I'm serious. It takes the idea of the magic closet doors and really follows through on the implications. It acheives an effect that really is best suited to film—in fact, would have been impossible to do nearly as well in anything other than a 3D animated film. The result is playful, inventive, unique, kinetic, visually exciting, and intellectually delightful. A milestone in the history of film, no exaggeration.
It understands something that I've mentioned before, “Professor” Brian Moriarty's chant to his brethren and sistren in the computer game industry.
The cyberpunk conception of virtual reality is not really very interesting. Only a hacker would find the problem of avatar collision interesting.Via Cobb, I learn that someone in the computer game business has finally taken the lesson. Wow. Even if you have no taste for games, you should go take a look; it's brilliant. Even the format of the demo is exceptionally witty.
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Space and time are not intrinsic properties of virtual presence. Space and time will not exist in virtual presence unless we bring them with us. Space and time are boring. Let's not invite them.
The first time I felt my age as a gamer was back in the early 90s. After an insane amount of time playing Doom (and derivatives), a game called Descent came out.
ReplyDeleteDoom (and its ilk) were 3d'ish, but had no concept of up and down. Descent blew that away since you flew from room to room, with no real sense of up. Loved the abstraction, but my brain couldn't keep up with it, so I went back to Doom.
Jump forward a couple years and the 1st person shooters are all played with a mouse, and have that 360 degree look/move anywhere construct. By not pushing through the Descent nausea, I got left behind (like most guys, our brains start to go rigid in our mid 30s)
Alas, the thought of playing Prey is enough to make me nauseous these days ;-)
Ray
Oh, yeah. Looking at that thing, I respected its beauty but knew I would never learn to play it.
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