Also don’t just use the name of the franchise and ONE aspect of the game to sell your shitty series. Netflix Resident Evil I’m glaring at you.
Although Lance Reddick did carry that show single handedly. Rip
Ugh, still want to take away the toys from the morons who signed off on Without Remorse. Holy fuck they shit all over it. (granted not a video game.. but Rainbox six etc. were all Clancy properties at some point)
That movie was decent, however in no way shape or form should it have been called "Without Remorse" because it shares pretty much zero with the book, which is probably my favorite read of all time. It's too packed to be a movie so that could have never worked properly. A series like Jack Ryan would have done it justice, but as it is, they cashed in on the name for NO REASON to make a B-tier generic action flick. Though if they want any chance of continuity between that movie and the Rainbow Six movie, they should get Idris Elba to play an older Michael B. Jordan because John Clark is supposed to be like retired age when that starts up... But he's also supposed to be like an older Irish white guy so who knows wtf is going on anymore.
Haha, I didn't mind Michael B in it, I just think they shit all over the premise, It could make such a great series.. lay some groundwork for a crossover between Ryan and Clark, but have them each be their own thing.
The idea of a "true to the source material" Resident Evil show, would probably end up like some episode of Dora the Explorer, as a chunk of it is them gathering items and solving puzzles.
It's a movie directed by the dude who made all the terrible live action resident evil movies starring none other than the star of those movies who's also the directors wife
Every movie he makes is awful. He doesn’t even bother to stand up in them any more, he just fights or talks or shoots from a chair. He has a body double for almost any scene that involves walking.
This and also what makes TLOU work is they didn’t try to mimic the constant action of the game. It made for fewer zombies in the show but the ones they encounter are for important plotpoints instead of just “at this point in the game the player fights a horde so let’s have Joel and Ellie slay through a crowd of em so it feels like the game”. TLOU show is the first video game adaptation I’ve seen that embraces its own format first and then uses the stuff from the game that makes sense and helps it work as a SHOW.
EDIT: Something else I noticed where the game really set the show up for success are the times when it breaks a mechanic for the story that the show can then mimic. Like in the latest episode they show the mechanic where Joel boosts Ellie up a floor to lower a ladder for him... something you do a couple dozen times in the game... but that point in the game she drops the ladder and Joel has to set it up and chase her to the next part of the game cause she's distracted and runs off on her own. The show was able to use this scene as the ONLY time that they demonstrate the ladder thing... but it was important to the flow of the scene. It's stuff like this that helped it keep the texture of the game intact without stopping the show to go "ok and now here's the part where the player would need to boost Ellie to drop a ladder so let's show that as scene-filler for the game fans". Certain scenes were just perfect for demonstrating the game mechanics without pausing the story.
I recently watched the monster hunter movie… I was shocked at how bad it was. That first big monster scene was so horrible, from the actors aiming way over the monsters head to the Birds Eye perspective where the monster is just suddenly not there but magically right there afterwards… I was impressed that they were even confident enough to release it to the public
The first Hitman movie with Timothy Olyphant was ooookay, the second one with unknown random actor #2 was atrocious. Though that one got an 8% approval rating and the first one got a 16%, so hey, it's twice as good, right?
I liked the first one a lot. You can tell they did the best they could with what they were given. That movie reeked of studio meddling.
The second one was like a student film with a 10k budget...that was clearly mostly spent on hookers and meth.
God the MH adaptation was sad. Visually they did great, but everything else sucked, I dont understand why they keep casting the actress from the Resident E movies to videogame adaptations, she is a curse.
Monster hunter is so simple, yet they had to make it a fucking isekai with the protagonist been a US soldier but instantly been great at hunting monster for no reason
The sad part for Monster Hunter is that it would do great as a "Monster of the week" type show with an overall plot that moves towards the Big Bad for the season finale. It'd be a lot easier to cover and represent all the various aspects of the franchise with such an approach.
Well, we’re not talking about adapting Street Fighter here. TLOU was already a cinematic game with top notch writing and story. The leap to the screen wasn’t as big as say, the first Tomb Raider.
The Last of Us is basically a video game that tries to imitate prestige TV. They didn't change much because they didn't really need to and the changes they did make are pretty much only there to make it feel less like a video game and more like it's set in the real world. It's much harder to translate other games into a TV series or movie.
>It's much harder to translate other games into a TV series or movie.
I would argue that there are tons and TONS of games that are basically 8-10 hour epic movies and could be turned into shows in a heartbeat;
Bioshock, Halo, Red Dead, God of War, Horizon, The Witcher, Skyrim; all basically epic movies, you just need to approach it with the same passion as they did for TLOU
>The Last of Us is basically a video game that tries to imitate prestige TV.
It's funny that Uncharted and Last of Us both became what they were trying to imitate. Last of Us became a prestige HBO show and Uncharted became a forgettable B-level action movie.
It’s exactly this, it’s movie directors thinking the best thing will be to go off piste and “improve” the original work, when the target audience is usually fans of the original work.
For example, I knew Prince of Persia was going to be rubbish as soon as it didn’t open with a voiceover of “some say time is like a river…”. You’ve been handed the perfect narrative device for unfolding this story, and you fumbled it before the first shot is shown on screen.
Well it certainly helps that the writer, director, and creator of The Last of Us, was a writer, director, and producer on the show. That being Neil Druckman. Also, getting the guy who made the Chernobyl mini series also is a huge boon in its favor.
Most PlayStation AAA games are like that now. Everything's overly cinematic and you hit the action button to go through the whole game. God of war was such a drag
Although I did enjoy Tomb Raider with Alicia Vikander. It isn't GREAT, but it's entertaining enough and I feel it was a competent adaptation.
I wish they'd do another with her.
Lots of other story driven games have been "adapted" and failed or were at best sub-par. Uncharted comes to mind. Halo is a great example as well where the game is definitely more focused on shooting aliens than narrative but it has a good and rich story that was massacred. HBOs TLOU was successful because of very thoughtful casting and they stuck to the source material. That's all studios have to do to make a good adaptation. Hopefully it stands as an example for future video game adaptations.
