It’s inevitable that in the future we’re going to see more Lego titles, because of the previous success that they’ve had. Just look at Lego Star Wars, and most recently, Lego Batman. They take what starts out as a mature, established concept and cute it up with enemies exploding into brick pieces, remove what could be extraneous dialogue and substitute it with adorable mumblings akin to Simlish, and some of the sweetest pantomime I’ve seen on characters since Final Fantasy VII.

I firmly believe that even if you didn’t like the game before, you’d probably find something to like about it now if it’s been turned into Lego, at least if it was a solid title and didn’t rely on the same old tired mechanics as the previous games. And how many movies out there would make awesome transitions? You’re not going to find conventional games on here like the obvious, boring, Mario, Zelda, Halo, Gears of War, and so on here. So, without further ado, I’ve got a sampling here of five games out of the hundreds I could think of that would make great Lego games.

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My love of gaming and collecting has turned my room into that of a disaster area. Strewn across the floor all over are cases, discs, systems, the errant set of batteries, and gutted Wii remotes that I do not use. On the side of my room where I have a dresser, there are stacks of gaming magazines that I read four or five years ago. In the room adjacent to mine you can find a large duffel bag containing the original Game Boy, a Game Gear, and all the subsequent handhelds I don’t use at the moment.

It all takes up space, which I haven’t enough of. Why? I just can’t bring myself to get rid of any of it!

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Jon, from The Clockwork Manual, got in touch with me the other day. As fellow video game fans we hit it off, until the subject of cutscenes loomed its ugly head. Jon was all for them. As a Metal Gear Solid fan he could hardly be against them. I, on the other hand, am vocally anti-cutscene. Jon’s initial email can be read here. He points out some of the defining and memorable video game cutscenes, and wonders how we could ever tell a story without them. My response was as follows.

In the film-making community, flashbacks and ‘dream sequences’ are considered a crutch. It is one of the first mistakes amateur film makers make. It is a weak way to tell most stories, and is usually used as a shortcut, or to cover up weak writing.

There are, however, no rules in any creative media that can’t be broken. Memento used flashbacks brilliantly. Spellbound contains a famous dream sequence. These are great films, and they know exactly what they are doing.

So let’s talk about video games and cut scenes.

In a video game, you have two elements that should reinforce each other: the story and the gameplay. Most amateur game developers, when they want to tell you something related to the story, use a cutscene. Is this bad? Yes. Cutscenes are jarring, they take away our player control, they break our identification with the player character, and in most cases - video game budgets being what they are - they are poorly acted and badly written.

Much like flashbacks, they are usually the ‘most obvious’ way of telling the player something, but rarely the best. Intertwining the story into the game play is a far superior method. Using a ‘breadcrumb trail’ of in-game information to allow a player to puzzle together the story themselves is an art in itself. As an example: the Bioshock audio diaries.
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I’ve diagnosed myself with gaming ADD.

No matter how great, how high-profile, how all-encompassing, or wanted the game is, sometimes I just can’t focus. My mind wanders. What am I missing out on? What’s going on in the Internet world? Is there any gaming news I haven’t read? What about my other games? I need to finish them.

I have a load of laundry in the dryer. I wonder what I’m going to make for dinner? Oh hey, cool! There’s a new episode of Tim and Eric on Adult Swim’s website to watch!

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For me, video games occupy a space somewhere between total downtime and work. Since starting to blog about games I have found myself analyzing them with a thoroughness I used to keep for English literature class. Gender politics, social implications, reflections of the current zeitgeist… Games are a significant media, if a frequently downplayed one.

And yet, as this week’s Round Table points out:

There is a commonly held belief that videogames are not the equal of literature and film. One conservative acquaintance of mine on Facebook doesn’t even consider them on par with “public speech and music.” On the other hand, we have anti-video game activists claiming that video games have the power to train children to be emotionless assassins. Even within the video game community I’ve often heard the reaction, “they’re just video games.”

Well, I am here to say that video games can teach us, make us feel, make us cry, make us laugh. That they are easily the equal of film and books (as are music and public speech on occasion - I have a dream, anyone?)

It’s easy to point to how they teach us explicit lessons. There’s any number of DS games that purport to teach you how to cook, how to design clothes, how to get fit, how to remember things better, or just how to think more efficiently.

But what about the other lessons? The unconscious ones, the ones that slowly shape our world view, the ones that affect how we interact and talk and think and live?
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Shit-slinging is a pretty big and entertaining part of gaming culture, particularly where games played over the Internet are concerned. Competition combined with the relative anonymity of sitting behind the computer or television screen, rather than face to face with the person you’re insulting, can breed within even the nicest of people a sense of uncontrollable nerdrage.

Personally, I like it.

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