Oscar Winner Nearly Part Of Heavy Rain

Heavy Rain recently won three BAFTA awards for Original Music, Story and Technical Innovation, and won general acclaim for its mature story and cinematic flair. While the group of lesser known actors did a great job of carrying the story, there were options for better known actors.

“I’m interested in doing that if these people respect the medium, and come with a will of using their full talent and skills – not just to get some cash. With David Bowie [for Omikron: The Nomad Soul], he was fascinated by the medium, the game and the experience from a creative point of view, said David Cage, Heavy Rain Director. “There were some business things involved, of course, but that was not his motivation. He invested a lot of time, gave us ten original songs, voice-overs, motion capture and more. He had a real respect for what we wanted to achieve.”

“That level of respect is very difficult to find these days,” he added. “When you go to famous people, their first reaction is: ‘Give me one million dollars and I’m going to think about it.’ That’s not my approach. It’s not even a financial issue. At the end of the day, you may say: ‘Okay, one million, fine, he’s so talented he’s worth it.’ But if these people don’t understand what you’re trying to achieve, if they’re not interested in the creative adventure, there is no respect. If we’re talking about actors, I prefer to work with younger guys who are committed to working hard. They want to experience to succeed because they are at another stage in their career, rather than having an old famous actor who doesn’t care about anything but money.”

When pressed, Cage did admit to trying to bring on someone who had won an Oscar. “There were some discussions with big names on Heavy Rain, and it didn’t work out, said Cage. Again, that was not for financial reasons – but for the reasons I explain. At some point, we got the feeling that we didn’t get what we wanted in terms of commitment and talent. We decided to stop the process and it was not an easy decision, because when you have incredibly famous with established talent, it’s someone that every [customer] would recognize.”

“But at the same time, if he gives you just a tiny part of his talent, that is below your expectations it’s never easy to say: ‘Look. I don’t think this is working.’ He can say: ‘Who are you to tell me this ‘ But then I can say: ‘Well I’m the director of this game, and you should respect the director of a game the same way you respect the director of a movie.’ If that’s not the case, it’s just not going to work, he said.

Source: CVG

Valve Talks Half-Life Movie

There have been some interesting fan takes on a Half-Life movie, but nothing has ever materialized from Hollywood. Speaking during a recent Steamcast, Valve CEO Gabe Newell said that he was open to the idea, but it would have to be based on an interesting idea.

“Certainly it’s something we’ve talked about a bunch, said Newell. The problem that we have is the same problem we have when we were having this conversations with people outside is we need to have an interesting movie in mind before we commit to it. There’s really so little value to making a bad movie about anything.

“I know it’s super exciting if somebody shows up and says: ‘Hey we want to option your movie and we’ve got a director and a writer attached to it, blah blah blah,’ he continues. it sounds really exciting, and then you sort of take a step back and say: ‘There has been a lot of really bad, bad, bad video game movies made and the world doesn’t need another one.’ I think that applying that test to anything we do is just as valuable as applying the test to any of the proposals that we ever say.”

 

Hitman 5 Teased In ARG

There’s a full Hitman ARG going on right now, started by a catalog at the Sundance Film Festival with a picture of box of doughnuts featuring a barcode ending in 47, and a branding of “Hitman Series.” When the advertiser was inquired, what was sent was more paperwork, another barcode, and Agent 47’s black gloves.

What else could it be

An IO Interactive community manager is teasing what all this might mean, but nothing has been confirmed at this point. It’s widely believe the Hitman game will be revealed at E3 2011.

Source: OXM

Rango Movie Website Update

The official website for the Paramount 3D animated film and video game Rango has been updated so users can explore the Old West town of Dirt. Users can explore the rich media Flash based experience built from in-game models and assets and interact with its curious cast of desert animal characters. Visit the General Store to find out about the video game, read a review and access retail buy now links. Filled with mini-games and Easter eggs, hidden wallpaper pictures and avatar items can be found throughout the town. A grid of 10 squares along the bottom of the main window helps the user check off the major Easter eggs found during their visit to Dirt.

 

THQ Wants More Flexibility In Business Models For Consoles

THQ is looking towards a new business model with MX vs ATV Alive, releasing the game for cheaper than typical retail prices and adding onto it with DLC, both free and paid. THQ CEO Brian Farrell wants Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft to encourage these new business models more.

We ve had robust discussions with all the first parties, and I think everyone knows that the business is going to evolve over time. Let s all be innovative and flexible and move forward in a positive way to figure out what our consumers want, said Farrell. We ve seen the emergence of the free-to-play model where people will pay for the experience they want. We are applying that to the console business.

Source: MCV

Cueler YouTube

Install Cueler on your Facebook page and every time a video is uploaded to YouTube, it will be published along with a standard or customized message to the Facebook news feed. Videos can be added from a YouTube URL through the channel or a specific playlist. Cueler creates a YouTube Videos tab with a banner video that can be customized as the centerpiece of the tab. Users can also be required to Like the page before they are able to watch videos.

3DS Sets Pre-Order Records In U.K.

Nintendo U.K. has announced that the 3DS is the most pre-ordered game system ever on Amazon.co.uk, being both better than 50 percent higher than the Wii and 20 percent greater than the PS3, which was the record holder on the site. Games like Pilot Wings Resort, Super Monkey Ball 3D, and Super Street Fighter IV 3DS are also featured in the top sellers for software.

It s unusual for a handheld console to attract this amount of excitement in the run up to launch, such high levels of interest are normally reserved for the play-at-home hardware like the ground-breaking Nintendo Wii and last year s Microsoft Kinect , said Chris Poad, Director of Video Games at Amazon.co.uk Ltd. Nintendo 3DS is launching at a time when interest in all things 3D is incredibly high and with the promise of real 3D graphics without glasses, it s a real breakthrough in handheld video game entertainment.

Doddle Jump Hops To Kinect

Lima Sky has announced that Doodle Jump has reached the 10 million paid download mark since its release in March 2009. The simultaneously announced that they will bring the game to Xbox Live Arcade for play with the Kinect.

After such incredible first two years, it is safe to say Doodle Jump has exceeded even our wildest imaginations, said Lima Sky founder Igor Pusenjak. We are looking forward to bringing even more amazing content to millions of Doodle Jump fans around the world.

Be Like Katamari, Destroy The Internet

Head over to the official website for Katamari Hack and grab the bookmarklet to turn any webpage into a game of Katamari Damacy! Control the magnetic sphere of death and pick up bits of text and images as it rolls around the screen. Hold Down Right-Click to control the ball.  Change the color of the ball to any color you like!