The power of games is incredible. Games continue to be the most interactive and immersive form of storytelling -- and the most involved these days.
Christian Donlan at Eurogamer.net writes this fascinating account of a ride out on the town in LA Noire with his father, who knew the streets in person in the 1940's:
Dad just trailed off, really, lost in the texture of L.A. Noire, surfacing now and then to announce a car or a familiar sight. '40 Buick, '46 Olds, '39 Dodge. I remember that restaurant. Rialto? God, that place used to show all the old burlesque stuff. What's the name on that oil pump?
At one moment, as dawn was breaking on the road to Hollywood, he suddenly leaned forward and shouted out "Willies!" and I said a silent prayer of thanks that I had my stepmother's phone number on speed dial. It turned out he was actually saying, "Willys! You almost never see a Willys in old films! It's a lesser make. Not so popular. They did the Willys jeeps for the war, and after that they went broke."
So did my dad find L.A. Noire accurate? Intoxicatingly so, I suspect: he thought the streets were wider than he remembered, but he liked the way they were fairly dark, just like the underlit boulevards he knew when he was a kid.
Lately I've been playing modern indie takes on the classic 1990's point-and-click adventure games. They've been published by indie studio Wadjeteye Games.
I recently played both Resonance and Gemini Rue. They are GORGEOUS games (even though they're low resolution) -- the stories are serious dramas in the same vein as higher budget games LA Noire or Heavy Rain.
Gemini Rue is a Bladerunner-esque sci fi noir that deals with themes of consciousness and memory...
High budget or low budget, these games are the only form of media with the capability to transport us and make us active participants in a vivid and responsive world. They're my favorite kind of game. I hope they keep making em, because I know I'll keep playing.