2
Jan/1012
Jan/1012
Dante’s Vs Darksiders
The video games industry is turning into Hollywood. You know how a handful of movies based on the same theme, time period or subject matter will all come out around the same time? That’s because movie markers will find out what other studios are producing and make their own similar movie. So like the big Prototype vs Infamous debate we now have Dante’s Inferno and Darksiders, two games surrounding Biblical apocalypse/hell themes.
Now I know I have a bad habit of hating games before they even come out, but I HATE Dante’s Inferno already. Let me tell you why.
First of all, anyone could find EA’s fucktarded shock marketing for this game loathsome. I may be an atheist but even I thought that their staged religious protest at E3 was in extremely poor taste. And don’t even get me started on their campaign that set up “booth babes” that didn’t even work for EA for sexual harassment and inappropriate pinching. Chances are, if you have to try this hard to promote a game it probably sucks.
The other thing is that even the subject matter shows that the developers are illiterate morons who couldn’t even pay attention in high school humanities class. I understand wanting to make a game about heaven and hell and biblical imagery and apocalypse stuff, that’s fine. It can make for some pretty cool shit. However, why Dante’s Inferno of all things?
In case you as well don’t realize this, the Divine Comedy (the larger work of which Inferno is part of), is not literally about heaven and hell. Yeah I know it dubbed the idea of the 9 circles of hell and all (which, by the way, isn’t a Biblical idea) but really, Inferno especially was part political satire, part a criticism of the 14th century church and general Christian hypocrisy.
via Penny Arcade
So what does EA and Visceral Games do? They turn Dante, who was a real person by the way, into a roided up Crusader knight with a cross stitched into his chest wielding badass scythe that he got by murdering Death himself.
…..Yeah, there are many, MANY things wrong with that sentence but there is one MAJOR problem here guys: at the time Inferno was written…
THE CRUSADES HAD ALREADY BEEN OVER FOR 20 YEARS!
Auuughh, it hurts my history dork souuul! And you know, if you wanted to raid some classical literature as a source for a heaven and hell themed game… WHY WOULDN’T YOU CHOOSE PARADISE LOST? I mean… GOD! What is wrong with these people!? Or hell, even go for the Book of Enoch, that has some deliciously messed up stuff in it and also features a tour of heaven and hell. But really? The Divine Comedy? A book about politics? I genuinely believe that the developers of this game just went “Duuurhhh, we wanna do a game about hell, Dante’s Inferno is about hell right? Let’s do that without really reading it! Huurhhduurr.”
On the flipside, as I said in my opening paragraph the games industry has become like Hollywood, with different studios creating games of similar themes all around the same time. And that brings me to Darksiders, a game by Vigil Games and THQ. Now, I’m not sure of the quality of this one, but it definitely looks better than Dante’s.
Darksiders seems to be based on bits of the Book of Revelation, which is a crazy acid trip of different supernatural events and prophetic signs and bullshit. But that gives you alot to work with! They can easily take creative liberties with it because it barely makes sense in the first place. And notice how they didn’t go and call it “Revelations” as if it’s accurately based on the source material.
In Darksiders you also play a roid-monkey badass, but he at least has some flaws. He’s one of the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse and he’s basically tricked into starting the end of the world early. He has to find the other Horsemen and is constantly being watched by the Charred Council, sort of mediator creatures striving to keep a balance in the continuing conflict between heaven and hell.
That’s pretty creative, they took a basic idea and expanded on it. You may say Dante’s Inferno does the same but need I remind you by naming it after that part of the Divine Comedy they’re implying its in any way an accurate portrayal of its contents. And once more, it was allegory, it wasn’t literally about heaven and hell.
Either way, both games may suck, and both are clearly God of War ripoffs. I intend to rent and play both anyway and may do a review in the future. Or I may not, depends on what I feel like! Either way I’m still holding out for Bayonetta to be the top contender, I’ll take a God of War ripoff where a lady takes off her clothes to use her special moves and wears boots with guns for heels any day.
Above: Hot.
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4:15 pm on January 3rd, 2010
“They can easily take creative liberties with it because it barely makes sense in the first place.”
oh snap. : D
on a serious note, I hadn’t heard of those promotions that EA were doing, but now that i see them, im certain… EA is burning in hell ; D
Then again i knew that already after spore = =
4:26 pm on January 3rd, 2010
@Masterquack I enjoy Spore as is, but it could have been so much better. I hope EA wises up and gives us a more Sim Earth-like expansion pack, but instead of listening to fans or common sense they seem to only be engaging in some sort of marketing circlejerk of what they think has mass appeal in what they assume reality is like, completely disregarding the genre and the long-time fans of those kinds of games. Same with The Sims.
4:36 pm on January 3rd, 2010
I’m totally with you on that. However what really got to me with spore was that, they promised us ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation” and instead we got “Flash Gordon”, if you know what I mean.
