Are Video Game Movie Adaptions Going Too Far?

There have been a number of movie adaptions from video games over the years. Two come to mind quickly, the Resident Evil Trilogy and the infamous Super Mario Bros. Movie. But lately there seems to be a lot of movies in production.

A couple years ago there was a rumored Halo movie in production but because of disputes between the director and the movie company, that never happened. Last week it was announced that a anime-ish style of Halo was in production, being directed by the same person who was apart of Ghost In A Shell, and a trailer of the upcoming adaption to prove it. Then there is the announcement that the Bioshock movie got put on hold, possible due to funding. Remember Astroids, that arcade game in which you have a 5 pixel ship shooting 10 pixel amoeba-looking things that break when you hit them? Well thats a getting a movie deal, too. Don't ask me how, that is beyond me because it seems like everyone wants a quick buck these days.

I personal think the only video game series that should get a movie deal is the Half-life series because it has a great story, great cast of characters, and some intense scenes. Even though I think it's the only one that should get a movie, I don't want it to happen because video games or a more interactive than movies and making something interactive to something you watch is taking it a step down. Plus I pride myself knowing a video game with more depth in the storyline and action than most movies have had in decades.

But I honestly don't know whats worse, movies being made from video games or video games being made from movies. I think everyone can agree that every Harry Potter video game has less excitement than a fat kid sitting on a couch sleeping with a bag of potato chips just resting on his chest.

Not to mention every video game that has come from a movie that wasn't even filled with action or a decent story line. I think the really problem is that video games have a larger cast of characters and more depth and dimensions than a movie and making a video game from them either becomes a pile of boring crap or to much work to fill in the gaps. Now the Matrix had it right. They created a video game, Enter The Matrix, that actually took place before, during, and after the Matrix Reloaded (the second one in the series). What made it more interesting is that the game followed characters who were less important in the movie but still entered at the right moment and playing through the game allowed you to see how they got at the spot just in time. The reason I'm covering video game adaptions from movies is because of the unbelievable news of the Twilight MMORPG. And if you don't believe me, click here. Not only is this probably the worst adaptions I have ever seen, but I think it's the wrong adaption. The people I know that love Twilight are either too young to even understand what a MMORPG is or they only use a computer to check email and Facebook. Although, there will be those exception I think the target audience won't find this as enjoyable as the developers will want it to be.

Netflix On Other Systems

According to a Gamespot article, Netflix has hired a new person for the title of “Head of Gaming Platforms.” John Judge, the newly hired, was offered a job by Netflix and it is assumed he will be leading the project of getting Netflix onto the remaining two consoles. Based on his background, as being the co-founder of a company that went on to help develop the Wii Motion Plus and the Sony Motion Controller, Netflix wants him for his background.

But does Netflix really need to be on the other two platforms? It doesn't seem that there are enough people that own a PS3 that it would be worth at this point in time and the internet on the Wii is spotty at best. Not to mention that the type of person that spends most of there time in the front of the TV with all their media ready at hand is usual the XBOX 360. Although the PS3 has more media capabilities than the other two, people that own the PS3 don't seem the type to be spending all day in front of it.

New Ratchet and Clank Weapon

While I never have played the Ratchet and Clank series for very long, (when I still mean to mind you), I have always been infatuated by the amount of ridiculous weaponry the guys at Insomniac have been able to cough up for the popular platforming franchise.

Insomniac at Comic Con felt that it was necessary to reveal one of the new weapons for their upcoming title, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time..

Is the Wii Losing This Generation?

Chances are, you have played a Wii. Many people have played a Wii, many own one. That's exactly what Nintendo wants. The entire point of making the Wii was to get people who weren't interested in gaming, interested. And all although they made a lot money from this, it will be their downfall is they make changes.

The Wii was aimed at casual gamers, people who didn't play games a lot or ever. And while people bought Wii's and loved them, it still remains the fact that they are casual gamers. They don't play games a lot and this is what plagues the Wii. The most sold game for the Wii is WiiSports. The second is WiiPlay. Do you know why? WiiSports comes with the system and WiiPlay comes with a Wii Remote while also coming with nine mini-games in the same WiiSports style. Most people that own a Wii that are casual gamers won't get old of these games and won't buy anymore games because they don't play often. The Wii maybe the cheapest of the systems but it won't keep these casual gamers buying games week after week and the lack of quality games doesn't help Nintendo.

