A sort of “Why I Love” on tie-in products related to video games, a practice that seems to have grown in popularity over the years.
Books
This is certainly the most common form of tie-in that occurs. It is also arguably the one with the most variable quality. Some of these books are unbelievably, unreadably bad. Others are utterly superb.
Most of these books can be broken into two sorts – direct novelisations of game plots or stories set in the same universe. In my experience, the latter are usually superior. This is, I assume, to do with the natural constraits that are placed on converting a story as opposed to simply creating one.
Certainly the best factor is that often the authors are the lead writers for the games themselves. This means that the content of the book can be the way that the writers would tell the story in a perfect world where they did not have to worry about game mechanics. It can also allow them to fill in details about character’s pasts or develop mini-plots into much longer tales, without the usual six year development time of a major title. Examples of this are the Mass Effect prequel novel, Revalations (which is an absolutely wonderful read) and the Doom 3 series (which, er, isn’t so much).
There are certainly good examples of those written by “freelance authors”. Blizzard Entertainment have a large number of books published for their three main universes, the more recent of which are generally well received. This is also true of the Halo universe.
Complaints come when contradictions occur – which version to take as canon usually falling to definition from the developers, though some take the games to be the official version in all circumstances. Avoiding this can be a complex task, particularly for the larger and older universes, Bungie for example keeping a massive file containing every piece of information they have on their own creation.
Movies
There are more examples of this than perhaps they should be, and it’s all down to one man. One terrible, horrible man. I speak of course, of Uwe Boll. This … “director” is responsible for more video game movies than anyone else. He is certainly a talented individual, having the ability to make hot chicks killing nazis or hot chicks beating each other up boring enough to not even be worth watching on a drunken evening. He has ruined the storylines of more games than most people have even finished.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, hopefully, with a couple of big names in development. The WarCraft movie now has Spiderman director Sam Raimi on board and has had enough development time to ensure it won’t be terrible. Hopefully it won’t be bad anyway and get cancelled. There is also the eternally “is this actually in development” Halo movie that, I would assume, will eventually be made, and made well.
There is also a lot more quality in animated features, which are often used as mini-films by other mediums. The best I have seen is Dead Space Downfall, a prequel story to the video game. The violence and suspense of this particular feature is perfectly in tune with the game itself, and it wonderfully fits with the story and details of the game itself.
Others
The above are the “majors”, the most common type of tie-ins, but there are others. Boardgames seem semi-popular, though are mostly terrible from my experience. Another is comics and manga, which seem almost as common as books. I am woefully underexperienced in comics (both game related and otherwise), but the one I have read (StarCraft, Issue 1) was … well “utterly dire” would be unfair, but the art style was terrible and ugly, the dialogue bland and boring. There certainly are better however, Dead Space being another good example, for what I have heard. Manga (what the hell is the difference anyway?) seems slightly more blessed, though also rarer. Again, StarCraft is my only actual experience, but short stories in general fit better within already constructed universes, as well as the stereotypical art style being better for explosions and action.
—-
Anyone have any examples of particularly good (or bad) tie-ins they have seen? You can talk about how much Uwe Boll sucks too. Did I miss any major “sectors” of tie-ins?