14 DAY TRIAL // For quite some time, Hollywood has been aware of the gaming industry. At the beginning, it was largely due to the fact that the latter had a lot of stories ready to be picked up by the producers in Los Angeles and turned into blockbusters, which would guarantee a profit, as there was already an established fan base for the respective video games.
Now, almost every new Intellectual Property coming from developers like Electronic Arts already has a planned movie adaptation or an animated feature that will bring further profits for the companies involved. Just look at Dead Space or the upcoming Dante's Inferno. The same is true for big Hollywood flicks, which have video game adaptations planned at the moment of their launch, and Quantum of Solace or the upcoming Wolverine or Transformers titles are just a few of them.
But I recently played and reviewed Wheelman, a game that made me realize that not only that movies and games are interacting with each other, but, in the future, they might actually come together as a single, all engrossing entertainment package for customers to enjoy in the privacy of their own homes.
Wheelman was relatively short for a videogame, but pretty long for a movie. It was filled with fast driving, a famous movie actor and a pretty reasonable supporting cast. It also had the key ingredient for any summer blockbuster directed by Michael Bay for example: lots of crashes and explosions. The cut scenes played out like key plot moments for a movie, and the gameplay sequences gave you clear indications of being as flamboyant and aggressive as possible until you got to another plot moment.
You can clearly see that Wheelman would've been a quite enjoyable movie experience, but, thanks to the development teams at Midway and Tygon, we got to “see” it right in the comfort of our own homes.
Now I'm presenting you a hypothesis and asking your input on it. Are movies and games slowly merging together in order to deliver one single experience that combines the key plot moments played out by actors with action sequences where you would play the big part? Would such an experience be feasible knowing that HDTVs and high-end sound systems are getting closer and closer to bringing a cinema-quality experience right in the privacy of your living room?
Leave a comment with your thoughts on the matter in the section below this article.