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I've decided to begin doing a little feature within this blog that highlights the connections and relationships that occur betwen cinema and video gaming, and with any luck I'll be able to shed a little added light on the importance of film to gaming, and almost certainly vice versa.

You may be wandering why the name of this blog has been painted all French and what not. It's a reference to the film journal Cahiers du Cinema, an important, Paris-based publication whose writers revolutionized the way the world watched and interpreted cinema. Now, by no stretch of my feeble little imagination do I have the same aspirations for these articles, especially from my humble, rarely traversed corner of the blogosphere. But mostly I just feel it's enlightening for the few of you who do read this to be able to add that dash of supplementary spice to your already stellar enthusiasm for this great entertainment medium.

In this debut write-up I wanted to discuss the subject of the games journalist-turned-developer epidemic that's sweeping gaming (of course, I use the term "epidemic" some what loosely.) I'd been observing the news as names from the journalistic loop quietly evaporated, only to re-appear as condensation hugging the windows of development studios from coast to coast. My interest peaked when my favourite gaming commentator and personality, a bright, young dynamo by the name of Shawn Elliott , left 1UP.com to become a part of 2K Boston . While I was sad to see Shawn go it felt as if his exit was entirely justified by his destination as he would be joining the team who created BioShock , a game I believe was the best of an impressive 2008 line-up. It is, in my humble opinion, a mind-bending marriage of creative talent.

Somewhere around the late 1950s two notable film critics, Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard , writers for the afformentioned Cahiers du Cinema, set about creating their own little pieces of cinema. Armed with an enthusiasm for mainstream, Hollywood film and the influence of Italian neorealist movies and surrealist art , they debuted their projects to the world. Truffaut was the first with The 400 Blows , and Godard followed him a year later with Breathless . The impact of these two projects, both low in a budget and high on concept, tore the established acceptance of cinema to shreds. These films, among others from the Nouvelle Vague film movement, went on to teach and inspire the likes of Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, and Robert Altman.

With critical names effecting the video game industry in more and more influential ways, names from the gaming press who are steadily being granted higher positions of power, it is not beyond comprehension to consider that these people couldn't apply their own observations and understandings of game development. And I mean this way beyond any kind of position of consultation, these men and women plucked from journalism could one day be granted the opportunity to redfine gaming. Of course it's highly subjective, and there were very likely as many Uwe Bolls as there were Christopher Nolan's back in 1950s France, but the right minds with the right ideas, being vacummed into an industry they spent so very long observing could just well serve to change the standards we've come to accept from video game development.

We start on a film set, as a tubby French gentleman - Fahrenheit's Director, David Cage - confronts us with instructions on the controls and techniques that will see us through the modest, six or so hours that follow. We assume the role of a crash test dummy, and guide this vessel from wall to wall of the setting, little hints of what's in store peppering crevices of the creative space. It's a some what poignant beginning to an experience that would much sooner allude to being interactive cinema than a mere video game. In the film business it's referred to as breaking the fourth wall; that instance you engage the audience and turn the passive observer into an active participant. But then a gamer must surely, on some subconscious level, ask his or her self just if or when that happens in every video game.

When you pick up a pad, do you automatically assume the role of hero, or are you merely the guide; the puppet master peering down from above the strings? On gaming journeys where you, the gamer, and your pixelated alter-ego on screen share in an experience it's not hard to find yourself filling the shoes of the protagonist. Unknowingly you can refer back to your actions in a game as if you were the person who physically acted on them, like you'd pulled the trigger to drop the kingpin, executed the sharp turn, or scored the most decisive goal in the final. This immersion was one of the strongest factors behind why I didn't consider Fahrenheit an instant classic that moment I'd finished the game. Quantic Dream's decision to have you assume the role of multiple heroes, and even a villain or two, shatters the ability to form a bond with your lead, as the starring roles in this piece are split between up to three different characters at any one time. It's a creative approach that, on one hand, I certainly admire, but on the other it was a bad decision for the narrative progression of the game, and an even worse one in the spirit of gaming as a source of immersion and escape.

At this point you're probably questioning why I'd be doing a retrospective on a game I don't even seem to like, but I assure you that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, despite Fahrenheit's most fundamental flaw I consider this to be an astute example of gaming's potential to hold its own with cinema as a legitimate narrative platform. It makes a strong case for the idea that interactive story-telling should be considered the next evolution in entertainment. As a gamer you are encouraged to make snap decisions that effect the progression of your journey, and this is something wholly unique to video games. It's not as if you could sit down to a movie at your local cineplex and be confronted, directly, at various stages of the film, with options for where you want to see the movie go. Even DVD, in all of its empty promises of a fully interactive experience and a future in which cars hovered a foot from the ground, failed to make good on the pledge to evolve home entertainment (can anyone say My Little Eye?) There is arguably much room to grow, and Fahrenheit is not a flawless masterpiece that's going to visually or narratively put The Godfather to shame at any point in the near future. It did, however, present the world with a series of ideas that can only be explored and elaborated on with tomorrow's games.

In 2005 Atari shared with the world a solid adventure game, but more than that the company released a package of concepts that revitalized a specific aspect of the gaming industry, which, in turn, belong to a team seemingly dedicated to the idea that the script, story, and character development in a project don't have to be an afterthought. While gaming is dominated with mascots dripping in machismo or sex appeal, it's nice to believe in an industry where the likes of Fahrenheit's Lucas Kane can be revered alongside a Marcus Fenix or Master Chief.

I'll end this on a video I only recently got around to watching. One that, in my opinion, is an incredible achievement for gaming as an art form, and affected me as much as just about any scene I've caught in film or television. Enjoy.

Fuck the creature stage.

Fuck being a herbivore on the creature stage.

Fuck walking for an hour to find pointless upgrades which are never quite advanced enough to make friends beyond that piss ant group of douchebags that surround your first nest.

Fuck dancing like a prick in front of about 15 different species of creatures just for them to better you by about 3 millimetres on that bastard friend gauge.

Fuck accidentally walking into enemy territory every 10 seconds and never being quite fast enough to run, nor quite tough enough to fight.

And finally, fuck the fact that I can't seem to give this shit up. Will Wright is one twisted, evil genius, motherfucker...