Author: Rahul Shirke

Star Wars: Force Unleashed Movie Up Next?

Force Unleashed, for all the reviews it got, ended up being a success, with a whopping 1 million unit sales in a mere 5 days. If anything, it goes to show that people still buy Star Wars. While Metacritic gave it a score of around 70 on different platforms, LucasArts seems to be unfazed by the criticism.

So does that warrant a movie version?! After watching (and shaking my head profoundly) at Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie, I can’t help but think how Force Unleashed can possibly be a great movie. Except maybe if the entire movie was about slicing and throwing people with the Force. But since its Star Wars, I doubt if Lucas will approve that.

Force Unleashed already got a comic book adaptation and a bestselling novel, oh and an artbook as lavish as a full-fledged movie. So it would it be surprising if LucasFilms announced out of the blue that they’ve decided to make a movie on Force Unleashed?

Haiden Blackden, project leader and Sith Lord of Force Unleashed says that a movie version would be an “testament to the priorities and sophisticated ideas of his team”. “It’s an incredible time,” he said, “to be telling powerful stories in this fairly young medium.” Well, I don’t know, Blackden, but storywise, I’d watch a Knights of the Old Republic movie first. Hell, I’d watch a Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast movie first.

It’s Official: Brain Age Improves Your Maths Skills

Thought that Nintendo’s Brain Age game was nothing but money-making crap? You’re in the disappointment line, because Scottish scientists have proved that it does indeed improve your mental skills and to be specific, they found that math skills were improved in the study.

The game was given to like half the student body and was incorporated in their daily school routine. Tests were taken at the beginning and end of the study. The results are surprising: the ones who had the game had their scores improved by 50% more than the other group (how this math works we have no idea, we don’t play Brain Age, apparently).

The game doesn’t show any apparent difference in the results between girls and boys, and most notably; between playing the game at school or home. So get your parent-approved DSs while you can, kids! The results also showed an improvement in school attendance. Not surprising: I’d show up on time everyday for school if we had some video game playing time.

So Brain Age is really that educational and brain-improving awesome? It will improve our math scores? What do you think?

Source: BBC

Bungie’s “Keep It Clean” Teaser 2!


Bungie’s viral madness continues. While I just reported the first teaser for Bungie’s mysterious “Keep It Clean” project, another new teaser just went up. Like before, this one takes the form of a transcript. This one seems to affirm that there will be a squad involved in the action, which points it in the direction of a tactical shooter.

It looks a bit sci-fi now, with captains and ships and all. Take a look:

<\\> UNSC OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE
<\\> TAC-OPS LOGISTICS DATABASE [ONI.SEC.PRTCL-1A]

<\ * PRIORITY! * RESOURCE RE-ALLOCATION REQUEST

>> SENT: [DARE.V.500341(S1)]
>> RECEIVED: HEAVY CRUISER “SAY MY NAME” [SMN.ACTUAL]

\ PARTIAL VTT TRANSCRIPT AS FOLOWS…

[SMN.ACTUAL]: “The situation on the ground isn’t my concern.”
[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “I understand, Admiral. But I need –”
[EXPLOSION (4.0098s)]
[SMN.UNKNOWN]:[UNITELLIGIBLE > PANIC(?)]
[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Empty archer pods six through twelve!”
[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Ready the MAC, and come about!”
[SMN.UNKNOWN]:[UNITELLIGIBLE > INSUBORDINATION(?)]
[SMN.ACTUAL]: “It may have passed us, Lieutenant, but it’s still in range.”
[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Come about. And shoot it in the ass.”
[EXPLOSION (2.3482s)]
[STATIC (3.8761s)]
[SMN.UNKNOWN]:[UNITELLIGIBLE > COMPLIANCE(?)]
[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “Admiral, about my squad?”
[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “I’ve forwarded their NCO’s name to your –”
[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Enough, Captain!”
[SMN.ACTUAL]: “If I survive this attack…”
[SMN.ACTUAL]: “I will deploy per my orders from Fleet HQ!”
[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “Sir. I don’t report to Fleet.”
[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “And the men I want? Now they don’t either.”
[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “Please. Read my request.”
[STATIC (2.8179s)]
[EXPLOSION (3.0194s)]
[STATIC (7.4501s)]
[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Didn’t think you S1 types ever left your cave.”
[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “Desperate times…”
[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Alright, Captain. You’ve got your squad.”
[SMN.ACTUAL]: “If I survive the attack.”
[EXPLOSION (2.9016s)]
[SMN.ACTUAL]: “And right now? That’ll take a genuine act of God.”
[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “I’ll see what I can do.”

Analysing this, we get:

  • “HEAVY CRUISER “SAY MY NAME” [SMN.ACTUAL]”: Heavy Cruiser? Will have be a naval ship like in the high seas, or a spaceship?
  • “[SMN.ACTUAL]: “The situation on the ground isn’t my concern.”: Seems to hint that we have a spaceship involved, because if they were on the seas, the word “Land” would have been used.
  • “[DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “Admiral, about my squad?”: There we go, the squad. There’s a bit more squad discussion after that.
  • “[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Didn’t think you S1 types ever left your cave.”: Sort of hints at a special corps of some sort, like the SPARTANs from Halo. Wouldn’t be surprised if the squad ends up having pimped-out armour and special training and stuff.
  • [SMN.ACTUAL]: “If I survive the attack.”
    [EXPLOSION (2.9016s)]
    [SMN.ACTUAL]: “And right now? That’ll take a genuine act of God.”
    [DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “I’ll see what I can do.”
  • In that convo, I think we’re going to get the premise for the opening mission: save that Admiral! And of course, our squad will come in, battling all odds and saving the day.

