very cool. high moon are the guys who did dark watch right?

Pick two(for best movie games made, for norm, pick one):
long, faithful to material, fun

Played it at Play.com Live and ive got to say this game impressed me loads, expected a cheap movie game but got a really cinematic mix of hand to hand combat, GOW style shooting and pretty much midtown madness style driving. Pre ordering now!

Riddick was a well recieved game based on a movie.

I never had any chance with any video games based on any movie. So far, all the ones I played sucked hard.

@Diesel_Power: But that's few and far between nowadays. I mean there were some awesome disney games back in the day for the SNES and Genesis but most games based off a TV/Movie aren't all that great.

From the interview it does sound like you can jab a guy in the hand with a pen, so I'm relieved. The interview is really interesting. There's a lot of things there that I don't normally think about. It's a good read.

@ the aptly-named Diesel_Power: The Chronicles of Riddick WAS a good game, indeed. And I think part of the reason it succeeded was that it didn't try to tie in too closely to any of the movies and was a good game on its own merits that just happened to follow canon.

Besides, the Riddick devs were kind of lucky that the expectation wasn't very deep. That is, Riddick isn't exactly a multi-dimensional character -- at least not on the surface. And nobody really expected anything more than baritone one-liners and some punching. That's exactly what they got, but the game did it so well that everyone was pleasantly suprised. And because of that, because the core mechanic was so simple (shoot things, punch other things, see in the dark), there was plenty of room for character and plot development, and other cool things like actual dialogue and interesting characters.

I'm a little worried about Bourne, though ... I think the problem is primarily with the cinematic element, and the complexity of Bourne's character and what he's being expected to do. I liked Dragon's Lair, but that was a different time. And the comparison to God of War also isn't necessarily the best one... aside from the button-timing events, the action and fighting in that one was so forgiving that you could make it through the entire game with the same basic combo, and anything other than that was additional "cool" factor thrown in. With Bourne, the game is supposed to be so hyper-realistic and yet somehow interactive, so you get the tradeoff that was mentioned in the article: cinematic-quality action vs. control. Personally, I feel that if you have to make that trade-off, you've got a game that can't really successfully be made.

I think that the only way to make a good Bourne game is to go against canon if necessary, and pick one core game mechanic: sneaking, fighting, shooting, or driving. Don't try to do everything and expect to please everyone.

the thing was a good game based on a movie

Goldeneye!!!!

@angrymob: okay, I stand corrected. The only way the Bourne movie can be any good is if you can give every single enemy in the game a rocket launcher.

@angrymob: woop! there's an exception! Goldeneye is massive win.

The thing is, any developer can talk about how great their game is or the thinking process that went into it. It can sound great, but in reality it could be awful. The guys who made Ashen for N-Gage said they had the best AI ever, and yet those aliens would stay running into walls unless you moved over to reset their path.

So, as usually, I'm hesitant to get excited or care about how great they think their game is because it could end up sucking more than Minority Report: The Game.

@Deltakiral: Many of those Disney games weren't hardly based off anything, and that was why they could succeed so well. No one is going to complain that the Donald Duck game where you shoot toilet plungers at bad guys didn't follow the plot of the movie because there was none. It felt like an interactive animated short like back in the old days where the toons would play whatever role was needed, and they were assigned the roles that fit their personality. Pete was always the bad guy, Mickey is the shy hero that comes through in the end, Donald's egomaniac who gets the comic relief/slapstick role or the villain when Pete's not funny enough.

With that amount of freedom it is much easier to make what you want, then put in names later. Now the goal is to use the movies as a way to get people to buy the games. By tying themselves to the movie they have forced themselves to follow the movies rules and thus limited game play. Nemo can't use the plunger gun in Finding Nemo because there were no devices that propelled plungers in the film.

P.S. If anyone knows the name of the Donald duck game, please tell me, I think it was for the Genesis, and I haven't seen it since it was demoed at a Target 10+ years ago.

@ggodo: World of Illusion or Donald Duck in Maui Mallard

The guy in the pic doesnt really look like Bourne

@Dits: Thanks, I gotta go find somewhere that has that now.

I just looked at wikipedia and found that it was "Quackshot" not Maui Mallard, but I remember playing Maui Mallard later.

@autob0n: You mean Matt Damon?

The difference is intentional (from the article) and yet another positive indicator of how much effort they are going into to create an authentic gaming experience rather than just a movie tie in.

I'm actually really looking forward to this one, which I don't know has ever happened for a movie-game. The developers have a nice little movie up on Xbox live that talks a bit about their process (iirc... it's an older video though).

Like some people probably forget, the Bourne movies were originally books, and the movies had a lot of freedom (just read the Bourne Ultimatum and compare it to the movie). So I don't see why this game couldn't have that freedom as well - for example, they should be able to create their own image of Bourne and not have to pay Matt Damon for rights to his likeness (like treeoflife mentioned).