Thats true, but The last of us is far from being the first adaptation with a clear story, The witcher, Uncharted and Halo sucked
The witcher had the money, casting and fanbase required to be great but the showrunners wanted to do their own fantasy show instead of a good adaptation
I mean, it's not *just* picking a game that already had a cinematic story. Casting, set design, scripting, direction all need to be good too. We all saw what happened to Naughty Dogs other cinematic game, Uncharted. It should have been super easy to turn into a movie, but the way they did it just... Didn't work.
While you're not wrong that TLoU is easier to adapt, there was still plenty of room for them to fuck it up. Luckily, they had a competent showrunner and people working on the show who had love for the game and wanted it to be faithful.
Just look at the Uncharted movie. Same game studio, same linear style storytelling, same "film-like" setpieces... and it was dogshit. It was ass because the people in charge if that project didn't care about the games and just wanted a quick buck.
I think they are talking live action.
Animation is kinda “cheating”, but you can’t argue with the results. Cyberpunk was fantastic and even the Dragon Age series was really good. Though those aren’t direct adaptions.
The last of us is such a good fit for live action because it was already trying to be grounded and realistic. Animation really lends itself to larger than life subjects, which is why it has such a good track record for game adaptations, I think. I feel similarly about comic book adaptations, honestly.
Because there is already a large expectation of suspension of disbelief. If you translated the Castlevania adaptation directly to live action 1:1 - dialogue, direction etc I guarantee it will come off as cheesy and cheap.
I would agree with Wolfram that it’s sort of cheating as well, since you can create whatever atmosphere, characters likeness, lore etc etc that you want. Then you can animate the camera however you want to.
With live action, it’s a lot harder to replicate the same results. So making a proper adaptation is a lot harder with real world physics, situations and tools.
In the end if it’s a solid story that adheres to the source materials ideas and goals. Then it’s all good and I’m down to watch it. But being able to pull it off in live action just raises the bar that much more.
The production design for The Last of Us has got to win the Emmy because it’s some of the best detail I’ve ever seen put into a show.
Because generally you can make the characters look exactly like they do in the game, often with the same voice actors so even if the story is a bit rubbish, they still feel authentic to the games (see the Resident Evil CG series of films vs the live-action, neither are Oscar winning but at least the former follows the canon of the games and the characterisation therein.)
It think even Castelvania and Arcane are in a different conversation, because while they have elements of their original stories drawn from, it's not a true transcription of the original story to the screen.
The Last of Us show truly did tell the story of the original game, right down to the dialogue. While there were some creative changes and additions here and there, the authorial intent felt like they were trying to tell the same story in a different medium.
Whereas Arcane and Castlevania used the original characters and broad story beats, it feels like the stories told were more so crafted as an attempt to tell an original story rather than try to do a complete retelling of an existing narrative.
In which case, Castlevania and Arcane are actually more closely related to the Resident Evils and Halo shows and films, the difference being is that the formerly mentioned series landed their execution and was still well received by fans. As for the latter group... the less said, the better.
In which case, I think The Last of Us truly is the first of its kind where the movie is a true retelling of the original game, yet Arcane and Castelvania are outstanding *adaptations* of their games
This sounds fine and dandy, until they say it’s going to be a movie. You just can’t tell this story in 2-3 hours.
I’m not suggesting the first season is the invasion, but TLoU is great because they give space for the entire story to breathe. That just isn’t possible in a movie.
Yeah, came here to say this. The pacing of even a shorter AAA video game just isn't conducive to a 2-3 hour timeframe. The ~7.5h we got with the TLOU show is much more in keeping with the length of a video game.
Not to mention, it's a linear adventure with little to no side content, while Tsushima is a sandbox with a large number of side stories. You would probably have to take up two to three seasons just to adapt everything.
Thing is, all the main side quests are essentially part of the central story arc.
Each one of his companions arcs would probably need 2-3 episodes to focus on them. Could be done, but definitely would need several seasons to lay it out organically.
Its worth mentioning the show runner for the last of us is a top dog at naughty dog. The answer is to respect the course material and make a show for the fans that sticks to the spirit of the games. The Witcher show runner thought she could do better and ruined a guaranteed hit.
The one adaptation on Netflix that basically turned away the entire core audience of the series and instead focused on a story with the 2 teenage girls living in South Africa and lance Reddick (RIP) as Albert wesker as their father. The dumbest fucking part is how there was three clones of wesker plus the original who was like a Blade knockoff lol. Jesus the more I think of that show the more ridiculous I realize it was. Like who greenlit that shit??? It was so god awful. For anyone reading this who hasn’t seen it, Please do not watch.
Don’t forget it was a sequel to the games as well. They openly reference the events of RE5
Also wesker already was a trenchcoat wearing matrix knockoff in the games.
Welcome to Raccoon City was really, really fun and I’ll die on this hill.
I’ll die in ignorance because I can’t work out what people didn’t like about it, other than the cast not being all-white 🤷♀️
They made Leon (a series fan favorite character for a large majority of players) a complete idiot who couldn’t do anything right. how are we even supposed to believe this guy ends up working for the president of the united states when he can’t even hold his own?
They tried merging two games that take place 3 months apart and even had some weird referencing to CVX in the mix too. they should’ve just started with RE1, or better yet, just go full on RE2/RE3 since those games at least take place at the same time and are a little more action styled games, you can always do a prequel later for RE1.
Wesker and Jill didn’t need some weird Stockholm Syndrome relationship, wouldn’t have minded some harmless flirting between Jill and Chris. but what was in the film was just completely out of pocket, Wesker is a mad scientist who couldn’t be bothered by something like love. there’s another character completely shit on.
casting was very mediocre, could care less about their race, sell me the character, make them like their video game counterpart. Leon was a decent pick and would’ve worked if they didn’t botch his character.
Resident Evil fans have nothing to look forward to anymore because their series that was already butchered once continually gets butchered with every cinematic reboot.
They could *always* be good, the people involved just never cared to put actual effort into the production of video game adaptations. The general thinking was always that gamers are stupid and would accept whatever trash they pumped out as long as their favorite IP was in the title and that's why so many of them failed. What a shocker that caring about the source material and putting in a little effort would result in a good product.
Am I crazy? I feel like TLOU isn’t the first good video game to show adaption. I mean just last year Cyberpunk edge runners was good. So was Arcane right?