Bungie’s Upto Something: “Keep It Clean” Teaser

Well, Bungie has been upto something for a while. After their fanciful liberation from big daddy Microsoft, they’ve been upto something. But what? Rumour has it that they’re working on 3 different games, while another says that they’re also working on a Halo game. Bungie did say, however, that they wanted to explore new IPs.

This looks like it. Bungie has released something of a teaser on their site, which looks like a pseudo-ARG-viral-marketing thing. Like always it’s something all serious-looking and dangerous and stuff. The image above says “Keep It Clean” in a rather fractured kind of way. And below is this transcript of mystery:

<\\> UNSC OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE

<\\> CLASSIFIED SIGNALS ARCHIVE [ONI.SEC.PRTCL-1A]

<\ OPENED PER OFFICIAL REQUEST [DARE.V.500341(S1)]

\ SOURCE: URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE A.I. [SUPERINTENDENT]

\ RECIPIENT: PROWLER “TOKYO RULES” [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]
>> NOTATION KEYWORD SEARCH: “EMERGENCY” “DATA” “CORRUPTION”
>> (…) ~ QUERY RUNNING
>> (..)
>> (.)   \ VTT TRANSCRIPT AS FOLOWS…

[SUPERINTENDENT]: “METROPOLITAN EMERGENCY!”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “METROPOLITAN EMERGENCY!”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “METROPOLITAN EMER–!”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “We know. Personnel are en route. Can you–”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “DETOUR! PROCEED WITH CAUTION!”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “–put Kinsler on the line?”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: [UNITELLIGIBLE > DOG GROWLING(?)]
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Sorry, what?”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “BE A HERO! REPORT VIOLATORS!”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Oh, come on… ”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “METROPOLITAN EMER–!”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Listen. We have a report of core data corruption.”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “I need you to upload your–”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “PARDON OUR DUST!”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK!”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER] “–logs for the last twenty-four hours!”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “KEEP IT CLEAN!”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “KEEP IT CLEAN!”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “KEEP IT CLEAN!”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: [UNINTELLIGIBLE > PROFANITY (?)]
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “We’re sending a team, alright?”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Until they arrive, all additional comm needs to route through me.”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Repeat and acknowledge.”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “OBEY POSTED LIMITS!”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “YIELD TO UPHILL TRAFFIC!”
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’…”
[SUPERINTENDENT]: “PLEASE REMAIN CALM!”

\ ~ QUERY COMPLETE

\ ARCHIVE CLOSED \>

I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. If we’re going to look at hints:

  • “Metropolitain Emergency” can probably hint at an urban disaster, of some sort.
  • “We’re sending a team”: a Gears of Wars-style squad or some sort of a tactical team in general?
  • “URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE A.I. [SUPERINTENDENT: An AI, possibly added for humorous effect, but maybe a funny villain like GLaDOS?
  • “RECIPIENT: PROWLER “TOKYO RULES” [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]”: Japanese setting? Is this Metropolis mentioned above Tokyo? Or maybe it’s just a Japanese Comm. Duty Officer?
  • ““YIELD TO UPHILL TRAFFIC!”: I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. But it just has to be a clue.

Whatever this is, I have my eyes on it. All this looks very intriguing. Hell, I’m a sucker for viral marketing!

id’s Rage To Enrage Modders?


id’s long tradition of keeping games mod-friendly and mod-supportive appears to have broken with their revolutionary new game: Rage. Tim Willits from id says that it is impossible to mod Rage even on the PC, but the matter is still under consideration.

While id is as always, supportive of mods, Rage is simply too complex a product to mess around with. The biggest hindrance will be the much-talked-about MegaTexture system. For those not in the know, id’s new idea is to create something of a “super-texture” that the game streams seamlessly, rather than rendering hundreds of different textures on different objects.

The system itself is said to consume heaploads of processing power at id. A large number of computers are working hard to process them in a similar not unlike a CG render farm. And if id is taking that long, it will probably take years on an average computer, I imagine. I don’t even want to know the size of that thing.

Still, Willits doesn’t rule out modding entirely. He does say that it may just be possible for users to create mini-mods that will add to the gameplay, in small chunks of stuff. So full mods and conversions may be out of the question, but we’ll still be able to make smaller mods. Sounds fine by me, I guess. Then again, I’m not a modder.

Harvey Smith of Deus Ex fame working on “Immersive” FPS-RPG

Ask me my favourite video game genre and I’ll tell you it’s the FPS/RPG hybrid. Deus Ex, is of course, my favourite game of all-time, but other notable games in the rare genre are the System Shock games, or Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. But these games, like my second-favourite genre, Adventure games faded into an abyss.

But let’s hope this is set to change. With a Deus Ex 3 already in the works, we have some more optimistic news. Harvey Smith, who partnered Warren Spector to design Deus Ex now has his own studio: Arkane, which he is going to use to create “immersive” FPS titles, in the same vein as Deus Ex. Talking to Gamasutra, he says that Arkane’s focus will be on these immersive titles.

He didn’t release any specifics just yet, but that is as good an announcement as any. Oh, and they’re working on a strategy game for the iPhone, if you are interested in that, for any arcane reason.

Is this finally it? Are FPS/RPG games making a comeback?