Posts Tagged: Videogames

News

An Aside | Warner Bros. options OTHERLAND by Tad Williams

By Aidan Moher January 19th, 2012

Otherland by Tad WilliamsVia Variety:

Warner Bros. is heading to “Otherland,” acquiring feature rights to Tad Williams’ sci-fi book series and setting it up with Dan Lin to produce.

Studio has tapped John Scott III to script the film, based on the four books published by DAW-Penguin USA between 1996 and 2001 as “City of Golden Shadow,” “River of Blue Fire,” “Mountain of Black Glass” and “Sea of Silver Light.”

Story for the adaptation is set 100 years in the future and follows a group of unexpected heroes who must escape an assassin and make their way through epic digital worlds to unravel a conspiracy that threatens to destroy humanity.

Seanne Winslow Wehrenfennig at Lin Pictures will serve as co-producer and oversee for Lin Pictures.

Seems like a large project for the big screen. Still, I love the Otherland quartet and am curious to see it translated to the big screen. I wonder if it will be a direct adaptation or a story set in that world. Of course, it being Hollywood, I’ll save my true excitement for the trailer. Too many movies turn into vapour after being optioned.

News

An Aside | I’ve joined the Suvudu team!

By Aidan Moher January 18th, 2012

Suvudu LogoToday is an exciting day for me. Last year, I had the opportunity to write for Tor.com and to maintain two satellite sites for them on Facebook and Twitter. It was a wonderful experience and I met many lovely people as a result. That endeavour has ended, but in its place I am proud to announce and equally exciting adventure: I’ve joined the blogging team at Suvudu, the official Fantasy/Science Fiction/Gaming blog of Random House and Del Rey.

For the most part, I’ll be covering videogames for Suvudu, something I touch on lightly here at A Dribble of Ink, but I’ve been wanting to write about more frequently. I’m grateful for the folks at Suvudu giving me a platform to do so. I already have some great interviews lined up and hope to follow those up with reviews, news, retrospectives on my favourite games and much more. Del Rey works with many of the world’s best videogame publishers and developers, which in turn will give me access to some of the industry’s best minds, a resource I’m eager to tap into. But, fear not, in addition to all the great series that Del Rey is involved with (Mass Effect, Star Wars, The Elder Scrolls, etc…), I’ll be covering a wide range of games in the genre, from Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, to The Last Guardian, Kingdoms of Amalur, XCOM, Metal Gear Solid and more. Anything that interests me or my readers. It’s a wonderful opportunity and I’ll hope that you’ll follow me over there, too.

What does this mean for A Dribble of Ink? Not much. Coverage here won’t change and there will be little crossover in content, except perhaps some posts here and there that I might port over from Suvudu as an archive.

My first article, about the delay of the Star Wars: The Old Republic 1.1 update, can be found HERE.

Videogames

An Aside | First screenshots from new X-COM strategy game, ENEMY UNKNOWN!

By Aidan Moher January 9th, 2012
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Screenshot

When rumblings of a new X-com game first hit the gaming scene a few years ago, fans were understandably excited. The classic SRPG series helped define the genre and is considered one of the greatest and most influential of all time. Fan disappointment was also understandable, then, when it was revealed that the new X-com game was going to be a first-person shooter developed by 2K Marin, a far cry from what fans were used to or wanting. That game, simply titled XCOM, has sat in limbo, restarted and re-imagined several times and caught in development doldrums. A rather ignominious end to the storied franchise.

Enter, Firaxis, the developers of the equally legendary and revered Civilization series. The latest edition of Game Informer revealed XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a strategy game that will be instantly familiar to fans and has quickly surpassed XCOM in terms of importance and fan fervor.
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Feature Article

Article | My Favourite Videogames of 2011

By Aidan Moher January 4th, 2012

Aside from reading, I spend a lot of my downtime playing videogames. I always have, I suspect I always will. Here’s a list of my favourite videogames published this year, a few I missed out on and one that’s so special that I had to include it, even though it came out in 2010.

Honourable Mentions

Ghost Trick: Phantom DetectiveGhost Trick: Phantom Detective, published by Nintendo

It’s stylish and funny, has a labyrinthine storyline that never peters out even as it gets more and more twisty, more and more zany, and the animations are some of the best in the genre despite being on hardware that’s almost seven years old. It does everything right and deserves more attention.

Super Mario 3D LandSuper Mario 3D Land, published by Nintendo

Clever bite-size levels make this the best 3D Mario game since Super Mario 64. What more needs to be said?

Read More »

Videogames

An Aside | First Peek at SUIKODEN: THE WOVEN WEB OF A CENTURY

By Aidan Moher November 30th, 2011

SUIKODEN: THE WOVEN WEB OF A CENTURYVia NeoGAF:

The Centennial Monster…

That monster will appear without fail once every 100 years, devour everything, and continue to multiply… It is a fearsome beast. In order to prepare for the Centennial Monster, the Holy Ionian Empire has extended its reach to suppress the entire empire by forcing heavy burdens upon it.

But as time passes, the regional towns and cities have become dissatisfied with these heavy burdens and declared independence. In the beginning, a large-scale military battle between Holy Ionian Empire and the Regional Force occurred. There were massive casualties on both sides, but ironically, the existence of the Centennial Monster forced both sides to reconcile and work together.

Beneath the Ionian Banner, the Holy Ionian Empire, faced with an emergency, acknowledged the Regional Force’s independence as a condition of combining their forces. Ever since, time has passed peacefully, at least on the surface…

This year, it will have been exactly 100 years…

In Terube Village, three youths–the hero, Miyura, and Gino–are spending their days training to prepare for the coming of the Centennial Monster. One day, on their way back from training in the barricade ruins, the Hero and his friends encountered monsters they’d never seen before. No matter how many they defeated, the monsters continued to multiply. Unable to move forward or escape, the companions retreated back to the ruins.

Once inside, a mysterious boy named Zephon suddenly appears in front of them and sends them 100 years into the past. There, they will meet the heroes who defeated the previous Centennial Monster…

A newly-woven story of the Infinity that transcends time…

And the first trailer for the game, complete with crazy moon language:

My immediate reaction is disappointment, a feeling that’s becoming increasingly common where the once legendary Suikoden franchise is concerned. The cover art is classic and easily recognizable as a Suikoden game, which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, but one look at the trailer or a brief scan through the synopsis makes it clear that this is another game in the tradition of Suikdoen Tierkreis, a step away from the layered, politically-charged setting explored in the first five games of the series. Instead, fans are left to explore a brand new world with no connections to the previous games besides the 108 Stars. Regardless, I enjoyed Tierkreis for what it was and will no doubt be picking up Suikoden: The Woven Web of a Century when (if) it’s released in English.

More art from the game, including full character portraits, can be found HERE.