Movie tie in discussion

BlitzKrieg

This is a topic coming from my viewing of Skyfall from a few weeks back and I kept meaning to write this post but put it off til now. I loved skyfall and only one thing p*ssed me off about the film, which was the odd framing of bond in the film, he's meant to be the same bond from the casino royale plotline but the film openly showed items and referenced heavily from the connery era bond etc, and it went beyond the painful nudge nudge referencing that plagued die another day. The aston martin was the one from goldfinger and it was actively used in the plot, gadgets and all. And it really annoyed me because they had made such a big deal of starting over with casino royale and I couldnt tell for ages if they just decided to drop starting over, or had I missed something.

Turns out I might have missed something because it seems the crappy 007 legends videogame with its dubious status as canon or not canon not defined, explains where the damn car came from and why the film treated bond as if he'd been around for decades at this point. 007 legends is a movie tie in and thats an interesting sub genre, one that tries to cross media and can be either cringe worthingly awful or franchise enhancing.

Firstly a distinction, movie tie ins are not any video game adaptation of a movie, so I am thankfully freeing myself of the head numbingly repetitive chatter of goldeneye on the N64, because I wouldnt consider that game or most movie games as necessarily a tie in or rather simply rethreading the same ground in a different format.

No, movie tie ins are games that actually try, if even only temporally try to pass themselves off as part of the lore, that they continue or expand the story of the film.


I guess the most prominent of these would be Enter the Matrix where it was openly sold as being connected to the films, with actual footage shot for the game while the matrix sequels were being filmed.

It also stained the sub genre, because it was sh*t, and while both matrix sequels sucked, the game made it worse because plot details were pushed to the game and left out of the films. Overall as a poster child for movie tie in, enter the matrix is a case study of why they are a bad bad bad idea.

But there have been good movie tie ins. Chronicles of Riddick escape from butcher bay is unquestionably a good game, it also did more for the riddick universe and the character then the sequel or other tie ins ever did.

Lord of the rings online ties in with the movies, in a rather clever way I might add, with you leveling up somewhat parallel to the events of the books and films. Allowing for an expanded look at the world of middle earth but keeping true to the source material.

Sticking with MMOs and returning to the matrix franchise, the short lived Matrix online is actually the closest we've gotten to continuing the story of the film and while I missed this game, from what I've read it was actually a rather interesting direction to take the series.


discuss?

Zero-Cool

Super Mario Bros. Best game movie ever!

calex71

Only just started it but the lego lord of the rings game is proving very good so far.

Grumpypants

New star trek game is set between the first movie and this new upcoming one kind of star trek 1.5.

Josey Wales

I don't think you need any knowledge from the 007 Legends to get the most out of Skyfall. I'm pretty sure in the film they make it clear that Bond has been doing this for some time and that he is over the hill. From that we can take it that this Bond is set some time after the events of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

cloud493

Goldeneye is still great. And........ toy story 2 was pretty good as well.

Retr0gamer

cloud493 wrote: »

Goldeneye is still great.

You should play it now. Those rose tinted glasses will have a malfunction.

cloud493

I played it three days ago. Still fun. Not as fun, but still fun.

gizmo

Does it have to be movies? If you broaden the topic to TV I'm pretty sure we're going to see one of the most ambitious attempts at media convergence yet with the SyFy/Trion TV series and MMO crossover, Defiance.

I've not seen anyone mention this on the forum so far so here's a few links to bring you to up speed.

'Defiance' blends basic cable sci-fi, MMO shooter action when it launches in spring 2013

With 'Defiance,' Comcast's Syfy Bets $100M On Convergence Of TV And Videogames

Defiance: The MMO vs Defiance: The TV Show - Fight!

CastorTroy

Avatar the Game is set before the movie

GTR63

Is the TinTin game any good?
Remember hearing it looked good about.....18 months ago, months before it was released.

Mr.Saturn

Batman: Return of the Joker was the sequel to Sunsoft's tie-in to the first Tim Burton movie, and it's a bloody good game. Granted, it asks you to take a bit of a leap immediately, with Batman using a gun-like weapon, that actually isn't a gun, according to the manual, but still retains all the functions of one.

I doubt if it fits the criteria of the thread, but I can think of few things that did as well with a tie-in license, that've not been completely antiquated since their release.