The End of Music Games?

An article on Slashdot talks about how the music genre is on the decline. There are no music games in the top 20 sold games in the past two months. Also revenue for these games are down almost 50%.

I think the reason for this that the market was quickly saturated plus the quick start with the songs available. With so many songs available from the beginning, people were able to buy a lot of the songs they wanted to really quickly. With the amounts of songs available and the length of time these types of games have been, it's no wonder that the market is saturated and profits are dipping. There will always be that following of people who love these games, but with the lack of innovation on the developers parts, these games seem to have hit their high point and probably won't see anymore major growth.

Possible Change in Valve's Business model Not Too Far in the Future?





Gabe Newall, Valve Founder, speaks about his past and how Valve became to be in this interview, but that's not all. Specifically towards the end of the interview he speaks about the development of games. He see's a future where the community/gamers pay the developers to make a game rather than just the publishers. This would mean if you like the idea/development of a game you would have the option of spending maybe like 30 bucks and "part" of the game is kinda yours in a sense. It's an interesting marketing theory and with the success with Valve's Steam and it's steady release of Indie games that you never have heard of, it doesn't seem to far fetched for Valve to attempt to try this business model. There are millions of gamers out there. All with their specific likes and taste, and the idea of feeding those likes and taste with "development money" just seems like a Win Win situation.

Is Violence Required

A story running over at CNET is asking the question "Is Violence Required to Make a Good Video Game?" The person interviewed in the article said its not and no one has really tried to it. Also in the article is a link to a list of non-violent video games.

I agree with this article. Set aside puzzle games, like Tetris and Minsweeper, and music games, like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, there aren't many games left let alone popular ones. Off the top of my head I can only think of Katamari and Rhythm Heaven.

Now some might be thinking about the Mario series, but then you have to take in question what violence is. If violence is only when blood shows, they Mario, Zelda, and a handful of other games are non-violent. But if it's any act that involves inflicting damage, then if include a lot more including Wii Sports for the Boxing aspect of it.

What do you think should be considered non-violent? Is violence nessecary for a good game?Send us an email at college.gamers.blog@gmail.com.

Brutal Legend

This is not a game review of any kind, it is merely me raving about this game.

How many games do you know that have celebrities as voice actors, well this one has at least three: Jack Black (the main character) Ozzy and Dio. The plot of the story goes something like this; a modern day metalhead is transported to the land of metal where he finds that his guitar has special powers. He must use his guitar along with a special axe he finds to survive in this strange new world. Now this would normally be epic by itself, but with Jack Black as the main character it raises the game to new highs. the visuals are ripped straight from the covers of metal albums, and let me just say are of a quality that far surpasses many other games. This game should draw heavily from the metal crowd, but I think if people actually watch the trailer, they will be wowed as well. This game of course will not be on the Wii, and because that is my console of choice I can only stare in amazement at this epic game.

It is set to release on October 13th on the Xbox 360 and the PS3

Play Station May Not Price Drop

Sony has pretty much now stated that there will be no price drop coming this year for the Play Station 3. So those of you who were happy to hear that they were, this doesn't seem like it's going to be a reality this time around.

This in itself has already hurt PS3 sales, and by no price drops, this is going to stay the same most likely. There is still the possibilty of it still happening, but I just wanted to let everyone know that there has been rumors and some verified accounts that Sony said this isn't happening.

Right now, you can buy PS3s for $399 + from direct sellers. The thing, however, is that you also have to take into consideration the GAMES are about $50 bucks each, which makes it difficult for people who want PS3s. A lot of people also just buy PS3s for their multimedia capabilities more than for game play (states someone on the Playstation forums).

Whether the PS3's price drops or not, the ratings still stand that the Play Station 3 is still in 3rd place in these "next gen systems" and they either need to so something drastic (like a price cut) or seriously come out with something worth buying this thing for if they're going to get any decent money out of it.

