The technological line between video games and action movies has become so tenuous that even the nimble Lara Croft may have a hard time detecting it. The Tomb Raider character's leap to the big screen later this year is an example of the strengthening ties between computer and celluloid adventures, according to a panel of game experts and film scholars. Many game characters now come with complex background stories not seen in the likes of Mario Brothers or Donkey Kong . Rather than collecting points, shooting bad guys or leaping across busy roads, the goal in most new games is to advance the story by solving puzzles. Modern games like Tomb Raider , Shadow Man , Nocturne and Barwood's Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine borrow heavily from investigative dramas.
Players work long stretches gathering clues without a villain in sight.
The player must then decide whether to turn traitor and eliminate the partner. Blending special-effects with unusual camera work, films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Matrix feature fight and chase techniques more familiar in computer games. Even the hit CBS reality show Survivor borrows video-game conventions, such as performing feats of strength in a complex obstacle course, Kinder said. Obviously there's a real hunger for this kind of convergence. Copyright 2001 Associated Press.