A few days ago I saw a trailer for an upcoming movie called “Pandorum“. It’s one of those “scares-on-a-spaceship” films that have been knocking around in the film industry for a long while (spawning both b-movies such as It! The Terror from Beyond Space and, of course, big budget classics such as Alien). However, after I had viewed the trailer I wasn’t really thinking about films and, instead, felt like it shared a lot of similarities with Dead Space. We won’t be sure what the monsters actually are until we see the movie, but I’m willing to bet that the monsters are actually the crew just like in Dead Space.

Anyway, my point is that I was thinking that Dead Space might actually make at least an average guilty pleasure flick (I know there was a short animated film, but I’m talking live action here). Maybe “Event Horizon” with lashings of gore and an absence of Sam Neil tearing his own eyes out. A day later Variety had to go and make me think I’m psychic by revealing that EA are currently about to try and sell the idea of a Dead Space film to various studios.

Variety says that EA will produce the film with Temple Hill partners Marty Bowen (”Twilight“) and Wyck Godfrey (”Alien vs. Predator“, “I, Robot“). D.J. Caruso (”Eagle Eye“) is also set to direct the film, which EA are set to auction off to studios after they secure a writer. Apparently this could be as early as September, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be seeing the film at our local cinema anytime soon.

EA have recently secured a deal for a film version of their upcoming game Dante’s Inferno, and since that game doesn’t have the sales to go with the name yet the likelihood that Dead Space may get its own film has slightly increased. Couple this with the news that Dead Space may be getting two sequels (along with the already announced Wii game Dead Space: Extraction) and EA has a budding franchise to exploit.

At least we know that the guys who worked on the Resident Evil films have their hands full with “Pandorum” (because, let’s face it, we don’t really want yet another game franchise to be butchered when it makes the jump to the silver screen), but then again “Eagle Eye” wasn’t exactly great so I’m not holding my breath for a decent video game flick just yet.

D.J. Caruso to direct ‘Dead Space’ - Variety

(Image source: IGN)

Dead Space was a freaky game, there’s no doubt about it. There’s something about pitch black corridors and multi-limbed creatures crawling across the ceiling and dropping down on you that will always freak me out. Call me a pussy, I don’t care, but ever since those zombie dogs jumped through the windows on the first Resident Evil game I’ve had a grudging respect for horror games in their ability to make me scream like a little kid. So, will an on-rails (think House of the Dead) Wii horror prequel to last year’s Dead Space carry on scaring me? Or will it be little more than a shooting gallery?

As noted Dead Space Extraction takes place before Dead Space and drops Isaac Clarke for a new female protagonist. You’re a member of a group of colonists that are fighting to escape the same infection that blighted the dark corridors of the original Dead Space. That’s about all we know of the story so far, but the video logs from Dead Space will return to add more substance to the game’s world.

The game is not a complete guided experience, as you will be able to choose what direction you wish to go in from time to time.  The new control scheme also doesn’t mean that various ways of dispatching the games horrific creatures have changed. The “strategic dismemberment” system still very much remains, along with weapons such as the plasma cutter, ripper and flame thrower.  However, one new weapon is the Arc Welder, that shoots out bolts of electricity and spreads it between enemies standing too close together.

It wouldn’t be a proper Wii game without some novel way of using the Wii remote, so EA have come up with a way of using the remote to tackle the darkness of the game. Waggling the remote will activate the faint glow of a glow stick, making sure that you won’t be caught off guard by any approaching enemy. I can see myself frantically waggling the Wii remote as the lights go out.

Finally the game will include co-op play, which is always a plus. However, it is still hard to hide the fact that Dead Space Extraction sounds like little more than the lightgun games of old. I’m not saying that it isn’t fun, but it just won’t compare to the fully-fledged game that graced other consoles. Then again, the Wii’s hardware limitations mean that the game wouldn’t stand up to its bigger brothers without a new way of looking at it; so while Wii owners won’t be sharing the exact same experiences as other gamers they still may get a pretty good on-rails shooter that seem to be climbing in popularity again lately. I guess we’ll find out near the end of this year.

More here.

If you’re looking for some on-rails shooting action for the Wii then Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, based around the events of the original Resident Evil game, may be to your tastes.

First rumoured last week Army of Two: The 40th Day has now been confirmed, along with a screenshot and details about the game. The game is under development by EA Montreal and will be released for the Playstation 3, PSP and Xbox 360.

