Gamertell

Haven’t caught all of the Gamertell news this week?  Here’s your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles!

• Live Blog: Sony’s E3 2008 press conference
  “ Bookmark this page and plan to press REFRESH a lot (either by hitting F5 or CTRL+R). We’re Live Bloggin’ Sony’s E3 press conference. It starts at 11:30 a.m.…” MORE »
• Live Blog: Nintendo’s E3 2008 press conference
  “ Bookmark this page and plan to press REFRESH a lot. We’re Live Bloggin’ Nintendo’s E3 press conference. It starts at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time (Noon Eastern time), Tuesday,…” MORE »
• Ion reveals Drum Rocker premium Rock Band drum set
  “Since the first Guitar Hero was released back in 2005, we’ve all had to clear out some room in our closets to store our beloved plastic instruments. As time went on, the number of music peripherals has doubled. Wired…” MORE »
• How To: Link your Playstation Underground and Network IDs to create a Portable ID
  “ With the E3 2008 announcements and Playstation network upgrades, Sony has chosen this week to allow its users to link their Playstation Underground IDs and their Playstation network IDs. Calling it a Portable ID,…” MORE »
• Live Blog: Microsoft’s E3 2008 Press Conference
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The Wii’s Virtual Console offers the opportunity for interesting and engaging series which normally don’t make outside of Japan to reach North American fans. Some rare import titles can be import friendly, when text isn’t important. However you then have to buy a console from Japan or mod your own to read the different cartridges or discs. Also, in the case of RPGs, importing often isn’t an option as the in-game text is necessary to proceed through the game.

While there are many different games that are available as possible ports, Mr. Universal from Popzara and I have put together a list of ten interesting titles which deserve a wider audience. Nearly all have some sort of translation…

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In the latest issue of Nintendo Power magazine (April 2008), the letters section includes a submission from a fan of cross stitch. On page 9 you’ll find the following letter (full text follows in case you cannot read it all)…

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I recently read this article on The New York Times online about how to date a video gamer. It was interesting because I never thought anyone needed a strategy to date a gamer in general. In fact, I’ve known a few non-gaming friends who swallowed their pride and learned to game just to save their own marriage. But as I read this article, it was interesting to see how this couple, Miho Walsh and Roy Prieb, learned to get along and make their marriage work. Now that’s amore!

“She was staring into her screen, and I was staring into my screen,” Prieb told the New York Times reporter.

She knew what had to be done to keep her main squeeze happy. According to the story, Walsh gave Prieb a copy of World of Warcraft for his 32nd birthday and their lives were enhanced through gaming. 

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Its a bit late for Christmas themed posts, but this World of Warcraft fan-made music video is so good it must be shared. It features characters in the game dressed as Santa, Jack, Oogie Boogie, Lock, Shock and Barrel from The Nightmare Before Christmas and it has them re-enacting the “Kidnap the Sandy Claws” segment of the movie. It is honestly one of the best fan-made music videos I have ever seen.

Click through to view the video.

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You’ve already seen my baby gamer modeling the Wendy’s kids’ meal toys and he helped test the Hallmark Player 1 Christmas ornament (he wore those batteries out pretty dern fast). So it’s only appropriate that, for his first birthday, he have a controller-shaped cake.

My wife made the cake using two chocolate, sour cream based cakes (super moist and yummy) stacked together. She then cut the…

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‘Tis the season for smootchin’ and squeezin’. Sure, that might mean you have to drop your controller for an hour or two and pay attention to your significant other, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any love and romance in videogames.

In my most recent CiN Weekly magazine column (published February 13, 2008), I point out a few of the more romantic moments in videogames, going back to a few including the arcade game Popeye.  You have Mario’s eternal quest for some sweet Princess affection, as well as some sultry smootches in the Final Fantasy franchise. A little more recent, Singles: Flirt Up Your Life takes a more direct approach, while Second Life lets you meet other singles through its online interface. Finally, there’s a bit of love in Halo 3, as well as the somewhat sexy yet unnecessarily controversial scenes in Mass Effect.

There are, of course, a few other articles out there that pair love and videogames:

• GameZone has an article from 2007
• Desructoid also goes back a year with a look at love in games
• ClassicGaming goes old school with a multiparter
• There’s also Gamespot’s uber-pink romantic retrospective from who knows when (complete with improperly coded image files)

You certainly must have your own romantic gaming experiences. Do you snuggle alone with your joystick or have you found a videogame you and your loved one can play together? Do share…

Read [CiN Weekly] Also Read [GameZone] Also Read [Destructoid] Also Read [Classic Gaming] Also Read [Gamespot]

To celebrate Thanksgiving, the Gamertell staff is taking some time off to be with our families (and very likely play videogames in the other room for many, many hours).

As a special, tasty treat for this holiday, here’s a look at the Gamertell staff’s favorite uses of food in videogames.

Enjoy!

Amy Sutton: My favorite use of food in a videogame is in Namco-Bandai’s Katamari series when you use a sumo wrestler to roll up food. The food sticks to him for a while and makes him fatter. Plus he makes a great gulping sound when you roll up the food.

