In my opinion, this is long overdue.  Congratulations, Stan!

Source: CNN

Spielberg is attempting to sidestep the quicksand that the Halo movie got trapped in the first time through the Hollywood machine. He’s doing this by optioning the novelizations of the games instead of the games themselves. This should allow him to get the film back on track.

Of course, there are still a myriad of things that could go wrong, so this is by no means a sure thing. It is the first bit of positive news to come out of the Hollywood about the Halo movie since Microsoft had the scripts delivered to the studios by Master Chief himself. Let’s hope it’s not the last.

Source

Ever since the X-Men movie came out in 2000, it seems like there has been a steady stream of several comic based movies per year.  But I have to say that I’m really excited about the Scott Pilgrim movie (there’s also going to be a game).

While just about everyone is familiar with the likes of Batman and Spider-Man, it’s really interesting to see movie makers digging deep into the comics scene and coming up with a property like Scott Pilgrim.  Sure, there have been other lesser-known comics that have been given the big screen treatment (such as A History Of Violence, Road to Perdition, and From Hell), but it wasn’t immediately obvious that those were comic books before Hollywood scooped them up.

Pilgrim is a property that’s so obviously comic book material, that I’m afraid it may be a bit off-putting to some movie goers.  I guess that means I’ll have to buy more tickets to make sure this movie is a hit so we can get to see some sequels.  If the movie is even half as fun as the trailers are, I’m sure I’ll see it at least 2-3 times in the theater.  Who’s with me?

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World opens in North America on August 13.

Source: SuperHeroHype

I can’t help but shake my head at this news. I’m not sure which is worse; this or the Asteroids film that is being kicked around Hollywood. Do these companies really need to make a movie based on these fairly generic video games?

I’m pretty sure you could make a film about feuding criminal organizations without having to pay Zynga a cent. Actually, boom, there ya go: Feuding Criminal Organizations. That little gem of a title is on the house. “Hey, you guys wanna go see Feuding Criminal Organizations? Ya know, the FCO?”

FCO, coming soon to a theater near you. Fingers crossed on getting Jimmy Cameron to direct.

Information comes via GeekTyrant

My take on the movie industry as it stands today.

Not so crazy anymore.

Roughly 8 months ago, Game Crazy and Hollywood Video’s parent company Movie Gallery Inc. chose to close 200 stores out of of 680 as part of a restructuring plan. However, the following months they continued underperforming, and more and more Game Crazy stores got shut down. Imminent bankruptcy was looming in the horizon.

Last saturday, it was announced Movie Gallery, along with Game Crazy and Hollywood Video were closing their doors, and will begin the respective liquidation of the no more than 250 stores remaining.

No additional comments have been made from the people at Movie Gallery Inc. at this time, but this is sad news indeed.

As many of you may know earlier this week many celebrities and technology experts where invited to a secret evening taster session in London to try out Project Natal. The only game being exhibited at this event was the coveted ball game Ricochet. One person who attended this evening was Jason Bradbury who commented on Natal’s performance and the hardware being used. According to Mr.Bradbury the hardware being displayed at this event was just the E3 hardware, which was months old and that the next prototype of Natal was ready and supported voice control. You can view the video of Jason Bradbury sharing his thoughts here.

Noticeable Lag

Just across the pond in New York, Russ Frushtick a Video Games Editor for MTV News gave Project Natal a try and discovered it had a noticeable lag problem.

‘I had a pretty large sample size, sitting through 5 demos, capturing about 40 different movements from a variety of journalists. Across those 40 movements, the fastest life-to-screen transition was .08 seconds, while the slowest was .12 seconds. A tenth of a second was the consistent average, though.

What that means is that, in its current state, Natal is not instant, one-to-one motion capture. It’s close, very close, but once you start playing you’ll undoubtedly notice a tiny delay. It’s to be expected, certainly. Even high-end Hollywood studio motion capture devices have a slight delay, and a camera sitting in front of your TV doesn’t come close to the fidelity of 30 cameras in a massive studio.’

He also noticed that this demo in New York was very similar if not the same one as was shown at E3 the previous year. This suggests to me that this old hardware is too old to judge, as it’s only a proof of concept.

Shortly after the article was posted on MTV’s Multiplayer website, Microsoft released an official statement addressing the matter.

‘The proof of concept “Project Natal” demo shown in New York last week was not new, nor was it intended to show incremental progress. We wanted to share the same E3 experience with those who weren’t able to experience “Project Natal” in June. However, the “Project Natal” development team has been hard at work perfecting the technology over the past eight months and will continue to do so. When “Project Natal” launches this holiday, the experiences will be in keeping with Xbox 360 standards of performance and will transform living room entertainment.’

Possible Release Date?

Ok, now we head back over to London because Jonathan Ross also had a chance to play Natal. You can view that video here. He commented on his twitter feed his thoughts about Project Natal and may have leaked a release date.

‘OK. Before bed. Natal on X Box impressive. Not quite there yet i think but tye have til october and if they get it right…sky’s the limit.’

They have until October? Could this be the actual planned release date for Project Natal or merely an educated guess made by Jonathan Ross who knows?

My Thoughts

It would be unfair of me to reach a final verdict on Project Natal at this stage, instead I look forward to hearing news from GDC, TGS and E3. It would be very unlikely that Microsoft would release Natal without ironing out these creases in performance and body tracking. With that being said it appears to be pretty close in terms of the time it take natal to process what each of the cameras see (three in total). In conclusion I feel that Microsoft still have a long road ahead of them if they hope to achieve instant motion capture capable of tracking fast moving objects.

Source

Muzyka told us that BioWare was “very interested” in adapting the franchise for the big screen. “There’s a lot of interest from Hollywood – a number of directors and producers have approached us,” said the studio’s co-founder. “In fact we have some partnerships defined that we haven’t announced…”

Tom also gave a link to the entire interview for your enjoyment.

In my personal opinion, BioWare still produces ground-breaking titles because its founders are actively involved in the process, monitoring the development cycle of the titles to which they will be attaching their names. Drs. Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk are well-known in the industry for their vision and sense of understand of what the fans and players want to see in their titles, and they do their very best to make sure that it comes to fruition.

Here’s hoping that they can nab Cameron to direct the big-screen version. If so, then we might have an Oscar winner on our hands.

SOURCE: NowGamer

• Could the end of free Playstation Network be in the future?  A new survey could hint at a future premium paid service.
• Hollywood studios and electonics manufacturers agree to specifications for 3D. Expect to see it in your living room soon.
• Lots of random stuff, holiday wishes and snakebites.

Enjoy.

What’s up Platform Nation Community!  We have just received an invitation for our readers, yes that’s right our readers to attend a Need For Speed Shift Event in Hollywood CA.  The event was an awesome time when I attended the one in NYC last month and this event will be the same.  So if you would like to brag to your friends that you where able to attend this event, and get some hands on with Need For Speed Shift, leave us a comment below.  The LA event will take place September 17th from 5pm to 10pm, but you must let us know by September 16th as they will be checking names at the door and we want to make sure we get your name on the list.  One more thing you must be 18 years old to attend this event and we will email you the address of the event prior to the 17th.  So if you are interested let us know so we can get your name on the list!