But the games that stand out, the ones that create multiple sequels and linger in the mind after the Xbox has cooled down, are few and far between. It easily follows that the pocketbook opens much more quickly when the sequel comes out only if the game has found a favored niche in the gamers' collection. I own a copy of Fatal Frame, now a collectors item, just because it's such a creepy, distorted story with some fairly decent shocks and game play. I confess I've gotten more good scares out of some of my horror games than most movies in the past few years.

In recent years, Hollywood, along with Uwe Boll, have been quick to jump on board and capitalize on the market of loyal horror game fans who would love nothing more than to see their favorite game come to life. Unfortunately the transition from small game screen to large silver screen has been less than successful, particularly for Uwe Boll, who usually sets out to make the worst movie he can as a tax write-off. Need I mention the atrocious Bloodrayne?

The decision to switch from trying to make animated games into live action seems to be shifting and thankfully so. There is a severe limit to what a film can do to recreate a video game on screen.

Here's what a director and writer face when trying to incorporate the story line of a bestselling video game into live action: a complex computer generated supported story that can easily add in the most unusual and unorthodox characters and scenes in order to supply the gamer with a heightened and satisfying game play. Endings don't have to always make sense as long as the gamer gets a full life out of playing the game.

Such does not work in a movie where the audience has nothing to do but watch. They are passive and inactive physically even though their brains are engaged. If you don't keep their interest with more than random blood and guts, you will quickly lose them. Especially if that particular audience knows every part of a story they have actively played through for years.

Resident Evil live action is an example of how it can work although the third installment left me decidedly happy there would be no more. At least in the game I can shoot something when it pisses me off.

Silent Hill has one of the most intricate and dark story lines to come out in a game and trying to bring that to silver screen was decidedly a wasted effort. Whereas the story line of Resident Evil was easier to translate, zombies against the world, the twists and turns of Silent Hills cult and demon mania was not.

Things are starting to look up though, with these two latest releases. Both are animated, and both stick closely to the story line in the game. I enjoyed both, each just clocking at an hour and half which works well at keeping your interest. Extending them any further would probably have been overkill.

Resident Evil: Degeneration follows the established plot line of the series. Two favorite characters return, Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield to fight an all new corporation following the supposed financial demise of the Umbrella Corp. This time it looks like this new company has nothing but the best interest of humanity in mind as they develop an antidote to the latest incarnation of the virus but, in the shadows lurks a man who stop at nothing to get retribution for the massacre at Raccoon City, even unleashing a new version of the G-Virus. As a new mutation threatens to wipe out the world with a new biological nightmare, Leon and Claire race to stop him.

What works for the movie is getting to see characters you like interact for longer than the cut scenes from the game. However, if you've never played the series of games, then you probably won't enjoy this movie. Because unfortunately, that's all this movie turns out to be, cut scenes strung together from an un-played game. It's enjoyable but you can't help wishing the scene would end and you could start shooting. The story line just isn't gripping enough to make you sink into the movie the way you should. If you are a fan of Resident Evil then by all means, rent this one. Claire is a great bad ass who doesn't rely on large breasts to distract the monsters and the scenes of Leon fighting the new mutated monster are great CG action. Other than that, it's not nearly as good as it could be.

Dead Space: Downfall is a much better stand alone animated film. Taking place before the events of the game, which involve a mysterious artifact on a distant planet and the horrific consequences for the space miners who take it from the planets surface, it manages to go further in plot development than Resident Evil: Degeneration. A completely different animation style from the game helps to distinguish it even more. The undertones of religious fanaticism, dark and murderous mutation of the human psyche and overall shocking violence make this worthy of serious consideration. You don't need to have seen the game in order to watch this movie.

The action begins at the first scene and the main protagonist, Chief of Security Alissa Vincent, is a superb female heroine who is gritty and aggressive. Her security team is charged with finding out what has been making the miners on the ship, and down below in the planets colony, go ballistic and start murdering everyone around them.

There is a freedom in animation to utilize blood spatter and dismemberment with greater effectiveness than live action for the simple fact that what cannot be made realistic with actors can be made fantastical with animation. You know, even more clearly than with live action, that this can't possibly be real but that doesn't stop the shudder of disgust and horror when you witness a woman cutting herself with a razor blade over and over again. Or a mans head slowly severed in two so that you see the brain pan savagely split open and pulpy brain matter, along with blood, slosh down his body like so much rotten cantaloupe. Just writing about it makes me queasy.

What Alissa suspects, right from the start, are that the strange artifact currently resting in their hold is to blame. She tries to convince the Captain, but his rabid religious conviction over the possible origin of the artifact blinds him to her warnings until its too late. We are left, which I'm sure was the ultimate goal, itching to get the game and find out what happens next.

Each film has its merits and will find its own audience but the fact that Downfall took a deeper and more complex twist made it far more enjoyable. I'm sure that more recreations from the world of video games lie ahead and hopefully, they will stick to original format of animation. Rather than trying to bring something to life in an artform that limits the possibilities rather than expands them.