The motion of Ubisoft

Video game adaptations are generally mediocre at best but Ubisoft have been one of the most successful with last year’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time even though it was considered a flop by movie goers. Grossing around $330 million, producer Jerry Bruckheimer hypothesised Jake Gyllenhaal’s portrayal of a moody Prince would become the next Pirates of the Caribbean. It didn’t. But Ubisoft are confident one of their IPs will make it big on the silver screen and have created a division in France focusing on film and television projects (via Gamesindustry.biz).

Before the horror of Uwe Boll’s Far Cry comes crashing back into our thoughts, the division will have some creditable names attached to it. Former ceo of EuropaCorp, Jean-Julien Baronnet will head up the team joined by Gainsbourg co-producer Didier Lupfer and ex Walt Disney employee Jean de Rivieres. But with all the names in the world it doesn’t stop the preconception that video games movies just aren’t that great.

How can this be changed? By referencing the current Mortal Kombat live-action webisodes. They don’t only capture the spirit of Ed Boon’s fighter but are also really quite good. Other shorts like the Alan Wake prequels and Felicia Day’s The Guild prove that live-action video game shows can work. The big difference is length. Those mentioned are all well under half an hour, some less than ten minutes each. Movies on the other hand don’t work in the same way with the ill-fated idea that action is more important than story. Such a concept is better suited for games based on movies not movies based on games.

No projects have been announced as of yet though one thought is a continuation of the Assassin’s Creed II promotional series, Lineage, by Hybride Technologies, a Canadian special effects house who previously contributed to Sin City and 300. Ubisoft acquired the studio over two years ago putting them to work on Lineage and will probably realign them to be part of this new motion picture division.

If Ubisoft stick to shorter more focused films that draw of the lore of its games, the commitment to live-action projects in this way could be a smart move for the publisher. But if their reasonings revolve around the ease of pumping out more average video game adaptations, hoping to be something they’re not, then things are likely to become a lot more risky. What we ultimately need is more Scott Pilgrims, an awesome movie taking cues from games rather than trying to replicate them. The of course we need people to actually watch them because even something as good a Scott Pilgrim struggled at the box office.

Immoral kombat

As gamers are eagerly queuing in lines for, opening their parcels of, or awaiting the end of work to play the latest Mortal Kombat, series creator Ed Boon harkens back to the early nighties when the original game first appeared and became the centre of much controversy. The reason was simple, it was gory as hell for the time period with lashings of blood shooting from characters as they were struck and, of course, the now infamous Fatalities. After Mortal Kombat, many a fighting game matches were ended with some over the top death move but Ed Boon’s was the first to include them and without a rating system in place, Mortal Kombat felt the full force of angry politicians. Yep, they interfered just as much back then as they do now.

Nintendo, the family system, chose to censor all of the gore for the SNES release replacing blood with odd puffs of grey and neutering the Fatalities of certain characters. “People were objecting to the fact that a game that was as violent as it is, did not have a rating,” said Boon (via Eurogamer) adding “I agree with that idea. The rating system is great. The censorship with the SNES version was a response to that. Nintendo felt like they had an obligation to not offer something like this to a system that’s played by many young players.” Sega however seemingly felt differently opting not to exclude any content, resulting in my Mega Drive owning friends to gloat while I was stuck with seeing thing like Kano punch into the opponent’s chest but forgetting to pull out their heart. Thankfully, before the second game came out, a ratings board was in place so Nintendo felt happy with leaving in all the nasties because it was clear that it was designed for older gamers. This made Mortal Kombat II one of the games I became obsessed with back in my youth, buying any mag which included information on it and even proudly wearing a T-shirt sporting the MK logo.

At the start of the nighties, fighting games were huge and Capcom’s Street Fighter II was the impetus for Boon to develop Mortal Kombat: “Street Fighter II was getting into its stride. We felt we wanted to do something that was an American-made fighting game with the latest technology, which was digitised graphics at the time. We felt we had something to contribute in that field.” Indeed they did. Not only were the aforementioned Fatalities picked up by nearly every publisher but the digitisation of real people instead of hand-drawn sprites was attempted by other teams too. Most if not all failed leaving the Mortal Kombat franchise to keep its unique look for two more games.

