Category: Press Release

Universal to handle new Dracula movie

 

An older, more sophisticated Dracula.

I wonder what Bram Stoker would have to say about all the ridiculous Dracula interpretations in this day and age. Or heck, I wonder what Count Vlad himself might have said. I enter this philosophical soliloquy in lamentation of an act of torture committed by Universal Pictures. They are making a new Dracula movie. And I predict its going to be terrible.

Titled “Dracula Year Zero”, this new flick will be directed by Alex Proyas and produced by Micheal de Luca. The story, written by Mark Sazama and Burk Sharpless, will be revolving around Count Vlad “Dracula” himself, rather than a Victorian-era Dracula. Count Vlad, if you don’t know, was a Romanian Warlord who scared the living daylights out of the invading Turks. He was the prime inspiration for Bram Stoker to make Dracula.

The movie can be then, an excellent sword-slashing, curse-babbling period action flick with some supernatural influence here and there. Proyas said that the project “manages to play off the horror and the sympathy you have for a character that sells his soul to the Devil to save his kingdom and family.”

Dracula will be at the height of his powers and bashing Turks open in the movie. I wonder if Sazama and Sharpless decided to cross 300 with Dracula and see what happens. Heh.

“One of the cool things about this is that we’re doing it at Universal,” Sharpless said. “This is the home of monster movies.”

I can’t figure out here whether he means ‘monster’ as in terrible creatures or terrible, impossible-to-watch movies. Awesome or not, this is one movie I’d like to keep my eyes on.

[Via Variety]

Halo 3’s packaging revealed!

Halo 3 Limited Edition Lo-Res

Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in-between, behold: the most powerful force in the galaxy (Microsoft, if you haven’t guessed) has unveiled before us the packaging for Halo 3. The box you see above is for the Legendary Edition, and it is quite a beauty. Personally, I like the vanilla Halo 3 box best.

All the images below are high quality and massive resolutions. Oh, and we are not going to buy you a new set of underwear.

Halo 3

Halo 3 Vanilla Halo 3 Vanilla Angle

Halo 3 Limited Edition

Halo 3 Limited Edition Angle Halo 3 Limited Edition Inside the Box

Halo 3 Legendary Edition (the shiniest of the lot)

Halo 3 Legendary Edition Halo 3 Legendary Edition with goodies Halo 3 Legendary Edition with Helmet

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Prequel announced out of nowhere

STALKER Clear Sky

Right when you thought all the action is at E3, GSC Game World announced a prequel to this March’s well-acclaimed first-person shooter, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. The prequel is titled S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky and will be invading stores in the first quarter of 2008.

The game starts off a year before the events in the first game, in the year 2011. The synopsis is, as penned by GSC Game World:

A group of stalkers has for the first time reached the very heart of the Zone – Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and brings about a cataclysm on the brink of a catastrophe. An immense blowout of anomalous energy changes the Zone. There are no more reliable and relatively safe roads. The entire levels vanish in the outbursts of anomalies. Stalkers and even expeditions die or end up sealed on the lost territories. New areas, which remained unknown since the time of the Zone emergence, appear on the Zone map. The Zone continues to shake with blowouts. The Zone is unstable. The anomalous activity is at its maximum.

Changes of the Zone map known to stalkers shake the fragile balance of forces in the Zone. Among the groupings, there flare up hostilities for the new territories, artifact fields and spheres of influence. There are no more old enemies or friends – now everyone is for himself. The Factions War has started between the groupings.

Our fancy protagonist is a mercenary who appeared “at the edge of the opposition between stalker factions” and is named Strelok. Your character will be responsible for creation of the Zone and laying the foundation for the original game which is too friggin’ long to type.

Clear Sky’s list of features is rather intimidating and will feature DirectX 10 rendering, a new animation engine, inverse kinematics, a very improved DirectX 9 renderer and several other additions and changes. Visit the game’s official site to get the full feature list.

STALKER Screen 1 STALKER Screen 2 STALKER Screen 3 STALKER Screen 4

Unreal Tournament 3 PS3 Exclusive

Unreal 3

Midway Games, Epic Games, and Sony Computer Entertainment America today announced that the highly anticipated and award-winning Unreal Tournament 3 will be exclusive to the Playstation 3 computer entertainment system and PC in 2007. Thanks to the open network of the Playstation 3 system, Unreal Tournament 3 will also be the first game to feature robust user generated content including multiplayer maps, custom game modes and much more. Developed by North Carolina-based, Epic Games, Unreal Tournament 3 is scheduled to be available in November.