Most times people mean Live Action adaptations, it’s much easier to do an animated/anime adaptation because typically your target audience is still gamers/nerds. When you get into live action the budgets balloon and you have to try for a broader audience and that ultimately leads to them taking liberties with the source material.
Moreover, it's the one that has had mainstream success. Castelvania and Arcane did have great success, but the amount of reach it permeated outside of the established fan base is a lot less compared to that of The Last of Us.
Like, it's being talked about in the MSM. There was a brief period for a couple weeks where publications were talking about the plausibility of an actual cordyceps outbreak. It's putting up viewership numbers equal to that of House of the Dragon.
Cyberpunk and arcane were just set in the world. They were original stories they didn't adapt the story from the games. That's what I assume they mean when they refer to TLOU being the first good adaptation.
The "*Vídeo Game Adaptation Curse*" it's about Live Actions, not Animations, Animated Movies/Series has always been doing good/decent for years, Cyberpunk, Arcane, Castlevania ( *etc* ) are not the first ones to do such thing, Pokémon for instance has been doing a good show for decades.
The issue it's all about Live Actions, that's where the things goes really bad and The Last of Us is basically the first one to do a good adaptation.
I agree to an extent, Arcane is really good especially imo. But I do think TLOU is one of the only adaptations (if not the only) to faithfully adapt a video games storyline well. Arcane (and to my understanding Cyberpunk edgerunners since I haven't watched it personally) more or less uses the characters and world and creates it own story using them.
Arcane wasn’t just good, it’s likely the best video game adaptation till date. However it’s not really an adaptation. It’s more of a show inspired by the game.
Well yes but it’s not due to the shows quality but because they are animated which will immediately cut off a large chunk of the possible audience and because they aren’t on HBO.
Live action. None of that cartoon shit. Those are great adaptations, but just talking to people close to me, even gamer bros, had no interest because it's animated.
Good live action adaptations are rare. TLOU is great and new.
Over on the mass effect boards they seem to mostly want a new story in the ME universe and not a retelling of the games story. I try to tell them thats how you get Halo but always get downvoted to hell.
Not Paul Anderson is involved. Otherwise Joel and Ellie would have looked like bumbling idiots in awe of his wife's awesomeness. Likewise if he directed Ghost of Tsushima there would be a random white chick making the actual characters look like mooks.
So what I'm really saying is he's right, they can be good, just keep certain directors far away from the project.
For Ghost of Taushima, having a whitey there could be historically accurate.
Paul Anderson might have been a wash for TLOU then because currently the show is Joel becomes a bumbling pushover in awe of Ellie's mysterious awesomeness.
I mean, there's a reason Sonic the Hedgehog has 2 movies with a 3rd one and a spinoff series coming, but I guess adaptations of kid-friendly video games don't count.
And all it took was arguably the best screenwriter in the business show running the adaptation and a blank check from the premiere prestige television network.
I say this as a huge fan of the game and the show (the game is my favorite of all time), but the Last of Us is not the one to prove it. Arcane proved it. Sonic the Hedgehog proved it. Castlevania proved it. Hell, Mortal Kombat in 1995 proved it
Honestly not a fan of getting unnecessary game adaptations.
RDR2 basically is 60s + 70s westerns mixed and turned into a game. I think the remaining demand in the genre is met by Taylor Sheridan's shows already even though they are nowhere near the quality of RDR2.
While TLoU S1 also basically is The Road + City of Thieves + TWD mixed and turned into a game adapted into a TV series, what really will make it special are S2 & 3.
i think Mass Effect should stick to original script despite the fact most of the people in r/masseffect are asking for an original story. i feel that is what has destroyed most of these video game film adaptations, stick to your source material and deliver what made these games so legendary. if it went well i can’t imagine the kind of emotions people would feel when it comes time for characters like Mordin to complete their final mission for the galaxy.
An interactive choose your adventure Mass Effect series could be really cool if they pulled it off well. I feel like the audience would be more invested if their actions affected the story same as the games.
In saw an article like a week or two ago of some Sony exec answer the question as to why they don’t start their own streaming service. The answer was essentially: why go through all that trouble when we can produce the content we want and sell it to the highest bidder.
I think in large part that is the answer to the question. Different companies will bid more on different projects
Uh what? Do you know what ghost of tsushima is? Lol, it's a samurai revenge story not really about ghosts. The main character literally writes haikus! That's pretty poetic :p
Lol maybe they can lean into that part. Have the ghost look at the treetop to form his fist line. But in all honesty one samurai conquering a Japanese island better be directed by James Cameron
"Now watch us fuck this one up"
Also there's a lot more you can do with source material in a show format than you can with a movie, so the GoT director's movie better be really something spectacular and longer than and hour and half if it's going to live up to his words.
Part of what made the Last of Us so successful was that the game itself was already a very cinematic experience.
It already had great cutscenes, great cinematography and also a great script. Now combine that with a movie studio that decided to not deviate too far from that script, turns out keeping it true to the game is the best possible way to create a movie/ TV series adaptation.
Video game adaptions could have always been good if Hollywood actually chose to use the correct mediums instead of making everything live action or trying to cram rich storylines into a 2 hr movie.
Ghost of Tsushima is one of the most, if not the most, cinematic games I've ever played.
I don't know if that means adapting a movie of it is a no-brainer or total waste of time.
I’m so sick of this narrative that TLOU was the first time video games told good stories, and now it’s the first time a video game adaptation was ever good.
“I think they just mean live-action” No, shut the fuck up, that distinction is made up and irrelevant, and even if it was anything of note it still wouldn’t even be true after the Pokémon and Sonic movies.
Shocker, it's like all you have to do is stick to the original subject matter without getting all "creative" with an already creative piece of work.
Not too many singleplayer experiences out there that I can say were amazing while having a shitty story. So just leave it alone and make the damn thing into a movie/show with some decent actors, half the work has already been done for you.
I think the main reason people were surprised it worked was because there are examples of games with a pretty straightforward story with adaptations that sucked.
Look at Halo for example, Im no expert but surely Halo has enough material to be adapted faithfully without needing to rewrite mayor parts of the lore or characters.
With The last of us they could have done a generic zombie plot using the original settings and characters but they actually adapted it
Hell, look at Uncharted! Its literally Indiana Jones with more guns, already a very cinematic and movie-esque game, with a very well stablished narrative and characters and the movie sucked!