Actually, Gamesack just did a good licensed-games episode, that deals with a couple of film cash-ins:

http://tinyurl.com/clvyx5t

Penn

Best I can think of that I've ever played was Spider-Man 2, though it was great due to the free-roam and city rather than the movie parts of the game (which weren't bad either, in fairness)

EDDIE WATERS

Penn wrote: »

Best I can think of that I've ever played was Spider-Man 2, though it was great due to the free-roam and city rather than the movie parts of the game (which weren't bad either, in fairness)

That was a great game but I cant believe I gave it away for Theme Park

Deano7788

X-men Origins Wolverine was a pretty good game, especially when you compare it to the abomination that was the movie.

balkieb2002

Retr0gamer wrote: »

You should play it now. Those rose tinted glasses will have a malfunction.

You could just play 007: Reloaded to give it a more up-to-date feel.

The Bond movies do love their tie-in games with Goldeneye being the standout from a lot a mediocre games.

I did quite like 007: Blood Stone which was a bond game but actually had an original story.

SeantheMan

Just as it's a movie thread in games, there is some film coming out called "Pacific Rim" where we build giant robots to defend against aliens....whats new ? ...anyways, the AI voice or computer voice appears to be none other than GlaDos, or at least the actress.

Maybe it's aperture science building our defenses ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vKz7WnU83E

abbir

Deano7788 wrote: »

X-men Origins Wolverine was a pretty good game, especially when you compare it to the abomination that was the movie.

I was just about to post this too. Great game I thought. Added a lot more to the story than that crappy film.

Duggy747

I haven't played it but wasn't that Chronicle of Riddick game that came out years ago supposed to be pretty good?

CastorTroy

Weren't there 2 Riddick FPS type games? Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena?

balkieb2002

Duggy747 wrote: »

I haven't played it but wasn't that Chronicle of Riddick game that came out years ago supposed to be pretty good?

CastorTroy wrote: »

Weren't there 2 Riddick FPS type games? Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena?

Yeah CastorTroy is correct.

Played/completed both of them and while the second was fun and a good game the first was better imo. Really satisfying steath play with great hand to hand combat (for a FPS) though the gun combat while fun didn't match the melee.

Plus you also get to beat

Xzibit

up

A-Trak

I know its tenuous as The Walking Dead isn't a film, but Telltale's interpretation of a filmed series translated to a game is outstanding.

On topic, Alien vs Predator arcade game was awesome. It even predated the rubbish films by about 15 years.

djkeogh

One of my favourite movie expansions in a game format was Stranglehold. Great gaming sequel to one of the best Action films ever made in Hard Boiled. Chow Yun Fat gave his likeness and did voice acting for it as well and I think it was scripted by John Woo or at least had some involvement from him.

Another one that springs to mind was the Ghostbusters game. It has you revisiting certain sets from the film but is wrapped up in a new story. Surprisingly good game as well. I sunk many hours into when I anticipated it to be a simple play through for the sake of it.

Pixelbastardo

Escape from Butcher Bay was great, played it on the original xbox, and again in the remake... but the best i can think of is "The Thing"
that was a gem of a survival horror.

Star Lord

djkeogh wrote: »

Another one that springs to mind was the Ghostbusters game. It has you revisiting certain sets from the film but is wrapped up in a new story. Surprisingly good game as well. I sunk many hours into when I anticipated it to be a simple play through for the sake of it.

I think a lot of people hated the Ghostbusters game.
I really enjoyed it, despite some crazy difficulty spikes in some parts, where things would endlessly respawn, in a CoD fashion.

Hande hoche!

Pixelbastardo wrote: »

Escape from Butcher Bay was great, played it on the original xbox, and again in the remake... but the best i can think of is "The Thing"
that was a gem of a survival horror.

I quite enjoyed the thing, pity it wasn't released at a later time on the 360/PS3. The trust system had serious potential.

allanb49

I was going to say the Ghostbusters Game too, sure the cupids at the end where a bítch but it was a good story, and tied up everything nicely in the arc/cannon

Doctor DooM

Both the recent Transformers games, Fall of and War For Cybertron, are stand alone stories told (more or less) in the Transformers: Prime continuity.

"Dark Energon" featured prominently in the series after debuting in the games.

These are both supposed to have a shared history with the Bayformers, too, but it's straining to say they're the same continuity.

blaa85

Anyone ever play blade runner back in the day? Fantastic point and click adventure. Got savage reviews when it came out. Pretty sure it came out after or around Broken Sword. If anyone is into that genre, hunt it down.

ChubbyHubby

I am far from a Star Wars fan but that franchise had a lot of decent movie tie in games or games set in the universe. Games such as:
- Super Star Wars
- Super Empire Strikes Back
- Super Return of the Jedi
- X-Wing vs Tie Fighter
- Dark Forces
- Knights of the Old Republic
- etc

Don't really have much to add to the discussion. Tie in sometimes work, sometimes it doesn't.