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General discussion (archive)Is there a "Citizen Kane" of PC games?(75 posts)(75 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted June 11, 2012
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Smannesman: ...
Oh god, I've had such a conversation with my wife 15 minutes ago. She talked about our new apartment and I was talking about a meal in restaurant. She got pretty confused when I said it tasted like chicken.
Post edited June 11, 2012 by Fenixp
Posted June 11, 2012
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Fenixp: Oh god, I've had such a conversation with my wife 15 minutes ago. She talked about our new apartment and I was talking about a mean in restaurant. She got pretty confused when I said it tasted like chicken.
Well.. I suppose you could've been licking the walls.
And perhaps whoever lived there before was on a fried chicken diet or something.
Posted June 11, 2012
There is a Citizen Kane on PC Games, but not yet on GOG :)
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citizen_kane.jpg (229 Kb)
Posted June 11, 2012
I'd say Ultima Underworld or System Shock.

Or maybe go farther back for Wasteland or Elite.
Post edited June 11, 2012 by kalirion
Posted June 11, 2012
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torqual76: Hello,

Citizen Kane introduced a wide range of new techniques to the art of film making. It was not very appreciated as is first release. And films not recognized as art before CK. But later was called a huge classic, or the defining classic, all films after had to orient themselves at, to be classified as art. Interesting article can be found on http://www.gamesradar.com/the-citizen-kanes-of-videogames/ .

I think the author is right here. So for each gaming genre there is, you could find your citizen kane.

For jump n runs it is Super Mario.

For Action RPGs it is diablo or zelda.

for run n gun games it is super metroid.

For driving games it is Driveout

For flying games it is Red Baron

For Space sims it is Elite

For Strategy games it is Steel panthers.

For 4x games it is Master of Orion or Master of Magic.

For Civilization building 4x games it is Civilization.

For Open world roleplaying games it is Ultima 4.

For Space Exploration games it is Starflight.

You can do your own list you know, i am tired.

Have a nice day.
Can't agree with this enough. Games are far too diverse to pick any single game to be "the" game. If you try you fall into the same fanbaiting trap that all those "top x games of all time!!1!" lists you love to whine about fall into.
Posted June 11, 2012
Actually I'm not even sure there IS a citizen kane of movies.
Posted June 11, 2012
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jungletoad: Citizen Kane simultaneously innovated cinematic techniques that would help define film as an artform while also delivering a compelling work of art. As much as I think videogames are a valid artform, I don't think we have anything quite like that yet.
Hmmm, you might be right. What about Myst? It sort of had that effect.
Posted June 15, 2012
Planescape Torment mostly fits. It's widely recognized for artistic value, old, is about unraveling one's past and has mystery arc words.

The cinematic parallel of Baldur's Gate has to be a good old fantasy/superhero movie. So, Highlander, except BG2 doesn't suck.
Post edited June 15, 2012 by Starmaker
Posted June 15, 2012
Hm. I didn't enjoy Citizen Kane when I watched it a while back, but it is also a good movie. Still, I would never consider there to be an #1 book, movie, game, or anything else when it comes to entertainment.

I love platformers like Yoshi's Island and Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but they can't be compared in any reasonable way. I like them for their differences. What about Final Fantasy VI and Super Mario RPG? Classic DOOM against System Shock? Apples & oranges, folks.
Posted June 15, 2012
More importantly, what is the "Citizen Kabuto" of movies then?
Posted June 15, 2012
If BBC/Acorn counts as a PC (?) then Elite certainly meets many of the criteria.

A 1984 game that wasn't revolutionary in it's bare form (a flight sim?) but incorporated:

- sandbox gaming decades before it became commonplace
- 3D model graphics
- RPG elements in an non-RPG game and freedom to play how you want (trader, merc, miner etc)
- an achievement based progression system well before every console douche on the planet wanted achievements in their games
- a weapon/ship upgrade system
- an economic system
- selectable multiple camera viewpoints
- a storyline hinting at an epic galactic invasion (by Thargoids)

While it didn't invent all of the above, just think how long it took for many of them to be staples of the games that come out today. All developed on a computer with 14K of memory. If that isn't genius and artwork at play then I don't know what is.
Post edited June 15, 2012 by Themadcow5
Posted June 15, 2012
Citizen Kane is simply the movie that conventional wisdom holds is the best of all time.

So no, there isn't a Citizen Kane of gaming, PC or otherwise, because there isn't a "consensus" about the best game of all time to a similar degree.

Ask a random person on the street what's the name of the most esteemed movie ever, and most will answer Citizen Kane, irrespective of their age or familiarity with the cinema.

Edit, to clarify:

Citizen Kane isn't the best movie ever, because something like that can't really be decided.

Citizen Kane isn't the most innovative movie ever, because, again, something like that can't really be decided.

Citizen Kane isn't the work that caused movies to be widely regarded as art, because they were almost from the very beginning, 40 years before Kane was made.

Citizen Kane is simply the most famous movie, the one that's on average the most highly regarded.
Post edited June 15, 2012 by Jaime
Posted June 15, 2012
As Citizen Kane is to film, Bagged snacks at the corner store is to PC gaming.
Posted June 15, 2012
Citizen Kane wasn't just a good movie though, it pioneered techniques in film making and showed that the medium of film could be used to express ideas in ways different to a novel or a play.

In that respect, I'd argue that Pong, Space Invaders, Super Mario Bros. and Wolfenstein 3D are the Citizen Kane of video games.
Posted June 15, 2012
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evilguy12: Citizen Kane wasn't just a good movie though, it pioneered techniques in film making and showed that the medium of film could be used to express ideas in ways different to a novel or a play.
That had already been done long before, though. Well known examples would be The Birth of a Nation (1915), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), Nanook of the North (1922), Nosferatu (1922), Battleship Potemkin (1925), The Gold Rush (1925), Napoleon (1927), Sunrise (1927), Un chien andalou (1929), Man with a Movie Camera (1929), Freaks (1932), Duck Soup (1933), King Kong (1933), L'atalante (1934), Triumph of the Will (1935) and many, many more. Citizen Kane was made in 1941.

Despite what some people say, movies were a distinct, widely recognised and extremely lively art form decades before Kane arrived. Orson Welles simply created another, certainly important, step in the evolution of the language of film. Consider, for example, that Citizen Kane was heavily influenced by, among other things, German Expressionism, which peaked in the 20s.
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General discussion (archive)Is there a "Citizen Kane" of PC games?(75 posts)(75 posts)
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