On interactive media

So, I finished Bioshock Infinite yesterday, and husband is in the last hour or so of it as I am writing this.  Am still processing the whole thing, and there is a lot to process there, let me tell you.  It's definitely a game that I enjoyed more than any I can remember since, well, maybe the first Bioshock?  Which just goes to show how good the creators of the series are at what they do.

Seriously, I can't think of any other games that have used the medium of interactive gaming to its fullest the way these do.  You literally could not tell the story of the first game in any other medium, and while I can think of a book series that analogues nicely to a main theme of Infinite, the experience of the story unfolding could never be the same in a book or movie.  There's a capacity to show rather than tell that is unparalleled in video games, where you can allow the player to run across pieces of the story in the course of their own explorations.  One of my favorite things is looking around at all the posters and paintings scattered around the world that tell you just as much about the place as the dialogue does.  Likewise the music, likewise the lighting...really, their control of atmosphere and environment is impeccable.

So anyways, looking forward to a replay to catch all the things I missed this time out, and still amazed at the experience they've created.