The technology behind Unreal Tournament 3, Epic’s world class Unreal Engine 3 will be fully optimized for the Playstation 3 system allowing game developers to take full advantage of the power and creativity that the engine offers.

“Midway is extremely excited to release Unreal Tournament 3 on the Playstation 3 system and PC,” said Steve Allison, chief marketing officer, Midway. “We expect Unreal Tournament 3 to set the bar for what a first-person shooter and next generation game can truly be.”

“We feel very confident that Unreal Tournament 3 will continue to deliver on Epic’s promise to gamers to develop only the highest quality titles using our cutting-edge Unreal Engine 3 technology,” said Mark Rein, vice president and co-founder, Epic Games. “The game takes full advantage of the power of the Playstation 3 system, and Unreal Tournament 3 will for the first time allow users to create robust user created content, known as “mods”, on the PC version and play them on the Playstation 3 system. We’re extremely excited about this and we feel this will bring a level of creativity, innovation and replayability not previously seen on home consoles.”

“We expect Unreal Tournament 3 to be one of the most innovative and defining titles of this next generation,” said Jack Tretton, president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment America. “We are extremely pleased that gamers will only be able to experience Unreal Tournament 3 on the Playstation 3 system later this year.”

E3 2007: Nintendo’s New Wii Fit to reduce your weight

Nintendo just announced at the Nintendo Press Conference at E3 2007 the new Wii Fit. It was their last and biggest game to be shown in the conference, which mostly described Nintendo’s upcoming games and their impact on public life with the innovative and fun gaming consoles, the DS and the Wii.

Wii Fit takes a hint from Wii Sports and is a full-fledged fitness instructor. Including a variety of different mini-games, Wii Fit aims at turning your Wii into a gym. The various exercises featured include push-ups, aerobics, yoga, dance and several fun games like headbutting Materazzi footballs that come shooting at you – the goalkeeper.

All this is achieved with the help of a new pressure platform, which can judge your BMI, the shift between your center of gravity as well as several other things. This will also judge whether you should improve your posture and so on.

The game will keep track of you and your family’s progress, which means that you can compete with other members of your family to see who loses weight faster (which is very good for you, yes you, fatty). Also, since the platform in question is completely wireless, you can put it anywhere in the room you like.

And who better to demonstrate it other than every geek’s hero, Shigeru Miyamoto! The big daddy himself competed (and lost) in his game, which was fun to watch. Still, I would find it ridiculous to move my body around and headbutt the air on a pressure platform.

Currently, no release date has been supplied. It may come anywhere from the end of 2007, to the middle of 2008. Of course, Nintendo will not hesitate to tell us – once all the fanboys have stopped squabbling.

First glimpses of wireless guitars for Guitar Hero 3 (all platforms!)

Guitar Hero Wii

Today, Activision announced their new partnership with Gibson Guitar Corp., the worlds leading musical instrument manufacturer and leader in musical technology. With this new agreement in hand, Activision will be featuring some of Gibson’s best guitars in the upcoming Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Fans can expect more than 20 classic and modern Gibson Guitars as well 80 finishes to use! And hell yeah – fans will be doing it all with their new wireless Gibson Guitar controllers.

The game will allow you unlock the following “battle axes” in-game:

Gibson:

  • ES-335
  • Explorer
  • Firebird
  • SG
  • Les Paul
  • V-Factor
  • Super CES400
  • Marauder
  • Corvus

Epiphone:

  • Casino
  • Coronet
  • Sheraton

Kramer:

  • 650
  • Vanguard

Bass Guitars:>

  • Marauder
  • Corvus
  • Les Paul
  • LP Double Cutaway
  • EDS 1275
  • ES335
  • Firebird
  • Flying V
  • Moderne
  • SG
  • X-Plorer

These wireless controllers will be available for all consoles. The Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii versions of the controllers will be using Gibson’s Les Paul model, while the PS2 version will see the classic Kramer.

The exclusive Gibson guitars will include innovative features such as removable faceplates that will allow fans to personalize their guitars, and a new button color design will be integrated for an even greater authentic feel and rock experience.

As you can see, Guitar Hero fans are going to have a field day.

Read on to find out what the guys Gibson Guitar and RedOctane said, as well as to find plenty of photos of the new wireless controllers (the one above is for the Wii, if you didn’t guess).

Continue reading “First glimpses of wireless guitars for Guitar Hero 3 (all platforms!)”