The protagonists from the first game, Rios and Salem, return to find themselves in the middle of ‘mysterious catastrophes’ occurring in Shanghai. Their task is to uncover the ‘mysterious forces’ that are causing these catastrophes and uncover the ’secrets of the 40th Day’. Well, that’s what the press release says anyway.

As usual co-op will play a big part in the game, or it wouldn’t be called Army of Two would it?

With ARMY OF TWO: THE 40th DAY, we’re pushing the tactical two-man military team into new battlegrounds offering a completely organic and rich co-op experience to deliver an action-packed co-op shooter this winter,” says Reid Schneider, Executive Producer, EA Montreal. “As chaos blankets Shanghai, China, you must rely on your partner to survive as you weave through a broken city left devastated in a mysterious wake.”

Let’s not concentrate on the totally generic story though, as these kinds of games don’t need a story worthy of Dickens. I’m always up for a new co-op game though, so I’m actually looking forward to this. I thought the first Army of Two was a pretty good game. Sure, it was nothing special but it was a decent co-op experience.

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I’ll be honest; I’d largely gone off the PSP and it’s been a while since I even turned mine on, but this weeks announcements have plucked up my interest in Sony’s handheld again. A number of announcements for new PSP games have come out of this year’s Destination Playstation meeting; including PSP versions of Assassin’s Creed, LittleBigPlanet and Rock Band. The best announcement? A Hannah Montana PSP entertainment pack including a Lilac PSP (I’m totally not kidding!).

Also announced were Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, versions of Madden and Tiger Woods and, um, new Petz games. I bet you can’t guess which one of those I’m least excited about.

Here’s a rundown of the games announced:

• The Hannah Montana PSP Entertainment Pack is “part of a new focus on expanding the PSP market to female gamers” and includes a new Disney Interactive Hannah Montana game, a UMD containing a selection of Hannah Montana episodes, a 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo, and - the icing on the cake - stickers! Hopefully this pack will not the light of day outside North America
• The Assassin’s Creed PSP Entertainment Pack will include a completely new original game set in the Assassin’s Creed universe, a black PSP and more goodies to be announced at a later date.
• Ubisoft are bringing a new line of Petz games to the PSP, and that’s about as much as I can stomach writing about it.
• A PSP version of LittleBigPlanet will be made in conjunction with the PS3’s versions developer MediaMolecule. The game offers new Sackboy adventures and environments, but with the same creating and sharing experience that made the first game so popular. As I don’t own a PS3 I’m fairly excited about this.
• Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, which is also in development for the PS2, will bring the racing action of the PS3 versions to snowy Alaska. Players will have to avoid collapsing ice bridges and avalanches in three different altitudes. You will also be able to customise your vehicles with different parts, pimping your ride out while you take it online to face others. Check out the trailer here.
• Rock Band Unplugged will use the PSP’s directional pad and buttons to play along, along with wi-fi support (but sadly no online multiplayer) and a “fully featured” online store.
• Madden NFL 10 will give allow you to build your own formations and plays, and that’s about as much as I know about American Football. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 will be pretty much the same as always, and have both on and offline play.

So there’s plenty for the PSP owner to get excited about this year, and that’s just the games that have been announced. I wouldn’t get too excited about Petz though, unless you’re about eight. If so then stick with it my friends, the good games will come when you grow older. It’s not all shovelware crap, I promise!

Destination PlayStation News: LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm, Assassin’s Creed, more coming to PSP - Playstation Blog

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Fortunately I’m single so I don’t have to bother splashing my hard earned cash out on cheap tatty gifts. Or maybe I’m just bitter, who knows?

Unfortunately Valentine’s Day also extends to the world of Red Alert 3, so Ric Flair, Gemma Atkinson and Holly Vallance have recorded videos as their respective characters from the game.

There’s no Tim Curry, but if you’re spending Valentine’s Day with Holly Vallance and Gemma Atkinson can you really complain? I know I wouldn’t!

Check out the rest in the related videos here!

While a Battlefield: Bad Company sequel was inevitable EA officially confirmed it today, along with a surprising new addition to the franchise - Battlefield 1943. While some fans will be disappointed that it’s not a whole new edition to the series it still sounds pretty interesting.

Battlefield 1943 is basically a revamp of Battlefield 1942, the original game that became immensely popular. Along with brand spanking new graphics the game will be available as a download on PSN, XBLA and PC. Think of it as ‘Battlefield Light Edition’, that will apparently only weigh in at around 350MB and have pricing along the same lines as Braid.

Up to 24 players will be able to duke it out in three different locales; Wake Island (a remake of the fan favourite), Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. The usual assortment of period weapons and vehicles will also be along for the ride.

