Ubisoft released the first installment of Assassin’s Creed Linegae, a short film series created by Hybride Technologies, the visual effects studio which worked on 300 and Sin City, and which was acquired by Ubisoft last year.

Out of all of the video game movies that have been rumored to come out, one of the one that seems the most likely to actually make it to the big screen is the one based on World of Warcraft.

When the movie was first conceived it was listed as just Warcraft however, a recent update to the title’s IMDB listing let us know that it will officially be called Warcraft: The Rise of the Lich King. This leads us to believe that either they scrapped the original idea and went for a more Lich King approach or just had this story from the beginning.

Either or, you’re sure to be hearing more about this movie as its release date grows closer, whenever that may be.

via thatvideogameblog

Just how ultimate this kit is, however, remains questionable considering it only comes bundled with a PS3 remote and either 10,000 B.C. or Batman Begins with no console in sight.

Of course, it’s $60 AUD/$51 USD price tag makes it a bargain, and that’s all that matters.

via engadget

Halo Legends will apparantly make its way onto DVD and digital platforms (Xbox Live?) in early 2010 courtesy of Warner Bros. The show will be produced by 5 Japanese anime studios which include Bones, Casio Entertainment, Studio4 C, Toei Animation and Production I.G.

Frank O’Conner, creative director of 343 Industries, let us know that Halo Legends will exist to give viewers a further insight into the Halo universe and along with giving it a new direction. A new direction? You mean to set us up for the impending release of Halo: Reach.

via Joystiq

If you’ve read, heard, or watched any form of media in the past couple of days you’ll know that Michael Jackson aka The King of Pop has passed away. To commemorate the artist’s greatness Microsoft decided to offer the music video for his hit single Thriller free over charge during the weekend.

Well, during the 2 days it was offerent MTV Multiplayer reports that the video was downloaded over 50,000 times. They then go on to point out that 50,000 is just 0.25% of Xbox Live’s 20 million subscriber base. Of course, Michael Jackson might be considered a bit old school to the majority of those 20 million.

Nonetheless, Michael Jackson’s legacy shall live on.

You remember that supposedly leaked Metal Gear Solid: The Movie poster we showed you a few weeks ago, right? Well if The Dark Knight main man Christian Bale is to be believed, that poster was fake, considering it displayed him as playing the main character.

In a recent interview with MTV Multiplayer, when asked if he’s been approached for a Metal Gear Solid movie the actor responded with a modest “No”.

Either way, I don’t think there is any question over whether or not Christian Bale would make an awesome Solid Snake. Get on that Sony!

We learned just yesterday that a continuation of the Mario Galaxy series was in the pipeline and now comes to us the above trailer showcasing said game; Super Mario Galaxy 2.

This trailer does a really good job showing off the beautiful visuals that will be featured in Super Mario Galaxy 2 when it drops for the Nintendo Wii in 2010.

If you were a fan of the first game or even of Super Mario 64 you are sure to love Super Mario Galaxy 2. Because really, what’s not to love about a Mario game?

Bungie has recently announced on their website that their Render-to-Video service has entered a public beta. If you don’t know what this service is, it lets users converted saved ingame clips into actual video. This is a much needed feature for those who like to compile Halo 3 montages or other machinima.

Don’t throw away your capture card yet as this service will cost you Bungie Points. What are Bungie Points? Bungies answer to Microsoft Points, I guess. Honestly though, you’ll be able to exchange 1 Bungie Point for 1 minute of standard definition video or 5 points for 1 minute of high definition video.

Bungie says the beta will run until July with the actual service going live sometime around Bungie Day (July 7th).

Perhaps the biggest of these reasons is that, the movie was a greatly flawed beast that had a lot of wild action fun involved with it.  It virtually ignored canon and went off on a truly bizarre tangent that only resembled in passing any of the previous events.  So knowing what we all know about movie-to-game translations, how would the game version, the Wolverine Uncaged Edition (now available for Playstations two and three, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, PSP, and the Nintendo DS) play for us?

