This is WebmasterWorld; a collection of dudes and dudettes ranging from the ultra-cool to the uber-nerd. I would hazard a guess that most people here fall into the latter half of the spectrum. Such as it is, I figured there must be some gamers here.
We recently purchased a PS3. I know, I know, it's been out for a while now. Usually I jump on the bandwagon after a new piece of technology has been on the market for a few months, but I opted for an Xbox 360 (please, let's not turn this into a PS3 vs. Xbox 360 discussion!), because it was much cheaper at the time, so that held me over and kept me from buying a PS3. Anyway, we bought one this past weekend. I had already snagged a copy of MGS 4 last year, since a PS3 was getting closer and closer to the top of our "luxury/don't really need it" shopping list. I absolutely love the series; it's really what got me into gaming in the first place. I knew about the controversy regarding the long cut scenes. They are actually longer than gameplay, unless you're a complete greenhorn and don't know how to play. I remember playing MGS 2 and feeling a bit annoyed at the lengthy codec convos, mostly because Raiden repeated everything in the form of a question, but in all it was a brilliant game, not far off from the first one. Of course the first was flawless if you can forgive the graphics, which were quite remarkable for the time, but pretty much crap by today's standards. It also had some long codec convos, but they were less annoying.
I just started playing MGS 4. I get an hour here or there whenever my wife isn't hawking the system playing Red Dead Redemption (apparently we found a new hobby for the wifey :)). I went into this with a whole different attitude. I figured, "I'm going to watch a cool movie, and as a bonus get to control the characters and manipulate the storyline from time to time." Well, it's working. So far I'm having a hell of a time. I'm still playing Act 1, and there are already some throwbacks from the past. I can't wait to play Act 4. I won't spoil it for anyone who is an MGS fan and doesn't know about it yet (fat chance, but I'll assume that there are a few people out there), but it will be total nostalgia.
Anyway, I was just thinking that games and movies will at some point merge. I think that would be a brilliant idea. Like I was saying earlier, you watch a movie, but at certain points you get to interact with the story/characters in some way. We can already see that with interactive Blu-rays. So far you may only be able to change the camera angle, or insert alternate scenes on the fly, but it's certainly heading into the direction of controlling parts of the movie. Some adult movies can play out different scenarios depending on user input (so I hear ;)). Also, many movies are already being turned into video games. It would make sense to somehow merge the two.
Well, I'm sorry this sort of turned into a blog, but I'm at work with not much to do. This is "Foo" anyways. I would like to get your take on this. Do you agree that entertainment is headed into that direction, or am I having a total brain fart for even thinking such things?