Jenni Lada: My favorite use of food in a game has to be in the DS title Sprung, which was released by Ubisoft on December , 2004. Sprung is the closest thing to a dating sim released in the US. It had two game modes that followed 2 characters. In Becky’s story, there was a chapter called “Serving the Freezing Dish”. In it Becky had to get even with her ex-boyfriend. There were a number of ways to get revenge, and one of the options was to slip a laxative into his water glass. I remember replaying that scene for about four days trying to slip the laxative into his drink. Apparently a glitch was present in the game, because it was impossible. Even on Gamefaqs people were stumped. Even though it ended up being an impossible option, I still consider it the best use of food in a video game.

Lucy Newman: That’s easy. BurgerTime, an old NES puzzle game that came out in 1987 based on the arcade version released in 1982 by Data East. It was like old’ school Donkey Kong where you had to go up the ladders to drop the ingredients to the bun below. You couldn’t drop them willy nilly either. They had to be dropped in order- bun, meat patties, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and then the top bun - by walking over them to complete the burger. There’s a few rogue foods trying to stop you from completing your burger. A hot dog that looked more like a red chili pepper, an egg and a pickle. Your only line of defense was a pepper shaker. The original game was developed by Data East and published by Bally Midway in 1982 for the Aracade systems and later for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200 and 7800 (renamed Beef Drop), Commodore 64 (I still have my copy somewhere), ColecoVision, NES, Intellivision, Texas Instrument 99/4A, Apple II, MS-DOS, Game Boy and the PSone. There have been many remakes and spin offs of the game as the years went by including Mr. Whimpy, Pizza Time, Ice Cream Factory and a few others.

PJ Hruschak: Since brains in zombie games aren’t really food for the living and Burger Time (my favorite coin op arcade game) wad already mentioned, I’ll go a bit more recent. To help Home Simpson’s stamina and to get to his lard sized persona in the recently released The Simpsons Game (2007, EA Games), he consumes various food stuffs throughout the game. My favorite is in the ice area in the Katamari spoofing level where sea creatures somehow spit up oversized servings of sushi. Next I’d say Snake eating snakes for health in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater released in 2004 by Konami for the PS2.

Richard Snyder: Bonk’s Adventure - Turbografx-16 - Red Company - 1990. Food is a common power-up in many games, but only a precious few really touch upon how necessary it is for you not only to stay healthy but get stronger, and none do it more directly than the Bonk trilogy.  Whereas it goes straight to the stomach or thighs of some people who eat a lot, all the protein in Bonk’s world is destined right for the cavekid’s noggin even going so far as to give him temporary invincibility after the third snack, as well as the ability to turn enemies to stone by landing on the ground headfirst.  Lesson: Eat your protein, kids.

Joshua Mallory: Burger Time has my vote for BEST use of food, but it was already taken. Kirby Super Star, SNES, HAL Laboratory, 1996.  While tomatoes and various food items feature as health powerups throughout the game, the fact of the matter is that Kirby eats everything, including the enemies.  When badguys aren’t palatable enough by themselves, he can even become a cook and turn all enemies into food.  Kirby has starred in games since 1992, but KSS is arguably the best game of the series.

While releases for upcoming videogames just keep getting better, the list of movie titles based on videogames keep growing. Soon, Hitman, starring Timothy Olyphant as Agent 47, will join the list of live-action films based on a videogame.

“I don’t go after video games because they are video games,” Adrian Askarieh, producer of the Hitman movie and gamer explains. “I go after them because of their strong concepts, strong characters, and strong stories. The fact that they are video games—and appeal to the video game demographic—is just icing on the cake.”

Like many directors before him, Askarieh was drawn to the game before he came up with the concept of turning it into a movie.

“I was attracted to the ‘Hitman’ series, for instance, because I was fascinated by the idea of an assassin with a very unique look and a very unique history. His is a wild world that is absolutely cinematic, and that was the key factor for me,” he said.

Many live-action films based on videogames have graced the silver screens since Tron in 1982. But often times, what seems like a great idea would often be met with mixed feelings. From 1982, other videogame based movies included: Cloak & Dagger in 1984 based on the arcade hit. In 1993, Super Mario Brothers starring John Leguizamo and Bob Hoskins as the famous plumbers. In 1994, Double Dragon and Street Fighter which were followed by animated series. In 1995, the popular game Mortal Kombat followed by a sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation in 1997. With Wing Commander the last to hit the screens in 1999.

Askarieh explains that many videogame-based movies failed “because their creators were too conscious of the fact that they were making video game movies,” he said. “If there’s a secret to all this, it’s to retain what attracted you to the video game property in the first place. Treat the game as legitimate source material, develop a great script, and then create the best movie you can. Don’t keep telling yourself that you’re only making a movie based on a video game; the minute you do that, you’ll wind up with a throwaway film that feels like a video game.”

