Hey, Gaming started with a couple of pixels which we could move a bit left or right, but ever since computers became powerfull enough developers started implementing movie-concepts, such as story, CGI-cutscenes, etc. However they never give you that cinematic experience. It's like attaching some feathers to a car and hope it'll fly. If you start thinking about it a little longer you'll realise a cinematic experience has usually little to do with the context of the script. It's rather about the camera angle & position, the soundtrack that gives you a chill thro your spine, and, (something that most people don't realize) in terms of physics, movies tend to obey the law. I'll go into all of these. Camera Angle & Position - Some of you might think this doesn't change alot to what is actually happening, the best example would be today's strategy games in which you can zoom in to the point you can look right your infantry's eyes. The way the experience that conflict won't change the outcome but it is alot more engaging. Soundtrack - This is extremely neglected in my opinion. Usually the epic scenes we see in movies are accompanied by incredible soundtracks, sadly only a few games have this and usually it's started thro a scripted event. You'd think after killing 10 zombies a bad ass soundtrack would start rolling. Physics - This is the weirdest part, by that I mean games tend to obey some and neglect others. Let's say you have to reload, todays FPS games show your character reloading the gun, however when there's a gun on the ground he simply has to run over it to collect all its ammo. It's magic. And then there's Third Person Shooters have this weird way of walking. Most of the shooting is done while strafing, I know not everything has to be realistic but try strafing yourself, you'll find out it is actually a very clumsy way of moving around And then there's the camera. Somehow you can't simply look at your left or right, your whole body has to move with it, upcoming GT5 and Forza Motorsports 3 (both race games) are correcting this matter but that still leaves an awfull lot of games that don't. What I'm trying to say is, I think that developers are missing the point. They fill their games with cutscenes and a story and voila, that's how they think a cinematic game experience should be (take a good look at the Metal Gear Solid series). Games like Gears of War & Resident Evil 5 (Camera Position & Angles), Dead Space, Peter Jackson's King Kong, God of War (Cinematic Button Sequences) show that it can be done, however I think it's only a small step. Here's a fragment of the upcoming Beyond Good & Evil 2 This is a great example of how something can look movie-ish while still being a game (without the excessive use of cutscenes). I'd like your opinions about this subject.

I think you're underestimating the markets' growth in a lot of these areas. I think in a lot of games, soundtracks are looked at very carefully. Even back to the days of Westwood and Red Alert, "Hell March" is still one of the most distinctive video game songs I can remember. Even Half-Life 2 uses music very dynamically. There usually isn't any music, but when really intense battles, an action track kicks in which really adds to the whole experience.

The whole walking over guns thing is also addressed in Crysis. You have to actually pick up the guns you want to take ammo from.

Anyways, I agree with a lot of your point, but I think it's assuming quite a bit when you say something like "developers aren't getting the point." I think a lot of developers are thinking along the same lines we all are, and are trying to innovate in order to materialize that train of thought. We ought to give them some credit for that.