There is hope with the new PS3 Slim (supposedly coming out very soon, as I stated before) that the prices will drop and there will be new firmware for the system.

Only time will tell.

Scribblenauts is a Little More Disturbing Than We Think

Scribblenauts is a game coming out in September with an interesting twist of originality. It's a puzzle game in which to solve the puzzle or get to a new part of the level, you use the Nintendo DS touch screen to write in a word, and it comes to life in the game. So if you type in "bike", a bike will be created in the level, you character can ride it, and it has all the real life physics we come to know and love. Now many people then thought of the amount of perverted things that could be done with the game, but the developers said they didn't include and curse words or anything selection.

Well that's not the only thing they missed. When the ESRB got their hands on this game to rate it, they found a few weird things which made them give it a "Everyone 10+" or "E10+." The main thing they said was that if you type in two words at the same time, they both appear and have similar properties of each other. THe example they used was they type in "baby" and "steak" and a baby holding a steak appeared. Then they type in lion and a lion appeared, walked over to the baby and steak, and ate both of them. Because of the act of "baby eating," they gave the rating one step above "E."

I understand why they gave the rating what it is, but do they have to make public the fact that you can have lions eat babies to the public? If this game is meant for everyone, then you have to be really screwed up in the head to even think about having a lion eat a steak baby, not to mention the fact that they idea of entering two items at once wasn't even made public in the first place. With people knowing you can entering two items at once with this outcome, this can lead to worse discoveries but we will have to wait to find out the rest of these.

iPhone Games Hits 13,000

It's no mystery that the iPhone and iPod Touch Apps Store has exploded with games, something Apple didn't anticipate. But exactly how many are there? Most analysts believe there are over 13,000 games and one look on the App Store will not change your mind. It was also estimated that there were only 6,000 last March. That means there was over 7,000 gaming apps submitted within 3-4 months, and with the App Store just turning 1 year now, that means a lot of games are sure to come. But is it a good thing that there are this many games available?

One comparison to the amount of games on the iPhone is the same thing that happened on the Wii. The first couple of years, the Wii got a lot of "crap-ware" or games that were made just for a quick buck and had no real quality game play. Few games that were considered "crap-ware" at the time like Cooking Mama and Carnival Games manged to be diamonds in the rough, selling a lot and becoming popular. But the fact still stands that there are a lot of under developed games on the Wii and the same for the iPhone. One reason that I believe the "crap-ware" will stay on the iPhone App Store for a longer period of time is because anyone can download the tools to create an iPhone game, it's very low risk, and it only costs $100 for a year to become a developer. Basically the $100 means you can put as many games as you want on the App Store for a year. Compared to other gaming platforms, $100 a year is nothing. The other problem with the crap-ware on the iPhone is that people can make their game free, which means it doesn't matter if it sells good or bad, they will continue to make games because they aren't interested in money.

What is good is that it's easier to find reviews about the iPhone games than other platform's download content. With the amount of sites that have a special section for only iPhone Games and that iTunes uses the same commenting system on games they do on songs will help people find the better games out there.

People Moving Away from Consoles

ComScore has released gaming numbers of recent months and they are staggering. The first report shows that online gaming is up 22% year over year from May 2008 to May 2009. The other number is that console revenue is down 23%. It's also estimated that for the second quarter of 2009, console game sales, will be down by 20%. Is this a coincidence?

What these numbers say is that people are moving away from consoles to PCs for online gaming. It's no surprise because the online game play and setup on PC is further along than consoles are. The other thing is that many people who own a console also own a computer and more people own a computer than a console. Both give reason as to why the amount of gaming is decreasing on consoles and online play is up. It all has to do with money. People don't want to buy a console if they have a computer to start gaming. The other thing is that Steam has a great selection of games, they have deals on popular games about once a week, and it's online system just works. These number not only show the usability of a PC but how companies have a lot more freedom on PCs when it comes to prices and implimentation with others.

Gundam lands (perfectly) on Japan's Home Central Plaza

With Japan's ultra popular Gundam Franchise turning 30, what better way to celebrate than to build a 1:1 scale replica of one of the originals? Lets just say Japan is very dedicated to this kind of thing.