With that in mind, movies appearing in 2001 started gaining the popularity it deserved beginning with the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider series starring Angelina Jolie. Another hit movie based on a videogame was the Resident Evil series the latest movie Resident Evil: Extinction which released early 2007. Then the movies began to fall out of favor again with movies like Alone in the Dark released in 2005 starring Christian Slater, which in the end became another snooze fest horror flick that immediately received poor reviews from critics and videogame fanatics alike. Doom was another videogame-based movie released in 2005 that didn’t receive favorable reviews as a majority of the action was near the end of the film. Another film that received poor reviews in 2005 was BloodRayne. The movie was so bad it received the Golden Raspberry Awards for worst film, actors and actresses.

Askarieh said many directors tried to cash in on the franchise based on the people who purchased the game.

“They would say, “OK, the game sold 10 million copies worldwide in the last seven years,’ as ‘Hitman’ did, ‘so let’s cash in and turn out the movie,’” he said. “That’s a recipe for failure right there. Secondly, they made movies that only appealed to video game fans. Why would you want to limit your audience that way? Look, making a movie is making a movie and making a game is making a game. People who make games don’t make movies and vice versa. So there was no need for them to be involved other than to send them the script and get their notes, which we did. And then we went off to make the movie. Nothing wrong with that.”

As the game movies grew, it wasn’t until the release of Silent Hill on April 21, 2006 that many gamers’ opinion of videogame-based movies may have changed. Silent Hill received mixed reviews from critics but fans of the game picked up on the elements Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 games in the movie. The emotional and aesthetic feel of the movie coupled with the soundtrack and familiar creatures were all present.

Not involving the game makers in the filming process may be a big mistake if the director is not familiar with the game he’s adapting to the screen, Askareih said. Many movies such as Super Mario Brothers and the CGI movie Final Fantasy: Spirits Within have deviated from the storylines so much it became something completely different causing the film to suffer greatly.

“I haven’t seen the final film so I don’t really know my reaction yet to what the movie makers did,” he said. “But it’s one of those things where you have to let go. If you want to influence something, you’d better be 100% sure that you’re good at it, and I’m not terribly sure that ‘Hitman’ would become a better movie if a bunch of game makers were running around with ideas. We’ve got a brand new plot that is an amalgamation of many of the scenarios in the four ’Hitman’ games. Does it capture the same look and feel as the game? My God, absolutely!”

Askarieh said he realizes the fact that filmmakers have stayed away from video game-based source material because of the lack of success many of the films have endured but believes that may change in future productions.

Some of the future productions in the works include the following releases, in 2008:

• Alice starring Sarah Michelle Gellar
• Far Cry directed by Uwe Boll and stars Til Schweiger
• In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale based on the 2002 PC platform RPG game Dungeon Seige starring Jason Statham and Leelee Sobieski
• Silent Hill 2 sequel to the movie Silent Hill no definite date set yet for this film and no actors or actresses announced yet.
• Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

In 2009, the following live action film adaptations will include:

• Alone in the Dark II will be written and directed by the same people who did the first film adapation of Alone in the Dark. Christian Slater has been asked to star in the sequel but director Uwe Boll hasn’t received confirmation from the actor yet.
• Castlevania is currently shooting location photography for this film adaptation of the game. Jeremy Bolt explained that Castlevania will “integrate a Dracula origin story… with the story of the Belmonts.”
• Gears of War is in production now, but no information on whether it will be live-action or CGI yet. Only information found is that producer Wyck Godfrey is working with the game’s lead designer Cliff Bleszinski to produce the film. “I’m not a gamer, but what blew me away about Gears was how it captures the mythology of a war mission and how high the stakes are,” said Godfrey in an interview with Game Informer. The movie is rumored to be shot against a green screen much like the movie 300.
• Metal Gear Solid announced in 2006 and later in 2007 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo Hideo Kojima was working with Hollywood to turn this game into a movie. No casting of actors have been announced though rumors have spread on the web that possible actor for the role of Snake may be either Christian Bale or Viggo Mortensen. Honestly, as long as its not Jean-Claude Van Dame or Steven Seagal I’ll go see the movie, nothing like casting the wrong actor for the part to ruin a movie for me. *cough*Sylvester Stallone as Judge Dredd *cough.*
• Spy Hunter originally announced in 2003 that Universal Pictures has acquired the rights to the 1983 arcade game Spy Hunter from Midway Games. The following September, Universal signed actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to star in the film adaptation based on the game. Soon the news of the film stopped until May 2007 when Paul W.S. Anderson was hired to replace John Woo as the director and will begin writing a new script with another screenwriter. It is yet to be determined if the “Rock” will return to the project.
• Warcraft based on the popular MMO World of Warcraft. In June 2007, Thomas Tull chairman of Legendary Pictures announced that the studio was working closely with Blizzard’s designers and writers to adapt World of Warcraft for film. No word as to which quest they will be basing the movie on or if its live-action or not.

With games gaining popularity this year I wouldn’t doubt that somewhere in Hollywood a screen writer is adapting God of War for the big screen. Guess we’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?

Read [Hollywood Reporter] Also Read [Wikipedia] Also Read [Game Spot]

Regardless of what you think about the revamped E3, this was still a big yea for announcements. Be it new games, new peripherals, redesigned gear or just updates on the games announced last year, E3 2007 was an exciting potpourri of information.

Click through for the Gamertell writers’ takes on a few of the most anticipated things announced at E3 2007…

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