Part II - Games
It isn't just comics and film that share a reciprocal history; games as well have come under the influence and have influenced both comics and film. Like comics video-games created their own mythos, growing from the early days of arcade-based games in the 1970s like Space Invaders to the console-based games of the late 70s and early 80s, through the early days of the NES to today's multi-million dollar industry with its now instantly recognisable icons, like Mario, Sonic, Lara Croft, Master Chief - the weight of which it now shoulders, living with the burden of its own influence, being careful not to eat itself, like the serpent eating its own tail. NOM.
The influence of comics on games can be seen in varying ways, from the very obvious Manga stylings of Street Fighter II and games like the current No More Heroes on the Wii, through to the graphic representations of Mario and Sonic. Also the Marvel/DC Universe and British sci-fi comic 2000AD's effect can be felt with many designers probably growing up reading these comics. As well as these comics having their requisite game versions like the numerous Spiderman, Batman etc games, they've also helped influence the design and articulation of other games. As comics have been to film, so they are to games, namely a rich source of ideas and aesthetics, styles and creativity, humour and aspects of story-telling. As well being an inspiration, both video games and comics have the similarity of both sharing a massive geek culture that people buy into, and lap right up, giving a sense of belonging and shared experience, and amassing, along the way, a dedicated, passionate following.
To look through the looking glass from the other direction, video games influence on film can be seen games in numerous ways as well. We can see it explicitly in films like 1982's Tron - which is something of an anomaly - or in straight up film adaptations of games like the recent Max Payne or the Resident Evil series. These adaptations rarely work and the opposite -films adapted into a game - works only sporadically; an example of which is N64's GoldenEye 007, which is now, on the whole, considered a classic. Over the last few years this type of straight up transfer from film to game has changed, with game adaptations of films moving away from this type of literal translation and moving into a more open interpretation with games like Scarface: The World Is Yours, The Godfather, The Warriors and the upcoming Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Taking their cue from games like GTA rather than straight adaptation they've used them as a starting point, a familiar surrounding in which to pace the action, creating a virtual interactive world that the gamer can immerse themselves in and roam freely about doing various missions as and when they want, the linear rigidity of games like GoldenEye being superseded for a more spontaneous gameplay.
As well borrowing from the constructs and structures of film games have also adopted the concepts and aesthetics as well. From Star Ship Troopers influence on Halo to the influence George A Romero's zombie horrors have had on releases from Resident Evil to the more recent Left 4 Dead and many, many more. Films like Aliens and Terminator, the Indy movies, Saving Private Ryan, the Matrix and of course the Star Wars films have all had a massive influence over video-games, not just because they are iconic, but also because the generations of people making video-games have watched these films and they've made an impact on them. Even a game like Duke Nukem - not the best game ever made - uses the same kind of jokey dystopian humour and aesthetic that John Carpenter used in His Escape From... movies. Whether this is intentional or subconscious the influence is still there.
As cultures change, so to do their tastes and likes. Where film was once the next big thing, that's now changed with film now having lost its huge pulling power that it once commanded, at least at the cinema; Hollywood knows the queues that were once reserved for the latest blockbuster are now seen for the newest video-game release. And it's interesting to look at how Hollywood releases use CGI in large parts of the movie making process, in part to make fantastical ideas appear more real, but it also, at times, makes it look like you're watching a giant video-game. Take Pixar, for example, their early releases like the famous Toy Story were responsible for digitalising animation, and, as the technology becomes more available everything becomes digitalised, playing video-games as a youth prepares a person for this transition, each younger generation becoming more and more acclimatised to this, so where one generation looks at it and fears the change, for the next it is the convention. So it goes that it takes a few generations for new ideas to become fully integrated and accepted.
Films like Sin City and the recent The Spirit cross the whole divide of video games/comics/films. Both have used Frank Miller's distinctive, iconic high contrast black and white style and pretty much transposed them to the screen untainted, and the movies have a game-like quality and fluidity, and now the upcoming Wii release Mad World has copied this, using ultra-violence and black and white juxtaposition to create a highly stylised game, so the style has traversed, almost unchanged, all three mediums.