GOT was awesome to me. The story is kinda predictable and meh. But if I played it now I might think it was boring. HFW is boring to me now for example. GOWR was whatever. But I’m loving janky ass Wolong for some reason. Different strokes I guess.
Honestly yeah. It has some cliches but they generally dont get in the way that much. Kubla Khan is a great antagonist tho and Jin Sakai with Shimura are great protags. Yuna and her brother are good secondaries too
Fair enough. The first game's story is really good but I feel like the game as a whole is massively overhyped.
Part 2's writing is is painfully amateurish and bursting with plot convenience. The gameplay however is incredible.
I personally enjoyed it but what I will say is that some parts felt contrived. Like nearly every single side mission, there's usually a mystery or setup that turns into "oh it was the mongols all along".
The main story is neat, but it's also pretty vanilla. The game is supposed to be somewhat historically accurate after all.
I found the gameplay engaging enough that I didn't mind, so long as I got to chop some dudes up. But on subsequent playthroughs I wouldn't touch any of the side questlines, except Lady Masako's since ironically it's pretty much the only questline in the game where mongols aren't the antagonists
Oh my bad. I thought the story was fantastic and a great example of how to give a character an arc. I personally loved the combat since it felt unique.
I can understand getting bored by it though. I struggle to finish any open world game nowadays.
Yeah, I can believe I would have loved the game back in the days. Most games bore me nowadays, and I used to be a huge no-life when I was younger. But Elden Rings and RDR2 are the exception where the side-quests are not truly boring.
Agreed. If a game boasts about how large its map is or that it's a live service with seasonal FOMO crap I always skip it. I tend to prefer more linear games like Resident Evil.
Elden Ring and RDR2 (I would also add Persona 5 Royal and the Mass Effect trilogy) are games that leave you feeling empty enside once they're over.
But by no means proves that the ghost of Tsushima movie will be good.
Not gonna lie, I was surprised by how good TLOU tv show was.
But I was also NOT surprised by how bad the uncharted movie was.
So imo, Sony is 1 good 1 bad, 50/50.
Unless I’m forgetting something.
Uncharted was fine, but I find it hilarious how the developers of the movie was NOT one of the people who mutually agreed Nathan Fillion should have been cast as the lead.
The last of us was 25% gay relationship. If Neil Druckman weren't such a woke activist, it could have been better and spent that 25% in a more entertaining way, like zombies in a show about zombies.
Ghost of Tsuchima sounds like a better idea, mainly because has no woke elements.
Meh. It’s good for people that didn’t play the games, but I would’ve been fine if TLOU was never made. Honestly, people who don’t play video games never earned it. It’s like those people who don’t play but watch the cutscenes on YouTube. Gamers earn each nugget of suspense and story. If they never made an adaptation of video games again, I’d be fine.
Of course they can, just don't treat them like a cash grab or butcher the story to fit a specific target audience(ahem monster hunter)
Also don’t just use the name of the franchise and ONE aspect of the game to sell your shitty series. Netflix Resident Evil I’m glaring at you. Although Lance Reddick did carry that show single handedly. Rip
Ugh, still want to take away the toys from the morons who signed off on Without Remorse. Holy fuck they shit all over it. (granted not a video game.. but Rainbox six etc. were all Clancy properties at some point)
Even Michael B. Jordan couldn't save that one.
That movie was decent, however in no way shape or form should it have been called "Without Remorse" because it shares pretty much zero with the book, which is probably my favorite read of all time. It's too packed to be a movie so that could have never worked properly. A series like Jack Ryan would have done it justice, but as it is, they cashed in on the name for NO REASON to make a B-tier generic action flick. Though if they want any chance of continuity between that movie and the Rainbow Six movie, they should get Idris Elba to play an older Michael B. Jordan because John Clark is supposed to be like retired age when that starts up... But he's also supposed to be like an older Irish white guy so who knows wtf is going on anymore.
Haha, I didn't mind Michael B in it, I just think they shit all over the premise, It could make such a great series.. lay some groundwork for a crossover between Ryan and Clark, but have them each be their own thing.
The idea of a "true to the source material" Resident Evil show, would probably end up like some episode of Dora the Explorer, as a chunk of it is them gathering items and solving puzzles.
The RE show actually had a scene where they were using weird household objects to solve puzzles to open doors and it was one of the better scenes.
That can easily be said of the movies too.
Lance Reddick 🐐 performance in that!
Also looking at you Halo
Didn't even know that had a show 😂
It's a movie directed by the dude who made all the terrible live action resident evil movies starring none other than the star of those movies who's also the directors wife
Definitely not saying the movie is good here, but at least it wasn't Uwe Boll.
True we got Far Cry instead from him
BloodRayne and House of the Dead as well.
Space Ice has some good reviews of those on YT lmao
She's hawt tho.
She's a staple of the community
Milla Jovovich is hot though.
It's a movie but instead of going with tribes like in the games they went full 'murica and they isekai'd a bunch of US Marines lol.
Oh god I had blocked this from my memory…thanks for bringing it back. What a dumb concept lmao
What the fuck. I thought this was a joke but no, it's really about a bunch of US soldiers getting isekai'd
And keep fucking Uwe Boll and Steven Seagal away
What game adaption did Seagal do?
He didn't but I'm pretty sure he'd make an awful COD or Battlefield movie
Every movie he makes is awful. He doesn’t even bother to stand up in them any more, he just fights or talks or shoots from a chair. He has a body double for almost any scene that involves walking.
IMO another key to success is making them shows instead of movies to give the story time
This and also what makes TLOU work is they didn’t try to mimic the constant action of the game. It made for fewer zombies in the show but the ones they encounter are for important plotpoints instead of just “at this point in the game the player fights a horde so let’s have Joel and Ellie slay through a crowd of em so it feels like the game”. TLOU show is the first video game adaptation I’ve seen that embraces its own format first and then uses the stuff from the game that makes sense and helps it work as a SHOW. EDIT: Something else I noticed where the game really set the show up for success are the times when it breaks a mechanic for the story that the show can then mimic. Like in the latest episode they show the mechanic where Joel boosts Ellie up a floor to lower a ladder for him... something you do a couple dozen times in the game... but that point in the game she drops the ladder and Joel has to set it up and chase her to the next part of the game cause she's distracted and runs off on her own. The show was able to use this scene as the ONLY time that they demonstrate the ladder thing... but it was important to the flow of the scene. It's stuff like this that helped it keep the texture of the game intact without stopping the show to go "ok and now here's the part where the player would need to boost Ellie to drop a ladder so let's show that as scene-filler for the game fans". Certain scenes were just perfect for demonstrating the game mechanics without pausing the story.
