The PC graphics are very crisp, but too high-contrast for my tastes. Xbox and PS3 are similar, as would be expected, but PS3 looks more washed out than Xbox.
Part 3: But back to storylines. If you add a little action to a really amazing drama like the kind I described...then perhaps you can make a SUPERB video game. Because the story is still there, you're emotionally involved in the story, but yet there's action so there's a reason to hit buttons, and that action are also a part of the storyline, helping to move the story along. Sure, alot of those would have to be FPS. But, there's nothing saying you couldn't do something other than a FPS. For example, imagine a boxing game kinda like 'Raging Bull'...the story of a man on a path of self-destruction, or 'Hoosiers' the total underdog story...if you could tie the emotions of either storyline into a sports game, it would be way better than today's sports games where you fight/play a match, earn money, buy outfits, move up in the ranks, complete your season, etc, but no story.
Part 2: I don't play video game to get a "more real" sense of reality...what I mean by that is a story or reality you know exists in real life but that you just haven't personally been affected by...the reality of well-developed real-life human characters reacting with other well-developed real-life human characters and the human drama that unfolds...the kind of reality you get with some of the great movie dramas and great books. But those wouldn't make good video games because although you appreciate a great drama for the emotions you feel as a result, you still are observing the events unfold. It would ruin the story if you're supposed to pause and then choose between hitting X for cry, Y for laugh, and triangle for 'Play it again, Sam'.
Part 1: When it comes to video game stories, I thnk you're pretty limited to a story that could be portrayed in a great action movie. It can still have alot of drama and emotion - like 'The Godfather' movie, 'Chinatown' or 'The Manchurian Candidate.' But it's not like they're going to turn 'Citizen Cane', 'Dr Zhivago' or 'Gone with the Wind' into video games any time soon. And hopefully they don't try to with Heavy Rain (I mean, what ARE those commands in that picture? withdrawal, cold, sh?) Looks boring if they're trying to make the experience somehow "more real." Personally, I play video games for the unreal moments...I play war games vs participating in a real life war...or driving an expensive race car and drifting through corners...or horror/alien game vs, um, dying horribly in very abnormal circumstances.
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