With little time to go before another Bioshock game extends its watery hand to gamers, Variety has announced that Universal is pushing for 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to take on the film adaptation of Bioshock. We previously reported that Gore Verbinski would be helming the adaptation, and it appears from the recent news that he will stay on as producer.

The article also notes that while Universal is getting behind Fresnadillo, publisher Take-Two will have the ultimate say over who directs. Though the movie is sure to be a ways off, gamers can expect Bioshock 2 in early 2010.
Andy Burt

Posted by Ted Gibbons at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Sony today announced the revamped PS3, a machine dubbed the 'PS3 Slim'.
The new PS3 maintains its black livery but has a new, slimmer profile that reduces size and weight to about two-thirds of the original PS3. A 120GB hard disk is built in.

Power consumption is also cut by a third, helping to reduce fan noise.

The new PS3 is due in New Zealand on September 3rd at a price of $630. Although, you might be better picking one up in Australia where they'll pay just AU$500.

The 80GB version of the current PS3 will have its price cut but the new New Zealand RRP has not been announced.

At $630, the PS3 maintains a price premium over the Xbox 360. A 120GB Xbox costs $599, and a the 60Gb model retails for $449.

Nintendo's Wii retails for $499.

Posted by Ted Gibbons at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 )

Long ago, a filmmaker named Peter Jackson attempted to make 'Halo' into a feature film. Unfortunately, funding fell through, and Jackson instead went on to produce the upcoming film District 9, which was directed by Neil Blomkamp (who was set to direct the Halo feature.) Now, after some considerable hope was lost in seeing Master Chief storm our local movie theatres, a shining beacon of hope may be found in none other than the God among men of filmmaking, Steven Spielberg.

In an article from IESB, Steven Spielberg is in talks to produce Halo: The Fall of Reach, an adaptation of the Eric Nylund novel by screenwriter Stuart Beattie. Here's an excerpt:

"IESB has learned exclusively (believe me this is solid and I've confirmed it three times over with studio executives and our close ties to CAA) that one of the biggest producers in Hollywood history is currently in active negotiations to develop the feature film adaptation and no it's not Jerry Bruckheimer or Peter Jackson. It's the man behind Jaws, E.T., Indiana Jones and Transformers, Mr. Steven Spielberg.

Spielberg is blown away by writer Stuart Beattie's take on the game in his script entitled HALO THE FALL OF REACH. This coupled with the fact that his Dreamworks umbrella is looking for a big tent pole to help launch their newly independent studio with distribution over at Walt Disney Pictures after losing Transformers to Paramount in the separation, it's the perfect combination."

For more on the article, check out IESB.

Sean Mirkovich

Posted by Ted Gibbons at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty won't be winging its way to a PC or Mac on schedule. Blizzard Entertainment announced that the eagerly-anticipated game won't meet its 2009 release date; instead, Blizzard is pushing back the launch until after the new year.

First promised two years ago, StarCraft II is a sequel to the ground-breaking real-time-strategy game set in space. The game was easily one of most anticipated releases of 2009; now, there's no firm release date from Blizzard, other than a first-half of 2010 target.

The reason for the delay? A longer-than-expected development time for upgrading Blizzard's Battle.net online multiplayer service, according to the company. Battle.net first launched with the Blizzard title Diablo in 1997 and revolutionised online gaming by providing an in-game multiplayer service that contrasted with external online multiplayer services at the time. Battle.net has since become an extremely popular method for playing online and an integral part of the Blizzard gaming experience.

With the news in June that Blizzard had opted to not ship StarCraft II with LAN support, the delay caps a rather tumultuous two months for the game maker. As reported by Joystiq, Blizzard's Bob Colayco had already suggested that Blizzard killed off LAN in order to move players to an upgraded Battle.net, which he called "the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy."

By making Battle.net the only show in town, the pressure on the service to deliver a compelling and new experience has only mounted. Colayco already said that Battle.net will offer new features like "advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking, and more." These new features are seemingly taking more time to upgrade than they had previously anticipated, and fans of the series will have to wait a bit longer for what now looks to be the most anticipated gaming title of 2010.
Chris Holt

Posted by Ted Gibbons at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Who needs real news when we've got rumors! And what better rumors are there in the gaming universe than some new PS3 Slim rumors? This week, Kotaku uncovered a document from a 7-Eleven in Japan, which reportedly was issued from Sony, asking stores to stop taking pre-orders for 80GB PS3s starting August 9. Sounds a little fishy, but then again, there have been so many bizarre little incidents lately revolving around the PS3 Slim, it's getting hard not to believe that Sony is definitely up to something.

What that something is, no one can say for certain. But, apparently, Sony has placed:

"Significant orders for key Sony PS3 components from IC distributors, with average monthly volume enough for making one million units of the games console in the third quarter, double the average in the second quarter, according to sources with IC distributors," reads an except from a DigiTimes article.

What that could mean is that Sony is ramping up for a new PS3 or something completely different that we didn't see coming. They certainly don't need to make any more current PS3's as sales haven't been too hot, and with all the predictions, speculation and photographic evidence surrounding the PS3 Slim, it's looking more and more plausible.

As Joystiq notes, people are already claiming that the PS3 Slim will have an official announcement coming out "later this month" during the GamesCom convention in Cologne. They claim that the system will appear at the convention and be ready for purchase come this holiday season, and will come in two different versions -- a 40GB and an 80GB -- and will include two, as of yet, unnamed games. It will supposedly have a cheaper price than the current PS3, which in reality is all most are asking for in the first place. If it comes in a slimmer model, all the better.

Whatever it is that Sony is working on, let's just hope it equals more happy gamers, with happier wallets.
Sean Mirkovich

Posted by Ted Gibbons at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )