Steven Spielberg - the famed movie director and creative force behind the Wii's Boom Blox found himself interviewed by Tom Chick recently. While Chick desperately tried to make comparisons between Spielberg's game and LittleBigPlanet* Spielberg spoke about cut scenes.
"You know the thing that doesn't work for me in these games are the little movies where they attempt to tell a story in between the playable levels. That's where there hasn't been a synergy between storytelling and gaming. They go to a lot of trouble to do these [motion-capture] movies that explain the characters", said the director.
He continued, "And then the second the game is returned to you and it's under your control, you forget everything the interstitials are trying to impact you with, and you just go back to shooting things. And that has not found its way into a universal narrative. And I think more has to be done in that arena."
Frankly, the old fella has a point.
He's also working on a new and more complicated 'move-style' movie, which is we assume also going to be aimed at the Wii based on his prediliction for the platform (he does own PS3 and 360 though).
Source: Yahoo
* Chick's question, "One of the features in Boom Blox that a lot of people love, and that EA has put a lot of work into, is the level builder. As you play, you unlock basically new toys that go in the chest and then you use these to build your own levels." Steve's answer, "It's like dominoes. As a parent, I used to play dominoes with my kids. I still do with my grandkids. There's a whole element of that in Boom Blox."
"You know the thing that doesn't work for me in these games are the little movies where they attempt to tell a story in between the playable levels. That's where there hasn't been a synergy between storytelling and gaming. They go to a lot of trouble to do these [motion-capture] movies that explain the characters", said the director.
He continued, "And then the second the game is returned to you and it's under your control, you forget everything the interstitials are trying to impact you with, and you just go back to shooting things. And that has not found its way into a universal narrative. And I think more has to be done in that arena."
Frankly, the old fella has a point.
He's also working on a new and more complicated 'move-style' movie, which is we assume also going to be aimed at the Wii based on his prediliction for the platform (he does own PS3 and 360 though).
Source: Yahoo
* Chick's question, "One of the features in Boom Blox that a lot of people love, and that EA has put a lot of work into, is the level builder. As you play, you unlock basically new toys that go in the chest and then you use these to build your own levels." Steve's answer, "It's like dominoes. As a parent, I used to play dominoes with my kids. I still do with my grandkids. There's a whole element of that in Boom Blox."
Games:
BOOM BLOX
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Comments
Ifsey 10 Dec 2008 20:17
1/2
One of the very few games that work brilliantly with a story is Fire Emblem, despite the Dubbing of the cut-scenes in both PoR and RD being utterly crap
Joji 10 Dec 2008 21:50
2/2
Ifsey wrote:
One of the very few games that work brilliantly with a story is Fire Emblem, despite the Dubbing of the cut-scenes in both PoR and RD being utterly crap
I think its more of a case of Spielberg is at the peak of his craft. For him to expect games to meet his lofty heights of his pro film making skills is asking a lot. Game developers do their part, but they are not film experts. Cut scenes are their to feed the player information with entertainment as a latter (it may differ for some).
Be fair Spielberg, games are a different medium and have come a long way from those awful Night Trap days. Do some research and you'll see that a lot of positive progress has been made, in the short years this industry has been going, not bad considering its taking film over a century to get where it is today.
With most cut scenes, now mixing with the in game engine action well (God of War a good example), things are moving forward.
Maybe if Spileberg makes a proper game with a story to tell, he'll understand the complexities of doing so, with cut scenes, while making it all fun. Not an easy task.