Popcorn Partners: Games to Play After Seeing the Summer's Biggest Movies
6/16/2009 11:44 AM | 5 Comments | Page 1 of 3
With Memorial Day in the rearview mirror, it's a fact that summer's already started. Another fact: Lots of the movies this summer will have tie-in games associated with them. Take our advice and do not play them. Though the tide is turning (see the Riddick titles), the cliché about games tethered to movies and other non-game media sucking hard is still mostly true. However, odds are you're going to walk out of a darkened theater all excited to play something that feels like what you just saw. Allow us to play matchmaker and point you at games that should keep your cinematic buzz going. (Warning to the plot-sensitive: Spoilers ahoy!)
You're gonna see: "Star Trek"
J.J. Abrams' reimagining of the beloved television space opera charts Captain Kirk's earliest days as a cocky rule-breaker at Starfleet Academy and shows how Spock, Uhura and the other members of the original Enterprise crew came to serve together against a mysterious, marauding Romulan threat.
Then you should play: Mass Effect
As in Gene Roddenberry's brainchild,
Mass Effect features exploration of faraway planets, interspecies romance and laser-gun battles galore. Players will interact with various alien races while trying to stop an ancient mechanized species' plot to destroy all life in the universe. Depending on how you play Commander Shepard, the lead character in BioWare's action role-playing game can be as impulse-driven (that's a little engineering pun there) and maverick-y as Chris Pine's Captain Kirk, or as chatty and diplomatic as William Shatner. Expect even more universe-spanning action and melodrama in the upcoming
Mass Effect 2.
You're gonna see: "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"
Hugh Jackman vaulted into superstar status playing Marvel's fast-healing mutant, and returns to the role of Logan as the secrets behind his past get revealed. Learn about the how and why of his adamantium skeleton, his service as a black-ops agent and the source of his lifelong feud with Victor Creed, aka Sabretooth. Oh, yeah, and a lot of killing gets done.
Then you should play: God of War
Like Logan, Kratos' violent battles find their fuel in past tragedies. Unlike Logan, his games boast epic stories and compelling characters. The
Wolverine game uses the God of War franchise as a template, but lacks its epic scope and mythological heft. Both antiheroes rip people in half, but it's the pale blade-wielder from Sparta who manages to combine plot and action into a gripping experience over the course of games like
God of War,
God of War II and
God of War: Chains of Olympus.
God of War III looks to raise the blood-drenched bar even higher.