Bad Company 2, meanwhile, will return with the same humour and story driven combat; except it will take place in a much wider range of locales. B Company will be fighting their way through thick jungles, snowy mountains and dusty deserts. As usual they’ll also be blowing up everything in their way, which is where your handy trigger finger and a grenade launcher comes in use.

My personal favourite of the Battlefield franchise is Battlefield 2 (you can get the complete Battlefield 2 collection here), followed closely by Battlefield 2142. Some may hate the bugs and the Titans in the latter, but I’ve always been quite fond of the futuristic shooter. That is, until, I crash my aircraft into the very Titan I was trying to land on.

Despite not having massive sales Bloom Blox was a pretty fun game and ended up making my essential Christmas buys list.  Not put off by these low sales Steven Spielberg and crew are hard at work on its sequel; Bloom Blox Bash Party.

Hoping to increase awareness (and hopefully the fun factor) EA are vastly increasing the amount of features compared to its predecessor. Firstly there’s a whopping 400 new levels, including settings such as water and zero gravity. To go with that are new characters, new tools, blox types - such as virus and conveyor blox - and blox shapes.  Not happy with that? Well, there’s always the ‘extreme’ factor;

“In BOOM BLOX Bash Party we are taking the game elements to the extreme,” said Amir Rahimi, Senior Producer. “In the original BOOM BLOX, we really focused on perfecting the game’s physics so now we can push the boundaries of physics, offering exciting new challenges and completely new ways to play.” - Kotaku

Unfortunately there’s not a challenge of how many times you can fit ‘physics’ and ‘new’ into a sentence.

Obviously Steven himself is excited;

“Boom Blox Bash Party is a wild social gaming experience. We know families and friends really enjoyed playing the original Boom Blox together, so we designed more explosive multiplayer experiences with Boom Blox Bash Party.” - Reuters

Finally the game is jumping on the bandwagon by offering user generated DLC. This allows players to create and share their own levels over the internet, and also download and rate levels from EA and other players.

You can pick up the original Bloom Blox  for as low as £14.99. It’s one of the few decent Wii games out there anyway.

Burnout Paradise (which I picked as one of my essential Christmas buys for the Xbox 360) doesn’t arrive on the PC until February, but gamers will be pleased to know that they’ll be able to test the game out with a free trial. Plus, on top of this, you’ll be getting access to all the extra content released for the game so far.

Criterion are doing away with the demo and instead giving gamers access to a big chunk of the game. While the trial will obviously only last for a limited time, you’ll still be able to try out all the game’s events and multi-player modes. There are also three cars for you to try out.

So, want to know if the game will work on your PC? Download the trial in February. Also, want to know if the game is actually any good? Download the trial! (If it’s anything like the console versions then it will be excellent).

You’ll be able to download the trial come February, or share it on discs which can be shared with friends.

Burnout Paradise The Ultimate Box – FREE PC trial available to millions - Criterion Games

Those players that have finished Mirror’s Edge will be happy to know that the game is getting downloadable content sometime in January. The new content will be in the form of Time Trials, so this may leave players aching for more story disappointed.

There will be seven maps in total, with nine races, with the Playstation 3 getting a free map as part of an exclusive content deal. The map pack will also cost players 800 MS Points (for the Xbox 360), or about £7. Apparently the PC version may be out around the same time, but don’t quote me on that one.

Players will leave the city behind and instead be confronted with totally abstract crazy designs (see the video above);

“We deliberately chose a more abstract aesthetic that is still within our distinct art style,” said DICE senior producer Owen O’Brien, “and then focused on flow and gameplay to create an experience and challenge very different from the main game.” -1up.com

Seems like a good deal for those wanting to get more out of the game, although I would have preferred to get more story.

Following on from the news that Saints Row 3 is in development you’ll also be pleased to know (probably) that EA are also planning more installments of popular franchises. The CEO of EA, John Riccitiello, says that recent EA releases will be “sequelable”, as if there was ever any doubt. Mercenaries 2 sold 1.9 million copies so it would be pretty stupid for EA not to have another installment in the series.

Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge will also be turned into franchises but are “not likely to be annual sequels”, which no doubt will be left up to sports games like FIFA. Spore will also have new expansion packs (meaning it will be heavily milked for moolah, like Will Wright’s other popular franchise, The Sims).

Hopefully EA’s recent lust for new IP’s will not be sated by all this upcoming sequels. The more new and excellent IP’s that EA puts out then the more my new found fondness for the publisher continues to rise.

(Via Kotaku)