Take Two announces a film based on last year’s trippy masterpiece.

The Internet has been abuzz with news that a BioShock film is very much in the works. Further adding to the gaming community’s collective hard-on is speculation by a Take Two exec that the movie could conceivably “be released along BioShock 3.” So for the dozen of you that didn’t get the memo, we have a newborn franchise in our midst.

Word on the street is that the project is in very capable hands, with Gore Verbinski, of Pirates of the Caribbean fame, taking charge. No, the stench of Uwe Boll will not taint our beloved baby.

Be that as it may, I am not without my reservations.

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More games in development, but no word on storage solutions.

IGN just recently had a little Q&A with Tom Prata, Nintendo of America’s senior director of project development, in regards to their new WiiWare service. Eight questions were asked; in response to one question, it was stated that “about 100″ downloadable titles are in the works at this time.

But that’s not what makes this piece interesting. Of course there are games in development. No, the really fascinating part of this article is found in the other seven answers… or rather, the lack thereof.

In what can only be described as a violent regurgitation from the bowels of Public Relations Hell, Prata doles out canned, sanitary non-answers with stunning shamelessness. Granted, every company is entitled to its fair share of “Company X does not comment on rumors or speculation.” This, however, is an entirely new level of deferment.

This one is my personal favorite:

IGN: We recently had to delete half the games and Channels on our systems to make room for two WiiWare titles. Lack of storage space has become a huge problem. What’re your thoughts on this issue? Will Nintendo address it soon?

Tom Prata: Consumers have the option of either deleting the game and downloading it again for no additional Wii Points, or transferring the game from Wii to external SD memory card.

Wow.

The rest of the responses are equally compelling. Go read it, and as an added comic bonus, check out the reader comments at the bottom. You won’t be disappointed.

This blog article should be recognized as the sole opinion of the editor and does not necessarily reflect GotNext’s official position on the subject.

Or at least its promotional artwork.

The SITE Intelligence Group mine terrorist message boards daily for evidence of terrorist activities, and they find all sorts of interesting things. One of those things was the above image from Fallout 3, which sadly lacks a man, faithful doggy companion by his side, pumping hot lead into the twisted nuclear zombie survivors that make life in the postapocalyptic age such a tricky prospect. Apparently, Al Qaeda are so confused and misguided that they believe a nuclear-ravaged Washington DC doesn’t need anything else, and I’m willing to bet the message board was filled with obnoxiously short posts best summarized as “Dude, awesome! (smiley face)”.

It’s worth noting that, contrary to initial reports, the SITE Intelligence Agency didn’t believe this was a commissioned piece demonstrating “the feasibility of nuclear strikes against the US and Britain.” While terrorists in general can be depressingly effective, they tend to work low-tech and aren’t widely known for their ability to generate high-end computer renderings. Their ability to appropriate images for their own (sometimes bizarrely amusing) ends is, however, somewhat better documented. Just ask Bert.

Grab a Snickers, take the week off, and kiss your free time goodbye.

No, it’s not a belated April Fools joke, but I sure wish the news wasn’t true. We’ve come to expect Metal Gear Solid to feature extensively long cut scenes, but MGS4 will end up taking it to a whole new level. According to an article reported by PSW Magazine, the game will feature cut-scenes that approach the 90 minute mark. Read that again for a sec because you probably missed it - several cut scenes will average 90 MINUTES. Holy Xenogears!!!!! No offense, but what’s Kojima thinking?!?

Ocelot is just as outraged as you probably are.

It’s been known for some time that the game would be the most extensive installment to date, going as far to be produced on dual-layer discs and now it’s all starting to make sense. (I take that back, it still doens’t make sense. I was merely trying to justify how bizarre this is). PSW made an apt comparison to MGS4 is being the equivalent of “three Godfather movies on one disc.” Perhaps they should have just converted the game into a full CG production if 50% of the time will be taken up by non-interactive cinematic sequences. Fortunately, players can skip the cut-scenes, however PSW delicately discourages fans from doing so as MGS4 boasts the most “finely crafted examples of FMV footage anywhere in gaming.”

I hope this doesn’t end up developing into a trend. There’s clearly going to be some major upsets within the gaming community, but I for one, won’t let this news stop me from picking the game up on June 12th. What about the rest of you?

Source: CVG

This blog article should be recognized as the sole opinion of the editor and does not necessarily reflect GotNext’s official position on the subject.

Alternative medicine offers new options for gaming.

Some of you may have heard of Biofeedback. I for one, never associated it with gaming, until a colleague mentioned how a number of companies are now forming interactive experiences around the concept. Wikipedia has a pretty good article on it, well at least it sounds credible enough to me. It sums up Biofeedback as:

"…a form of alternative medicine that involves measuring a subject's quantifiable bodily functions such as blood pressure, heart rate, skin temperature, sweat gland activity, and muscle tension, conveying the information to the patient in real-time. This raises the patient's awareness and conscious control of their unconscious physiological activities."

While it's primary use it to teach us to better relax, imagine if it was used to effect character and environment status in a game? All the health nuts could claim one more beneficial use for gaming and gamers would gain further interactivity. There are some primitive interactive experiences right now, but what if the atmospheric marvel that is BioShock used Biofeedback as part of the engine? Your character could respond based on your body's response. The angrier you get, the worse you aim. Your heart rate increases, so you fatigue more quickly. The more calm you are, the better you perform. Would it even be possible to build in this kind of logic to a typical controller? My gym has treadmills with basic heart-rate monitors that respond to touch… Could they be developed further to do even a primitive amount of interaction and would anyone besides me even want to see it happen?

And what about everyone's favorite survival horror series? Resident Evil would be insane if it could incorporate this functionality. As we move towards perfecting open gaming and more interactive experiences, this is one area that could really be developed. Right now, there are PC-based experiences that incorporate Biofeedback, but I would love to see it in console games, especially the good ones with atmosphere so thick you can taste it.

So what are your thoughts? Too far off in the horizon to even care? It may not work for all genres, but FPS and survival horror are ripe test pilots for it.

This blog article should be recognized as the sole opinion of the editor and does not necessarily reflect GotNext's official position on the subject.