Too close?

Its no mystery that in the recent times video games and movies are very closely related, from utilizing the same media to deliver the content (DVD) to interconnectly using the same characters, plots and environments in order to tie to one another. Unfortunately while a lot of that is going around, I do not believe it's a success story.

In the past few years, the movie industry recognized that there is a lot of money to be made in video games and that resulted in a countless number of mediocre game titles covering the shelves at local GameStops. Products are rushed, predictable, short and very often lack in character. I personally don't remember the last time I bought a game because I saw a movie for it, and I honestly cannot imagine who would. One of the main strategies of developers who decide to take up making a video game based on the movie is mainly to use up the title's hype while it lasts so the game takes a few months instead of a few years to develop which can be noticed right away: crappy gameplay, silly story and lack of creativity are incredibly common in those titles. Think about it: Harry Potter, Fast and Furious, Back to the Future, Iron Man, Jurassic Park, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix... and a ton of other huge movie franchises.. Now think how many games based on those things you actually played and liked? Honestly, if the answer isnt 0, nothing, nada, zilch - then I'd be really surprised.

Now the opposite. There are a few video games that inspired movies but thank god those are rare as it's almost always the same disaster. The only difference between this switch is that a video game will not get a movie after only one installment as it takes several years for video games to build up a brand and a fan base - which thankfully results in those being a lot less common like mentioned above. Here, the best examples I can think of are Tomb Raider and Hitman: and now while with Tomb Raider I do still believe it was a waste of like an hour and a half of my life, Hitman pleasantly surprised me and I am actually looking forward to part two.

Either way, those conversions and using the franchise in different media are almost never a good idea and as soon as I see a video game based on a movie, I tend to walk out of the store or at least hit an aisle with higher end titles.