''I am the voice of the covenant''. ''Then you must be silenced''.

Books are a portal to another world. They fill my head with so many wonderful things and portray story better than any film or game! My favourite book is Iain M Banks ‘Consider Phlebas’ with Paul Stuart’s and Chris Riddle’s ‘The Edge Chronicles’ being a close second.

http://www.iain-banks.net/science-fiction/consider-phlebas/

http://www.stewartandriddell.co.uk/edge/index.php

Consider Phlebas made my heart beat really fast, made me laugh and cry. The edge chronicles took me away to another world. The characters, landscapes in ‘The Edge Chronicles’ reek of detail and history. For a game to produce the same feelings and experiences is rare, if not non-existent!

For me there are 3 things that can make a good film;
1) Special affects/Set Design/Artistic Value
2) A strong moral message
3) A strong main character, well acted!!
I usually go for the first one, but my favourite film of all time is ‘There Will be Blood’. I have never seen such brilliant acting from one man before! The set design is awesome, and the story is well structured. ‘’Your nothing but a bastard from a basket in the middle of the desert’’, ‘’you see, I take my straw, and I go aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way across the room to your milkshake, I drink your milkshake. I drink it up!’’: those are two of my favourite quotes from the film.

Books and films like these are timeless masterpieces. In my opinion, it’s gonna be a long time before we see a game that has the same affect! Halo 3 nearly got it. It came close. In my opinion, Games use story to explain the game play. There are very few games that use game play to explain the story. But for me that’s o.k. I play games for intense game play and action. I read books and watch films to get my dose of decent storytelling!


p.s. There are 2 games I can think of that have achieved story that matches that of a brilliant book or film. I have played ‘Dark Messiah: Might and Magic’ (the pc version) 7 times and have never got bored of it. The story couples with the game play so perfectly it is nothing short of epic! The game ‘Medieval’ for the ps1 is similar, but more comic. They also have excellent game play! If games companies churned out more games like these I would never see daylight againL. I’m perplexed why dm:mam did not sell better.