There is a thread going on about great works of literature to read. I am also into computer games, and think that many have reached the level of great works of art, for different reasons. Any thoughts/suggestions on games that have reached the level of works of art comparable to good works of literature/film?
My list:
Portal/Portal 2 - elegant simplicity, brilliant story telling of the corruption of science and technology, tinged with loss, depression, and obsession)
Bastion - again, deceptively elegant simplicity. All elements fuse into a great form. Incredible commentary on war, destruction, second chances, and hope
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl - Dropped into an alien and hostile landscape, brilliant storytelling where it takes a while to fully realize the secrets you are uncovering
Fallout (original) and Fallout: New Vegas - post apocalyptic satire. The original introduces the twisted alternate history; New Vegas takes pushes the art by forcing you to side with one of no fewer than four factions, all of whom are somehow deeply flawed.
Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic - pulls a twist even better than "...I am your father."
Mass Effect Series - walks the line for me. It is one of the best space operas ever, with wonderful characterization, but the very ending sticks in my craw a bit. Almost like having the most incredible sex ever, only to finish up with a weak orgasm.
everything after Asteroids is just a waste of time..
but i will admit that the first GTA was a somewhat fun waste of time..
I can't help but twitch a little when people refer to the newer iterations of Fallout as the original.
The original was made 1997, with Fallout 2 in 1998.
I personally felt that the feel of desolation and emptiness with "pockets" of life was more realized in isometric versions.
Gta 4, Red Dead Redemption as well.
I hear The Last of Us is pretty good as well. I have another reason to get a PS3 now besides Gran Turismo series.
Im old school...as far as consoles are concerned, I have a wii for my niece and nephew, and thats about it. Used to have a PS1, but it got flooded ina flooding flood, and so I just tossed it.
That said, I still LOVE to play Medal of Honor: Allied Assault on PC. Its pretty ancient as far as PC games go (probably goin gon 15 years old now?). Huge maps, awesome backdrops, killer soundtrack, great controls/gameplay...very well crafted, and ahead of its time IMHO.
I'll second the Portal series and Stalker: SoC, but those are the only two of your list I've played.
I want to mention Shadow of the Colossus. It's actually not a great game and doesn't have a great story (at the end I realized I cared about the player character less than his horse), but it happens in a great world. Like Stalker: SoC the world doesn't help you out and it leaves you to explore and figure things out yourself.
Here's another one, Prey: Excellent storytelling that really puts you in the shoes of the player character and brilliant gameplay mechanics. Probably my second-favorite shooter after Stalker: SoC.
Wow. Thought I would know what you guys were talking about. Haven't even heard of most everything mentioned and I've experienced everything from Space Invaders to Minecraft. Never really thought of them as art. Spent a lot of time on Doom, Duke Nukem, Quake 3, and Warcraft I and II.
I have to say, if you guys have never played the PC game theHunter, then you're missing out. The terrain, animals, weather, sounds, etc. are fantastic. It's a hunting game, you are hunting animals, you're out in the woods walking around. It is beautiful.
As far as other games, I'll say GTA San Andreas was awesome. The sheer size of the map and small details in everything was great. Saints Row the Third is pretty sweet. Nice graphics, especially at night when all the buildings light up, the city really is beautiful.
Okami.
Also loved Xenogears on the original Playstation.
The first time I saw/played GT3, it changed my life. In it's time it was positively insane. GT4 was nearly as good. Forza4 did the same for me years later.
Mass Effect for sure. I haven't fallen so hard for a space opera since seeing Star Wars for the first time.
They definitely can be works of art. Some games can be due to the graphics, and some due to the story, or in some instances, both!
Some favorites:
Chrono Trigger:
Probably my favorite game ever. I'm a sucker for time travel stories, which is why I love Back to the Future, Doctor Who, and other sci-fi stuff that features this plot device. Chrono Trigger ranks right up there with those. It's fun, engrossing, and just open enough to allow 10+ different endings depending on choices you make in the game. I've played through this game over and over and it's fun every time, just like watching the BTTF trilogy. This was the first game I pulled an all-nighter with back in high school. It's sequel, Chrono Cross, also rules.
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
This game got a lot of flak when it was released because it didn't look as "serious" as Ocarina of Time was. That's because it looked like a finely crafted animated Disney film. It looks and plays great, and the story is cool. I enjoyed tooling around on my little ship, and all the other stuff you can do. I need to revisit this one in the near future. A true modern classic. I actually pre-ordered this game before I owned a Gamecube back in the day. 
Ninja Gaiden:
I'm talking about the original NES game, not the later Xbox remake. When this game came out, it had animated cut scenes that helped tell the story of this brutally difficult yet fun game. My 7-year old eyes had never seen anything like it, and it's still awesome. lots of games followed in its footsteps with this style of flushing out the story, but this is the one that I believe really started it all. The story gives you reason to play the game to try and get to the next level to see what is going to happen next.
Virtua Fighter 4:
Although less jiggly than competitors like Dead or Alive, this game really stood out to me as a great looking fighting game. Lei-Fei especially stands out with the Shaolin-style he fights with. It looks so fluid when you are beating the snot out of the opponent. 
The Boware D&D RPG's of the late 90's, early 2000's would certainly qualify, like the isometric Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape games. Isometric perspective, high level background art, good voice acting, solid soundtrack (at least for IWD I), and character/plot development. I view these as a benchmark.