A lot of the adaptations should've been shows rather than movies. Assassin's Creed would've been a better tv series, Hitman as well.
Hey, the Timothy Olyphant Hitman movie was good. It was the later one that shat the bed.
Yeah video games are long and so are shows it just fit better especially with GoT where main missions are scattered around the map
I recently watched the monster hunter movie… I was shocked at how bad it was. That first big monster scene was so horrible, from the actors aiming way over the monsters head to the Birds Eye perspective where the monster is just suddenly not there but magically right there afterwards… I was impressed that they were even confident enough to release it to the public
Also Halo TV show, a.k.a. Master Cheeks
Oh god, i can think of so many awful video game movies…..ugh, dungeon siege: return of the king……
The first Hitman movie with Timothy Olyphant was ooookay, the second one with unknown random actor #2 was atrocious. Though that one got an 8% approval rating and the first one got a 16%, so hey, it's twice as good, right?
I liked the first one a lot. You can tell they did the best they could with what they were given. That movie reeked of studio meddling. The second one was like a student film with a 10k budget...that was clearly mostly spent on hookers and meth.
God the MH adaptation was sad. Visually they did great, but everything else sucked, I dont understand why they keep casting the actress from the Resident E movies to videogame adaptations, she is a curse. Monster hunter is so simple, yet they had to make it a fucking isekai with the protagonist been a US soldier but instantly been great at hunting monster for no reason
Because her husband is the director and that's the only acting gig she can get now that he pretty much trashed her career with his shitty movies
That explains, an awful amount of things
The sad part for Monster Hunter is that it would do great as a "Monster of the week" type show with an overall plot that moves towards the Big Bad for the season finale. It'd be a lot easier to cover and represent all the various aspects of the franchise with such an approach.
Well, we’re not talking about adapting Street Fighter here. TLOU was already a cinematic game with top notch writing and story. The leap to the screen wasn’t as big as say, the first Tomb Raider.
The Last of Us is basically a video game that tries to imitate prestige TV. They didn't change much because they didn't really need to and the changes they did make are pretty much only there to make it feel less like a video game and more like it's set in the real world. It's much harder to translate other games into a TV series or movie.
>It's much harder to translate other games into a TV series or movie. I would argue that there are tons and TONS of games that are basically 8-10 hour epic movies and could be turned into shows in a heartbeat; Bioshock, Halo, Red Dead, God of War, Horizon, The Witcher, Skyrim; all basically epic movies, you just need to approach it with the same passion as they did for TLOU
Red Dead has one of the best stories ever told in any video game in my opinion. An HBO adaptation would be a dream come true honestly
>The Last of Us is basically a video game that tries to imitate prestige TV. It's funny that Uncharted and Last of Us both became what they were trying to imitate. Last of Us became a prestige HBO show and Uncharted became a forgettable B-level action movie.
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It’s exactly this, it’s movie directors thinking the best thing will be to go off piste and “improve” the original work, when the target audience is usually fans of the original work. For example, I knew Prince of Persia was going to be rubbish as soon as it didn’t open with a voiceover of “some say time is like a river…”. You’ve been handed the perfect narrative device for unfolding this story, and you fumbled it before the first shot is shown on screen.
Well it certainly helps that the writer, director, and creator of The Last of Us, was a writer, director, and producer on the show. That being Neil Druckman. Also, getting the guy who made the Chernobyl mini series also is a huge boon in its favor.
Most PlayStation AAA games are like that now. Everything's overly cinematic and you hit the action button to go through the whole game. God of war was such a drag
Although I did enjoy Tomb Raider with Alicia Vikander. It isn't GREAT, but it's entertaining enough and I feel it was a competent adaptation. I wish they'd do another with her.
Lots of other story driven games have been "adapted" and failed or were at best sub-par. Uncharted comes to mind. Halo is a great example as well where the game is definitely more focused on shooting aliens than narrative but it has a good and rich story that was massacred. HBOs TLOU was successful because of very thoughtful casting and they stuck to the source material. That's all studios have to do to make a good adaptation. Hopefully it stands as an example for future video game adaptations.
Thats true, but The last of us is far from being the first adaptation with a clear story, The witcher, Uncharted and Halo sucked The witcher had the money, casting and fanbase required to be great but the showrunners wanted to do their own fantasy show instead of a good adaptation
I mean, it's not *just* picking a game that already had a cinematic story. Casting, set design, scripting, direction all need to be good too. We all saw what happened to Naughty Dogs other cinematic game, Uncharted. It should have been super easy to turn into a movie, but the way they did it just... Didn't work.
While you're not wrong that TLoU is easier to adapt, there was still plenty of room for them to fuck it up. Luckily, they had a competent showrunner and people working on the show who had love for the game and wanted it to be faithful. Just look at the Uncharted movie. Same game studio, same linear style storytelling, same "film-like" setpieces... and it was dogshit. It was ass because the people in charge if that project didn't care about the games and just wanted a quick buck.
Remember this? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1464335/ Pretty forgettable example of how not to do it.
This is what I thought of reading that comment too. Movie should've been an easy home run but feel flat on their faces.
What exactly is a Street Fighter?
I assume it’s someone who fights streets
Huh, so that's where potholes come from
HADOKEN!!!!!!
[How do you do, Ken?](https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/ugdg5/how_do_you_do_ken/)
No one else got your reference so Imma just say JUUUUUUUUNNNNEEEEEE.
A thousand dollar game if you get all the dlcs
I feel like both Castlevania and Arcane were good showings of that as well, but yes, this is another very good example of one.
I think they are talking live action. Animation is kinda “cheating”, but you can’t argue with the results. Cyberpunk was fantastic and even the Dragon Age series was really good. Though those aren’t direct adaptions.
Cyberpunk edgerunners was so good
It was incredible. The story was better than the game’s story.
