Speed Dates is no feeble full-motion video game it's a bold art film | Dominik Diamond

"This is the kind of fast-paced zero-exposition white-knuckle opening that we haven't seen since Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. You are presented with a list of women. You click on them. You speed date. In glorious full-motion video! I fondly remember the wide arrival of FMV in the 90s. Mad Dog McCree, The 7th Guest, Command and Conquer, Phantasmagoria, Wing Commander 3: FMV was the first sign that video games could take on Hollywood."

"I thought the genre had been washed away by a tsunami of uncanny valley high-end graphics, but the auteur behind Speed Dating pays fulsome tribute with what I can only assume is deliberate buffering and stuttering of the cinematic scenes, like Scorsese deliberately making Raging Bull in black and white."

"The camera work is weird. Your dates look just off camera, in classic movie dialogue language. But your guy? He looks directly into the camera at YOU. This makes no sense until I realise this is obviously a homage to French New Wave cinema editing."

Speed Dating: Winter Edition is a Turkish-language game with English subtitles featuring full-motion video gameplay. Players control Murat, who attends a speed dating event after a chance encounter. The game presents a series of women to date through rapid interactions. The game deliberately employs retro FMV techniques reminiscent of 1990s games like Command and Conquer and Wing Commander 3, complete with intentional buffering and stuttering effects. The cinematography uses unconventional framing where dates look off-camera while the player character looks directly at the camera, creating an arthouse aesthetic. Dating interactions involve significant personal questions, and player choices affect relationship outcomes.

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