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7). But function always takes precedence over such
stylish touches: when the hero moves away again, the
camera reverts to its normal view, enabling the player
to see more of the environment. True montage,
meanwhile, is still not used. An action movie would,
for instance, cut from a close-up of the hero’s face to
his point of view of approaching enemies, then back to
a mid-shot of the hero with gun drawn, whereas such
scenes in Metal Gear Solid’s gameplay necessarily take
place in long shot. Metal Gear Solid is a great
videogame with quasi-filmic visual gimmickry, but it is
nothing like an interactive movie.
Most of the work done by automatic videogame
cameras, indeed, is largely modeled on a different
medium altogether, and this brings us to the second,
aesthetic rationale for such visual systems. The kind of
montage seen in a car commercial does crop up in
videogames, but only
after
the action has finished. This
is the burgeoning phenomenon of the videogame
“replay.” Gran Turismo enables the player to watch a
race he has just driven, with virtual cameras placed at
spectacular angles on every bend. The reins are handed
over to the digital director. The effect is thrilling, and
clearly drawn not from film but from the style of
television sports coverage. Similar replays accompany
goals scored in the soccer game World Cup ’98, and
