It is impossible for me to play any of the following games without thinking of them as art:
Xenogears
Silent Hill 2
Okami
Viewtiful Joe
Xenosaga I,II,III
Persona II
FFVII
FFIV
FFIX
Grim Fandango
flOw
Ico
Shadow of the Colossus
Super Mario 64
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
among plenty of others that deserve mentioning
EDIT: Completely forgot about the Metal Gear Solid series, arguably one of the highest on the list.
I honestly think that video games have as much potential or more than some other art mediums because of their interactive nature. It is like reading a story that you play a part in (and please, don't compare to choose your own adventure). That sense of volition that Ebert Roper looks at as restrictive is pretty liberating.
Sure I like games that I can just play and relax, but I personally look for more than that in a game. I look for something that channels an intellectual experience through the game.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
