Games are exceeding movies - Stan Lee

Spider-Man creator Stan Lee has said he believes games are catching up with films these days - and in even surpassing them in some respects.

Lee was speaking during a panel discussion at this year's Comic Con event in San Diego. "When you talk about games evolving over the years and becoming more like movies, in many ways, they've gone beyond movies," he said. "To do a movie is difficult, but it's linear. There's a beginning, a middle and an end, and that's it - you write a story.

"In a videogame, you're writing many stories within the story. It's a totally different structure and a totally different philosophy of writing and, I think, a much, much more difficult one. I get the feeling more work goes into these videogames than even goes into the movies."

During the panel discussion, trailers were shown for forthcoming Activision titles Spider-Man: Web of Shadows and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Fusion. Lee confirmed he's also working on new movie projects with Marvel - but by the sounds of things, it's games that are really impressing him these days.

"I marvel at the fact the games look as good, and in some cases better, as the most expensive movies," he said. "[Those] guys are just geniuses. Now you watch one of these games and it's like watching the greatest superhero movie, except you're part of it. It's indescribable.

"And you know it takes a lot to impress me," he joshed.

Comic Con is going on right up until Sunday night at the San Diego Convention Centre. Our highlights of the show have so far included seeing John Barrowman signing autographs and looking frightened, grown adults walking round in Hogwarts uniforms and this quote, overheard from someone flicking through the event schedule: "Cliffy B and Peter Molyneux in the same room? That's a whole lot of awesome in one place, dude."