Rev becomes Wii

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Japan's Nintendo announced that its new gaming console -- known during development as "Revolution" -- will be called "Wii" and will be unveiled next month.

"Wii", the replacement for Nintendo's "Gamecube", is scheduled to be launched by the firm on its home market and in North America in late 2006 to compete with Sony's upcoming PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's

XBOX 360.

The name deliberately sounds like "we" to emphasise what the firm hopes will be its universal appeal, Nintendo said.

"Wii will break down the wall that separates video game players from everyone else," it said in a statement.

"While the code-name 'Revolution' expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer."

"Wii" is to be officially unveiled at "E3 2006", the world's biggest show for video-game makers, which is being held in Los Angeles from May 9 to 12.

Nintendo said that "Wii" uses an infra-red game control that senses the movements of the user to give increased control.

http://revolution.nintendo.com/

Activision and Marvel make merriment mayhem yours

Posted: 18:49 on 27 Apr 2006

By: Jon Wilcox

Activision has today confirmed development on Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, which is currently being produced by Raven Software for all next-gen systems, current-gen, handheld, and PC platforms (phew!), and is scheduled for release during Autumn 2006.

Players will be able to fight as one from twenty Marvel superheroes in the gaming, including the likes of Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Captain America, as they battle through the original storyline where their actions determine the fate of the entire Marvel universe.

An action-RPG filled with notorious super-villains, super-powers, and 'deep team customisation', gameplay isn't only restricted to ground combat, with underwater and in-air battles also included.

Announcing the game, Will Kassoy, Vice President of Global Brand Management for Activision said, "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance delivers a new twist on action/RPGs where players' actions and choices ultimately determine what happens to the Marvel universe...This coupled with the game's enormous character roster will deliver an action-packed experience that comic book fans have been waiting for."

Silent Hill--Best movie from a video game EVER?

By Mike Snider, USA TODAY Thu Apr 27, 6:58 AM ET

Basing a movie on a popular video game is no guarantee for success at the box office, but that isn't stopping Hollywood from playing the adaptation game.

No fewer than seven movies based on video games are in the works, and you can expect more after Silent Hill scared up the most moviegoers last weekend.

Based on the creepy franchise launched in 1999 by Japanese game developer Konami, Silent Hill made $20.2 million in theaters over the weekend.

As with the games, the film involves the psychologically harrowing search for a missing loved one. In this case, mother (Radha Mitchell, Melinda and Melinda) hopes to find daughter (Jodelle Ferland) and tracks her to the hellish town of Silent Hill.

Whether moviemakers will return to Silent Hill for a sequel remains to be seen. But the video-game-to-movie pipeline is flush with adaptations in the works:

•DOA: Dead or Alive, Aug. 25. Tecmo's best-selling fighting games spawned this film; its hard-hitting harem includes Jaime Pressly (My Name Is Earl) and Devon Aoki (Sin City).

•Halo, 2007. King Kong director Peter Jackson is set to produce this movie based on the sci-fi game for the Microsoft

Xbox.

•Spy Hunter, 2007. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who starred in Doom, stars in this film based on Midway's car-based spy game.

•Alice, no release date. Years after her trip to Wonderland, an adult Alice (Sarah Michelle Gellar) returns. Based on 2000's computer game designed by American McGee.

•Resident Evil: Extinction, late 2007. The first two Resident Evil-based movies have taken in $90 million in theaters and were hit DVDs as well. That's enough to put another zombie-fortified sequel in the works, with star Milla Jovovich returning.

•Castlevania, no release date. Based on the longtime Konami video-game franchise, this story involves Dracula and the vampire-hunting Belmont family. To be written and directed by Resident Evil/ RE: Apocalypse director/writer Paul W.S. Anderson.

That film could tap into the same horror-video-game success that Silent Hill did. About two-thirds of 2,100 moviegoers surveyed by the studio said they thought the movie looked scary, and 43% said they had played or heard of the game.

But with more than half of all Americans playing video games, "it is a gigantic audience that you cannot ignore," says Gitesh Pandya, editor of boxofficeguru.com. "What will excite them more than movies based on a video game? There are many flops, but they can be bigger hits than what else is out there."

Hollywood and the video-game industry have a "very symbiotic relationship," says Anderson, who also is co-producing DOA: Dead or Alive and directing the third Resident Evil.

"There has been a complete shift in the balance (of power)," says Doug Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association. "The game industry is, on most levels, equally powerful compared to these other media."

Even though no game-based movie has come close to the peak that Lara Croft: Tomb Raider hit in 2001, with $131 million, Hollywood will continue to mine video games for movie ideas. For one, they attract the 18-35 audiences. Plus, the games "almost serve as animatics or storyboards for the films in terms of action (and) costume design," says Mark Altman, writer/producer of the video-game-based House of the Dead films and a co-producer of DOA. His company, Mindfire Entertainment, is developing another video-game-based movie, Fear Effect, for 2008.

XBOX Live to bring E3 to you!!

"It is our goal to bring E3 home

to Xbox Live members as best we

can, all the videos and the news

as quickly as possible."

Demos, news and trailers on Live Marketplace?!?! Who needs a press badge?

What I've been playing:

Oblivion--STILL!!!!!

Burnout Revenge--360

WikFable--Live arcade

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