Articles for June, 2015

Star Wars: Battlefront, Fallout 4 Lead E3 2015 Awards Nominees
The nominees have been announced for the E3 2015 Game Critics Awards, with DICE's shooter Star Wars: Battlefront leading the way with five total nominations, including one for overall Best of Show.Battlefront, due November 17 across console and PC, was...
Filed under: Video Games

No Comments Top
Why There Hasn’t Been a Fallout or Elder Scrolls Movie…Yet

Throughout the years, video game publisher Bethesda has been approached by film studios looking to make Fallout and Elder Scrolls movies. But the Maryland-based company, unlike others in the field, has shot down every proposal to extend its gaming franchises to the big screen.

Now we know why.

Bethesda marketing executive Pete Hines tells GameSpot that the company sees video games as the "best form of entertainment in the world." Retaining the kind of creative control necessary to faithfully adapt Fallout or The Elder Scrolls for the silver screen would be a tall order--it might not even be possible.

"Yeah, for a long time," Hines says after I ask if Bethesda has been approached for Fallout and Elder Scrolls movies. "Generally speaking, we view ourselves as a video game company. We make video games. Movies and TV shows are an entirely different thing."

Hines admitted, however, that Bethesda has a "really good window" into the film and TV markets by way of film icon Jerry Bruckheimer and CBS president Leslie Moonves. They both sit on Bethesda's board of directors, alongside former MGM CEO Harry Sloan and Hollywood legal expert Ernest Dell.

"We have a lot of folks who really know that space really, really well," Hines said.

In fact, their expertise in the areas of film and TV could be exactly the reason why there hasn't been a Fallout or Elder Scrolls movie to date.

"We've gotten a lot of very good advice about, 'There's way more things that can go wrong than can go right with this,'" Hines said about making a video game movie. "The concern is always...do you want the world's view of The Elder Scrolls to be what [director Todd Howard] envisions in Skyrim or do you want it to be some other director who decides to make a movie that looks like Cats?'"

"We think games are the best form of entertainment in the world" -- Hines

Hines said an example of a video game movie done wrong would be 2005's Doom, which starred Karl Urban and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Bethesda had no part in the production of this movie, having acquired Doom developer id Software in 2009.

"You look at the Doom movie, which I've only been able to bring myself to watch part of; well, that's not what I want people thinking of when they see Doom," Hines said. "I want them thinking of what [Doom executive producer Marty Stratton] had up on stage [at E3] and what we want it to look like and feel like."

"We spend so much time and energy having developers make the games represent their brands the way they want," he added.

To then turn that over to someone else, letting go of creative control, could be a disaster, Hines said. Time and again film companies promise total creative control of a project, but, "It has been proven true zero percent of the time," Hines said.

Though Hines may sound pessimistic about the opportunity for a Fallout or Elder Scrolls movie, he stressed that the door is always open, and Bethesda has a "never say never" attitude about it.

"Our energy and focus is on [how] we think games are the best form of entertainment in the world. And we're going to try to keep trying to be the best in that space and not pretend like we're great TV producers and filmmakers," he said.

Bethesda's mentality around video game movies matches up very closely with that of Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive. President Karl Slatoff said back in 2013 that Take-Two has been approached on numerous occasions for a Grand Theft Auto movie, but has never reached an agreement due to quality concerns.

"If you’re going to invest in a movie--you can make a lot of money on movies--but as a licensor, you've got to look at what the success rate is, what the movie has to do for you to generate substantial economics that are worth taking the risk," he said at the time.

Though Bethesda is not currently moving forward with any video game movies, there are more than dozen such projects currently in the works. Sony is making Uncharted and Last of Us movies, Electronic Arts is pushing forward on a Need for Speed sequel, and Ubisoft has six game movies in the pipeline, led by an Assassin's Creed film starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard.

Disclosure: CBS is GameSpot's parent company.

