Indiana Jones inspired game set to be made in a film, there is something ironic here.
One of the PS3’s most beloved franchises, Uncharted boasts cinematic qualities and a story which could easily be translated onto the big screen. No wonder then that Columbia Pictures is developing the multi-million selling franchise in the hopes that it can be a huge summer action based blockbuster. According to the Hollywood Reporter Kyle Ward will write the script for the adaptation and it will be produced by Avi Arad, Alex Gartner and Charles Roven.
Relatively unknown script writer Mr Ward has recently become the go to guy in Tinsel town for game to film translations. Penning both Hitman 2 and Kane & Lynch translations, neither of which have been released yet.
Uncharted Drakes Fortune will be added to the long list of rumoured game adaptations including Stranglehold, Halo, and Mirror’s Edge. The most recently released game to movie adaption released at the box office was Hitman. Although universally critiqued as one of the worst films of last year, Hitman went on to generate $40 million which doesn’t include the much higher profit stream of a DVD release. It is no wonder that video games are becoming the fashionable trough for Hollywood to dine at.
Hide where you like Nate, Hollywood will have you soon.
To commerate the 30th year anniversary in Japan, a giant monument to the original Gundam has been constructed and its finally finished. It has taken a month to erect, only to be pulled down after several months it looks really impressive. The best thing about it though is that the statue lights up at night, which we’re guessing must be pretty spectacular. This sort of fan service is only possible in Japan and its really hard to not book an airline ticket to go see that bad boy.
Regular frequenters of this lovely, little website will remember Big Surf Island being mentioned before. Adding a whole other island to an already big city takes a lot of time, but Criterion will finally deliver on June 11th for the paltry sum of £9.99.
There is also a video below, taken from Criterions Crash TV-cast because by saying pod we are pledging brand loyalty.
After writing the “Ten biggest surprises of E3″ there was one excellent announcement which didn’t quite qualify. It was a shame because this announcement was actually earth shattering, Lucas Arts are remaking the classic Secret of Monkey Island for PS3 and 360. From the looks of the trailer all of the old gang are back including comedy genuis Ron Gilbert. Now in the interest of full disclosure, the new visuals aren’t exactly the whole nine yards when it comes to high definition. But just hearing the old written dialogue spoken afresh in such indellible quality will bring many gamers back to the good old days when Lucas Arts ruled the adventure waves.
Cannot wait to play this one, hopefully this will set Live and PSN alight when it is released this summer! This summer people! What the hell is the world coming to when Lucas Arts actually recognises its past catalogue and the brilliant game makers of old finally get modern kudos for the work they did in building this industry. Who knows if this project can happen, maybe anything can like perhaps Tim Schafer will finally get some luck releasing a game…..maybe not.
Telltale are also making brand new Monkey Island episodes starring everyone’s favoured wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood and they will be hitting the internet ether later this year.
E3 2009 has passed and it will probably go down as the best, even better than the often glamorised 1998. There was a stream of constant quality this year which revelled in the extended hardware life cycle. Every developer knows exactly what to do with the hardware on the market and us gamers get to revel in their expertise. The following are some of the best surprises of E3, titles and phenomenon that completely came out of the left field:
Crackdown 2: The mere existence of this title restores my faith in gaming . Lots of people absolutely fell in love with the fun over fiction game-play of the original, but at retail it was tainted by the Halo 3 Beta key which immediately devalued the product. As a result it was expected that nobody would see anything more of the exaggerated super cops bounding through the city, but the trailer at the Microsoft Conference changed all that.
Left 4 Dead 2: Valve are slow, its an industry fact. They pushed episodic gaming to its schedulinging limits and many can’t wait to get their hands on Episode 3. We all need to know what happened to Alyx Vance and much more importantly playing with the Portal gun with living enemies around. But it will be a while for any of us will see that properly as Valve have another sequel up its sleeve, one which was released only a year a go. This represents an odd counter-culture to a relationship which is usually extremely healthy between the Half Life developers and fans. Even birthing a protest group in the Steam community named “L4D2 Boycott”. But screw those guys because frankly Valve are absolutely awesome when it comes to free content; Orange box represented a crazy amount of value and the continued support of Team Fortress 2 puts other developers (apart from Criterion) to shame. Gamers need to realise nothing comes for free, so anything we recieve is a bonus and not a pre-requisite with any developer.
Splinter Cell Conviction: Back to the drawing board is usually a nice way of saying cancelled, and this cherished Tom Clancy franchise had definitely gone through the ringer. But this year Sam Fisher is back with a bang and he seems an entirely different agent to any game before with a sense of quiet anger which only Michael Ironside can deliver. Action this year seems quicker and very Bourne-esque but that doesn’t mean that all the gadgetry which the series is famed for is out of the window.