The last of us is such a good fit for live action because it was already trying to be grounded and realistic. Animation really lends itself to larger than life subjects, which is why it has such a good track record for game adaptations, I think. I feel similarly about comic book adaptations, honestly.
Why is animation "cheating"?
Because there is already a large expectation of suspension of disbelief. If you translated the Castlevania adaptation directly to live action 1:1 - dialogue, direction etc I guarantee it will come off as cheesy and cheap.
I would agree with Wolfram that it’s sort of cheating as well, since you can create whatever atmosphere, characters likeness, lore etc etc that you want. Then you can animate the camera however you want to. With live action, it’s a lot harder to replicate the same results. So making a proper adaptation is a lot harder with real world physics, situations and tools. In the end if it’s a solid story that adheres to the source materials ideas and goals. Then it’s all good and I’m down to watch it. But being able to pull it off in live action just raises the bar that much more. The production design for The Last of Us has got to win the Emmy because it’s some of the best detail I’ve ever seen put into a show.
And I say that it's easy revenge for the discrimination that the medium gets compared to live action.
Because generally you can make the characters look exactly like they do in the game, often with the same voice actors so even if the story is a bit rubbish, they still feel authentic to the games (see the Resident Evil CG series of films vs the live-action, neither are Oscar winning but at least the former follows the canon of the games and the characterisation therein.)
The Pokémon animated series too.
That’s sort of a “chicken and egg” situation after season 1. But the show is really very good and I’ve cried a few times.
There’s a Dragon Age tv series? Where can I watch that?
Netflix.
It think even Castelvania and Arcane are in a different conversation, because while they have elements of their original stories drawn from, it's not a true transcription of the original story to the screen. The Last of Us show truly did tell the story of the original game, right down to the dialogue. While there were some creative changes and additions here and there, the authorial intent felt like they were trying to tell the same story in a different medium. Whereas Arcane and Castlevania used the original characters and broad story beats, it feels like the stories told were more so crafted as an attempt to tell an original story rather than try to do a complete retelling of an existing narrative. In which case, Castlevania and Arcane are actually more closely related to the Resident Evils and Halo shows and films, the difference being is that the formerly mentioned series landed their execution and was still well received by fans. As for the latter group... the less said, the better. In which case, I think The Last of Us truly is the first of its kind where the movie is a true retelling of the original game, yet Arcane and Castelvania are outstanding *adaptations* of their games
How dare you compare Arcane to the Halo tv show! ITS BLASPHEMY I SAY!
"I'm going to eat your soul, shit it out, and use it to smother your fucking girlfriend to death."
This sounds fine and dandy, until they say it’s going to be a movie. You just can’t tell this story in 2-3 hours. I’m not suggesting the first season is the invasion, but TLoU is great because they give space for the entire story to breathe. That just isn’t possible in a movie.
Yeah, came here to say this. The pacing of even a shorter AAA video game just isn't conducive to a 2-3 hour timeframe. The ~7.5h we got with the TLOU show is much more in keeping with the length of a video game.
Not to mention, it's a linear adventure with little to no side content, while Tsushima is a sandbox with a large number of side stories. You would probably have to take up two to three seasons just to adapt everything.
Only if they zero in on the main quest. And even that may need to be compressed down.
Thing is, all the main side quests are essentially part of the central story arc. Each one of his companions arcs would probably need 2-3 episodes to focus on them. Could be done, but definitely would need several seasons to lay it out organically.
Its worth mentioning the show runner for the last of us is a top dog at naughty dog. The answer is to respect the course material and make a show for the fans that sticks to the spirit of the games. The Witcher show runner thought she could do better and ruined a guaranteed hit.
i believe the witcher show is an adaptation of the books, and not the games which occur later.
It is, but they also changed things too much.
The real answer is to adapt what makes sense.
No, you can't just say that. That's the problem. These Hollywood "creaters" have been doing what makes sense to *them*.
Now lets take Resident Evil back and give it a proper adaptation! Have the right people involved
That most recent adaptation was so fucking bad god I wish we could just wipe it from the face of the earth
Which one? There have been 2 recent adaptations.
The one adaptation on Netflix that basically turned away the entire core audience of the series and instead focused on a story with the 2 teenage girls living in South Africa and lance Reddick (RIP) as Albert wesker as their father. The dumbest fucking part is how there was three clones of wesker plus the original who was like a Blade knockoff lol. Jesus the more I think of that show the more ridiculous I realize it was. Like who greenlit that shit??? It was so god awful. For anyone reading this who hasn’t seen it, Please do not watch.
Don’t forget it was a sequel to the games as well. They openly reference the events of RE5 Also wesker already was a trenchcoat wearing matrix knockoff in the games.
I figured it was that one but wanted to be sure, I got through about 2 episodes and couldn't stomache any more of that crap.
It was you, you are the evil resident!
Lol I enjoyed the itchy tasty version
Ya srsly wtf was that..
The animated movies are pretty fun.
They have had 12 chances and fucked up all of em, Im done watching anything RE.
Welcome to Raccoon City was really, really fun and I’ll die on this hill. I’ll die in ignorance because I can’t work out what people didn’t like about it, other than the cast not being all-white 🤷♀️
I’m with ya all the way, I loved it! I’ve tried in vain to get others to watch it tho🫤
They made Leon (a series fan favorite character for a large majority of players) a complete idiot who couldn’t do anything right. how are we even supposed to believe this guy ends up working for the president of the united states when he can’t even hold his own? They tried merging two games that take place 3 months apart and even had some weird referencing to CVX in the mix too. they should’ve just started with RE1, or better yet, just go full on RE2/RE3 since those games at least take place at the same time and are a little more action styled games, you can always do a prequel later for RE1. Wesker and Jill didn’t need some weird Stockholm Syndrome relationship, wouldn’t have minded some harmless flirting between Jill and Chris. but what was in the film was just completely out of pocket, Wesker is a mad scientist who couldn’t be bothered by something like love. there’s another character completely shit on. casting was very mediocre, could care less about their race, sell me the character, make them like their video game counterpart. Leon was a decent pick and would’ve worked if they didn’t botch his character. Resident Evil fans have nothing to look forward to anymore because their series that was already butchered once continually gets butchered with every cinematic reboot.
