Okay, I can't help it. I've got to post some more of these. They're just too cool.
Now here's a great game just begging for the GAF Collection treatment. The original cover is atrocious:
The GAF guys came up with these:
The one on the left is decent. I think the title words should be spaced apart a bit more and possibly shrunk down a bit. The one in the middle is really cool, if a bit conventional (close-ups of half a face are pretty easy ways to create an instantly intense image). The one on the far right is my favorite, because it's an image that sums up the feeling of the game, which is very open-ended and a lot of the outcome is decided by your decisions. Also, I'd be willing to bet that whoever designed that one had Carl Sagan's astronomy books in mind:
If you're looking for game playthroughs online, you've just found the most compelling and entertaining collection. This is why we at PokerListings have decided to give our full support and thanks to everyone behind the Let's Play Archive. As we do to with all the poker online games, the Let's Play Archive focus on giving you the full experience of the games in an informative and entertaining manner. Just look at some of the great playthroughs below and you'll see what we mean. Awesome job guys!
At first glance, the whole point of The Lets Play Archive seems kind of ridiculous. People play some video games, record their entire gameplay experience via video camera or screen shots (with written or audio commentary) and then upload the files to this site, for people to come by and experience the game vicariously through them.
It's an unbelievably geeky thing to do, but that's okay, because I'm pretty damn geeky.
Gamers can drop by the site and use the playthroughs as either a guide for parts they're having trouble with, or just watch them play it. It sounds lame, but, if you're a gamer, you get it. I've just perused a few of these and the commentary they provide isn't annoying or intrusive. It's like what you and your friends would do if you were taking turns playing a single player game. You crack jokes and figure out the puzzles together. It can be a very communal experience and this site offers a little of that for you, as a spectator.
Another reason this is something to geek out over is if there is a game that you've always been curious about, but haven't had the means to play, you can see what it was like on this site.
For me, there is one game I hear great things about but probably won't ever get to experience for myself. That game is System Shock 2.
System Shock 2 and its predecessor are pretty widely known as two of the early masterpieces of computer gaming, but both of them were released at incredibly unfortunate times alongside two games that overshadowed them in popularity (Doom and Half-Life, respectively), so they got lost in the shuffle. This means that there haven't been any efforts to port the System Shock games to current hardware, which also means that unless you still have your old mid to late 90's PC, you won't be playing either of them. The creators, however, recently expanded upon the gameplay elements of System Shock with the modern classic, Bioshock, which I have played and can absolutely vouch for its reputation. So, in a way, System Shock has survived.
But I'm already planning on setting a side a couple hours one day to see the abridged version of this game. Thank you, Lets Play Archive. You crazy bunch of uber-geeks, you.
The Criterion Collection's mission, in their words, is to gather "the greatest films from around the world and [publish] them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements," and also, to publish "the defining moments of cinema for a wider and wider audience."
A major part of their operation is pulled off with their cover art. The Criterion crew is lauded for their DVD box art design and for very good reason. 99% of the time, their covers are stunning, minimalist design pieces that do more justice to portraying the essence of the films than just about any other publisher around. Here are some great examples:
The key is that they always seem to focus on either something really specific that only people who've seen the movie could fully comprehend, or, they create some sort of visual metaphor of the movie's theme. To me, this is what every poster/cover of a major work should be doing, but, as we well know, that can't always be the case.
Now with that in mind, a friend recently tipped me off to this web page, where someone has posted a collection of alternate designs for classic video games, inspired by the design styles seen in the Criterion Collection. It's called the GAF Collection (all the designs are made by members of Gaming Age Forums, one of the most popular videogame message boards around). I'll post a few of my favorites, alongside the original box art.
The fact that we can actually say, with a straight face, that there is a Dante's Infernovideogame coming out is something that seems a lot more silly and bizarre than it actually is. At first glance, it's as ridiculous as the idea of a Paradise Lost or A Christmas Carol videogame. It just feels strange to digest the idea that this antique pillar of literary history has branched out to such an unlikely medium of entertainment. When you look more closely at the situation though, you're quick to discover that its connection to the literature is essentially in name only. Aside from the references to each circle of Hell and the fact the main character's name is Dante (no other connection to the literary Dante at all), this is, for Christianity, what God of War was for Greek mythology. The gameplay also looks identical to God of War (which was very similar to Devil May Cry, which starred a character named, oddly enough, Dante), if that helps drive the connection home.
All that aside, Electronic Arts, the company producing the game, has come up with a fairly ingenious (though controversial, at times) marketing campaign to count down to the release of the game. Watch below to see what they sent to CHUD.com writer, Alex Riviello, to commemorate this specific circle of Hell:
I love how they forced this guy to actually engage in an act of wrath as part of their marketing campaign. It's a brilliant way to choreograph an engaging, interactive situation. It's definitely very memorable, too.
However, what does this actually say about their product? We know the artistry involved has to be top notch. Especially if their disturbing mini-books are any indication. But this kind of thing can backfire because it reeks so strongly of over-compensation. I'm sure the crew truly believe they have a top-notch product on their hands, but it just seems like an awful lot of hype before any substance. I predict it'll end up being a pretty solid action game with not much else to set it apart, except the visuals - something that every new videogame of this generation seems to emphasize over inventiveness and ingenuity in gameplay.
Nowadays, with so many avenues for companies to compete for our attention, big budget projects are pulling out all the stops to keep our eyes on them. Hence the viral marketing trend. Remember the Dark Knight's campaign, before Heath Ledger died? There were all these interactive web sites and Joker-themed scavenger hunts that kept people excited for the movie. Then, of course, Heath Ledger died and the marketing team didn't have to do much else. The hype was at its peak. But for a while there, they had the most potent viral marketing campaign I've ever seen. So how was the actual film? Passable. Enjoyable enough. Ledger's performance was legendary, but the movie itself? Merely decent, in my eyes.
That was a bit of a digression, but the point is that marketing campaigns for big budget projects have seemed to have more inventiveness behind them than some of the products/projects they're advertising. I guess the longer you're exposed to it, the more wary you get of this fact, because I know this can't be something that's cropped up in the last decade or so, it just seems like it has, because it's finally losing its effect on me.