Filed under: Video Games

No Comments Top
Rare Replay’s 10,000 Gamerscore Counts Your Xbox 360 Achievements

Rare Replay, the Xbox One compilation of many of developer Rare's past games, offers players up to 10,000 Gamerscore's worth of achievements. However, there's an important caveat for those obsessed with maximizing their Gamerscore: achievements transfer from the Xbox 360 versions of included games, potentially reducing that 10,000 maximum.

In an interview with Rare Gamer, Rare lead engineer James Thomas was asked about how achievements are handled in the upcoming collection. "So the 360 games are as they currently are on the 360, nothing added or taken away," he explained. "The benefit of this is that you get to use your existing achievements to get a head start in unlocking the bonus content within Rare Replay. … Now some swift maths should then give you a hint as to how much Gamerscore is within the remaining games and it's fair to say we've pushed the boat out on that one and broken normal conventions."

Some may view this as a negative, as re-earning achievements can be part of the fun of playing these games. However, there are other benefits to this arrangement, as Thomas noted that save games stored in the cloud will transfer to the Rare Replay versions of games you've played on 360.

Thomas also had some good news about the version of Conker's Bad Fur Day included with Rare Replay. Rather than offer the Live & Reloaded Xbox remake, which censored numerous parts of the game, Rare Replay offers the original N64 game.

"We did have a good old think about which of the versions we'd prefer to use but as we're trying to tell the story of characters created at Rare we'd prefer to start any tail at the beginning," Thomas said. "We felt that the Xbox version altered a little too much, whereas Banjo and Tooie are both the XBLA versions as we felt that not only did they stick to the original but made them look exceptional at the same time."

This likely means that the game won't offer online multiplayer, though.

Rare Replay was revealed earlier this month at E3 alongside Rare's new game, Sea of Thieves. Replay is due out on August 4 for $30.

Filed under: Video Games

No Comments Top
Who Will be the Next Bachelor? Our Predictions Might Surprise You!
 And the next Bachelor is... We're nearing the end of The Bachelorette, so you know what the means: it's time to really start speculating about who will be ABC's next...
Filed under: TV

No Comments Top
Applehead Factory Announces their Teddy Scares San Diego Comic Con Exclusive for 2015! #SDCC @applhdfctry
Applehead Factory Announces their San Diego Comic Con Exclusive for 2015! Applehead Factory is excited to reveal the details of their Teddy Scares 2015 San Diego Comic Con exclusive! This year, an 8” Edwin Morose Coffin will be made available exclusively at the event. Edwin is back and he is ready to find his soulmate....
Filed under: Toys

No Comments Top
Fire Emblem Amiibo Was First Item Sold on Amazon Mexico
Amazon Mexico officially began selling items in Mexico today, marking the latest branch for the retailer. Instead of domestic goods, movies, or books, however, the first customer bought an Amiibo.The Ike figurine, from the Fire Emblem series, was the v...
Filed under: Video Games

No Comments Top
Splatoon-Inspired Mod Created in Team Fortress 2
It was only a matter of time before fans would make Nintendo's Wii U shooter, Splatoon, appear on other systems via mods. Now, a user-created Team Fortress 2 mod has brought the Splatoon's paint-shooting action to the PC.The Splat Fortress mod, created...
Filed under: Video Games

No Comments Top
DC All Access: Win a DC Comics Prize Pack
DC All Access: Win a DC Comics Prize Pack

The latest DC All Access features your first look at an exclusive scene from Justice League: Gods and Monsters... and another great chance to win.

Filed under: Comics

No Comments Top
Are You Ready for Action Comics’ Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder?
Are You Ready for Action Comics' Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder?
We recently spoke with the two men helping to bring Action Comics to life, writer Greg Pak and artist Aaron Kuder. So why the new costume? Why the exposed identity? Why all the changes to one of our most beloved and longest running heroes? Read on and find out!
Filed under: Comics

No Comments Top
Devilian is Diablo III Meets MMORPG – Gameplay Demo
Devilian is an action RPG with MMORPG elements including PvP, Guilds, mounts and more. Check out this gameplay demo.
Filed under: Video Games

No Comments Top

Back to Top