Giant Bomb Presents: Video Games: The Movie: The Interview

Downloading right now... I pre-ordered the movie a few weeks ago and can't wait to watch it tomorrow night!

Speaking of video game documentaries, does anyone know when the Atari/E.T. dig documentary is to arrive on XBox?

That movie looks like such a waste of potential. Rather then actually show how the industry works, how much time, money and manpower it takes to build a AAA game, they just circlejerk about how great video games are. Guess the movie is not for actual gamers but for my mom.

Super skeptical based on just the trailer but who knows until I actually see the thing. For anyone interested, I thought Charlie Brooker's How Videogames Changed The World (bit of a shitty title, for sure) did a pretty good job of contextualising the appeal of games to outsiders while also serving as a bit of a history lesson on the industry as a whole. The top ten format of the thing is kind of besides the point and is used more to discuss broader topics. Give it look.

I backed this on Kickstarter sometime last year, so I'm excited to finally watch it. The idea of a movie that gives us a look on the last 30 years of gaming and explores it's future sold me immediately when I found the project. Backers should be getting it tomorrow.

I wouldn't say its wasted potential. He has a plan outlined and hes executing on the plan. Wasted potential would be if he had a great idea, made the movie and it sucked. Its not wasted potential if the movie is exactly what it wants to be but someone just doesn't like the concept.

@mysterysheep said:

I came to comment to bring up the exact same thing. Fantastic piece of broadcasting loosely covering the history of games for an audience not particularly acquainted with them. It still manages to have enough depth to be interesting to enthusiasts as well.

I'm actually quite interested in watching this now.

Really really keen for this.

I just got through watching it and thought it was great. The focus on not only the history, but the industry, culture and future was really a joy to see unfold and felt really informative to both gamers and non gamers alike.

I have about 20 minutes left to watch, but had to pause it at the 1:20:07 mark to jump on and mention there's a shot of someone checking out a QL on the website. I don't recognize the game because the viewer's body was blocking the headline, but you can clearly see the QL's video.

Overall, it is pretty informative for the casual gamer and layperson, and has great production values and some noted guests. Nothing new was presented to me, personally, but I think it's a good video game documentary, but with a couple of caveats.

My first criticism is that there wasn't enough focus on Ralph Baer's contributions, or rather his involvement, in the evolution of video gaming. It seemed to focused a lot on Nolan Bushnell, though presented in a "Who's the godfather of video games?" with a few random people throwing names around (a majority of them being Bushnell). I don't agree with that, but I guess that all depends on what the documentary's definition of "godfather" is.

My second criticism is that Sega seemed to get shunned a lot. During the course of the console history, the documentary jumped from the NES to SNES, though it showed the Genesis between the two on a graphical timeline. There was a very brief mention of the system, but in no way related to its impact on the NES or the console wars of that era. Also, there was no mention of the Dreamcast's impact on console online gaming, and that system was just a blip on the timeline as well.

Overall, definitely worth checking out.

The good thing is that the soundtrack to the game based on this film and the redone cover album for that soundtrack based on the game based on this film have already been made :)

http://web.archive.org/web/20111231155649/http://www.xocmusic.com/vgtmtg/

Oh wait this is video games: the movie. my bad.

this is not a good movie, all it does is tell you how great video games are and how great the people making them are. A pretty hollow movie.

@mysterysheep: Nice I'll check this out aswell!

SEGA, why have you been sentenced to a footnote in gaming's history? Why did the mid-1990s have to go so poorly when your candle was still burning so bright?

@ruthloose said:

Good question! If everything after the Genesis is going to get crapped on, at least make that system more than a 15 second throwaway college memory and recognize it as the first serious contender to throw down with the mighty NES and to not make the SNES a complete runaway success. I'm no SEGA fanboy (my allegiance is with the SNES on this one), but give recognition and respect where it's due.

This seems like something better suited to an ongoing documentary series, rather than a movie.