Halo Reach: Okay so a new Halo is never going to surprise anyone, the never ending Microsoft cash cow will probably never end with constant spin offs fleshing out the universe. But Bungie have always taken their fiction extremely seriously and setting a game on the fantastic book by Eric Nylund is a master stroke. Effectively the bloodiest battle in Halo history, this title promises to be dark and savage.
PSP Go Price Point: £250for a console which has no UMD drive and actually has a smaller screen. Hopefully there will be more power under the hood because there cannot be many gamers out there willing to shell out that much money for a handheld which will probably be replaced sooner rather than later.
Persona PSP: Original game for the PS1 re-released and enhanced for Sony’s handheld. Everything is newly localised so more in line with the excellent translations which Atlus performed with the latest sequels. Now the reason why Gaming Goodness is excited about this is because it really has become the JRPG choice for those who don’t usually like JRPG’s, they are different and you to actually think and involve characters which are anything other than boiler plate.
Smiles, right?
Cammie Dunaway at Nintendos Press Conference: Dearest Mrs Dunnaway was criticised a lot last year for what was a symbolically shoddy E3 showing from the “Big N.” This year was much better with titles such as Metriod M and New “New” Super Mario Bros on the Wii. Perhaps what was most surprising was how Nintendo bravely stuck by their charismatic VP of Sales and Marketing in the face of such criticism and actually gave her more host time than fan favourite Reggie Fils-Aime. Although there was a slight change from Cammie “Smiley” Dunaway, she seemed a lot more sullen and nowhere near as happy as her performance last year. Perhaps it was the repeat appearance of Wii Sports Resort and Motion Plus which got her down, who would wouldn’t want to demo that thing in front of thousands of hardened gamers once, let alone two years in a row.
Kojima whore-ing it out: Apart from PES and Dancing Stage, Konami could easily be dubbed Kojima company at this point. But his appearances both the Sony and Microsoft conference signalled a big push for new Metal Gear content including a prequel with Peace Walker on the PSP and spin-off dubbed Rising, which is based on Raiden’s story. What is most surprising is that Hideo Kojima’s games are never, ever huge system sellers. Metal Gear Solid 4 performed poorly at retail and is considered such by most of the specialist media, so why is trotting him out at a press event such big news? Well its a status thing, Kojima represents the cutting edge of story telling in our growing meduim and he is a figure which the core-st of audiences latch on to and respect. He is a courting figure and seeing him reach such prominence at this years E3 was both suprising and humbling at the same time.
Final Fantasy VII on PS3 and PSP: It seems like PSN:Japan gets all the cool games for download, titles which us Westerners can only dream about. But with releases such as Trash Panic during E3, announcement and subsequent release of classic PS1 title Final Fantasy VII. It seems as though the European division of Sony is finally understanding that Europe represents one of the most under-appreciated gaming centres in the world, its ripe for a hostile takeover.
Its official Sega has officially become a parody of itself and mascot culture in gaming. This announcement is not really a surprise more of a “oh they have finally gotten round to it then” sort of feeling. The biggest thing that shocks me is that no longer is Sega’s name big enough to encapsulate the inclusion of Sonic and his merry troop, he needs his own name to be in the title like the two entities are completely different.
Sega’s spin off titles have been the best of the Sonic franchise recently with Sega Superstar Tennis being a particular success. But this time around their isn’t a proprietary engine to fall back on, like their was with Virtua Tennis so apart from the extremely jazzy trailer above there isn’t really much to go on. It is easy to bash Sonic when he has become such a blatant cash cow for Sega, but lets all try to give them the benefit of the doubt and see what they can come up with. Its amazing how angry some game commentators can be on the mere existence of the mascot which we all once loved, so lets give him and the historic Sega the chance that they deserve in the long run.
EA are the first of the big publishers to list all the games we can expect to find at these years E3. Announced on Eurogamer.net the list is below, personal favourites are in bold:
Army of Two: The 40th Day (PS3, PSP, Xbox 360)
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
Brutal Legend (PS3, Xbox 360)
Dante’s Inferno (PS3, PSP, Xbox 360)
Dead Space: Extraction (Wii)
Dragon Age: Origins (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
EA Sports Active (Wii)
EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis (Wii, other formats later)
FIFA 10 (DS, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
Fight Night Round 4 (PS3, Xbox 360)
GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra (DS, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (DS, Mac, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
Littlest Pet Shop Online (PC)
Madden NFL 10 (PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
Mass Effect 2 (PC, Xbox 360)
MySims Agents (DS, Wii)
NCAA Football 10 (PS2, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360)
NHL 10 (PS3, Xbox 360)
Need for Speed: Nitro (DS, Wii)
Need for Speed: Shift (PC, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360)
Spore: Hero (Wii)
Spore: Hero Arena (DS)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
Battlefield 1943 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
The Saboteur (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
The usual catalogue are represented with the sports crowd (NHL, Fifa, Madden 10) but there are also some really interesting entries. Finally getting to see Dragon Age: Origins and Brutal Legend in full flow for the entire public to see will be really exciting. So far all we have seen of Brutal Legend is screenies and a heavily polished trailer, so to see actual gameplay will excite all the Schafer addicts out there. Mass Effect 2 is probably the title which will get the most gamers excited, myself included. Although it always is tough to draw the line between seeing as much as you won’t to without compromising the story experience when you finally get the final code in your grasp.
