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Licensed games better than their source material

S

Spring-Loaded

Member
Acorn said:
Arkham asylum *runs*
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Zap Rowsdower said:
Depends if you consider AA to be an adaption of the comics or the 90's animated series.
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AA wasn't better than most comic runs, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (same overall setup as the game) or Batman: The Animated Series.

AA laid a great groundwork for what 3D Batman should play like, but the game never does much with the core gameplay (just normal predator room, fight, repeat with more enemies), the boss fights themselves blow, the plot goes nowhere and the final encounter with Joker was atrocious in every way.

If the game had made the Warden plotline the focus for the ending, it may have kept that experience from souring in my eyes. As it is, it just doesn't hold up to my initial experience with the game, and doesn't compare to most other Batman media.

I'd say the Arkham City, Origins and Knight are better than some of the live action movies taking into consideration their action and how well they realize Batman's gadgets/physical abilities, but not better than Mask of the Phantasm, Sub-Zero, or Under the Red Hood. Knight actually is the only Arkham game I felt really loved up to the theme of insanity set by the first game because of its ending (even without it being set in the Asylum itself).
 
C

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Vengal said:
Sometimes the narrator of an audio book can band-aid over bland writing with good acting. I went through all the witcher books available in audio book form in english last year on the way to work and had no issue with them. Going through them before playing the games also complicated my opinion of those games. The concessions games make to add gameplay weakened the product for me, like adding random monsters in the forest, or fighting so many bandits, ect. I get that without that kind of stuff it would just be a point and click adventure but Geralt in the books wasn't running around raiding bandit camps for money and leather.
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Also listened to the audio books and I liked them. However yea the world is portrayed VERY differently from the games. Very much a post monster world in the same way that GoT is a post dragon and magic world. Yet Geralt is a monster hunter. An older one at that.
 
D

Dr. Carroll

Banned
Markitron said:
Goldeneye

A mediocre film (at best) that spawned the greatest shooter of all time
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How can opinions be so wrong?

GoldenEye is a cinematic masterpiece. Sean Bean's magnum opus. Plus the soundtrack is the best in the entire series.

Hello, James,
is the best line in the entire series.
 
S

squall23

Member
zI8lTeg.jpg
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Fixed and improved:
TKlpP5T.jpg
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kraspkibble

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
darthsontin said:
The Witcher games are way better than the books.
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Totally agree! This is what I was going to post.

I got into the games in 2015 like most and was hooked. After that I went and played the first 2 games. Thought maybe I should then read the books. I honestly quite enjoyed the 2 books with short stories. The first book in the main series was interesting but the next book didn't really do much for me. The third book was downright awful and boring. It started to pick up a bit with the next book though but the last book I just couldn't bring myself to finish so quit and read a summary online.

The last 2 books I read were fan translations so I don't know if that had any affect. I haven't yet read Season of Storms but will when it's officially translated.

I don't know if something is missing in the translation of these books. I don't think I'll ever bother with them again.
 
P

Prophaniti

Banned
eso76 said:
From what I've read, yeah.

Also Metro.

I dont know if the translator did a bad job, but the book is so poorly written I can't take any of it seriously.
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? Metro was only a fan translation for years. I wish I understood Russian so I could get the full effect though. Having a website with music your supposed to play for each chapter is fucking amazing.
 
Y

YesThatGuy

Banned
Javier23 said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I hear the English translation of The Witcher novels is terrible, which may certainly put those below the games. The Spanish translation is legitimately one of the best things I've had the pleasure of reading. It's absolutely incredible and I've seen the translator making the roungs giving speeches at universities and what not. He's more of a historian than a professional translator, and I hear his translation is also a bit unorthodox (most are often a lot more literal and generic to the detriment of the source material). It truly goes the extra mile and lightly uses Old Castilian, coins new words when necessary (really specific historical Polish terminology) and gives very unique voices to every character depending on their social backgrounds. It's such a joy to read. So a flatter English translation could definitely end up passing the novels as your run of the mill pulpy fantasy. But I gotta say, Witcher 3, being one of the best games ever made as it is, is still firmly below the novels when it comes to setting, story and character. It also introduced all of those, let's not forget.

I need to rewatch Pitch Black, but I wanna say I'd put the Riddick game at the same level at the very least. It does such a great job at characterization. I'm sure Vin Diesel had a big role in it.
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Thanks for this insight, now I know what language to pick up if I even go into this series.

I would say Power Rangers. I actually had fun with a couple of these games on the SNES. Never ever liked the show or movie (although the new movie was entertaining).
 
G

GKSilKamina

Member
Sweet Home

An okay-ish, kind of obscure Japanese horror film vs a unique NES RPG that acted as the precursor to the survival horror genre.
 
J

Joeku

Member
Samanosuke Akechi said:
$_35.JPG
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This game is poop from a butt. Do not listen to this person.

