Posts with tag tv
by Ludwig Kietzmann Aug 15th 2008 5:00PM
Filed under: Culture, Action

Yes, as in a game based on the tedious television show starring perennially pouting Wentworth Whatshisface. Who better to act as warden to this societal dreg than
Brash Entertainment, the house that built
Jumper: Griffin's Story,
Alvin & The Chipmunks and (and!)
Space Chimps?
According to
Gamespot, the
Prison Break video game turned itself in via an advert tucked inside the show's recent Season 3 DVD box set. Aside from a February 2009 release window, little else is known about the project. We'd normally submit a scenario about siblings busting out of a prison -- a "prison break" if you will -- but the show managed to drag on even after its titular event had unfolded. But hey, people are still watching, so the game may just succeed in finding a captive audience.
by Kyle Orland Jul 11th 2008 12:28PM
Filed under: Nintendo DS, Action
Like a vampire that refuses to stay dusted, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise continues to chug on after the TV show's 2003 cancellation. New
comics,
toys and even a
magazine have kept the cult favorite series alive long than the
First Evil. The undead march continues with 505 Games' announcement today of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Sacrifice for the DS.
The "action-packed 3D survival horror game," as the press release describe it, will follow everyone's favorite slayer and the usual gang as they try to re-close the re-opened Hellmouth sometime after the events of the seventh season. Development will be handled by Romanian developer Beast and the story will be penned by Buffy TV scribe Rob Deshotel.
Sacrifice doesn't have much of a gaming pedigree to live up to -- the two THQ-published Game Boy Advance Buffy games scored
39% and
50%, respectively, in the GameRankings averages. With review scores like that, maybe this is a gaming franchise that should learn when to stay dead.
by Jeff Engel Jun 14th 2008 9:00AM
Filed under: Culture, PC, MMO
Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks contribute Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming:

Can a game spin off into a successful TV series?
Many of us still remember waking up early on Saturday mornings to catch the latest episode of
"Captain N: The Game Master" or rushing home after school to watch
"The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!" (or if we were lucky enough to be watching on a Friday,
"The Legend of Zelda"). While these shows weren't exactly something to write home about, it was certainly exciting to see some of our favorite Nintendo characters come alive in the form of a cartoon. In the last few years the wildly popular
Pokemon games have spawned a long-lasting TV show and more recently, a
Viva Piñata TV series was launched side-by-side with the game, in what was a moderately successful cross-marketing strategy (the kid's show is still running today and the game posted slow but steady sales, developing somewhat of a cult following). Clearly, there's some
precedence for games to become the basis for a TV series, but these have all lacked one basic element that all the games required: interactivity.
So it is with some interest that the
LA Times reports that Sci-Fi channel is teaming up with Trion World Network to create (simultaneously!) an MMO and a TV show based on it. Sci-Fi channel president Dave Howe says that it's the "Holy Grail". A subscription-based MMO and a successful television series that are able to successfully leverage each other could certainly be a potential windfall. However, while the details are somewhat scarce at the moment, from what I can glean, there are some major hurdles that this joint venture will need to overcome.
Continue reading Counting Rupees: The MMO-TV hybrid
by Ross Miller May 13th 2008 5:30PM
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3
Click to embiggen
Some sharp eyes have spotted an interesting blip in a recent PlayStation 3 video, "What you Need." If you take look at the picture above (click for a
higher-resolution shot), you can clearly see a section of the PS Store for television channels, including NBC, HBO, The CW, Cartoon Network (listed twice), MTV, Discovery Channel and others.
Television content from these channels are also currently available via Xbox Live Marketplace. Is this just a mockup from an overzealous ad firm, or a hint at an impending announcement? With E3 just around the corner, we'll likely know soon enough. Video embedded after the break.
[Via
PS3 Fanboy]
Continue reading Mock TV downloads spotted in US PS3 ad
by Kyle Orland Jan 8th 2008 3:30PM
Filed under: Hacks, Retro, Sports, CES

3D glasses haven't been a big part of gaming since the days of the
Sega Master System, but Texas Instruments looks set to change that with the DualView DLP TVs being shown at this year's
CES. Much like recent 3D movies like
Beowulf, these TVs display two slightly different images at once, using special glasses to isolate the correct perspective for each eye.
The effect is reportedly pretty incredible, according to
Gamespy: "The images were bright and crisp, without so much as a flicker" and "
Madden NFL Football was a whole new experience: you were right down on the field, with every receiver receding into the distance as he ran." Games currently have to be specially designed for the effect, but
1UP reports that TI "intends to eventually institute plug-and-play support" so all games have that added depth.
But the best gaming application for this DualView technology might be full screen multiplayer. As shown in
this Gizmodo video, the DualView technology can be used to give two different players simultaneous, full-screen views of different characters or locations in a game. The end of split screen as we know it? Maybe ... if you have a special TV and two pairs of 3D glasses, that is ...
Read - 1UP report
Read - GameSpy report
Watch - Gizmodo video
by Scott Jon Siegel Nov 21st 2007 9:20AM
Filed under: Culture, Nintendo DS, Business
Nintendo has apparently taken "too many" pre-orders for its official DS TV Tuner, which launches in Japan this Friday. Over
4 million pre-orders for the device have been made, a number that surprises even
Nintendo, as they had not formally announced the pre-order program.
The Nintendo DS TV Tuner picks up the Japan-only "1seg" broadcast service. The device will retail for 6,800 Yen (approximately $62 USD), making it a rather pricey DS accessory that a lot of people seem to want.
No word yet if Nintendo plans on releasing any similar device here or in Europe.
[Via
CVG]
by Kyle Orland Nov 5th 2007 9:17AM
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Rhythm
We already knew the team behind
South Park had
proclivity for
Guitar Hero, and this Wednesday we'll get to see that interest translated on our TV screens. According to the
South Park Studios web site, this Wednesday's episode, aptly titled "
Guitar Queer-o" will see Kyle jealous over Stan's superior skills at the game. Wait, someone named Kyle isn't good at
Guitar Hero? This will not stand!
When South Park delves into gaming topics, the results tend to be good -- as in the
Emmy-award-winning "
Make Love, Not WarCraft." As for when (a hacked version of)
Guitar Hero delves into
South Park ... well ... judge for yourself after the break.
Continue reading Tivo Alert: South Park takes on Guitar Hero Wednesday
by Zack Stern Oct 10th 2007 1:10AM
Filed under: Culture, Retro, RPGs, Video, Business

Gametrailers user,
BlackSad03, has posted an old
ad from NES game,
Iron Sword, and we wish today's
ads were as exciting. We enjoy the clip on so many levels, like watching the gameplay and being sucked into the sale itself. Must... buy...
Iron Sword. Our favorite take is to imagine the production of the commercial and which PA had to swing the tentacle into the room.
The video is watermarked with "Gaming-Age.com," but we could only find an
article there that references an equally great print ad for the game. So we send
Gaming Age a nod, too.
See the ad after the break.
Continue reading Today's ads-used-to-be-this-good video: Iron Sword
by Zack Stern Oct 7th 2007 1:00AM
Filed under: Culture, Mac, PC, Online, RPGs, Video, MMO, Machinima, Business

Clearly an homage to
Leeroy Jenkins, this Toyota
commercial shows that
World of Warcraft players can charge into battle as long as they have the right mount. The ad is
apparently legitimate, although the only version we could find clips the tagline.
Toyota may be a follower to showing how it can save the
World ...
of Warcraft, but this spot hits several in-jokes in a short amount of time. See the ad after the break.
[Thanks, Mal F4cti0n and raffleski]
Continue reading Today's resold meme video: WoW Toyota commercial
by John Bardinelli Jul 26th 2007 9:59AM
Filed under: Culture

