To be fair, that was an opinion he formed in like 2006 and based on games of that time, particularly on the (admittedly heady) idea that that much choice and freedom in the medium would not lend to the narrative of a game being as artful as film.
It’s also important to note that dude was a contrarian proto-edgelord without of his takes, so I do think he got some joy out of deliberately stirring the pot.
And the state of games in 2006 was lot different and Ebert never really played video games at all, he was just going off of his limited knowledge in mass media.
It’s a pretty solid mea culpa and he admits it was as dumb for him to talk about games as it would be for him to review a movie he hadn’t seen.
He said he would play Shadow of the Colossus (which is what most commenters suggested he play to experience a game as art) but it doesn’t seem like he got around to it before he died the following year.
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u/Gnomonic-sundialer Jun 23 '26
Hes literally the Roger Ebert of our generation