First, the plot—basically, X-Men Origins: Wolverine—Uncaged Edition will follow the movie plot, somewhat, as we follow Wolverine through his military service to where he joined the Weapon X program and beyond from there.  He’ll fight government supersoldiers of every stripe, including his “brother” Sabertooth (which even casual fans will know is a crock of the highest order) to get revenge on the government that betrayed him.

Now…on to the game itself; I don’t remember the last time I played a game involving Marvel characters that was this extravagantly blood-soaked.  And I definitely don’t remember the last time Wolverine did quite this much killing.  Seriously—by the end of the first level he’s going to have a body count higher than any Marvel enterprise I’ve seen lately, and probably higher than the last time Jason Voorhees took a run at some campers.  When Wolverine’s outkilling the undead juggernauts of my favorite horror classics I know something is GRAVELY wrong.

And the plotlines of the movie and the game will actually be somewhat divergent.  How divergent, you wonder?  Well, let me put it to you this way—the game will involve Sentinels.  You see so much as a robot in the movie?  No?  Well, neither did I.  I’m having a hard time with this game—most movie translations to game at least TRY to look like the movie they’re translated from, but this is just ridiculous.  And sure, I’m glad that a Marvel property actually tried to be mature for once, but all this blood is actually sort of out of place.  I remember thinking, this is why Wolverine pretty much had to be a good guy.  If he were evil he’d be an unstoppable killing machine.  And this is actually the biggest problem of all.

Wolverine is supposed to heal up from pretty much any damage, up to and including being shot in the skull with adamantium bullets.  That’s canon.  We saw that in the movie, too.  So how do you translate this into a play mechanic that doesn’t end up with the character being invincible?  Sadly, you can’t—thus, you have to water down Wolverine—give him a health bar and force him to regenerate by not taking damage until you can recover.

So really, the movie to game translation of X-Men Origins: Wolverine—Uncaged Edition is much bloodier, and yet at the same time much less substantial than the movie.  And the movie wasn’t saying much to begin with, so it’s safe to say unless you’re dying for that sweet Wolvie Berserk Style in your gameplay, this one isn’t worth a snikt.

Universal Pictures has been behind the project so far, but when the budget rose to over $160 million they halted production. Verbinski has said that he’s determined to get the film made. Universal hasn’t said they’re backing out completely but they are pushing the director to take filming outside of the USA to take advantage of tax credits and Verbinski said London is one of the locations they’re considering. With the incredible amount of special effects and scenery needed to truly portray the eerie underwater city of rapture it’s hard to guess how much Universal expected to be able to make the film for, especially given the epic quality of the Pirates trilogy.

Bethesda however is taking a more active interest in the possible direction other Fallout media could go. They’ve filed patents for both a Fallout film and television show. With the huge volume of material already created for the series there are plenty of avenues to go down. The main storylines and side quests of all three games give dozens of possible storylines; defeating mutants, questing for parts to fix a dying vault, etc.

The only problem of course would be the high cost of doing a Fallout TV show, with the budget for special effects, props, buildings, etc. Unfortunately a film probably wouldn’t do the well crafted Fallout universe justice, but I doubt we’d see more than a season of two of the TV show.

Now here’s something I doubt anyone saw coming. If you’re familiar with the Spyro series, you’ll without a doubt recognize the dragon featuring in the above promotional advertisement. Well, that little guy is apparently coming to the big screen, in 3D.

There’s not much we have to go by other than the fact that it’s from the producers of Eragon but if you like dragons whats not to love about Spyro?

And when the hell are we going to see a Halo movie?