The popularity of Mortal Kombat was a pleasant surprise for Boon: “I don’t think anybody was expecting the level of success the game had. It would be arrogant of me to assume that something was going to perform this well. It was a big surprise to us. We hoped we would reach some level of success and pay for the development of the game. But I would have never have guessed that almost 20 years later we would still be making Mortal Kombat games.” The latest game is technically Mortal Kombat 9 but a few of the titles which preceded it are probably best forgotten as are the spin-offs and TV show. The 1995 film however is still awesome in my eyes. You know, so bad its good? Because the series deviated a little too much from tradition, Boon and the NetherRealm Studios team decided to call the gorgeous-looking new game Mortal Kombat, rebooting the franchise along side the so far brilliant webisode series. So does that mean if it gets a sequel we’ll have another Mortal Kombat II?

L.A More

One man’s bonus is another man’s loss, particularly when it comes to video games. This generation has gone from nurturing the previously blossoming idea of awarding retail loyalty with a small treat to frankly abusing the concept. Warner Bros’ Mortal Kombat isn’t doing wonders with their pre-order campaign, separating the retro finishing moves and attire of the Ninja’s between three different US stores. When a game is based on nostalgic promises, denying players content isn’t the best way to win over the masses.

Last night, the pre-order bonuses were announced for L.A. Noire and again, the audience will be divided by who they choose to purchase the game from. GAME are offering the Naked City case which sees Detective Phelps try and solve the mysterious death of a fashion model and the Badge Pursuit Challenge has you searching the city for 20 badges, earning extra experience points as you do resulting in a suit that provides extra ammo. Amazon has the Broderick Detective Suit to boost fighting power and defence while Play is adding the Slip of the Tongue case, an investigation into a car theft that ends in a huge auto-fraud operation. Lastly, Zavvi has the Sharpshooter Detective Suit and as the name suggests, aids gunfire and aiming.

Giving away suits seems fine, they’re suits and only marginally affect the experience but when whole missions are at stake, things begin to get a little unfair. I know, life isn’t fair and Rockstar are a business doing what a lot of other publishers are guilty of so shouldn’t be singled out but I’ve been so excited for L.A. Noire that missing out on content simply because of my choice of shop is a bummer. Sometimes, pre-order bonuses end up as DLC down the line so it’s possible these will do the same but DLC timings are tricky to get right. Too soon and the allurement to pre-order from certain retailers is gone. Too late and the interest in a game can disappear.

The hope lies on Rockstar’s past and how it’s doubtful that a company like theirs would section off some truly great missions in order to please retailers. The likelihood is that the cases on offer are more of an incentive to buy the game at launch rather than wait for a preowned copy so fairly insignificant to the overall experience. That I find easier to understand. Making games is an incredibly expensive business both financially and mentally so the reward to go to the those who created it not those who re-sell it. Then again, rewards for being an early adopter should be for all who purchase not just the people who go to the right store.

Redemption day

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Most gamers who love a franchise generally play the titles to death and may try their hand at fan art or fiction. Felicia Day however makes online shows like The Guild and coming this summer, Dragon Age: Redemption. While it may be fan generated, DA:R is fully supported by BioWare with Greg Zeschuk praising Day’s commitment to USA Today: “We are really, really excited to work with people like her who have a passion and appreciation for the content and a really good history of quality.”

Appearing on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (via Joystiq), Day chatted about the six-episode series and revealed the debut trailer which shows a lot of running, knife throwing and fighting. Day plays Tallis, a sarcastic elf assassin and does so very well after months of training and of course, playing Dragon Age 2. She may not have divulged any info on how exactly DA:R ties in with the game franchise but for the time being, just the idea that an online promotion such as this is pretty cool. Look at how creative Alan Wake‘s video campaign was with Bright Falls and the public development of Mortal Kombat Rebirth. Something that started as a pitch for a movie turned into a web-series due to its popularity and excitement it created for the upcoming rebooted game.

Mortal webisodes

Before the rebooted Mortal Kombat was announced in June last year, a video surfaced that caused all manner of jubilations among the gaming community. The video was called Mortal Kombat Rebirth and stared Jax, played by Michael Jai White, interviewing a chap named Scorpion with the help of his partner, Sonja Blade aka Jeri Ryan. So the conclusion was jumped to that it was some form of viral, slipped out before either a new game or film announcement but in actual fact, it was no more than a concept video by director Kevin Tancharoen. He wanted to make a modernised MK movie with the dirty semi-realism found in its games so put together a promo for Warner Bros. to mull over since they hold the rights to the franchise.