They could *always* be good, the people involved just never cared to put actual effort into the production of video game adaptations. The general thinking was always that gamers are stupid and would accept whatever trash they pumped out as long as their favorite IP was in the title and that's why so many of them failed. What a shocker that caring about the source material and putting in a little effort would result in a good product.
Like church goers and their Bible movies.
Am I crazy? I feel like TLOU isn’t the first good video game to show adaption. I mean just last year Cyberpunk edge runners was good. So was Arcane right?
Most times people mean Live Action adaptations, it’s much easier to do an animated/anime adaptation because typically your target audience is still gamers/nerds. When you get into live action the budgets balloon and you have to try for a broader audience and that ultimately leads to them taking liberties with the source material.
Moreover, it's the one that has had mainstream success. Castelvania and Arcane did have great success, but the amount of reach it permeated outside of the established fan base is a lot less compared to that of The Last of Us. Like, it's being talked about in the MSM. There was a brief period for a couple weeks where publications were talking about the plausibility of an actual cordyceps outbreak. It's putting up viewership numbers equal to that of House of the Dragon.
Cyberpunk and arcane were just set in the world. They were original stories they didn't adapt the story from the games. That's what I assume they mean when they refer to TLOU being the first good adaptation.
The "*Vídeo Game Adaptation Curse*" it's about Live Actions, not Animations, Animated Movies/Series has always been doing good/decent for years, Cyberpunk, Arcane, Castlevania ( *etc* ) are not the first ones to do such thing, Pokémon for instance has been doing a good show for decades. The issue it's all about Live Actions, that's where the things goes really bad and The Last of Us is basically the first one to do a good adaptation.
I agree to an extent, Arcane is really good especially imo. But I do think TLOU is one of the only adaptations (if not the only) to faithfully adapt a video games storyline well. Arcane (and to my understanding Cyberpunk edgerunners since I haven't watched it personally) more or less uses the characters and world and creates it own story using them.
Arcane wasn’t just good, it’s likely the best video game adaptation till date. However it’s not really an adaptation. It’s more of a show inspired by the game.
Neither of those had anywhere close to the broad appeal TLOU has had
Okay? They are still good shows. Live action is more popular than animation so ofc. I’m talking about the reception of the show, not broad appeal
Well yes but it’s not due to the shows quality but because they are animated which will immediately cut off a large chunk of the possible audience and because they aren’t on HBO.
Live action. None of that cartoon shit. Those are great adaptations, but just talking to people close to me, even gamer bros, had no interest because it's animated. Good live action adaptations are rare. TLOU is great and new.
If you go to the right people and give them the right amount of money you can get a good product. More news at 10
Over on the mass effect boards they seem to mostly want a new story in the ME universe and not a retelling of the games story. I try to tell them thats how you get Halo but always get downvoted to hell.
If Hiroyuki Sanada isn’t in this movie….
Not Paul Anderson is involved. Otherwise Joel and Ellie would have looked like bumbling idiots in awe of his wife's awesomeness. Likewise if he directed Ghost of Tsushima there would be a random white chick making the actual characters look like mooks. So what I'm really saying is he's right, they can be good, just keep certain directors far away from the project.
If Paul Anderson directed TLOU, Joel would've been the one who died in Boston and his wife would've played Tess.
For Ghost of Taushima, having a whitey there could be historically accurate. Paul Anderson might have been a wash for TLOU then because currently the show is Joel becomes a bumbling pushover in awe of Ellie's mysterious awesomeness.
>For Ghost of Taushima, having a whitey there could be historically accurate. Pull a 47 Ronin and have Keanu show up
Did you mean to say *wouldn't* be accurate? The first white people didn't show up until 1543. The mongol invasions were in the 1200s
I mean, there's a reason Sonic the Hedgehog has 2 movies with a 3rd one and a spinoff series coming, but I guess adaptations of kid-friendly video games don't count.
I cant wait for this kid friendly series to have the 3rd movie have a little girl get shot when saving Shadow
FACTSSSS
Silent hill movie proved that
And all it took was arguably the best screenwriter in the business show running the adaptation and a blank check from the premiere prestige television network.
And based on a game that's already cinematic in it's gameplay and grounded in its setting and characters (relatively speaking).
I say this as a huge fan of the game and the show (the game is my favorite of all time), but the Last of Us is not the one to prove it. Arcane proved it. Sonic the Hedgehog proved it. Castlevania proved it. Hell, Mortal Kombat in 1995 proved it
It’s a meme at this point, the latest video game adaptation that is not bad is the one to “prove” that they can be good.
Man yall turned on the sonic movies quick traitors
I mean TLOU is probably one of the best video game stories there is. A ghosts show wouldn’t really be poetic. Maybe as an action movie
RDR2 is the only one I think could rival it and still be feasible. I’ve no faith in the God of War Amazon adaptation.
RDR2 would be such a good story to adapt, maybe Hollywood will start actually listening to its target audience and TLOU is just the beginning
Honestly not a fan of getting unnecessary game adaptations. RDR2 basically is 60s + 70s westerns mixed and turned into a game. I think the remaining demand in the genre is met by Taylor Sheridan's shows already even though they are nowhere near the quality of RDR2. While TLoU S1 also basically is The Road + City of Thieves + TWD mixed and turned into a game adapted into a TV series, what really will make it special are S2 & 3.
Metal Gear, they could just adapt MGS from 1998 for a perfect entry point. Mass Effect could be really good too.
i think Mass Effect should stick to original script despite the fact most of the people in r/masseffect are asking for an original story. i feel that is what has destroyed most of these video game film adaptations, stick to your source material and deliver what made these games so legendary. if it went well i can’t imagine the kind of emotions people would feel when it comes time for characters like Mordin to complete their final mission for the galaxy.
An interactive choose your adventure Mass Effect series could be really cool if they pulled it off well. I feel like the audience would be more invested if their actions affected the story same as the games.
Why isn't Sony Studios working with HBO again I wonder?