The announcements regarding this years E3 will be coming think and fast until the end of next week. So buckle your seatbelts ladies and gentlemen, its going to be one interesting week.
God Bless Rockstar, if they weren’t happy with players having to stare at a certain mayors meat and two berries, we can all be sure their intentions are clear with new downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto 4 named Ballad of Gay Tony. Adding a much needed sense of glitz and glamour to Liberty city the player character is Luis Lopez, lackey hoodlum turned personal assistant to the infamous nightclub celebrity and entrepreneur, Tony Prince aka Gay Tony (who is pictured left). Having only appeared in two missions previously, one in the original campaign and a further appearance in The Lost and Damned, it seems as though the vast majority of the missions will be entirely new and based on a lengthy new single player story line, just like previous DLC.
Mr Prince, sans glitz.
Not many details are out in the ether at the moment, but we can be sure that this new episode in the GTA universe will feature prominently at this years E3 and maybe even a trailer appearance much like the Lost and Damned at this year’ s Video Game Awards. To me video games have always lacked homosexual characters in anything other than offensive camp stereotypes, it will be interesting to see how the team at Rockstar North approach this contentious subject. Not always the most sensitive bunch admittedly but recently GTA games have represented an emotional gravitas in story telling which lean more towards authenticity than rampant wish fulfilment. Characters that become memorable in their actions and words, not through their sensationalist behaviour but through subtlety and social observation which makes them that much easier to identify with.
To many gamers Lost and Damned surpassed any expectations they ever had regarding downloadable content and for some it even was better than the story of Niko in the story of the original game. Perhaps most importantly Rockstar and publisher Take Two have recognised that some players were apprehensive to spend so much money on a downloadable asset, so this expansion will be released simultaneously on both Xbox live and in retail on a disc. One could argue that this is a backward step for the on-line distribution scene, but as an individual who worked in retail during the Lost and Damned marketing blitz on release many gamers couldn’t get their head around the distribution model. Grand Theft Auto has always straddled the line between the most hardcore of players and the casual, the most numerous of which are in the latter. Whether Lost and Damned will be seen in a store near you in the near future is still to be decided, or at least confirmed. But for the time being it will be interesting to see how this like-able chap named Tony will perform at all good retailers.
Update: Just recieved an email from Rockstar PR, both Lost and Damned and Ballad of Gay Tony will hit UK stores this autumn. They each will be priced as 1600 points on xbox live or £16.99 respectively.
Downloadable content for Mass Effect has been really disappointing, since promising new worlds, scenarios and story lines when Mass Effect was first announced, Bioware just haven’t delivered. Only releasing the pitiful ‘Bring down the Sky’ which didn’t provide players anything new, it did introduce a new race but it was over really before it started. My thoughts on that particular content are rather well known, at least to Gamespot users.
They don't need no alibi.
In preparation for Mass Effect 2 Bioware is releasing a further expansion to their original game, according to Eurogamer it will be a ” Fight Club-style arena” which the will be “substantial” and is being finalised now. Hopefully it will link into the beginning of Mass Effect 2. Story is key in this franchise and I hope Bioware gives fans something to build their excitement upon for the sequel this year.
If there wasn’t enough Dragonball Z games already, Namco Bandai have announced today a new title heading to the Nintendo DS in Autumn 2009. Dragonball Z: Attack of the Saiyans will span the the Picollo and Saiyan saga’s following, as always, the intrepid hero Goku in his exploits to save the world.
Now we all may be hitting DBZ saturation point but the last RPG related to the Japanese Anime on a handheld was really quite good, namely the Legend of Goku series. The only thing that will bother most fans is why game makers keep retreading the old franchise in the same old areas, the Saiyan saga has been covered by as many as twenty games by now. Why can’t we try something Buu saga related or even the widely hated Dragonball GT, at least it would be different people! But by now anyone who has played at least two of these games will just be thinking – “I’ve played Goku at least five times in an RPG which follows the series, why not something different.” Why can’t you play as the villians, or any other supporting character?
The press release promises; “brand new gameplay, unique game modes, fun side quests and content never before seen in either the anime or manga series.” Honestly who knows what that means, but at least the publishers allude to something new in the press release, so surely the developers will try something new right?
Obviously this game has only been announced today so maybe it will herald some positive results or perhaps show us whats different at E3 in June. But if we are all honest with ourselves and on the track record of previous Dragonball Z games, I like many other gamers won’t be holding our breath.
Superman's appearance is not confirmed, only wished for.