Apparently it doesn't stop there either, Bandai Namco has to make sure EVERY Japanese citizen is aware that Gundam is turning 30. That's why they also through a giant Gundam in the middle of Japan's Playstation Home. That's right, Japan's central plaza in PS Home now comes with a temporary giant Gundam model that just stands their looking pretty while it gives fanboys boners from the comfort of their own homes.

Having a Gundam fetish, a Japanese PSN account and access to Japans Playstation Home, I visited Japans Home and fell into awe. While the only interaction with the Gundam is standing next to it, dancing next to it, and running around/under it, you can also access a camera mode that allows you to move it around the Gundam. The camera allows you to get nice and close to look at the super fine details which is really cool because the detail on the model is phenomenal.

If I had to complain about something it's probably the lack of a picture taking option. While this is usually the last thing you would think Home needs, for something as cool as a limited time giant robot, you would think being able to take pictures would be an option. While personally I would rather see a real 1:1 Gundam in Japan or maybe even a functional Gundam's I can settle with this Home version. I definitely recommend checking it out if you can, it's just really cool!

Game review: MadWorld

Madworld....let me first start this by saying that it is fun to a point. That point ends as soon as you pass the first few hours and the mass of bloodshed that you once found extremely entertaining becomes bland. There is is at least enough in this game to keep you interested, the commentators bring in a kind of fun chatter to this bloodbath

The story is a little uninspiring, something I'm sure can be thought up with not too much planning. The masses of bloodshed in this game are quite enough for any kid in their early teens, and this game is so ridiculous that it seems as if it is aimed toward that audience with the exception that it is a mature title. I don't know too many people over 18 that would get extremely excited over this and I am not one of them

The black and white style used in this game was a nice touch and contributes a nice contrast with all the blood spurting out of the enemies. Speaking of enemies there is no challenge there except for the occasional bigger baddie that they throw at you and of course the bosses which take a surprising amount of skill to defeat 

The gameplay is interesting, and i suppose there is something therapeutic about ripping people apart with chainsaws and whatnot. And finding new ways to kill enemies is fun, but the gameplay does not have staying power. You may find yourself getting bored and just using the chainsaw or the same exact tire sign spike combo that you are shown at the beginning of the game

Overall this is an ok game, far from the blockbuster "mature" game for the wii. I believe it is worth a try, but by no means is it worth the full asking price

Before Judging Left 4 Dead 2...

Before Judging Left 4 Dead 2...



Valve has been saying not to judge their new upcoming game Left 4 Dead 2, planned to release this November, until they've "put all their cards on the table".

Reading the interview posted on Strategy Informer, Valve is stating that with this new release, players will not need to "abandon" the original Left 4 Dead. The game itself will exist as a "second chapter" of the original, so that both will be able to be intertwined.

With all the releases so far about the game of Left 4 Dead 2, the newest one was the release of one of the new weapons, "the cricket bat". With promise of new special zombies, new weapons, and new characters seems to have gotten a lot off people who are faithful to the original Left 4 Dead all up and at it, but Valve continues to leak new information about the game, which quite frankly, I'd be willing to try to play it.



If Valve can successfully create Left 4 Dead 2 to be played in sync with the first Left 4 Dead, and without much complications and glitches, I think it will be a good addition to the game. I mean as much as you can play Left 4 Dead, new ingredients to the mix is never bad.

Valve also states that even though that the new L4D is coming out, they will not be neglecting updates and such on the original.

However, Valve also brought up how they would integrate them into consoles, and state that L4D will not be available for the PS3 and will remain on the XBox360 because of the complications with putting it on the system, as they have gone on record stating.

I guess it's just down to, can you survive the next Zombie Apocalypse?

Graphics on the Wii

This one really isn't a story, but what a Wii would look like in HD. Someone created a Wii emulator on a PC which can run Wii software a lot faster. This image was Mario Galaxy run through an emulator but was upscaled to 720p. Now the article this comes from clearly states that the Wii can't support HD video but it's just amazing to look at how well Wii Games can look at this resolution.