Now a new game is on the way and scheduled to hit store in April, it appears Warner have taken Tancharoen up on his offer and a 10-part webisode series is in the works, focusing on Jax as he goes about his crime fighting duties. According to early reports (via Bloody Disgusting), Liu Kang, Scorpion, Sub Zero, Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, Durak, Kabal, Kitana and Mileena will be joining Jax in some way or another but oddly no Sonja Blade. Odder still is the concentration in Jax who may come off pretty cool in Tancharoen’s vid, but I wouldn’t consider him a hugely popular character. Maybe that’s exactly what’s needed for a storyline to be more than a series of fanciful vagabonds. Both Scorpion and Sub Zero are somewhat poster boys for the franchise but they’ve hogged the spotlight for long enough that their respective stories are well known to some degree. And cop dramas are wildly popular so adding some supernatural qualities with a supporting cast like this one would potentially gain more interest from those unfamiliar with the game.

There’s no date as to when the webisodes are coming but filming begins next month in Vancouver and it would make sense for them to coincide with Mortal Kombat‘s April release or at least very close to that. Here’s hoping!

Test your might in April with Mortal Kombat

Warner Bros. has announced today (via Joystiq) that the rebooted Mortal Kombat game will be spearing fools and freezing foes in April 2011 and comes in three different forms. Aside from the bonus playable Kratos in every PS3 version of the game, the standard edition is pretty self explanatory but the collector’s, sorry, Kollector’s Edition is where it starts to get interesting. A Sub-Zero and Scorpion figurine to play with and pretend they’re only on your shelf because they look cool, art book and DLC featuring ‘klassic’ costumes and skins for in-game fighters and ones for your avatar too. The limited Tournament Edition will comes with all that plus a portable fight stick, whatever that is. As is the norm with most games, retailer-specific pre-order goodies are another incentive for you to part with your cash early and while any information regarding UK-based stores is yet to be announced, GameStop in the US gets a classic Scorpion skin and his original fatality, Best Buy snags Sub-Zero and his death move and Amazon customers have the pleasure of Reptile’s traditional garb and fatality. It’s not clear whether these are the same as in the Kollector’s Edition or not though I do hope so. Retro clothing and finishers may not add anything to the gameplay but since the whole idea of this reboot is to feed gamers’ hunger for a nostalgic Mortal Kombat experience, so their inclusion is part of the fun. I’m sure they’d come out eventually via DLC though and I perhaps I’m just being greedy.

On a more important note, who, if at all, will be the Xbox 360 exclusive character? Sony and the PS3 has the epitome of teenage angst, God of War‘s Kratos so a retaliatory inclusion of a Microsoft specific character is surely on the cards. But who? Master Chief is the obvious but also awkward choice. Purely because he isn’t a fighter in the traditional sense but favours guns and grenades over fists and feet. How about Marcus Phoenix from Gears of War? Again, more of a gun-toting kinda guy but a better fit with the atypical characters of Mortal Kombat. And his chest-slapping persona would work quite well after a curb-stomping fatality. The other option is to have a third-party character who may not be 360 specific but becomes the platforms representative for one game. Like Spawn in Soul Caliber II on the original Xbox. That or have Alan Wake appear as a result of his dream-world become reality in another realm. I’d quite like to see him use a torch against Scorpion.

Elder Scrolls 5, Mass Effect 3 and a very tired writer

The 2010 Spike Video Game Awards have just finished and here in England it’s really really late. So late that I won’t even begin to pad this article out with fancy words I found in a thesaurus but will simply give you the facts in all their glory. And glorious they are with the announcement of Elder Scrolls V that came with its very own release date too. November 11th 2011. There goes my winter! Mass Effect 3 may no longer have been a surprise but it was still really cool to see it at the show. Read on for all the reveals and titbits at this year’s VGAs as well as a couple of debut trailers too including Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Enjoy, I’m off to bed!

The history of Sub-Zero

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Earlier this year, Scorpion’s reason for entering the Mortal Kombat tournament and why he hates Sub-Zero, were detailed in a comically dramatic video. As the saying goes, there’s always two sides to every story and now it’s Sub-Zero’s turn to spill his guts. Metaphorically that is though such an end to Scorpion probably would raise his spirits. This is the second back story video Waner Bros. has put out prior to next year’s release of a rebooted Mortal Kombat and is just as entertaining as the first with a little bit of gameplay footage and a lot of cheese!

Scorpion’s beef with Sub Zero detailed

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I always thought the embarrassment of being seen in similar clothing is why Mortal Kombat‘s Scorpion had such a problem with Sub Zero. It turns out that there is a hell of a lot more including family slaying and other dishonourable acts. All is revealed in a new trailer from Warner Bros (via Destructoid) promoting next year’s Mortal Kombat game which may lack a number but is still referred to by some as Mortal Kombat 9. The video mixes comic book-style storytelling with CG and has a gravelly-voice narrator for authenticity. I hope the rest of the MK cast get their own backstory trailers too, that would be a nice introduction for newcomers to the franchise.