News Blips: PS3 Motion Controller Slated for Spring, BioShock Movie May Have a Director, Mass Effect DLC Details Leak, and More

We really hope Sony is readying a Wii Sports rip-off for their new PlayStation 3 motion controller. We're all about a little physical fun in springtime, but with all of the insects, smog, and random and indiscriminate bear attacks, the outside world's obviously for suckers.

News Blips:

â€¢ Screw nature -- spend next spring by jostling the PS3's magic wand. While speaking about the new PS3 motion controller, Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kaz Hirai told Times Online that they're "slating it for spring of next year." That leaves them plenty of time to come up with a name far less innuendo-laden than "magic wand." [Times Online]

â€¢ Splicers, meet zombies: 28 Weeks Later director may take on BioShock flick. Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's evidently in talks to helm the adaptation of the waterlogged action/adventure game, with Pirates of the Caribbean Director Gore Verbinski set to produce. We can't wait to watch the famous scene where charming swashbuckler Andrew Ryan gets eaten alive by a pack of ravenous undead. [Variety]

â€¢ New Mass Effect DLC coming, hopefully without more elevators. Mass Effect 2? Pfft, that's so 8 months to 12 months from now. Everyone knows all of the cool kids are still playing Mass Effect, and it looks like they'll be getting more content soon. Thanks to a leak from the official Swedish Xbox site, we know the "Pinnacle Station" DLC will add 2 hours to 3 hours of new gameplay for $5. [Eurogamer]

â€¢ Tricia Helfer joins StarCraft 2, and nerds joygasm. Battlestar Galactica actress Tricia Helfer's taking on the roll of Kerrigan, Queen of Blades in Blizzard's StarCraft sequel. Since Helfer also provided voicework for Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, this can mean only one thing: a StarCraft fan and a C&C fan must fight to the death to determine which series Helfer favors. Win her love, warriors! [VG247]

Got any hot news tips? Send 'em over to tips@bitmob.com.

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Lance Darnell

August 24, 2009

hopefully without more elevators

Unless those elevators have dirty pictures and funny graffiti in them.... ;D

And I am very upset that Bioshock may be made into a film... When are people going to realize that video games are a more advanced medium than film, and making a game into a film is like walking backwards into a manure truck...

Toby Davis

Maybe Magic wand will be like wanderoni or some other lame thing

Kris Pigna

I'm not so sure I'd agree that video games are a more advanced medium than film (they're each their own things in my eyes), but I do agree that adapting a game into a movie often fundamentally doesn't work. But BioShock has such a great story, great setting, and great art direction (all qualities that are natural to film), so I'm crossing my fingers they get this one right.

@Kris - Video games are interactive and allow the user to make choices. Something a film cannot do, and therefore a user can feel more invested in a game and experience it on a different level. In a film we are all just passive observers.

EGM did an article about what influenced Ken Levine in making Bioshock. Among this influences were Miller's Crossing. If the director uses the same influences, then perhaps Bioshock can be successful. But I think Rob Zombie would be a better choice for director. Bioshock the movie should be a horror!

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Evan Killham

@Lance - Not to gang up on you or anything, but films are interactive. While you have no control over the outcome of the story, you do (or should) have an emotional investment in what you're watching (even if you hate it, that's an emotional investment). It is possible to be an active observer, although this doesn't usually provide the visceral instant gratification of a game. For a lot of people it's gotten so that the point of watching a film is to sit in a dark room and let the thing wash over you and provide a distraction; I humbly submit that they are doing it wrong.

And I was hoping for Guillermo del Toro to direct; too bad he's going to be ass-deep in Middle Earth for the next couple years.

@Evan - No worries, I am used to people ganging up on me and my opinions. ;D

To be interactive there must be a back and forth between the medium and the observer. No film can do that. A play can, for in some plays the actors talk to the audience and the audience can speak back - affecting the play. But what you are talking about is an emotional response, not a interactivity.

I think you misinterpreted what I meant by a passive observer. I meant that a passive observer cannot affect what he or she is experiencing. Not to sound like an egghead, but these are not my opinions, they are all ideas I have learned from my Professors.

An investment in a film is not interactive.

By the way, send me an email at lancedarnell@hotmail.com. I am trying to get a bitmob email list going so we can all promote each others work.

And I really hope the Hobbit is good 8)

Jason D. Quade

That PS3 motion sensor better not disappoint, this actually looks more advanced than the Wii. Either way, this will only push these companies to do better :]

August 25, 2009

@Lance - Funny, I was going off of what I learned from professors, too. :P I do maintain that there are different kinds of interaction, though.

@Evan - I think this, like most debates on Bitmob, should be solved at the next Bitmob meet-up over a pint of beer..... can we agree on that? ;D

Lance-I'll meet you halfway; we'll keep the beer and drop the debate. ;D

@Evan - Nice! I have decided that any debate on Bitmob that comes even remotely close to "splitting hairs" should be met with nothing but incredibly silly jokes... ;)