Story: http://gizmodo.com/5308444/the-wii-is-gorgeous-in-high-definition

Pirate Bay Goes Legit

The Pirate Bay has been known for the go to place for illegal content. After 4 of the 7 founder members got sued and throw in jail, the Pirate Bay has been bought by a Swedish business company Global Gaming Factory X. Their plans for the Pirate bay are to make it a legal, downloading service in which you pay for the content. It is unsure as of now weather you pay by download or for a months worth of service. With the money, Factory X says they will give a portion of it to gaming companies.

The idea of paying for something that use to be free does not sit well with anyone. What most companies don't understand is that there a lot of people who download files just for the sake of downloading and don't actually use the content. Having to pay for this service is something that the people who used the Pirate Bay before won't go for because they are used to getting the content for free. The Pirate Bay was only a portal to downloading illegal content. There are other ways people will get illegal content and getting rid of the Pirate Bay won't help with piracy rates.

Ads on the XBOX360

With Microsoft constantly updating the XBOX360 Interface, it’s only a matter of time before people want to get in on that action. Well the time is come. Microsoft has announced that there will be advertisements on Dashboard soon. The Dashboard is the interface that you use to access everything on your system like games, downloads, the marketplace, and your data.

Although Microsoft has said that the ads won’t be in the way, the idea of ads being on a paid service is annoying. For the ads to update, you need to be online. Most people that are online have the gold subscription that costs $50. If they allow ads, then this price should be significantly reduced or have the gold membership be free. Looking at the picture, that ad looks very annoying especially at how big it is. With marketing like that, the Gold Membership better be free.

Starcraft 2 Has no LAN

With the anticipation of Starcraft 2 for the past year or so, people have been bugging Blizzard about what will be in the game and what wont be. To the disappointment and shock of most, Blizzard has recently confirmed that there will be on LAN (Local Area Network) play. What LAN play allows you to do is play a friend who is on a computer that is on the same router as you without going out on the internet. The reason why LAN was so popular back when Starcraft, the original, was out is because the internet was slow so getting together to play over a network was a more appealing choice.

Although people are annoyed that there is no LAN play, they probably won’t care about it that much once people start playing. The internet is fast enough now that playing over the internet won’t give gameplay that much lag. But even if people want to still get together, they can. Its not like you can play each other on one computer. Each player still needs a copy of the game and their own computer. Although the lack of of LAN disappoints most, I think that it won’t bother many people once they get their hands on it.

Monster Hunter Unite:Quick Review

Capcom's Monster Hunter series is a monster of itself in Japan. With release of Monster Hunter 2ndG in Japan (basically an expansion of the 2nd PSP title) the game sold more PSP's and the game sold 1.5 million copies last year in March with a BIG number for a PSP game let alone any game. It has become a phenomenon to the Japanese culture.

Now with the game fully translated and in stores in the US and across Europe, Capcom is trying very hard to get obtain the same influence through advertisements and demos. The first two PSP Monster Hunters were direct ports of the PS2 versions that came out years ago but with some added content. The games sold slightly decent in America but that Monster fever did not exist, which hunt the game in itself.

Monster Hunter Unite (and the ones before it) premise is simple. Hunt monsters, carve them, build weapons/ armor and repeat. The formula is extremely addictive and works best with other people. One pull into the game is that experience points and levels do not exist in this game. Rather than tedious quests that you find in typical MMO's that mean nothing to you; you get quests that have concrete purpose which is to go out in the field and kill monster's so you can carve them. It makes the game feel more engaging and no quest really feels like a waste of time (unless you have a high caliber armor and weapon and you are hunting little raptors that once gave you trouble.(at that point it just feels satisfying to kill them))

Monster Hunter Unite is an adhoc multilayer game before a single player game which is good because this game relies on teamwork. The most satisfying thing is hunting a giant monster with 3 other friends and take it down together before it takes you out. This is probably the strongest point about this game. Everyone plays a part. You have to rely on each other for help and coordinate with each other to take out monsters. It is extremely satisfying when you complete a hard mission and go to carve your prey.

