LEIPZIG, 28 September 2003 — The two-dimensional game worlds of “Pacman” and “Space Invaders” offered a sort of visual counterpoint to television programs back in the early 80s. The restrictions of color availability and the angled forms were anything but realistic.

But these days things look quite different: Video games are getting closer to the appearance of the real thing. Based on the products at the recent “GC — Games Convention” in Leipzig, it appears that it won’t be long before video games and cinema are impossible to separate.

“In five years games will look like films,” says star game designer Peter Molyneux from Britain. He predicts that the development he describes will affect all game genres, whether they be strategy games or “first-person shooters”.

“We are beginning to draw in the same people who are responsible for making films,” Molyneux says. Special effects in films are so good, he feels, that the gaming sector should try to learn from them.

Back when he designed his first game, he indicates, his team consisted of two people. “Now we’re 80 strong,” says Molyneux. The designer claims that down the road it may well be more expensive to produce a video game than to shoot a film. Unlike movie viewers, though, gamers can have a hand in the action.

With his latest game, for example, Molyneux seeks to give gamers absolute freedom in the composition of the action. The game is a simulation of the film industry entitled “The Movies”. As the boss at a big studio, the player must select scripts and actors to produce a “blockbuster” that will also pass muster with the critics. The game is set for release by Activision in the first three months of 2004.

An “increasing convergence between the film and gaming branch,” according to Molyneux, has also been observed at Atari, which has been acquiring the game rights for two Hollywood box office big hitters. Just in time for the Christmas season, in November 2003, “Mission: Impossible” and “Terminator 3” will make their way into stores. “Unlike the previous versions, the game character this time will actually look like Arnold Schwarzenegger,” says Atari’s Torsten Oppermann.

The graphic possibilities of today have led the film star to take part for the first time in the conversion of the terminator film into a game, Oppermann reports. Austrian-born Schwarzenegger will lend his voice to the title hero in the game’s German version. Fans can also look forward to five extra minutes of film that were shot exclusively for the game, using the “Terminator” actors, and which put the background story of the “killer machine” into a new perspective.

Atari is also continuing the mutual work with Hollywood that reached its last zenith in May 2003 with “Enter the Matrix”. Matrix directors Andy and Larry Wachowski wrote the script for both the book and the film, and shot more than an hour of extra film material. It was the first time that a cinematic film and a computer or video game were so tightly intertwined on a content level, Atari claims. The game is more than just a licensed product, they claim. It is much more a new path of production development.

Atari competitors are also bringing out games tied into the cinematic releases of fall films, although they are not quite as tightly joined to the Hollywood dream factories. Gamemaker Eidos is accompanying the remake of the gangster film “The Italian Job” with an auto racing game of the same name, with the player driving a Mini Cooper on a high-speed car chase through Los Angeles.

Electronic Arts in Cologne has released both “Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup” alongside the film adaptation of “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”. The game is based on the ambiance of the soon-to-be-released film.

The actors from the actual film have lent their voices to main characters like Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn and Sam. Even if the visuals aren’t quite as closely tied as in the “matrix” game, for example, players will be able to at least enjoy the sounds of their beloved heroes destroying the ring and saving the world.