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Saddened by the current state of mainstream cinema? Yeah, me too. Crap, isn’t it? Shit ‘parody’ movies, stale, soulless action movies and Twilight. That’s Hollywood at the moment. I miss the days when it was awesome.
Well Golden Globe nominee Billy Bob Thornton has offered up one possible explanation. It’s not a drying up of creative talent. It’s not the money-driven industry’s need to rely on cookie cutter safe bets in an age of spiralling budgets and falling cinema attendance. It’s not even plain old fashioned corporate interference.
No, films are crap because they’re trying to be like video games. And video game narrative is just about men shooting shit up, right? Follow me over the jump, where I’ll take issue with his comments. …
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Billy Bob Thornton loses a few fans.
Actor Billy Bob Thornton has blamed gamers for the sorry state of Hollywood’s current output.
The former Mr Angelina Jolie and Armageddon star told The Telegraph, “We’re living in a time when we’re making – in my humble opinion – the worst movies in history.
“They’re geared toward the videogame-playing generation. And these videogames, which I’m on my son about constantly, these games are people killing for fun, and I think traditionally in movies, there’s always been some kind of lesson in the violent movies.”
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Blades of Steel, Pitfall II, more added.
A new set of retro titles has been added to Xbox Live’s Game Room.
Game Pack 012 offers arcade ice hockey effort Blades Of Steel, top down scroller Trick Trap, classic platformer Pitfall II and the Intellivision’s Vectron, with more incoming.
According to GamerBytes, hackers have discovered the following games are also in the pack and due for release soon.
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Janco Partners’ Mike Hickey bullish on Take-Two, believes next installment in series could sell 16 million copies, generate $750 million.
Take-Two recently announced it was shifting its fiscal year to end on March 31
in order to better put it in line with other major game publishers. Today, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey issued an analyst note, which laid out some predictions for the New York-based publisher. Namely, that it will remain profitable even if the next Grand Theft Auto doesn’t come out during its next fiscal year.Hickey believes that Take-Two’s 2011 fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2011, until March 31, 2012, will feature two major game highlights: Max Payne 3 and L.A. Noire. He thinks those two games will lead a software lineup–which may also include the long-delayed Duke Nukem Forever–that can make the company profitable in a year without a GTA or a Red Dead game.
When GTA V does come out, “likely” in Take-Two’s fiscal 2012 (April 2012-March 2013), Hickey believes it will be yet another blockbuster, selling upward of 16 million copies and generating over $750 million by itself. He predicts that year will also see the release of BioShock Infinite, which he estimates will sell over 4 million copies and $182 million in sales.
One major reason for the high sales expectations is the increased combined PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 installed based in the US, which he believes will be 41 million units by the end of calendar year 2010. That compares to just 14 million in April 2008, when Grand Theft Auto IV originally came out.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“GTA V unlikely until 2012 – Analyst” was posted by Tor Thorsen on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 14:48:11 -0800 -
Janco Partners’ Mike Hickey bullish on Take-Two, believes next installment in series could sell 16 million copies, generate $750 million.
Take-Two recently announced it was shifting its fiscal year to end on March 31
in order to better put it in line with other major game publishers. Today, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey issued an analyst note, which laid out some predictions for the New York-based publisher. Namely, that it will remain profitable even if the next Grand Theft Auto doesn’t come out during its next fiscal year.Hickey believes that Take-Two’s 2011 fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2011, until March 31, 2012, will feature two major game highlights: Max Payne 3 and L.A. Noire. He thinks those two games will lead a software lineup–which may also include the long-delayed Duke Nukem Forever–that can make the company profitable in a year without a GTA or a Red Dead game.
When GTAV does come out, “likely” in Take-Two’s fiscal 2012 (April 2012-March 2013), Hickey believes it will be yet another blockbuster, selling upward of 16 million copies and generating over $750 million by itself. He predicts that year will also see the release of BioShock Infinite, which he estimates will sell over 4 million copies and $182 million in sales.
One major reason for the high sales expectations is the increased combined PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 installed based in the US, which he believes will be 41 million units by the end of calendar year 2010. That compares to just 14 million in April 2008, when Grand Theft Auto IV originally came out.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“GTAV unlikely until 2012 – Analyst” was posted by Tor Thorsen on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 14:48:11 -0800 -
Publishers don’t see “financial reward.”
Ever wondered why there were no PC versions of Brütal Legend or Costume Quest? Developer Double Fine Productions has pointed the finger at risk-averse publishers.
In a newly updated FAQ posted on the developer’s website, founder Tim Schafer explained, “As a developer we do not have final say in the SKU plan for our games. That is the decision of the person investing the money, i.e. the publisher.
“We have much of the technology in place to produce PC versions of all these games, but there is still some more work required to make them shippable and that costs money. So far, our publishers have not elected to fund that work. Not because they hate PC gamers, but because they don’t see enough financial reward.
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Festive edition of iOS phenomenon hinted.
A special Christmas edition of Angry Birds is apparently winging its way to your preferred smartphone device soon.
Pocket Gamer reported that Finnish TV station MTV3’s website published a screenshot of the as yet unannounced title, claiming a December release date.
And so the juggernaut rolls on. There’s a TV tie-in on the way too apparently, as well as a pig-based spin-off, console ports and a new Facebook title.
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COD makes FPS chart breakthrough.
Call of Duty: Black Ops has gone straight in at number one in Media Create’s weekly Japanese sales chart.
Andriasang reports that the subtitled PlayStation 3 edition sold 128,922 copies to go top, three times as many as its nearest rival Nintendo’s DS RPG Super Fossil Fighters.
The Xbox 360 version went in at seven, shifting 30,279 units.
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Plus: online matchmaking update confirmed.
Polyphony Digital head Kazunori Yamauchi has told Eurogamer that he “doesn’t know” if the next Gran Turismo game will release for PlayStation 3 or the next generation of console hardware.
“10 years ago it was easier to predict what would happen three years in the future,” he said in an exclusive interview at the official GT5 launch event in Madrid. “Nowadays no-one knows what happens in the future. In three years, we don’t know what will happen.”
Pressed on whether the game would miss this generation he laughed and shrugged.
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Max Payne star re-collaborating with Fighter director on big-screen version of Uncharted; Pesci, De Niro being courted.
Two years ago, Mark Wahlberg got the chance to play hard-boiled game antihero Max Payne in the movie of the same name (pictured). Given the film’s poor reviews, that honor turned out to be more dubious than not. Now, though, it appears that the Oscar-nominated actor will be getting another chance to portray an iconic game character–Nathan Drake, hero of the Uncharted series.
Speaking with MTV, Wahlberg said he was hoping to film the big-screen adaptation of Naughty Dog’s game this coming summer. The project is being written and directed by David O. Russell, a frequent collaborator of Wahlberg’s. The pair have worked together on such films as the Gulf War action-dramedy Three Kings, the existential comedy I Heart Huckabee’s, and the upcoming boxing drama The Fighter.
“David is writing [the script] now, and David is one of the best writer-directors I’ve ever worked with,” Wahlberg said. “And the idea that he has is just insane. … It’s not going to be the watered-down version, that’s for sure.”
Wahlberg also revealed some potential casting for the Uncharted film which points to a loose adaptation of the game. Russell is apparently writing two roles–that of Drake’s father and uncle–with two specific actors in mind. The former part is apparently being offered to Robert de Niro, with the latter being tailor-made for Joe Pesci. Neither character appears in Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune or its sequel, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
For more on Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, read GameSpot’s full review.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“Mark Wahlberg playing Nathan Drake” was posted by Tor Thorsen on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 11:27:55 -0800