The graphics in this game are absolutely stunning. The environment feels real and never gets old to look at, the character models, weapons and armor are simply astounding in their design, and lastly the monsters are distinct, diverse and simply awesome to look at as you run away from them.


If your new to Monster Hunter, choosing the weapon(s) that is right for you is no easy task. Every type of weapon in the game is diverse and all have their strengths and weaknesses. For example, my Long Sword trades defense for a long reach, power, and a special power up boost when I fill up a bar. Where the Lance trades speed, and wide attacks for a powerful defensive position, piercing damage and a charge move. The player can also change what type of weapon to wield (between missions) which is useful for certain monsters where a particular weapon would be useless or would bring disadvantages to the user. Armor also plays a role in the type of weapon you weild, if you want to use a melee weapon then you buy “Blademaster” armor. If you want to use a \projectile weapons you can only use “Gunner” armor. The differnce between Blademaster and Gunner armor is that Blademaster obviously has more defense but it's elemental stat buffs tend to be weaker and vise versa for Gunner armor.

Now on the negatives. MH biggest problem is it's learning curve. It is easier for one to get in the game with another person, but if your new and by yourself climbing the learning curve is not easy. While this is mainly because people don't go THROUGH the entire TUTORIAL which is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!! Because the game doesn't push you to complete it all if your new, it can leave players with the “what am I suppose to do? How do I do this?” feeling which can instantly turn off a person from a game. Next is the controls. While to a veteran like myself, they are fine to new players it's a learning curve of itself, While the camera is simple to fix to get behind you sometimes you need to have different angles which is difficult if your on the move because to manually move the camera around you need to use the D-pad. While it is manageable to say the least it can also turn off a new player. Lastly the biggest problem. The singleplayer. While the multiplayer is near flawless, the singleplayer suffers because the game is built for multiplayer and going on a Kut-Ku quest for the first time by yourself is damn scary and difficult. In this PSP version they have added a Cat ally to help you fight but, its still not a replacement for a living human to communicate with. While it too is manageable it is by no means the “way to play.”

My final thoughts is that if your a veteran to the series you will love it, if your new you will either love the game or hate it. My recommendation for new players is to try to find other people to play with. If that fails I feel that its still worth a buy because as long as you climb the curve you will be fine and it becomes loads of fun.

Sony PS3 Rumored to Change


Now, a lot of people know that Sony's Playstation 3 was the least selling of the three next generation systems, mainly because of its high expensive costs. From the get-go, this system could effectively run Playstation 2 games, which required a PS2 chip to be placed inside the PS3, which made it able to read PS2 discs; however, this also increased the price greatly.

Now, SUPPOSEDLY, there is to be another fully backwards compatible PS3 in the makings. Since the system's cutbacks on PS2 compatability in recent models, not as many people are buying them as well. Part of the reason they did do this was because of the increased cost by creating the emulation and to fix any emulation problems with the number of PS2 discs that could not be played.



Sony Corporations is in also rumored to be in production of a PS3 Slim that will hopefully hitting the market relatively soon, most places are saying July or August. The actual PRICE of the PS3 is supposed to be knocked down in August, so the bringing up of this product would make some sense if it does actually happen.


(Note: Someone MADE this picture... It's not the real thing)


(Supposed picture of this product)

Now, regardless what Sony actually does with the PS3 is becoming a mystery all in itself. Personally, as much as a Playstation 3 Slim would make it easier for transport, I'm not quite sure how exactly performance wise that would run. It also would probably have VERY limited space for much of anything. The pictures I've seen of this "product" looks like it's going to be about half the size of the Playstation 3 now. Where did all those other important parts go??

Backwards compatability SOUNDS awesome in theory and I wish they did NOT get rid of it in the first place, but unless they fixed the bugs, I don't think they should bring it back out. Plus, if their emulation software from this PS2 chip increased the price, they better have made it so that it'd keep the price down this time or they'll have the same problems they did when it first came out. The 60GB PS3 that first came out works wonders, and if they had just continued to make it like that and were able to fix the issues and cost issues, they will easily be able to sell more of these.