Vice Versa

After that depressing last blog, I am changing gears today. I recently bought this addicting game, Alan Wake, for my Xbox. While Game Informer and a lot of others gave it an 8-8.5 out of 10, after watching videos and reading about it (on Wikipedia) I decided to give it a go.

I'm addicted.

Anyway, so as I'm sitting on my couch, trapped in this cabin with dark shadows of men's silhouettes passing the windows, I'm thinking, Man, this would be a great movie. Of course, I'm not entirely done with it yet, but considering AW is already played out like a television show, I don't think it would be impossible to do.

But that got me thinking: what are some cool movies that should be video games? Normally it's "What are some video games that could profit as movies?" like my above thought concerning Alan Wake. (Instant answers come to mind: Assassin's Creed, the Splinter Cell series, Grand Theft Auto, etc.) So now, it's like I'm reversing the question! Even this could work: what are some cool novels that could be video games?

Let's face it: there are good video games, there are great video games, and there are the ones based on movies (examples: Avatar, Iron Man, Terminator: Salvation, Madagascar, you name it). Some, like the Bourne movies, have video games that seem to look okay.

But most games-from-blockbuster-movies end up being pointless and a waste of time. I like to think of it as a branching-out of the franchise. You want Madagascar to be seen by more people, make a video game of it to get all the Gamestop employees to see it together. You don't care what the final product looks like, or if people actually like it.

But what about reallyreally cool movies, like Bladerunner or The Usual Suspects? Ooh, can you imagine! Or thinkers like Memento or epics like Titanic?

And as for books, I don't know about you, but I would readily play an XBox version of Angels & Demons, Jackdaws, Shutter Island, Airborn, heck, even some of Harlan Coben's stuff or Bret Easton Ellis' books. (Coben's The Innocent in particular is filled with action, suspense, intrigue, and plot twists that are completely engaging, original, and mind-boggling. And though Ellis' American Psycho was made into a year-2000 movie, imagine actually playing as Patrick Bateman!). Though these books might not be on everyone else's Must-Read* list, to me, they are the stuff writing should be.

I think it's a producer's natural instinct to turn a well-known video game into a movie. Prince of Persia did it, and pretty soon Mass Effect will do it. But I think these ideas are boring and becoming unoriginal. Someone seriously needs to smack some high-profile producer and get on this! Am I right?

So, what do you guys think, blog-readers? Have any books or super-cool movies that you would like to see turned into a video game (that are not big-budget-automatic-video-game-movies? Or is this whole idea insulting to the gaming world? Sound off!

*Personally, I think your life is not complete unless you have read all the bolded books in that paragraph. Oh, and add Markus Zusak's The Book Thief and I Am The Messenger to your list as well. Cheerio!