The "Chewer's Masterpieces of Gaming" thread (or the games that could be art thread)

I've missed this thread so very much.

Thank you, Ryoken. Thank you.

Oh, my post was just to subscribe. No sarcasm here.

Ok, let me ask a question, before the thread gets busy. What's the deal with Braid? It's been showing up in my RSS feeds all day, but I have yet to read about it.

Grim Fandango.

The Citizen Kane of games.

Funny you should say that, I wanted to say Longest Journey too. I love it, but GF side-by-side with it shows GF to be infinitely superior, more polished with insanely brilliant puzzles, dialogue and characters.

LJ's scope is obviously brilliant though.

For the FPS crown, even with the terrible ending - STALKER is a masterpiece. It isn't, however - an example of a game as art. I'd almost give it to Bioshock, but Deux Ex is far better, if now visually quite dated. Makes me want to play just thinking about it...

It depends on your definition of adventure game - but no matter how little it appeals to people, i'd go with Myst as my personal third. I actually don't even really like it that much, but it's brilliantly designed and a fine example of games as art.

I like System shock 2, don't get me wrong, but it's never struck me as more than a well-carved game. It was Bioshock's precursor and does everything bioshock does, just with older graphics. If Bioshock had been made back then, it'd have looked and played exactly like SS2 just without the "moral decisions".

For me, what makes Deux Ex a masterpiece is the vast worlds it created - long before KOTOR or anything like that - walking around Hong Kong's bustling marketplaces or visiting a secret base in Paris - it was unheard of in an FPS to have this kind of open-world choice. You believed this kind of thing existed, and sure - SS2 have the same engine features (such as inventory and interaction and RPG-style combat) but in Deux Ex you had so much choice and involvement.

I still remember how excited I got when I discovered I could rob stores, or break into random apartments. Talk to random people or find secret places. I bet there's still tonnes of stuff I haven't found in DEx.

Still, it's all down to opinion - they're all great games.

Good luck getting Planescape to run on any modern computer, but it belongs in this type of thread.

Despite not playing many games past the SNES era, I'd like to suggest The Neverhood. Brilliant game.
Great to see Grim Fandango get a mention. What ever happened to LucasArts? They were so good for a while.

Revolution X starring Aerosmith was a pretty Boss game.

Love in an elevator!

Ryoken's kind of proving that Chud has at least got a little more tolerant these past few years. If this and his anime thread had been made a year ago you wouldn't have been able to move for the sarcasm.

Thief: The Dark Project/Thief Gold (and Thief 2: The Metal Age to a slightly lesser degree). No other game has made me have to get inside the player character's head to the degree that this game did. Sure, the graphics were dated even by the standards of the year of it's release, but the immersiveness of the environments and atmosphere so thick that you could choke on it make it my favourite game to this day.

If we're gonna go back to the 8/16 bit days for examples, ActRaiser's probably the first time where my head was just swimming with new ideas within the first 15 minutes of gameplay.

On that same note, I credit Yuzo Koshiro with being the first guy to make me sit up and notice a game's musical score. For all the bitching that would come about the Genesis' shitty sound chip, the Streets of Rage soundtrack pushed that thing to its greatest heights early, and often.

The tortured lullabies that the midwives hummed if they don't know your around still haunt me. That and the infected zombie types slurring "SSsssilence the disssscord!" still stick with me to this day.

I'm probably going to get jumped on for this, and it may not really qualify as art, but I always find myself thinking of the first Max Payne when the games as art debate comes up. People tend to focus on the shooting mechanics and derivative "bullet time" aspects of the game while ignoring the effectiveness of the dream sequences, graphic novel cut scenes, and the overall sense of place that was created by the visual style of the game. It really nailed the hard-boiled gritty decaying city aesthetic in a way that a lot of movies would later seem to ape.

That being said, I'm not particularly hopeful about the film adaptation, but... fingers crossed.

Eco & Shadow of Colossus are easily on this list.

Trying not to think of games I just simply love - got a bit more to 'em.

I'm struggling a bit now.

Odin Sphere is a beautiful looking game. Bioshock also had a great atmosphere to look at.

I believe I played this on Gametap and it worked fine.

One thing I've noticed about some of my favorite recent games is the lack of a bombastic score overlaying the gameplay. While I love the attention of a professional orchestra performing a score adds to a game (the most recent Prince of Persia and Halo 3 come to mind), the more simple music backdrops have made me take notice. The beautiful strings accompanied by the simple black and white images of Echochrome and the electronic beats of PixelJunk Eden are a nice departure.

It's been some time since I've played Bioshock. Was there a score to that one, or was it all ambient noises and songs played from creepy phonographs?

One of these days Justin, we will get that Avatar statute to become a reality.

I jerk off a lot. Maybe that's art too! I need to be validated in my masturbation.

Gotta be validated for something I guess...

What part of "It's a trap" didn't you understand?

Anyway, I'd like to say that the narrative in Bioshock was probably my favorite in any video game. And the fact that it could only have the same effect if it was told in video game form (due to the fact that the player was actually the one doing the actions) was what made it so great. And the gameplay was pretty kickass.

GDT weighs in:

Deadly Towers is the Duchamp's Fountain of the gaming world.

But seriously, some games are made as an expression or message, like:

Cloud
Harpooned
Super Columbine Massacre

As to superb video game entertainment as art, sure I agree with the Ico's and Shadow of the Colossus' of the world. I'd add to that maybe Wind Waker, and certain parts of other games.... Like, say, the artwork in Samurai Showdown or the music from Guild Wars.

Considering some of the things Damien Hirst puts out I could probably make a good arguement for Deadly Towers.

P.S. George Steven's Giant is so, so very long.

I'm with wydren - Bioshock is a masterpiece. It's a beautiful, frightening, thought-provoking work of art. Oh, and a hell of a lot of fun too.

Just noticed this thread today somehow. I'm with Justin on Actraiser. It was the first game to come to mind before I even read the thread. That game is still beautiful, and worth picking up online if you can find it.

But of course, if we want to get down to it based on this definition:

Art - the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects

then basically every game made is art, even if it's crap. I mean, not everyone like splatter Pollock, but are we going to argue if it's art or not? That said, Adventures of Bayou Billy was sadly not a work of art.

I have never passed the damn rocket sled level on Battletoads. Or the 3rd level of Bayou Billy.

I think if you look at Mario 2 from an angle other than Doki Doki Panic rip off, it can be pretty artistic. So Mario was asleep right? Imagine if the entire game was some insane fever dream from getting some STD of Princess. Or a bad trip from some shrooms Toad gave him. And why did he want his brother to slide down the blow hole of those whales? Heavy stuff for kids.

Indeed.

And I might put this question here as well as anywhere. I stumbled over my copy recently and installed it again. But somehow it does not work on my laptop (1gig Ram, 2.4mhz, WinXP). But I want it to!

Any suggestions without derailing?

Have you tried to run it in compatibility mode?

Ugh, I am illiterate when it comes to computer stuff. I don´t even know what that is....

That looks very helpful. Thanks mucho!

- If I am not working for days I have to blame you though -

ETA: It is running as smooth as a baby ass right now. Awesome, thanks again guys!

You'll be busy for days now.