I think you just lost 75% of the board with that last comment, which is too bad. The 70s were truly an epic time for films.

You need to watch A New Hope and especially The Empire Strikes Back. They're miles ahead of those other four turdfests, especially The Empire Strikes Back. It's a solid film in every respect and has real soul to it.

Star Wars films should be taken for what they are, and if you do that they are enjoyable and you can even argue that they have some true artistic merit. I have really started to hate the franchise because of people I know who act like Star Wars was the best thing that ever happened to movies or the world, however.

I like to rub in their faces how George Lucas has made them his bitch by stringing along a dying franchise simply because he knows they and millions of other people will go see it just because it is a Star Wars movie.

==> know some of them (a little) but dont have seen any of them ...

That's what independent cinema is for.

You know, all those movies that rarely ever gross millions at the box office. Those extreme niche movies that generally speak to a limited audience.

There are games out there like this that focus on what are not the typical mainstays of gaming; game play and graphics.

Yes, there is a portion of gamers who value story, character development, atmosphere and all the standard things within film making that makes good films good, but this is not the typical player. And because of this, it is rarely the focus of any given game, particularly for those that are being designed with the idea in mind to be a potential million seller.

That's just the nature of game making.

Budget plays a large hand in this as well, and not just from a dollar allotment, but from a time standpoint as well (although longer development time is synonymous with larger budget, assuming you are using a full sized development team).

In the case of games like Heavenly Sword, it's clear that a significant portion of the budget went towards hiring the acting talent (and score), going so far as to have a recognizable name in the CGI acting field on board as the "dramatic director."

It's also the reason why the game wasn't twice as long because the script was essentially written like a standard 3 act film script. The only reason why we didn't end up with a 2 and a half hour game is because the game play sequences were like watching unedited fight scenes during all action sequences.

So what was that result? The majority of reviews panned it for being too short. It would seem that most players (the mass gaming consumer) value a longer game over greater depth when it comes to story crafting. Deviate from what sells, and you may end up with a very expensive production game that does not produce a profit or even recoup the development budget.

When that happens, you're almost guaranteed to see a "safer" (using tried and true plots, character archetypes, etc.) project as a follow up. This is likely the reason why there is so little variation within the Final Fantasy series. It's fans like to see specific things in these games and when the developers step too far out of bounds, the fans react negatively.

Ironically, the biggest leap the FF series ever took was for the Spirits Within movie, and everyone knows how that turned out. Nothing wrong with the production, concept or execution, it just had little to nothing in common with the Final Fantasy universe "feel." And FF fans generally hated it.

But there are still good games out there that focus on plot, script, dialog, character development, etc (all the elements of good stories), but the market for players who place priority on this is still pretty limited.

Lucas is an interesting guy and I do have some respect for him. After all, he also brought us Indiana Jones, THX-1138, and American Graffiti.

What I find most interesting about Star Wars is how Lucas spent years studying Campbell's takes on how similar storylines appear in mythology around the world and how some stories are universal throughout cultures. He then took that knowledge and applied it to Star Wars, especially the Ben Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and Han Solo characters. It's a really in-depth way of writing what he wanted, modern mythology, and was immensely successful in achieving that goal. People can argue the execution of the movies but the underlying ideal behind the films is pretty interesting either way.

are you seriously saying with is a bad thing?

Empire followed the classical Greek hero quest cycle for it's plot, virtually by the book. It's no surprise that it is regarded as being the strongest of the six.

A New Hope was loosely derived from Akira Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress, down to the two bumbling peasants (represented by Artoo and 3PO) who assist the hero on his quest to escort the princess of a defeated royal family through enemy territory to safety, ending with the theme of hope that the princess will be able to retake her land and rebuild her realm. Sound familiar?

Little needs to be said about Kurosawa's impact on film, so he's as good a source as any when poaching ideas for epic storytelling

any game thats heavily story driven has to have cut scenes.

i thought the cut scenes in mgs3 were fantastic, what i do hate most of all is the telecommunications with your advisors, sometimes they dragged on to much.

i hope it has more gameplay than mgs3 which was a solid game especially the sniper boss, i couldnt belive that was ps2 grafix surely this will be a superb a1 game.

more gameplay the better for me!