Movies, books, tabletop and more! What do you think about video game tie-in media?

There’s a Diablo RPG coming to tabletop play and I’m so excited for it I have this twitch in my eye and my hands are just itching to roll dice to see how many times my Whirlwind attack hits the demons. Video games, as a medium, have been the source of tie in media like books, movies, TV shows (looking at you Halo and Fallout and The Last of Us and even The Legend of Zelda) and in turn, video games have themselves been the ones adapting movies and comic books. I mean, how many games have we had about Spider-Man, Batman, the X-Men? Even the Hulk, Superman, Thor, Iron Man, and all of Batman’s sidekicks have had their own video games over the years.

Heck, The Chronicles of Riddic: Escape from Butcher Bay is a genuine masterpiece of a video game, and likely the best thing starring Vin Diesel that isn’t just him voicing a giant robot or a tree. The past year saw Baldur’s Gate 3 become the darling of the video game awards, Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty repair the reputation of the parent game, and Warhammer get like sixteen games. Well, maybe not sixteen, but Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, as well as Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader and Blood Bowl 3 all launched in 2023, as well as an announcement trailer for Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2. 

There are a host of video games adapting other sources as well as other media adapting video games. We’re entering a kind of renaissance for tie in video games, really — back in the day we saw adaptations of beloved franchises all the time, with Duck Tales and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, which unfortunately was so bad that it almost destroyed video gaming. Oops. It’s not likely that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will ever be able to say it almost destroyed video games. If the Wii port couldn’t do it…

So let’s hear you all — what do you feel about tie in media and video game adaptations? Are there any game movies or shows you enjoy? Or maybe a video game adapting an outside source like Baldur’s Gate 3 or X-Men Origins: Wolverine which was the second best video game ever made adapting a terrible movie. It would be first if not for Riddick up there.

Man, now I want Wolverine and Riddick to fight and then team up in a side scrolling adventure game.