These influences are, however, felt on more genres than others, namely the action-adventure genre or first person shooters or shoot 'em ups or space epics, while others like the RPG take their influence from horror, sci-fi and fantasy literature. You could also say certain cinematic genres influence games and comics over others (namely sci-fi, action/adventure/horror). I've yet to see a game based on Sleepless In Seattle, that's not to say it might not happen, but, regardless, the shadow each casts over the other cannot be denied.
So the cycle continues each forever influencing each other, cross pollinating, incestuously jumping in and out of bed while impregnating the other with their trends and substance.
Like cinema, the comic book and gaming have faced and continue to face prejudices and controversies, all being modern art forms means they can often be denounced as less intellectually demanding or as lower forms of art. All three of these mediums are born of the same rebellious spirit, they give the finger to high-art while also subverting it, all are powerful, imaginative, captivating and long may they continue to be so.
Addendum: After this brief interval of vaguely intelligent musings, normal service will resume next week. Just to keep you amused and to thank you for reading this far, here's a joke: I used to live opposite a slaughterhouse and every time I looked out my window the view was offal, just offal...
THE END
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Let me take you back to 2001. It was an important year. One that started full of hope yet ended full of fear. It was the year that i discovered there are people in this world who do not share my values and who are willing to stoop to the most heinous and vulgar methods to inflict their warped morality onto those who value freedom, equality and altruism.
I am of course referring to the people who used the Action Replay cheat disk in Phantasy Star Online for the Dreamcast.
To begin with the PSO online community was the fruition of Belinda Carlisle's chart topping promise. A near nirvana where people helped each other quest, shared information, lived, laughed, and loved. Language was no barrier thanks to the benevolent Sonic Teams Symbol Chat. However, this perfect world was being watched by jealous eyes. Jealous browneyes.
The Action Replay gave you any weapon, and could Max your character which, given that finding the weapons and leveling up was the point of the game, seems pretty f#cking retarded to me but rather than get bored and move on these c#ckless locusts devoured Sonic Teams digital heaven from the inside out leaving nothing but a shell. I still boil with rage when i think about the Spread Needle +60.
That was my first introduction to online gaming. "Wow, this is brilliant I'm in a team with 2 Germans and a Swede, and we're killing aliens........ oh wait some 13year old French racist just killed me and stole all my stuff." But it was not my last.
Moto GP on the Xbox, a subtle game that required concentration, dedication and the ability to not snap the controller when some b#stard who was going the wrong way round the track smashes into you wrecking your perfect lap.
Project Gotham featured a unique cornering system which i was unable to use because it involved ramming the rear of my car to brake. Then saying "you're sh#t" as i pulled myself out of the crash barrier.
Every online racing game I've played left me feeling like I've just been sodomized by bears so i retreated to shooters. You're meant to be sodomising each other in them, surely the swine can't ruin shooters. Day of Defeat? Wallhack. Quake 3? Aimbot. Counterstrike? Ahahahaha.
Right, not shooters then, Pro Evolution Soccer? I loved pro Evo like Republicans love denying minorities the vote and like the Republicans i was good at it. Online games were played so that the first half was hosted by one player and the second half was hosted by the other. Fair.
Of course someone worked out that you can annihilate my ping on the half that they are hosting by turning on a download leaving me watching a frozen screen while they rack up a 10 - 0 lead. I was beating a guy ranked 6th in europe 2-0 and he deployed a tactic that isn't covered in the strategy guide, he turned his computer off in the 89th minute, invalidating the game. (His name was QuickStrike75 and if i find him, i will kill him.)
So I've had enough. The pleasure of online gaming doesn't even begin to compare to the pain. I'm back on the sofa playing Power Stone with my mates, its Pro Evo and beers with the boys, you can all pretend that you're L337, be an Pwnage God online, but make sure you turn the volume up when you are sitting alone in your bedroom bitch-slapping NOOBZ cos once I'm done playing with my mates I'm coming round to f#ck your mum !!!
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