The Phantom Pain
Who comes up with these sub-hard-boiled, wannabe-portentious but ultimately silly names for video games? It's reminiscent of the stupidly-titled "Max Payne" series. Yeah, I know that was over a decade back, but it's such a stupid, schlocky, pun-but-take-me-seriously title, and "The Phantom Pain" is only marginally better.
Big-budget video game developers puff themselves up in a self-congratulatory manner, so obviously wanting to be taken as seriously as Hollywood (#) in terms of depth, emotional involvement, blah blah blah, then come out with drivel like this and dialogue spouted by uncanny valley mannequins.
The cinema grew up when it stopped trying to compare itself to the theatre, and was judged in its own right and on its own merits. Similarly it's my belief that this phase will ultimately be seen as a sign of video games' adolescence. It's past the childhood "Space Invaders" phase, but the over-willingness to congratulate itself on having grown past that and compare itself to the more mature artform ultimately betrays the not-as-grown-up-as-you-think-yet-kid attitude of a teenager.
(#) Not that present-day Hollywood really deserves to be taken that seriously
Biting the hand that feeds IT