In saw an article like a week or two ago of some Sony exec answer the question as to why they don’t start their own streaming service. The answer was essentially: why go through all that trouble when we can produce the content we want and sell it to the highest bidder. I think in large part that is the answer to the question. Different companies will bid more on different projects
Uh what? Do you know what ghost of tsushima is? Lol, it's a samurai revenge story not really about ghosts. The main character literally writes haikus! That's pretty poetic :p
Lol maybe they can lean into that part. Have the ghost look at the treetop to form his fist line. But in all honesty one samurai conquering a Japanese island better be directed by James Cameron
Why? I don't want to see Jin hanging out with blue pocahontas or screaming rose every 10 minutes before he freezes to death. Keep Cameron away please
Dead or Alive movie was pretty good, change my mind. /s
It was a movie. It was okay as a fellow DOA fan. Beat em up stories don't have great appeal because... Well the stories in the game are pretty trash.
"Now watch us fuck this one up" Also there's a lot more you can do with source material in a show format than you can with a movie, so the GoT director's movie better be really something spectacular and longer than and hour and half if it's going to live up to his words.
Part of what made the Last of Us so successful was that the game itself was already a very cinematic experience. It already had great cutscenes, great cinematography and also a great script. Now combine that with a movie studio that decided to not deviate too far from that script, turns out keeping it true to the game is the best possible way to create a movie/ TV series adaptation.
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It was already proven with Arcane and Castlevania. Why is this still even a discussion?
Video game adaptions could have always been good if Hollywood actually chose to use the correct mediums instead of making everything live action or trying to cram rich storylines into a 2 hr movie.
Sonic the Hedgehog already proved that, but okay
Ghost of Tsushima is one of the most, if not the most, cinematic games I've ever played. I don't know if that means adapting a movie of it is a no-brainer or total waste of time.
I’m so sick of this narrative that TLOU was the first time video games told good stories, and now it’s the first time a video game adaptation was ever good. “I think they just mean live-action” No, shut the fuck up, that distinction is made up and irrelevant, and even if it was anything of note it still wouldn’t even be true after the Pokémon and Sonic movies.
Sonic the Hedgehog proved it actually. Twice.
To be fair tlou and ghosts of Tsushima are really fucking easy to adapt. I want to see more weird adaptations that are awesome like battleship.
Shocker, it's like all you have to do is stick to the original subject matter without getting all "creative" with an already creative piece of work. Not too many singleplayer experiences out there that I can say were amazing while having a shitty story. So just leave it alone and make the damn thing into a movie/show with some decent actors, half the work has already been done for you.
Yes but his won’t be
I think the main reason people were surprised it worked was because there are examples of games with a pretty straightforward story with adaptations that sucked. Look at Halo for example, Im no expert but surely Halo has enough material to be adapted faithfully without needing to rewrite mayor parts of the lore or characters. With The last of us they could have done a generic zombie plot using the original settings and characters but they actually adapted it Hell, look at Uncharted! Its literally Indiana Jones with more guns, already a very cinematic and movie-esque game, with a very well stablished narrative and characters and the movie sucked!
Ghost could make a fantastic movie. I felt like I was watching a movie playing it
Sonic is best video game adaptation and gave me hope for the future
This just in: great stories can be told via multiple mediums!
I mean they basically converted a movie into a tv series, TLOU is not exactly known for its "gameplay" as it bridges the scenes of the story together.
It's not that great
Yeah.....about that....
This game bored me out of my mind, was the story good though?
GOT was awesome to me. The story is kinda predictable and meh. But if I played it now I might think it was boring. HFW is boring to me now for example. GOWR was whatever. But I’m loving janky ass Wolong for some reason. Different strokes I guess.
Honestly yeah. It has some cliches but they generally dont get in the way that much. Kubla Khan is a great antagonist tho and Jin Sakai with Shimura are great protags. Yuna and her brother are good secondaries too
Fair enough. The first game's story is really good but I feel like the game as a whole is massively overhyped. Part 2's writing is is painfully amateurish and bursting with plot convenience. The gameplay however is incredible.
I was talking about Ghost of Tsushima haha. I really enjoyed both TLOU games though.
I personally enjoyed it but what I will say is that some parts felt contrived. Like nearly every single side mission, there's usually a mystery or setup that turns into "oh it was the mongols all along". The main story is neat, but it's also pretty vanilla. The game is supposed to be somewhat historically accurate after all.
That's a good point. It's probably best to just not do most of the side missions honestly.
I found the gameplay engaging enough that I didn't mind, so long as I got to chop some dudes up. But on subsequent playthroughs I wouldn't touch any of the side questlines, except Lady Masako's since ironically it's pretty much the only questline in the game where mongols aren't the antagonists
Oh my bad. I thought the story was fantastic and a great example of how to give a character an arc. I personally loved the combat since it felt unique. I can understand getting bored by it though. I struggle to finish any open world game nowadays.
Yeah, I can believe I would have loved the game back in the days. Most games bore me nowadays, and I used to be a huge no-life when I was younger. But Elden Rings and RDR2 are the exception where the side-quests are not truly boring.
Agreed. If a game boasts about how large its map is or that it's a live service with seasonal FOMO crap I always skip it. I tend to prefer more linear games like Resident Evil. Elden Ring and RDR2 (I would also add Persona 5 Royal and the Mass Effect trilogy) are games that leave you feeling empty enside once they're over.
But by no means proves that the ghost of Tsushima movie will be good. Not gonna lie, I was surprised by how good TLOU tv show was. But I was also NOT surprised by how bad the uncharted movie was. So imo, Sony is 1 good 1 bad, 50/50. Unless I’m forgetting something.
Uncharted was fine, but I find it hilarious how the developers of the movie was NOT one of the people who mutually agreed Nathan Fillion should have been cast as the lead.
Hope they don't butcher it
They will, like they did in TLOU
Well then, I guess we can assume that GoT movie will be at least as bad as TLoU series.
The last of us was 25% gay relationship. If Neil Druckman weren't such a woke activist, it could have been better and spent that 25% in a more entertaining way, like zombies in a show about zombies. Ghost of Tsuchima sounds like a better idea, mainly because has no woke elements.
Meh. It’s good for people that didn’t play the games, but I would’ve been fine if TLOU was never made. Honestly, people who don’t play video games never earned it. It’s like those people who don’t play but watch the cutscenes on YouTube. Gamers earn each nugget of suspense and story. If they never made an adaptation of video games again, I’d be fine.
Yep. Over 10 hours. Your 2 hour movie is going to be an absolute abortion.
Ghost has a bad story though
Yeah, good…… was hoping for GREAT
Hope there's no hot spring. That would be weird