And even that would be ok, because after all what high quality game for a big manufacture DOESNT get hyped? Except is specifically remember demo videos with much more interesting game-play than what we got. I feel like we all had one pulled over us.
At the same time I must say, spore is still a reasonably fun game, just wish they hadn’t lied to us about what it was.
I’m not even sure if its about mass appeal though, like you said, the gaming industry is getting like Hollywood. Which means, I think its getting to be more like, what will sell the most copies in one week. Possibly combining with the amount of piracy that happens to games now, so selling as much as possible in the shortest period of time, sorta makes sense.
Hehheh… you said circlejerk.
4:40 pm on January 3rd, 2010
@ Masterquack Consider that when the game was demoed in 2006 it seemed to be building toward what was promised, then it disappeared for a while and when it came back all the creatures were googly-eyed and cartoony looking.
Rumor has it EA wanted Maxis to dumb down the game for wider appeal.
Also note that Will Wright, creator of Spore and… well Sim games in general, left Maxis and EA soon after Spore was released.
4:43 pm on January 3rd, 2010
yah, good point, it does seem like Will Wright was coperate but raped Actually come to think of it, correct me if im wrong (i followed the game closely but not THAT closely, i dont have 3 year attention span), he rarley appeared in the later videosand if he did it was just 1-2 minute adds, while in the earlier ones he was giving hour talks about the game. just my imagination?
4:49 pm on January 3rd, 2010
yah.. now I’m sounding like a conspiracy theorist
5:28 pm on January 3rd, 2010
@ Masterquack: No you’re right, it does seem like he started to distance himself from the game.
8:30 pm on January 4th, 2010
I have Darksiders and Bayonetta pre-ordered (Bayonetta’s called the “Climax Edition”…) coming out on the same day. Usually I’m against games of the same genre being released so close to each other.
I wasn’t all that interested in both games at the start (even though I do like hack and slash games like Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, Star Wars Unleashed).
Darksiders kinda came out of nowhere and I only noticed it when I learned Mark Hamill was doing the voice of the Watcher that follows the main character. After seeing some gameplay videos I thought it looked like a very good hack and slash game that can compete with Japanese developers of the same genre.
I didn’t care for Bayonetta at first because the producer seemed to be cracking the shits when he started making it. But after seeing some videos and playing the demo I realised that Bayonetta is a next-gen Devil May Cry. DMC4 was released on 360 and PS3, but it never felt like a next-gen game. They still had some mistakes that should have been fixed by then. But Bayonetta doesn’t seem to have any of these mistakes.
Although I can predict that so many people already hate the game because the main character is female and she shows some skin.
10:27 pm on January 4th, 2010
@ Neo Kaiser “Non-stop Climax Action” seems to be the motto of the Japanese Bayonetta ads.
Where Bayonetta shows some skin she isn’t a typical female game character and she isn’t some godawful hellish moe blob (surprising for a Japanese game with a female lead.) In fact, if anything the more perverted fans are bitching she’s too tall, her head is too small etc. I think she’s kinda hot (then again I go for legs.) I think it helps that the game seems like it doesn’t take itself that seriously.
I haven’t played the demo yet, no point now I’m just gonna rent the game. If I like it enough I’ll buy it. Darksiders I’m not expecting to like that much but it may surprise me. I’m gonna rent Dante’s too for the hell of it.
1:11 am on January 5th, 2010
Yeah that’s the thing. Usually I’m against blatant fan service but with Bayonetta they actually think up reasons. Her hair is part of her powers and she uses it to cover herself. That’s better then the usual “magic bikini”. If you think about it using her hair for armour is better then a dress that doesn’t have any magical properties to defend against attacks.
and if she has to take her hair off for a much bigger attack then, meh.
I also like how bullets actually have a use. Whereas in DMC they’re only used in Easy mode to complete the story without any hassle.
I really like her design. They could have easily done the typical 14 year old with large tits that Japanese designers love jerking off to, instead she appears to be 30-40 years old (she’s actually 100). Even if it’s also the sexy librarian look.
I also found out it was released today instead of Thursday, so yay!
10:12 pm on March 2nd, 2010
I like how you said, “Gaming is becoming like Hollywood” because I think video games aren’t that great anymore. Loved them like 5 years ago when your main choices were Gamecube, Xbox, Ps2, and a lot of unique stuff was coming out pretty regularly…but now video gamers are just too damn serious about games, and now graphics are usually the number one most important thing to gamers in determining if a game sucks or not…FORGET QUALITY, UNIQUE IDEAS, OR GAME PLAY!!!
Yep, most games coming out now are hack n’ slash and shooters…with original games coming once so often. There are still good games coming out, just not as much anymore. Keep up the good work, Sai! Later!