Morrowind/Elder Scrolls III included some of the best game environments, including architecture. The following Elder Scrolls games are great, too, but the environment is somehow not as compelling as the foggy/just coming into view quality of the third installment.
One game I never played but was so impressed by the presentation was Shadow of Collossus.
Final Fantasy 7 was a work of art IMO, the first truly "art-worthy" videogame.
Anything in the Half-Life series IMO
yamaha
PowerDork
8/16/13 12:05 p.m.
Conquest351 wrote:
As far as other games, I'll say GTA San Andreas was awesome. The sheer size of the map and small details in everything was great.
+1, I stole a jumbo jet once and attempted to park it in that hanger you could buy.......it wasn't pretty. Also, what other game could you bludgeon someone to death with a purple dildo.
Skyrim is good, but I still prefer New Vegas. I loved the original MoH on the PS1, Loved GTA-SA on PS2, and I love several games on the 360. Homefront earns a star from me for story telling, AC III earns one for the dark and twisted "Tyranny of George Washington" DLC
System Shock 2 - there are issues with the game play mechanics but it is by far one of the creepiest and most interesting games I've ever played
Final Fantasy VI - Hot topic I'm sure but I liked the story better than pretty much all the other ones. Though I think VII had the best music.
Grandia II - Interesting game and an ending that I actually went "Woah".
Skies of Arcadia - Pretty much my favorite on the list. Great music, excellent visuals even by today's standards, fun and interesting characters, and what a wonderful story. I bought a second hand Dreamcast and drove to NJ to pick it up just to play it.
The0retical wrote:
Final Fantasy VI - Hot topic I'm sure but I liked the story better than pretty much all the other ones. Though I think VII had the best music.
YOU SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH!
Myst and its sequel Riven 
PHeller wrote:
I can't help but twitch a little when people refer to the newer iterations of Fallout as the original.
The original was made 1997, with Fallout 2 in 1998.
I personally felt that the feel of desolation and emptiness with "pockets" of life was more realized in isometric versions.
I was referring to the original 1997 version as the original. The whole series remains one of my favorites. I had a coworker who has never played the first two, recently mention that he heard that Fallout 3 was the best of the series... umm... no.
Fallout introduced us to this post-apocalyptic wasteland. It was satirical and believable. Book-ended by Ron Perlman's gravitas did a lot for it. "War never changes."
I enjoyed Fallout 2 a lot. But it kind of strayed a bit too far to the silly side, and didn't really introduce anything substantively new over what the first one did.
Fallout 3 was gorgeous, and there were some very interesting things to explore, but ultimately the main story was very linear with a totally cliche ending.
The disparate factions in New Vegas are wonderfully realized. The Legion is actually a believable antagonist. Even the smaller factions are more real and believable: Khans, Followers, both camps of super mutants... Most impressive were the remnants of the Enclave are believable and no long villainous. Transforming the Broterhood of Steal into the ultimate badass, knight-in-shining armor, good guys that they were into past games into something flawed but pitiable was really good.
mattmacklind wrote:
The Boware D&D RPG's of the late 90's, early 2000's would certainly qualify, like the isometric Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape games. Isometric perspective, high level background art, good voice acting, solid soundtrack (at least for IWD I), and character/plot development. I view these as a benchmark.
Planescape: Torment is definitely one of the best I've ever played. Brilliant characters. The whole nature of being on a quest to regain mortality. Discovering all the ways you'd destroyed people's lives. I felt really horrible for what had happened to Dak'kon.
I think my favorite moment was listening to the idiotic lecturer talking about the nature of death (I think he was in the Brothel of Slaking Intellectual Lusts), and calling him on his b.s. by killing myself in front of him and offering to do the same for him. I was playing strait Lawful Good, but I just had to break it to put that moron in his place.
Another vote for Red Dead Redemption. Spoiler Alert! (spacing on purpose, because Spoiler Alert!)
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I went through that thing as far as the farm four times, trying to find any way at all to save John from the Army attack. On the fifth, I just gave up, started playing Jack, and filled Agent Ross full of lead from "daddy's" Broomhandle Mauser. Yeah, you love 'modern' stuff, don't you Ross? Die from it.
See how involved you can get? Just writing that reminded me of how I felt when I did it. Good games aren't just pretty pictures, it's also good stories. IMO, making a great game is like making a great movie. If the script stinks, there's no way the special effects will bail you out. Sorry to be so long-winded about the thing, but I've actually managed to get a few people my age playing again after convincing them to try the game. It's kinda nice to sit back on the couch and see them slowly realize they're "participating" in a Western movie, instead of just watching one. "Holy crap, that's a Remington repeating rifle!..". Hearing them say that delights me just as much as it did when I discovered it myself.
Works of art? Yeah, IMO the good ones are. "Shout-out" to all y'all that have played RDR..Welcome to Mexico.
http://www.ign.com/videos/2012/12/19/red-dead-redemption-far-away
I won't post my reasoning because I'm on posting this from my phone but here's my list of games that changed how I think of this form of media:
Final Fantasy 3, 7, and Tactics
Xenogears
Uncharted
GTA: San Andreas
Fallout 3
Oblivion
The original Super Mario Bros.
Chrono Cross
Anything made by Valve
In reply to SilverFleet:
Big +1 to Ninja Gaiden, coincidentally it arrived in my life around the same time as my Countdown to Extinction CD. The two are forever etched into my memory.
