My vote goes to either Vagrant Story or Parasite Eve, both by SquareSoft. Both games are pretty short and I could see their stories being adapted into a 2 hour film without having to change all that much. Yeah I know Parasite Eve was originally a book and that book had a movie adaption, but I'm talking about the game's story here.
All Kojima games are crying to be movies instead, but especially Metal Gear Solid 3. Cut out the furies and just focus on The Boss, Snake, Eva, Ocelot and Volgin. I would pair it with some kind of fourth wall break during the release - like having multiple versions of the film floating around at different theaters (similar to the movie Clue) - to capture the Kojima spirit.
Oddball pick: Kerbal Space Program could be an awesome cartoon.
MGS3 would be a big flop honestly. The story isn't that great imo. It is well executed sure, but every time I watch a MGS3 run the story is the worst part. The best part of MGS3 are the codec calls and how every is built around those calls.
I'd say MGS2 would have been a huge hit, but it is too late now because it is too contemporary, the themes are too realistic and I think most people would find it closer to conspiracy nonsense than a cautious visionary tale. The big social media platforms are literally what the Patriots wanted etc.
MGS5 story isn't that bad, the game mostly suffers from many other problems imo.
In terms of movie potential I'd rank: MGS1> Peace Walker> MGS2>MGS3>MGS5>MGS4
A Deus Ex movie done right would blow people's minds.
Or System Shock 2, specifically during the downfall of the Van Buren.
My man. I didn't know if anyone would even know that game lol.
Blood could be the best Eli Roth/John Woo movie ever made
Speaking of Half-Life and movies, weren't JJ Abrams (🤮) and his company working on Half-Life and Portal film adaptations?
Shame the only piece of media we got about that was that terrible fan game Hunt Down The Freeman.
From what I understand, a lot of video game movies begin life as some other project a screenwriter was working on, but then the license gets thrown on afterwards. Then the director and writer end up begrudgingly and fruitlessly attempting to twist the video game's plot into the movie they actually wanted to make.
And the result is usually (1) unsatisfying to fans of the game because it departs too much from the original but (2) too video-gamey for mainstream audiences because of game-specific winks thrown in.
We're also seeing problems from parsing down a several-hour campaign (and possibly a multi-game franchise) into a two-hour coherent movie. The miniseries/serialized TV approach is probably a better medium -- see The Witcher.
Because video games are a medium that aren't supposed to translate to movies. You can do book to movie to video game, but trying to compress the themes of a many hour interactive experience into a two hour video doesn't work, and video games are too dorky and underdeveloped plot-wise to use as material for movies.
Why do video game movies suck so bad in the first place?
Mankind has been searching for the answer for decades. Actually Mortal Kombat 1 is imo the best movie adaptation out there. Which is funny because Paul W. S. Anderson has butchered everything else.
basing on what the reception to the hbo adaptation of last of us will be, maybe (some) video games are more suited to serialization
spyro the dragon but all the dragons are hollywood celebrities in anthro and there's musical numbers
off topic but I just really wish One Piece had a huge open world video game
That would be great! The closest we have are the Musou games, but I'm not a fan of that style of gameplay.
Maybe VA-11 HALL-A, Knights of the Old Republic 2, The Banner Saga trilogy, The Valkyria Chronicles, This War of Mine, Dishonored, To the Moon, Tyranny (Chaotic Victory route), Frostpunk, or Until We Die.
I think I'd like Bong Joon-ho to direct This War of Mine, and Frostpunk
Christopher Nolan for KOTOR 2, and Dishonored
Sam Mendes with Tyranny, and Valkyria Chronicles
Probably Spike Jonze for VA-11 HALL-A, and To The Moon.
And lastly Egor Baranov for Until We Die
VA-11 HALL-A
This game looks cool! Never even heard of it.