Read (Joystiq)

The game in question is called Wheelman, and it’s all about Vin Diesel, who this time appears as a guy named Milo, who works for a group called the Agency.  Milo’s specialty is driving really fast and really recklessly, which makes him an excellent resource for those who need quick getaways and to do so while evading pursuit.  And since Milo’s not working for celebrities, his talents seem tailor-made for the criminal element.  Thus, Milo finds himself working for the criminal element in Barcelona, Spain…and you’ll have to do a lot of wild driving, recovering stolen cars, making friends and influencing people, and a whole slew of other things just to keep yourself from getting shot by the various criminals you both work for and work against.  Seems Barcelona has a LOT of criminal factions, and when you help one, you hinder the other, and these are not guys who enjoy being hindered.

The best part is, after looking up a little information about it, this is indeed the case.  Vin Diesel will be reprising his role as Milo in the film adaptation, which was originally slated to be released alongside the game, but since I’m talking about the game and have only just heard of the movie, this doesn’t seem to be the case.  Unless, of course, you count Fast and Furious, but I don’t.

The game itself, meanwhile, is fun enough to play.  It’s one gigantic adrenaline rush that really took me by surprise.  It is a very faithful capture, at least as far as I can tell without actually instigating a high-speed police chase myself, of the way it feels to drive down the streets of Barcelona at a hundred-plus miles per hour while being followed by the cops and taking time out, occasionally, to slam into them.  Yes, it’s a great deal of surprising fun to drive through buildings, or to make a preposterous jump from a six-story office window, or pull PIT (pursuit intervention tactics) maneuvers on cops.  But let’s face facts, folks—at the end of the day, this is a driving game, only this and really nothing more.  Surprising fun it may be, but surprising fun for how long?  There’s the million dollar question.

Much like NASCAR, it’s just “go fast and turn left”, though occasionally, in Wheelman, you will be called upon to turn RIGHT.  There are different types of missions, of course, but they’ll mostly be accomplished behind the wheel or occasionally handlebars.  On very rare occasions you will be permitted to LEAVE THE CAR.  So if you’re into driving games, then this one will definitely blow your mind with the addition of an actual plot.  Those who hate driving games, however, will find absolutely nothing to like here.

The news comes from Latino Review, a site popular for its pre-release script reviews and early movie news. The movie is being geared up to begin production sometime next year.

Writer of The Aviator and Star Trek: Nemesis, John Logan is set to pen the screenplay for the film. Franchise creator Ken Levine is apparently being “regularly consulted” during pre-production.

However, the sad part is that it will be written by Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li scribe Justin Marks – that movie was so shitty that I wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole. The Scorpion King and Dune remake producer Kevin Misher is onboard as producer.

It is being reported that some of the smaller characters from the game may be given more prominent roles in the movie, for example the men hunting the protagonist Wander.

Oh God, please let it be good.

To be released alongside the game, the movie features the talents of Dead Space: Downfall, Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron and Spectacular Spider-man, among others.

“The feature will explore aspects of the poem that the game does not," promises creative director Jonathan Knight. It is said that the film will expand on the game by exploring various aspects of hell through the eyes of the main character.

The game itself is due out sometime next year on PS3 and Xbox 360.

“Now, there’s been great video game that have been made into movies. Our goal with Doom was not only to appeal to its audience, but maybe break out into the sci-fi or thriller genres. That just didn’t happen for us. It always just comes down to writing and material.”

As they say in Hollywood, when things go wrong you can always blame the writer. Doom was released in 2005 and received mostly negative reviews and raked in some $30 million at the box office.

Currently two writers are penning an adaptation of John Woo Presents: Stranglehold. John Woo’s production company Lion Rock Entertainment are on board for the sequel that reunites fans with inspector Tequila, played by the eternally badass Chow Yun-fat. The two writers on board are both American and with the general success of shooters in the American it could be that the sequel is going to be in English.

Notorious rapper 50 Cent is in talks with THQ, trying to get the rights for the Saints Row franchise in order to make a film version of the game. While it’s easy to see why the former drug dealer has a connection to the game which has players struggling with rival gangs for control of crime-riddled Stillwater, the potential for a Saints Row game to be anything other than an action/gang film seems rather limited.