One of the first computer-animated
TV programs,
ReBoot, is about to get a second chance at life. Sure, even in 1994 the show was a bit campy and featured thin plots and bad voice acting, but look how shiny everything was! Now Rainmaker Animation is getting ready to "relaunch the brand in a new way" by releasing a series of three feature-length episodes.
The interesting bit is that we, potential viewers, help sculpt the plot. Five undiscovered writers were recruited by Rainmaker to prepare separate pitches for a new
ReBoot storyline. These will be posted on the
Zeros 2 Heroes website where visitors can work with each production team to help refine their ideas and later vote to choose their favorite pitch. "When it comes to long-standing genre entertainment properties, the fans are the real experts.", says Zeros 2 Heroes president Matt Toner.
Not a bad idea. Fans know what they want to see, and this way Rainmaker will ensure nearly everyone is satisfied. And if the
ReBoot reboot tanks, fans can only get angry at themselves.
[Via
Ain't It Cool News]
by Alexander Sliwinski Jul 19th 2007 5:25PM
Filed under: Culture, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360
We already know that South Park's homage to
World of Warcraft is one of the best episodes ever, but now the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences may agree because the episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft" just received an
Emmy nomination. But, but, but
the episode is inaccurate on various game issues we can hear the
WoW fanboys scream already, pointing to things like The Renegade is wearing plate armor and mages clearly can't wear plate. Well, they went ahead and nominated the episode anyway.
The
WoW episode wasn't even the only gaming related episode from the last television season. We also had Cartman altering the time line so he could get his
hands on a Wii, where he eventually ended up in a war between atheists and it was even a two-parter. They didn't give that kind of treatment to the episode where the
Xbox 360 showed up -- but we did eventually get a free HD episode out of the deal. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are clearly tapped into the internet generation so we're sure to see more gaming references and episodes in the future like the classic
Chinpokomon episode.
by Scott Jon Siegel Jun 28th 2007 3:57PM
Filed under: Culture
Our expectations for
G4 television aren't particularly high, but we admit to having thought
for a moment that their new video game-oriented cartoon show
Code Monkeys would at least be entertaining. Between having a theme song by geek folkster
Jonathan Coulton and
cameos from the likes of Steve Wozniak, Nolan Bushnell, and David Jaffe, there was hope that G4 could deliver something actually watchable. It isn't.
Edgy video site Break.com is
hosting the pilot episode of
Code Monkeys, which will premiere on G4's cable network on July 11th. The show, which uses an "8-bit" animation style, focuses on two video game programmers working at a company called Gameavision in the 80s. Peppered with crude drug humor, pop culture references, and bizarre video game-isms,
Code Monkeys is oddly reminiscent of the film
Grandma's Boy, and that's not meant as a compliment.
Those with the time and brain cells to kill can check out the entire 20-minute pilot episode
here. Everyone else can take a peak at the NSFW preview after the jump. Don't say we didn't warn you.
Continue reading G4's new show Code Monkeys has potential, squanders it
by Kyle Orland May 17th 2007 11:56AM
Filed under: Culture, Retro, Competitive Gaming, Fashion

It's a point that comes up a lot in arguments about the cultural import of video games. "The medium is still young," defenders argue. "Games may not have reached total mainstream acceptance yet, but just give it some more time. You'll see."
We hate to break it to you guys, but video games aren't that young anymore. This month marks
40 years since Ralph Baer's Brown Box effectively created the idea of interactive screen-based games (and the industry is even older if you count Willy Higinbotham's 1958 experiment
Tennis for Two).
This important milestone got us wondering: how do the first 40 years of gaming compare to the first 40 years of other forms of mass entertainment? Continue reading for a quick historical comparison:
Continue reading Forty years of video games: how are we doing?
by Kyle Orland May 15th 2007 3:55PM
Filed under: Culture, Retro, Fashion

If you've been watching G4 lately (and if so, may we ask
why?) you've probably seen a couple thousand 30-second spots promoting a mysterious, retro-stylized game company called
GameAVision. The viral marketing got even weirder yesterday with an e-mailed press release that touts the two advertised games,
Crosswalk and
Bar Fight, as "featur[ing] movable character, sound, and several exciting colors." The ads and the release both direct players to the
GameAVision web site, which includes some unplayable, Atari 2600-style
Flash games and some
amusing help wanted ads, among other things.
What's going on here? Turns out the cryptic campaign is for an upcoming animated series that G4
commissioned last year. According to the
October 2006 press release, the show will feature "Dave and Jerry, two video-game programmers whose lives are turned upside down when GameAVision, the freewheeling company at which they've spent their whole careers, is purchased by Bob Larrity, a crazed Texan businessman who knows nothing about video games except that they 'sell good.'"
The premise actually sounds interesting, and the involvement of
Minoriteam creator
Adam de La Pena is encouraging. It's also nice to see G4 filling its schedule with some new, vaguely game-related programming instead of more
reruns of Cops or something. Here's hoping the show lives up to its promise.
by Kyle Orland May 15th 2007 2:55PM
Filed under: Culture, Microsoft Xbox 360, Fashion

It used to be that a producer couldn't sit down at a hip Hollywood bistro without some aspiring waiter thrusting a screenplay in his hands. Nowadays, the unsolicited pitches may be coming through an Xbox Live headset instead.
Variety has
an interesting piece on the rise of Xbox Live matches as networking opportunities for the young Hollywood
elite. The author is part of a regular group of Hollywood insiders that gathers every Thursday night for
Gears of War and
Fight Night matches. The players say that Xbox Live provide a casual, fun way to make a lasting connection with a colleague. "I can't tell you how many times I have come out of a meeting, and while we're validating parking, we swap gamertags" said studio executive Jeff Katz. "But only if it was a good meeting and I want to talk to the person again."
Not only that, but the untamed wilds of Xbox Live can provide some good cultural research for screenwriters.
Troy writer David Benioff says the profanity-filled chat channels during his online matches provide "an easy way to research the slang that today's 14-year-olds use when they curse." Thus proving that even the
chocolate milk kid can serve an important social purpose.
[Via
DigitalMediaWire]
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