Since some of the obvious ones have been mentioned, let me throw out a weird one: the reverse-license games, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. They were pretty rushed and tied to the Prince of Persia movie release, and I say "they" because it's effectively two games. The first was a serviceable if not short and uninspired Sands of Time-alike for the 360/PS3/PC, and the second was a low-budget Wii game that had a ton of heart and charm (you make out with statues to upgrade powers), and used pointer + analog stick controls is a neat way.

The movie isn't very good.
 
S

score01

Member
Street fighter : the movie game, the one licensed on street fighter the movie. Yeah the game is much better than the movie. The original game that inspired the movie in the first place is much better though.
 
D

Dr. Carroll

Banned
Joeku said:
Since some of the obvious ones have been mentioned, let me throw out a weird one: the reverse-license games, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. They were pretty rushed and tied to the Prince of Persia movie release, and I say "they" because it's effectively two games. The first was a serviceable if not short and uninspired Sands of Time-alike for the 360/PS3/PC, and the second was a low-budget Wii game that had a ton of heart and charm (you make out with statues to upgrade powers), and used pointer + analog stick controls is a neat way.

The movie isn't very good.
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Wii version of Forgotten Sands is very well regarded. Also, the movie was great. Peak "post-caring" Ben Kingsley, with Jake Gyllenhaal's flawless abs making up for any narrative shortcomings.

The movie was written by Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner, for the record. Which is both interesting an something of a commentary on what would have happened if, say, Kojima had been allowed any input into the Metal Gear Solid film.
 
J

Joeku

Member
Dr. Carroll said:
Wii version of Forgotten Sands is very well regarded. Also, the movie was great. Peak "post-caring" Ben Kingsley, with Jake Gyllenhaal's flawless abs making up for any narrative shortcomings.

The movie was written by Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner, for the record. Which is both interesting an something of a commentary on what would have happened if, say, Kojima had been allowed any input into the Metal Gear Solid film.
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I know it's a low bar, but Prince of Persia is definitely on the upper end of video game movie adaptations. It's not a bad movie. In fact, I'd say it's about as good a movie as the 360/PS3/PC version of TFS is a game.

The Wii game is great, though.
 
M

MUnited83

For you.
Acorn said:
Arkham asylum *runs*
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Meh. Gameplay wise it is a great adaptation of Batman, but the plot was terrible and missed the mark. Final boss being Titan Joker was the Shit Cherry on the top of the Shit Cake.
Arkham Origins was the one that I felt really understood and respected the characters.
 
J

Joeku

Member
BernardoOne said:
Meh. Gameplay wise it is a great adaptation of Batman, but the plot was terrible and missed the mark. Final boss being Titan Joker was the Shit Cherry on the top of the Shit Cake.
Arkham Origins was the one that I felt really understood and respected the characters.
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Arkham Origins is secretly the best game in that series, if you forgive how it's just Arkham City.5.
 
P

pottuvoi

Banned
I would rank Indiana Jones and Fate of Atlantis as a best in the series.
Sadly they didn't take it as a base for 4th movie.
 
D

Dr. Carroll

Banned
pottuvoi said:
I would rank Indiana Jones and Fate of Atlantis as a best in the series.
Sadly they didn't take it as a base for 4th movie.
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The fourth movie was instead partially based on Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, which is the best Indiana Jones game. (Or at least it would be if the N64 and PC versions could be merged together into a single game.)
 
P

pottuvoi

Banned
Dr. Carroll said:
The fourth movie was instead partially based on Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, which is the best Indiana Jones game. (Or at least it would be if the N64 and PC versions could be merged together into a single game.)
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It was?

It's been way too long time to remember.
Sadly didn't play the game trough, got stuck somewhere.
 
H

HotHamBoy

Member
Pagusas said:
For sure the witcher. The first few novels are great, but anything with Ciri in it is Star Wars Prequels bad. The games however are wholely good.
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Factually incorrect.

Books for me, all day. Thanks.

Vengal said:
Sometimes the narrator of an audio book can band-aid over bland writing with good acting. I went through all the witcher books available in audio book form in english last year on the way to work and had no issue with them. Going through them before playing the games also complicated my opinion of those games. The concessions games make to add gameplay weakened the product for me, like adding random monsters in the forest, or fighting so many bandits, ect. I get that without that kind of stuff it would just be a point and click adventure but Geralt in the books wasn't running around raiding bandit camps for money and leather.
Click to expand...

I agree. I read (listened) to the books before playing TW3, which was my first Witcher game. I much prefer book Geralt and the world he inhabits. Game Geralt is a bland, unlikeable guy and the constant presence of monsters just off the path really kills the draw and mystery of the books where monsters are rare and pitiable. There isn't supposed to be much need for Witchers anymore yet Game Geralt is inundated with jobs.

Still love the game, though, and it's probably the best one could ever hope for from The Witcher.

I felt the books were pretty strong until Ciri started world-hopping. Still, great series.


eso76 said:
From what I've read, yeah.

Also Metro.

I dont know if the translator did a bad job, but the book is so poorly written I can't take any of it seriously.
Click to expand...

I found the writing pretty rough for the first few chapters but then it improves. The audiobook is fantastic, to the other poster's point.
 
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