@Dits: I played the game at play.com live too, pretty good wasn't it? I must say, I ignored it until I was about ready to leave, convinced it would be rubbish... and, well, it wasn't.

It's definitely "filmic" - with enjoyable cover-based gunplay reverting to a side-on fighting game style play as soon as you expose yourself and get too close, and swift takedowns using the surrounding scenery (bashing into walls, using items as a weapon) once your opponent is weakened. All the takedowns required was a hit of the red button, but they were pretty satisfying.

This is a game I would have dismissed entirely without a playthrough, especially since I've never seen any of the Bourne films (I know, I know!) but it's now very much on my radar.

@Diesel_Power: how many copies did Riddick sell? and it wasn't based on the movie at all.

Same over done jerky cam that was in the last movie is in the game. Atleast the trailer looked that way. That turns me off it.

@autob0n: Unless you're a wisp, your pic doesn't look like you, either.

The LOST game is actually pretty cool (although thats from a tv show). But there are some good movie-to-games. Goldeneye, Riddick, some of the LOTR games, and don't forget TERMINATOR 2: THE ARCADE GAME!!!!!!

Good to see the Riddick game mentioned here. There were a lot of good ones back in the day, as mentioned a lot of the Genesis titles based on Disney. (NES too, for that matter.) Terminator on Sega CD was great. Alien 3 on SNES/Genesis was really really good. But except for Riddick and Spider-Man, I can't think of anything recent that didn't suck ass.

Probably the biggest indicator of these games sucking because they're rushed to meet deadlines happens with stuff like the Fantastic Four and Spiderman games. Ultimate Spiderman was great, if too short. Xmen Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance were great. Yet games with largely the same engines released with movie tie-ins ended up being dreadful ass. And the worst part is you don't NEED a movie license to sell Spider Man or Fantastic Four. Just make the game good, you've already got a great license without the movie tie-in.

Oh yeah, saw someone else mention it too. LotR: Return of the King was pretty great too.

"The Lion King" game was really good theone fore SNES and Alladin.

The most unfortunate part of these games based on films/books is that they stick to the material too much -- it's like deja vu. There's no real surprises. You can have the occasional new glimpse into characters, but they never deviate enough to provide a truly new experience.

I would like to see games made for The Saint and Cannonball Run. The Saint could be very similar to games like Metal Gear Solid and the above mentioned Bourne game. Lots of disguises and sneaky stuff. The Cannonball Run game could be a realistically mapped race across America in any one of a hundred different realistic (but unrealistically modified) cars. You could get lost, stop for gas, have repairs done... maybe even be on XBox Live or PSN so that you can race players across America while racing players across America. (Cameos by Burt Reynolds and Dom Delouise optional of course.)

Also, I can't believe you are all forgetting the most popular game based on a movie ever... Super Mario Brothers... Wasn't it based on that blockbuster with Bob Hoskins, Dennis Hopper, and John Leguizamo... what?... you mean... really?... the game came out before the movie?... huh... well I'll be...

Oh yeah, and The Saint soundtrack would be done by Orbital.

I know one thing a good movie based game needs: the actual actor that gave the character a face the first time! I mean there are 3 Bourne movies and on all the covers it says "Matt Damon IS Jason Bourne" so now they make a game and all of a sudden the movies are liars and Matt Damon is just some guy that pretends to be Bourne...

No i really don't like those movies i'm just making a point.

@Karlott: Still, The Warriors got overlooked, which I personally rate as not only the best movie to game adaption, but it's also my favourite Rockstar game.

CAN YOU DIG IT!?

@Eltigro: Cannonball game ftw, although I would prefer a little more realistic approach, like in the Gumball movie (don't know if the American title was Gumball - the main characters drove an AC Cobra and a Ferrari Daytona). For know, there is TDU.

Really? The warriors? I'll admit that it stuck with the movie very well and had some great moments but it got boring after awhile. Add that to the fact that the main mission can be beaten in one afternoon and it lost my interest.

And the Warriors is one of my favorite movies too.

@Cchrist: the game is based on the books, not the movies so Matt Damon has nothing to do with it.

and yeah, Matt Damon really is some guy that pretends to be Bourne... he was damn good at it though.

I thought the Bourne movies were great movies, but they were a little lacking for me because they veered off so far from the novels. I understand why they made that choice, and it worked, but for me, the books always came first.

I feel like a video game that marries the visual style and the Damon-style Bourne to the narrative of the novels would be a winner. The battles with the Jackal would make for some great videogame stuff.

@Eville1: Yes, The Warriors. I see it as a spiritual successor to Streets of Rage, and I can beat that in under two hours (which was definetily not possible with The Warriors).

Plus, if you are a collector, you can collect a lot of bonuses, which keeps you motivated for more playthroughs.