1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF FEBRUARY 19 | GAMES GO TO HOLLYWOOD
Stephen King's Influence on Video Games
Cover Story: How "The Mist" inspired and shaped Half-Life and Silent Hill.
E
cclesiastes 1:9 states that there's nothing new under the sun, and that might be especially true as far as creative inspiration goes. Books give birth to movies, movies inspire books, and both have provided foundations for the premises behind many of our favorite video games since the dawn of the industry. Metroid is Alien. Donkey Kong borrowed enough of King Kong for Universal to ignite a (failed) lawsuit. Mega Man X is a mingling of Blade Runner, Mad Max, and Terminator. Kid Chameleon was made possible by the blood-choked screams of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (search your feelings; you know it to be true).
As video games became more complex with the advent of CD storage, developers really began to apply elements from their favorite books and movies into their works. That's not to suggest for a second that respected game makers crib or plagiarize; there's a huge difference between stealing an idea and making an inspired adaptation. But sometimes an author or a director forms a multi-layered world that tunnels so far down into deep, dark warrens that developers can't help but wonder, "What would happen if players could interact with this wonderful, awful place?"
1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF FEBRUARY 19 | GAMES GO TO HOLLYWOOD
Cover Story: Games Go to Hollywood
This week, 1UP embraces the bright lights of Tinseltown.
The team here at 1UP are big proponents of diversifying your bonds. Not in terms of money -- believe me when I say that I can barely balance a checkbook. The diversity I'm talking about comes from being versed in not just video games, but all forms of media. We all read stupid amounts, we are all obsessed with a handful of television series, and most importantly, we all respect the medium of film as one that video games could definitely learn a thing or two from. That's not to say that we want every game to be littered with long stretches of non-interactivity like most of Hideo Kojima and David Cage's works. Instead, we want our medium to differentiate itself with experiences that simply could not exist without the inherent interactivity contained within video games.
Video games have been trying to imitate films for the past 40 years, just as movies have been drawing inspiration from our medium more and more over the past decade. There are dozens of projects in the works based on games like Assassin's Creed, Warcraft, and Shadow of the Colossus; although the elusive white whale of a quality video game movie still haunts us we press on in hopes that some talented filmmaker will finally get it right. But even outside of these direct adaptations, it's hard to watch any AAA blockbuster without seeing traces of video game DNA on the screen. Movies like The Matrix, Tron, and Wreck-It Ralph are all immersed in the grammar that our medium has created over the course of the past four decades.
Metal Gear Solid 4 may be one of the most polarizing games of this generation, but supporters and dissenters alike can come together and agree on one point: Director Hideo Kojima really goofed with his choice to depict the outrageous acrobatics of Raiden's new cyborg form exclusively through non-playable cutscenes -- a decision that seems like an intentional tease, given that Guns of the Patriots features a creaky and cranky old man as its protagonist. And Kojima certainly isn't above yanking his audience's chain; remember, 2001's controversial Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty came into being largely as an elaborate and masterful prank engineered to prove its director's point about the control and flow of information. We have only short attention spans to thank for the fact that games journalism as an institution wasn't dissolved shortly after Sons of Liberty's release.
The unveiling of the PlayStation 4 is still two days away, yet we've already heard a great deal about what to expect from it. Last week, an alleged picture of the system's controller was published by Destructoid, and despite being only a single image, it was extremely telling. It showed off two major components that we'd heard about before in a touchpad and light bar, although physically seeing them was a great deal different than simply hearing about them. While some are already bemoaning these two additions, I don't think their inclusion is inherently problematic.
Should you be doubting the authenticity of the photo, sources have confirmed to IGN and Kotaku that this is the real deal. It is, mind you, a prototype, meaning it can and is likely to change, both in terms of feature set and looks. What matters, though, is that Sony apparently has real plans on including both a touchpad and a PlayStation Move sensor in the PS4's controller.
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