Dante's Inferno Game Adapted Into A Book
No, you only wish I was kidding! Although to be fair, it's not what you're thinking. But today, Electronic Arts and Del Rey Books announced that a trade-paperback edition of Dante Alighieri's classic poem Inferno, part one of The Divine Comedy, will be available at bookstores nationwide on January 19. This special edition will tie-in to the Dante's Inferno game and will include an introduction written by the game's executive producer Jonathan Knight. There's also a 16-page full-color art insert illustrating the evolution of the characters and environments.
"We are so grateful to have the opportunity to work with Random House on this project. Through the creative process of developing this game, we have grown quite close to the literary works of Dante Alighieri. It is his vision that we are adapting for this new media, and new audience," said Jonathan Knight, Executive Producer at Visceral Games. "The game is a celebration of Dante, and we hope gamers will be encouraged to go beyond the game and explore the classic text that has inspired us so deeply."
I have to admit, as far as promotional tie-ins for Dante's Inferno go, this is probably the least offensive. Hey — it might get people to read the original work, which would probably make quite a few high school English teachers very happy!
Wootini
Posted to Video Games on 11 January 2010
· Comments (13)
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I think someone's been inspired by one Ray Comfort for this stunt.
Nevermind Dante's Inferno has NOTHING to do with the Divine Comedies other than in name only and the fact Dante goes to hell.
Katsuya. I take it you never read the Divine Comedies then. There is a lot of similarities between the two. You must be referring to the rest of the book. Dante's Inferno only takes part in a small portion of the book.
@Monolith A small portion of the book where a cowardly poet is shown hell's horrors by Virgil and an angel named Beatrice... not a Templar wielding DEATH'S SCYTHE and cutting a swath through the Devil's forces to reclaim his dead wife.
Seriously, though, the connection between the literature and the game is tenuous at best.
Well, obviously, if anyone is going to pick up the poem *because* they've enjoyed the game, they're likely in for a bit of a shock. But if it gets more people reading the Commedia (in the singular, folks), then I suppose that's a good thing.
The real story here is that they're going to be in for an even bigger shock when they discover they're reading the Longfellow translation. Yikes. This is likely the case because any of the standard translations in use today by people who actually study the thing are much more contemporary, and I find it unlikely that, say, the Hollanders (my translators of choice for Dante) would ever deign to put their name on this. So they went with a crappy translation by a subpar poet who is conveniently long dead. Well played, Random House.
The added bonus for EA is that the Longfellow translation is public domain, thus deliciously free. Alas for us, it enables them to spend more on their abominable marketing fiascoes.
@Monolith
I've read the cliff's notes more or less and played the demo of the game. The divine comedies deals with Dante getting to where he might commit suicide and Virgil comes to him and takes him through hell and purgatory , then Beatrice takes him to heaven where he meets God. From what the demo holds, it is nowhere NEAR the divine comedies. It's like the game designers tried to be artsy with all the nudity, symbolism, poem quotes, and the animated cut scenes, but it failed. Hell, I can't even follow the story correctly in the demo, as everything gets flashed up at you constantly at random and it just is annoying as all hell.
None of you have played the full game, so I understand.
The game was modified to resemble more about our historical passed, instead of an extremely fictional environment. Once you played the game, you will understand that the additions of various characters and personalities effect the story.
Again, I still feel that this game and its story is superior to God Of War.
Well there's not a hell of a lot a game has to do the be superior to GoW storywise.
I love the origonal and i hope they dont change anything.
Just played the demo.
While certain things about this game look interesting, it's blatantly clear that apart from the ghoulish setting and using the same names, this game has nothing to do with the actual Dante's Inferno.
Which frankly I find very annoying. Don't use a name if you're not planning to be faithfull to it.
Also, I have a slight problem with the nudity. Now I'm no prude, but it's clear that they are using lots of female nudity for no other reason than to entertain horny little hetero boys.
I have no problem with nudity, but the way it was used in the demo seemed jerring to me.
Take it from someone who doesn't read that many books or play that many video games....
But I LOVE "God Of War". Most games are just a bunch of running around, killing, raping, shooting things and stealing cars.
I own a PS2, PS3 and a WII.. there are very few games that I really love and its basically for the storylines.
Heres are my choices.
"Legacy Of Kain".. all of them including "Soul Raeaver"
"Kingdom Hearts", mainly because I worked for Disney.
And finally..
"God Of War"
As for "Dante's Inferno" I saw the trailer for the animated movie then rented it, that made me want to get the game, so I downloaded the demo.
AND LOVED IT!
So now I do plan on buying the book.
I personally think that when theres several tie-ins to a GOOD game it makes the experience much better.
I was with you on storylines for Legacy of Kain and Kingdom Hearts, but then it kinda fell through. :P