I mean just take a look at this Mass Effect 2 Trailer.
Part of what’s so great is that you, the player can shape the fictional universe. In Mass Effect 2 decisions that you make in the original Mass Effect can be carried over and as a direct result who is alive and who is not, the political structure of the galaxy, even the very existence of a species can depend on the choices you made. My play through of Mass Effect 2 may vary considerably to someone else’s. Further with the advances in graphics and games higher profile and better script writing games are really creating many deeply interesting characters. Games can now also afford to hire a truckload of talent when it comes to voicing their characters as I think this vid shows.
As for that old chestnut of originality, take a look at Bioshock.
Who in the movie making business would risk making a big budget movie about a Ayn Rand inspired 50’s underwater dystopia, where questions on the morality of child labour and genetic manipulation are raised? But they made a game of it and it turned out to be highly successful with a sequal soon on the way.
Finally the increased popularity of videogames has led to greater linkage to scifi literature as well. Mass Effect has 2 novels out and a third in the works and there’s starting to be videogame adaptations of literature as this vid shows.
And the games I’ve mentioned barely scratch the surface, there are a myriad of original scifi games out there as well as licensed games like Star Wars Knight of the Old Republic which ended up telling a far better story than any of the prequel films did. I think then were seeing a real explosion in scifi talent in game makers, the creators of Mass Effect, Bioware are brilliant at world building and I think the Scifi videogame scene is defiantly worth fans of the genre investigating, even if you aren’t a traditional videogamer. And if you haven’t already go buy both Mass Effect 1 and 2, you won’t regret it.
) but I think that one thing we can agree, no matter how great a film one thinks they were, was that neither were exactly the most original. And for every decent film there are the huge numbers of cinematic turkeys, Surrogates for example, a film that appeared to have been made with a checklist of other films to rip off (Yes I know it’s based off a graphic novel but still...). Videogames meanwhile have come a long way, their stories are often incredible and can provide a hugely emotional and engaging experience. I mean just take a look at this Mass Effect 2 Trailer.
Part of what’s so great is that you, the player can shape the fictional universe. In Mass Effect 2 decisions that you make in the original Mass Effect can be carried over and as a direct result who is alive and who is not, the political structure of the galaxy, even the very existence of a species can depend on the choices you made. My play through of Mass Effect 2 may vary considerably to someone else’s. Further with the advances in graphics and games higher profile and better script writing games are really creating many deeply interesting characters. Games can now also afford to hire a truckload of talent when it comes to voicing their characters as I think this vid shows.
As for that old chestnut of originality, take a look at Bioshock.
Who in the movie making business would risk making a big budget movie about a Ayn Rand inspired 50’s underwater dystopia, where questions on the morality of child labour and genetic manipulation are raised? But they made a game of it and it turned out to be highly successful with a sequal soon on the way.
Finally the increased popularity of videogames has led to greater linkage to scifi literature as well. Mass Effect has 2 novels out and a third in the works and there’s starting to be videogame adaptations of literature as this vid shows.
And the games I’ve mentioned barely scratch the surface, there are a myriad of original scifi games out there as well as licensed games like Star Wars Knight of the Old Republic which ended up telling a far better story than any of the prequel films did. I think then were seeing a real explosion in scifi talent in game makers, the creators of Mass Effect, Bioware are brilliant at world building and I think the Scifi videogame scene is defiantly worth fans of the genre investigating, even if you aren’t a traditional videogamer. And if you haven’t already go buy both Mass Effect 1 and 2, you won’t regret it.
Again. They wont make me a fooking movie with cool scifi grunts like the above,^ who are the good guys and the heroes. Games let me do this!
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