I’m not necessarily talking about moment-to-moment gameplay or mechanics (though I could see some interesting points being made about, for example, RTS gameplay or RPG character building influence how you approached “strategy” in your own life).
What I’m trying to get at are the games you felt really had something to say.
For example, while I’m by no means the biggest fan (only ever played 2 and V), playing MGS V recently (and catching up on the background a bit) has created this sense in me, and I wondered where else one might have experienced that from vidya
Dude, that soup scene is one of the most iconic scenes in film. I had no idea what was going on with that gross fish, but when I finally understood what was happening, it was awesome how it turns out he was constructing a gun.
That was both inventive and also reminiscent of how a lot of RPGs have item/crafting function (taking different parts of animals/objects/materials/ores to construct a specific item). It was interesting how that film deconstructed game tropes but made them very visually interesting (if not disturbing). It's a shame we don't see more of the reverse; games using novel/movie tropes in more inventive and gamified ways. A few games have actually tried it, like The Stanly Parable or Getting Over It.
Yeah some of his stuff is hit and miss. Like Eastern Promises, A Dangerous Method and History of Violence are so far removed from his films like Dead Ringer or The Brood.
Memes of certain scenes from this movie flood the internet (especially pre-2014 internet). This film was basically a precursor to films like Akira. It deals with psychokinesis, but in a very interesting way -- basically using heightened neurocapabilities to affect central nervous systems in organic and mechanical objects. It's a cool film -- definitely very gory, but it's pretty badass. It reminds me more of a John Carpenter film than a traditional David Cronenberg film.